Three Surefire Ways to Get More Webinar Attendees With Email Marketing

Email marketing is highly effective in most avenues of online business and for many purposes. Not only does it provide a substantial average return of $42 for every dollar spent, but it accounts for as much as 57% of webinar registrations, far ahead of social media (15%), websites and blogs (14%), and SMS (4%).

The statistics look promising, but how do you get the best out of your webinar emails? How do you compel your email subscribers to attend your conference?

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And now, without further ado, let’s dissect three crucial factors for creating compelling webinar emails.

1. Know Your Subscribers

You will target a somewhat loyal audience, but it doesn’t mean you can use batch-and-blast emails. Whether you target a new or dedicated audience, you must segment your subscribers first, as in-depth segmentation will allow you to send relevant, personal, and anticipated emails.

• Segmented marketing campaigns draw 760% more revenue, including at least 14% higher open rates and ROI for segmented emails. There’s no way around it: without a segmented email list, you’re a goner.

Luckily, you likely already have some customer data to work with, including location, age, gender, persona, industry, education, budget, history of purchases and interactions, changes in engagement and buying behavior, and more. Use this collected data for segmentation and targeting.

Here are some examples of how to use segmentation to target your email subscribers:

• Demographics. Age, gender, location, income, occupation, family status, and other demographic data can help you craft compelling invitations. 

For example, if your webinar is about career advancement, you can target graduates and the unemployed while ignoring those already occupying high positions within their companies. Demographic data enables you to tailor your emails to any group of recipients.

• Purchase history. Purchase history can give you a glimpse into your most high-intent customers. For example, a webinar on equipment maintenance will likely appeal more to those who actually bought your equipment, not cart abandoners or those in doubt.

• Engagement. Bombarding your subscribers with emails is only sometimes a good choice, as various groups of subscribers prefer different emailing frequencies, which you can understand from their engagement. While some users only respond to the emails that are most relevant to them, others may have fun receiving daily updates on associated topics.

• Hardware and software. For some campaigns, small details can make the difference. Imagine selling an Android-focused webinar to iPhone users. That would be a disaster, wouldn’t it?

The good news is that you don’t have to manually collect and process email data. The internet is abundant with free and paid email marketing software — from HubSpot to MailChimp to dozens of more niche and lesser-known tools — so you can choose one depending on the required automation, scalability, and customization.

2. Personalize Your Emails

Be sure to customize every aspect of your email, from the subject line to the signature, so your customers feel special rather than yet another address on your mailing list.

Here’s how you can spruce up your emails to entice more webinar attendees:

• Subject line. Nothing else will matter if the subject line of your email repels the reader. The rule of thumb is that any subject line should be personal and intriguing and indicate why the customer should proceed with your email.

  • The optimal subject line length. Subject lines designed to fit mobile screens should be around 60 characters or less.

  • The words that increase open rates. The most effective terms are: upgrade, just, content, go, and wonderful, according to Alchemy Worx’s analysis of 21 billion marketing emails. The least effective terms to avoid are: miss, deals, groovy, conditions, and Friday.

To make yourself recognizable from piles of inbox messages, you can attach your brand's logo to your emails using Google’s Brand Indicators for Message Identification (BIMI).

• Email body. There’s no limit to the tricks you can use to entice your subscribers to attend an upcoming webinar. The world is your oyster as long as you respect these set-in-stone rules:

  • Address your subscribers by name. Whether we like it or not, we involuntarily respond to the sound of our name, or if we read it. But even without that, it’s clear that you can’t win anyone’s attention with generic emails.

  • Personalize your writing. Instead of making your webinar emails look personal, make them personal by using your customer insights. Whenever you can contextualize the recipient’s location, preferences, occupation, or previous purchases, do it.

  • Use relevant images. Images are arguably the best way to sell your webinar, as we process images 6 to 60 times faster than text while remembering up to 80% of what we see as opposed to only about 20% of what we read, and 10% of what we hear. 

3. Make the Timing Count

The timing of your outreach is no less important than the content. The time zones of your customers and the data-driven timing insights should help you choose the best timing.

Here are some helpful insights on webinar and email timing:

• The most advantageous time to schedule a webinar is 10 to 11 a.m. on Wednesdays and Thursdays.

• The best time to send emails is around 10 a.m. and 4 p.m., barring the first 15 minutes of an hour when inboxes are most congested.

Constantly Analyze and Update Your Email Marketing to Stay on Top of it

One of the best things about email marketing, whether you promote a webinar, sell a product, or re-engage with subscribers, is that you can accurately measure your performance. Time-tested email marketing metrics – open rates, click-through rates, conversion rates, bounce rates, and unsubscribe rates – can identify bland and profitable campaigns, making it easier to understand what and how to improve.

Disclaimer: this article includes a paid product promotion.