How to Convert Your Webinar Leads into Long-Term Customers

Your webinar just ended; it was a smashing success – people were delighted to learn and to meet you. They asked questions and you answered everything like a pro. They even asked the most valuable questions: those about the product you were promoting. So what now? How do you convert your webinar leads into customers?

As discussed in my previous blog post on webinars, this is where the hard work actually begins. This is where marketing genius needs to come into play. Yes, hosting an educational webinar that gets people excited and grateful is a feat in itself (congratulations!). But converting those webinar leads is a whole different story.

You may think that the mere fact they have been delighted with your webinar means they are half sold. This might be true. However, if the other half of the selling process is not handled correctly, your webinar leads will go to waste.

Why?

It’s quite simple: educating and converting are completely different things.

Here’s how to ace them both:

1. Never Skip the “Thank You” Email

It may seem cheesy to you. Most likely, you’ve already thanked your audience in the beginning and at the end of your webinar, so they already know you’re grateful, right? Yes, they do know. But you don’t want to miss any chance to make them feel important and valued.

Send this email no later than 24 to 48 hours after the webinar. This will be your first post-webinar communication with them, so you want to strike the iron while it’s still hot.

Your “thank you” email shouldn’t be a lengthy essay on how your webinar attendees’ presence changed you fundamentally. In fact, you should steer clear of such clichés. What it should be is sincere and to the point.

Aside from the obvious “thank you”, give them some quick stats about the webinar. For instance, tell them if it was your most successful yet and how many people attended. This will make your webinar leads feel not only valued, but also part of a community and part of something special.

End your email by inviting them to ask any questions that may have been left unanswered during the Q&A session due to lack of time. Add links to your blog and social media profiles and invite them to connect on as many platforms as possible.

2. Make it Personal

For every email you send, add a personal touch. If possible, go beyond simply adding their names. Personalization and segmentation are the keys of successful email campaigns, especially when you are trying to convert webinar leads aka people that you’ve already established a connection with.

I’m not saying that you should write a personal email to each of your attendees mentioning their pet name or their Alma Mater. But phrases like: “It was a pleasure having such an accomplished marketer/writer/programmer in our audience” can get you a long way.

Think about it: people expect your “thank you” email, just as they expect your other emails. They know you will be trying to sell them something. What they don’t know yet is exactly how you will go about it. Why not surprise them pleasantly?

You can go even further and suggest other materials that are relevant to one lead alone, especially if you feel that said lead is a qualified one who’s almost ready to convert.

“Hi Kate,

I remembered you asked me about A/B testing your landing page. I found/wrote a white paper/e-book/blog post that goes in-depth on this topic and I thought you might find it useful. Let me know what you thought about it!”

That’s it! This is all that you should write in that email. Brevity is key here, especially if the material you mentioned is also yours. You don’t want to describe it in great detail; you just want to entice your lead to download it.

3. Strengthen the Connection

These people listened to you for roughly an hour. They already trust you, so build on that.

Remember how I said you should add links to your social media profiles and blog in your “thank you” email? Do this for every email! Even if you don’t stress on it too much, make sure the links are there.

Not everyone has the time to click on them from the first email they receive from you. But it never hurts to remind them that you could keep in touch this way.

4. Keep on Being Useful

Send out the link to the recording of the webinar. They may want to watch certain parts of it again. Invite them to share it with their friends who couldn’t make it to the live event.

Also, send them the slides – ideally, you should post them on SlideShare to increase your visibility. Any relevant material that is connected to your webinar should land in their inboxes. Remember that webinar leads are typically qualified professionals that need a lot nurturing before converting.

5. Don’t Forget about The Registrants Who didn’t Attend

Not everyone who registered for your will end up attending it. This is normal. In fact, as many as 58% of your webinar registrants will NOT attend it. Don’t worry; this has nothing to do with you. Life just happens. People get distracted, their plans change, they get pulled into a last minute meeting and so on.

But this doesn’t mean that you should discard them from your webinar list leads.

Quite the contrary! They already expressed an interest in the topic, so they will, most likely, enjoy receiving the webinar recording that they can watch on their own time, as well as your slides and any other materials.

Ideally, you should add them to a list that’s separate from that of the attendees. Your email copy will need to be different here. You have to make sure to tell them you’re sorry they couldn’t make it, but that you’ll do everything you can so they don’t miss out on too much.

6. Make them an Offer They Can’t Refuse

Think about the questions your webinar leads asked during the Q&A session. This is your starting point in making them an unbeatable offer. In fact, you can even go deeper with personalization and create multiple offers, one for each segment of webinar leads you identified.

However, before you send out the offer, make sure they are ready to convert. There are a few tell-tale signs of this:

• You’re already connected on social media.
• They engage with your social media profiles.
• Your leads downloaded some of your other materials.
• They tweeted about your webinar.
• You know their specific pain point.

The list can go on and on. The truth is that these signs can vary from industry to industry and from lead to lead. It’s up to you to place them in the right context.

Now for the unbeatable offer. Here are some ideas:

• Exclusive discount for webinar attendees. Make sure to specify that the package deal has been designed specifically for them and that it has an expiration date.
• One hour of free consultation/audit. This is a great opportunity for you to learn more about your webinar leads’ problems and let them know how you can help.
• Discounts for long-term commitments. 6 months, one year, two weeks – it’s up to you to determine what long-term means for your business.

Need help in coming up with the ideal sales funnel to convert your webinar leads? You’ve come to the right place! Get in touch and we’ll get right on it!