TOP 3 Foolproof Webinar Engagement Strategies - Bookmark Now

RSVPs don’t guarantee that all the seats will be taken at the upcoming webinar — or that it will be a success. 😨

If you want real results, focus on webinar engagement. 

Keeping the guests actively interested in the webinar takes some planning and dedicated effort, but it’s not nearly as complicated!

Out of a plethora of tips, we’ll present you with three webinar engagement strategies that are:

• Proven to work;
• Have a high payoff;
• Easy to understand and execute.

Defining webinar engagement

Webinar engagement is the level of participants’ involvement during the webinar, reflected in their participation, attention, and interest before, during, and after the webinar.

How do you know your webinar attendees are engaged?

Several telltale signs confirm your work is paying off, and your webinar engagement will likely be high.

In the days leading up to the webinar, your guests are:

• Taking to social media to announce their presence and excitement over joining the webinar, inviting others to join them;
• Contacting the webinar organizers to learn more;
• Frequently visiting the webinar landing page and going through the available webinar-related content and pages (see clicks, impressions, downloads, etc).

At the very webinar:

• The attendance rate is high, thanks to the interest you sparked by marketing the webinar;
• Webinar attendees abundantly use reactions, webinar chat, vote on polls and quizzes;
• Attendees participate in Q&A sessions and discussions.

And in the end, when the webinar is done:

• The audience responds well to your post-event engagement efforts;
• They’re booking their seats for the next event early;
• The leads are easy to convert thanks to the high trust you established during the webinar.

All in all, it’s easy to spot when the audience is engaged — but how to improve the engagement when it seems you’re doing everything you’re supposed to?

Let’s have a look. ⬇️

1. “What’s in it for me?” as a base for your approach

It doesn’t hurt to remind oneself that it’s not about you — it’s about them. 

“What’s in it for me?” is a question that lies at every successful campaign's core. 

Despite it being one of the most frequent advice you’ll get, many marketers fail to adapt their campaigns to this reasoning. 

The key is to create a message that directly resonates with attendees’ pain points and promises a solution. Learn what irks your audience, and provide solutions and guidance.

For example, your subject lines shouldn’t look like this: 

“Join our AWESOME webinar with This Speaker and That Educator”

, but rather like:

“Our Speaker will teach you how to never worry about (insert specific pain point) again”,

or

“We’ll show you a cheaper alternative to (insert the expensive process they’d like to cut costs from)”.

In short, you’ll garner more interest for your webinar if you use the personalized problem-solution framing.

2. Award the attendees with digital certificates/credentials

Providing certificates for webinar attendance isn’t unheard of: upon completing the webinar, attendees receive a nice keepsake and proof of attendance. 

The process is super simple and it can be automated — so the Zoom webinar attendees instantly receive their certificates when the webinar is finished (here’s how to set up the process).

However, awarding certificates can be so much more than a formality, for you and webinar attendees.

How to use digital credentials as a webinar incentive for guests

Advertise your certificates and badges as powerful, standalone assets you offer to webinar attendees. 

Make sure they know attending your webinar and receiving a certificate for it helps with:

• Career development — Sharing certificates they’ve earned makes recipients more visible in the community and helps them build a strong professional reputation.
• Job search — Digital credentials guarantee that they possess certain knowledge and skills. They can attach them to their CVs, motivational letters, personal profiles, or even emails. Attaching digital credentials to LinkedIn profiles is especially useful: that’s where recruiters can find and contact them for job opportunities.
• Career pivot — In case they’re looking to switch careers, they might have a couple of transferable skills to help. Apart from displaying digital certificates online, they can store the badges in the Open Badge Backpack. This way, they can store their credentials independently of their current employment, and present them however they please.
• Horizontal and vertical employee growth — Certificates and badges contain built-in information about recipients’ knowledge levels. When built into workers’ professional profiles, HRs and team leaders can easily assess and decide who’s ready for promotion, or a new role.
• Employee recognition — It’s easier for employers to award bonuses, promotions, or other forms of praise to employees who continuously improve. Digital credentials displayed prominently guarantee their progress will be visible to the higher-ups.

To conclude, digital credential ownership helps them grow their careers, switch them up, be recognized and awarded for effort in their workplace, and improve their professional reputation.

How digital credentialing strategy benefits you in the long run

Great webinar engagement levels and attendance aren’t the only benefits you’ll enjoy by introducing digital credentials.

This strategy has a high ROI and keeps giving in the long run:

• The power of UGC and testimonials — Webinar attendees will proudly share their certificates on social media — and their posts serve as authentic testimonials for your webinar.
• Attracting guests for future webinars — Seeing webinar attendees share their certificates with positive reviews will spark interest in attendees’ online audience. Among their audience, you will find guests for future webinars that match your ICP perfectly!
• Improving brand reputation — Some things can’t be paid for: investing in paid marketing channels is best topped off with genuine praise you can garner in the way described above.
• Little additional work from your side — Between tons of free certificate templates, an intuitive platform, and Zoom integration, digital credential management requires little intervention beyond swift certificate creation and workflow setup. Further on, recipients do all the work by sharing the certificates online and sticking them to their professional profiles. 😎
• Copy-proof certification — Digital certificates and badges can’t be falsified: each contains a QR or a numerical code that leads to the verification page, unique to each participant. This protects credentials as assets prevents forgery, and keeps your reputation clear.

You can try how it works without strings attached — with a 7-day free trial and our support!

3. Make the webinar interactive

No matter how information-rich, useful, and practical your program is — don’t turn it into an hours-long monologue with a dull presentation in the background.

Apply these tips to transform your presentation into a dynamic exchange of knowledge and experiences:

• Allocate time for brief breaks — Following the Pomodoro principle, allow some break time between sessions; usually, every hour/45-minute is followed by a five to ten-minute break.
• Include Q&A sessions — Don’t let guests leave the webinar with unanswered questions; dedicate some time to explain specific points and provide more examples, as requested.
• Enable live chat and reactions — You can track their mood and engagement in real time by letting the guests react and use chat to ask and comment on presentations.
• Use polls to learn more — Webinar polls are a great option to make the webinar more attractive and lively. With polls, you can gather feedback about the webinar program as it happens.
• Quiz their knowledge — Have some fun with gamification: at the end of the webinar, you can organize a quiz where you’ll test what they’ve learned, and which topics needed more time. Reward the best respondent with a unique, exclusive prize!
• Make sure your presentation is spectacular — Walls of text, too much expert jargon, no examples? Do the opposite! 

Conclusion

• Use a personalized problem-solution framing to shape your webinar in a way that resonates with their greatest issues; present the solution during the webinar, and you may rest assured they’ll listen carefully.
• Use a digital credentialing strategy as an incentive for them to join and actively participate; they will get a valuable career asset, and you’ll gain an organic promotion channel.
• Create a dynamic, interactive webinar where they’ll be able to participate with ease.

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