![\"Webinar](\"https:\/\/www.meetingone.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/08\/Nail-the-Invite.png\")
\u00a0You’ve put together a webinar you know people would flip over.<\/span><\/h3>\n(Or at least that’s the hope…)<\/span><\/h5>\nDon’t waste your efforts by slacking on the webinar invite!<\/span><\/h3>\n<\/div>\n\n.<\/span><\/p>\nWebinars are primarily used by organizations looking to distinguish their brand, connect with new people\u00a0and share their expertise and passion. The trickiest part of hosting a webinar is getting people to register and attend!<\/p>\n
Consider it this way: you could spend hours crafting the perfect webinar. You could create the best content the world\u2019s ever seen. \u00a0You could have every slide so well timed, people might start calling you\u00a0Maestro<\/em>. But what does it matter if no one attends?\u00a0\u00a0Worse yet, what if no one even looked at the webinar invite you prepared?<\/strong>\u00a0That would truly be a shame!<\/p>\n
\n<\/div>\nCrafting the Perfect Webinar Invite Email<\/span><\/h2>\n\nEmail inboxes nowadays are flooded with webinar invitations. Each day, hundreds of thousands of webinar emails are sent out. \u00a0(That doesn’t come as a real surprise –\u00a0webinars have become essential<\/a><\/span><\/strong>\u00a0for marketing teams driving for lead conversion.) \u00a0It makes sense that email open rates hover around\u00a025%<\/a>\u00a0<\/strong><\/span>(as of earlier this year) –\u00a0people are getting inundated!<\/p>\n\nNailing the webinar invite is just as important as putting together an interesting and useful webinar. \u00a0But what differentiates an amazing invite from the one going into people\u2019s spam boxes? \u00a0A successful webinar invite doesn’t take much…just five simple things<\/span>!<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n
\n5 Keys for a Perfect Webinar Invite Email![\"webinar](\"https:\/\/www.meetingone.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/03\/Play-Slideshare-300x263.png\")
<\/a><\/span><\/h3>\n\n- Uncluttered Text with One<\/strong>\u00a0<\/span>Link.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/strong>There’s one goal of the webinar invite email: get readers to your webinar’s registration page. \u00a0All you need is one link!<\/li>\n
- The ‘Who,’ ‘What,’ & ‘When’ of the Webinar.<\/strong><\/span>\u00a0<\/strong>Include what matters: Who is presenting, what their topic is, and when the webinar will be happening.<\/li>\n
- Simple Subject Line.\u00a0<\/strong><\/span>50 characters or less, including [Webinar], [Webcast], or [Webinar Series]<\/li>\n
- Personalized “From” Email Address.<\/span>\u00a0<\/strong>Never use a “Do_Not_Reply” from-address again. \u00a0Use a personal or corporate name.<\/li>\n
- Dynamic CTAs to Drive Registration.<\/strong><\/span>\u00a0Make your CTAs visible, fun, or emotional, and repeat it as a banner, button, and hyperlink.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
And don’t forget! \u00a0Send reminder emails leading up to the event! \u00a0Check out the full Slideshare at right!<\/p>\n
\nLearning from MeetingOne’s Webinar Invites<\/span><\/span><\/h2>\nAt MeetingOne, we’re nearing the three-year mark of our webinar marketing program. \u00a0That’s three years of webinar invites. \u00a0In those three years, we’ve produced over\u00a0three dozen thought leadership webinars<\/strong><\/span>,<\/a>\u00a0a handful of series, and we’ve helped co-market just as many with our partners, like Adobe, Carahsoft, and Virtual Gurus. \u00a0And our optimization\u00a0email efforts have grown with the 5 above, simple tips.<\/strong><\/p>\nThese webinars have featured thought leaders of online meetings, virtual training, and marketing webinars. \u00a0Crafting emails for such widely different audiences has been challenging at times. \u00a0And it has involved a lot of adaptation and tinkering. \u00a0Here are a few examples below:<\/p>\n
![\"webinar](\"https:\/\/www.meetingone.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/03\/Email-Comparison-over-time-01.png\")
<\/a><\/p>\nThe email at left was an early webinar invite we sent out. \u00a0The one at right is just over two years old. \u00a0And the one in the center was sent out recently. \u00a0Although the formatting has remained consistent, there are five big differences:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n- Less Text.<\/strong><\/span>\u00a0One of the first things we learned was to reduce text. \u00a0Get people to the relevant information! \u00a0Constant Contact<\/a>\u00a0<\/span><\/strong>has found that it’s best not to go over twenty lines of text, or 200 words, for marketing emails. \u00a0And with everything moving to mobile, compatibility is a must, and less text helps.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
