Increasing attendance in your web conference can result in higher sales, better retention of customers, and more effective trainings. However, increasing attendance does not mean generating new leads and new invites, but also having your existing audience return for future sessions. Building upon an audience can be a key aspect to growing your webinars.
This biggest effort I see Presenters undergo is generating an invite that will bring more potential customers in front for their sessions. While it is important to inject new attendees into your sessions, far too often, little is done to ensure return visitors. This article will describe some of the aspects that are easy to perform to ensure your audience returns for future sessions.
Connect Your Audience
One of the biggest differences between an online conference and an in-person conference is the disconnect that exists between the conference players. The audience connects from a home or office, the presenter is remote, and the moderators may all be on different continents. This presents a loss of community that is automatically generated when everyone is in the same room. Some of the most interesting discussions occur before and after the session. Use the Public/Private chat feature as a tool to direct your discussions. As people enter, encourage discussion about the topic at hand, where they are from, or other engaging responses. Once the session begins, you can privatize the chat to focus their attention to the information being presented. During the question and answer period, open the chat back up, and allow for each other to see the questions being asked. Finally, allow for post conference discussion between the attendees so everyone can leave at their discretion. Take note how the most involved participants will translate into loyal attendees.
Personalize Your Presentations
Many times, your most loyal listeners are those who are mentioned during the course of a broadcast. This is one reason why you will see viewer mail read after many cable news programs. This adheres the audience to viewing in and hoping for their chance to be nationalized on a large stage. The same can be true for web conferencing. When reading your attendees queries, it is always a good idea to mention at least the first name of the person who asked the question. Find out how to personalize your audience, you will have a friend for life.
Record Your Sessions
Most presenters view their webinar success based on the percentage of registered attendees. Online conferences are more convenient, so attendees are less pressured to attend. However, adding to the convenience will encourage future participation. Recording and providing your sessions can be one of the most important aspects of a webinar success. The archive should recreate the live session as close as possible, providing links interactively, Instant Poll participation, and file download can make a huge difference in the effectiveness of your archive sessions and will encourage participation in future events.
Follow Up Reminders
Although the session is over, the work is not. Some of the most successful series I have seen were due largely to a follow up email that is sent after the session is complete. Being able to communicate future events, archive links, and other resources are just a few ways to encourage attendance to your next session. For sessions that span multiple webcasts, this is vital to keeping your audience coming back to each successive session.
The platform you choose should allow you to discern between those Who Registered, Those Who Attended, and those who were not able to make it. Creating a custom follow up to these groups allows you to personalize your message to your audience and welcomes reminds them of more to follow.
Keep It Fresh
Your attendees will drop very quickly if you do not keep the information fresh. While the topic may itself repeat, the delivery and details do not have to. Audience interaction is the best way I have seen to keep new details from coming in. An industry leader has more information to give compared to the audience attention span. This can be used to keep your audience coming back for new but related information. Also, the ability to ask a question to the speaker, is a far bigger advantage than having someone ask the question. Encourage follow up questions and treat it like an press conference. The more engaged your audience becomes the more benefit you will see from your sessions.
really great ideas and informative.