\n- More Graphical Elements.<\/span><\/strong>\u00a0It wasn’t long before we introduced well-designed banners into our invitations. \u00a0Making emails more graphical is critical, as visual cues encourage readers to scroll. \u00a0As you can see, our latest email includes more coloration and other visual elements. \u00a0(Bold type, flat graphics, unique images:\u00a0all good\u00a0and trendy<\/a>.<\/span><\/strong>)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
\n- Social Sharing.<\/span><\/strong>\u00a0We introduced social sharing options after our first few webinars. \u00a0We did so after learning\u00a0GetResponse<\/a>\u00a0<\/strong><\/span>had found social shares to increase click-through by 158%.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
\n- Larger CTA.<\/span><\/strong>\u00a0\u00a0Our Call-To-Action has moved and changed some with time. \u00a0First, we placed it near the bottom. \u00a0Then, we moved it to the middle, immediately after the important webinar info. \u00a0Lately, we’ve increased the size of every CTA\u00a0to\u00a0make them more visible.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
\n- Date & Time.\u00a0<\/span><\/strong>Early on, we would lay out the time and date of a webinar on separate lines. \u00a0To save space, we’ve since placed all that information on one line, beside a secondary CTA.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
We also run series of three emails for our webinars. \u00a0As you will see below, each webinar invite is different.<\/strong>\u00a0\u00a0The first has the most information, including bullets outlining relevant topics that will be discussed. \u00a0The second draws more attention to the speaker by incorporating his\/her picture. \u00a0Our “Last Chance” email is mostly graphical, given it also serves as a reminder.<\/p>\n![\"webinar](\"https:\/\/www.meetingone.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/03\/Email-Series-for-one-webinar-02.png\")
<\/a><\/p>\nMuch of what I’ve covered above addresses how we’ve come to drive more clicks for our webinar invites. \u00a0What I haven’t noted is how we’ve increased Open Rates.<\/p>\n
\nIncreasing Open Rates<\/span><\/h3>\nLike all of you out there, we’ve been working hard to increase our Open rates for each webinar invite we send. \u00a0Getting there has involved two significant changes to our approach:<\/p>\n
\n- Increased Segmentation<\/strong><\/li>\n
- Aggressive Contact Filtering
\n<\/strong>.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n
\nIncreased Segmentation<\/span><\/h4>\nEveryone knows you have to segment. \u00a0Generalized emails simply don’t drive the engagement you need.<\/p>\n
![\"bulk](\"https:\/\/www.meetingone.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/07\/AudioOne-Page-Icons-2016-06.png\")
<\/p>\n
When we first started the program, we were sending pretty broad emails out, simply banking on catchy subject lines. \u00a0In the last year, we’ve increased our segmentation significantly.<\/p>\n
At this time, we have broken out various lists by title, industry, customer, and lead. \u00a0We can now use 23 lists for our webinar emails. \u00a0This makes it much easier for us to address our different audiences in more direct and meaningful ways. \u00a0We’ll tailor our subject lines and email body to reflect those groups’ pain points and needs.<\/p>\n
Although we’re still surveying the results of segmentation, we know we’re engaging more qualified leads.<\/strong>\u00a0 And our connection with customers makes them “more sticky.”<\/p>\n
\nAggressive Contact Filtering<\/span><\/h4>\nSure, it feels good to look at your contact list and be able to say, “We have a million billion contacts.” \u00a0But if only 1% of your million billion open emails from you, it’s pointless. \u00a0Having thousands of inactive contacts can only hurt your “rating” with email providers.<\/p>\n
When we first started our webinar program, we filtered some. \u00a0We had our “Watch List” and “Unsubscribe List.” \u00a0That certainly helps. \u00a0But when we decided to more aggressively filter our lists in the last quarter, it was like watching Bruce Lee in “Enter The Dragon.”<\/strong>\u00a0\u00a0We were chopping through hundreds of contacts that were simply not engaged.<\/p>\nThe result has been tremendous. \u00a0For our webinars, we’ve seen a 15% increase in open rates in just a few short months. \u00a0<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n
\nRock Your Next Webinar<\/span><\/h2>\n![\"Webinar](\"https:\/\/www.meetingone.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/08\/Cat_Webinar-Follow-Up.png\")
\nNow that you have the knowledge, we hope you will be able to nail every webinar invitation from here on out! \u00a0Unfortunately, your work’s not over. Even after you deliver that fantastic webinar, you still have one task left. \u00a0To learn what you still need to do – check out the second part in our blog series:<\/strong><\/p>\n
\nSending the Webinar Follow up Email
\n<\/a><\/span><\/strong><\/em>.<\/span><\/span><\/h4>\n![\"best](\"https:\/\/www.meetingone.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/Gartner-Best-Webinar-Platform-start-trial-Red-192x300.png\")
<\/a><\/p>\n
\n<\/div>\nEver worry your\u00a0webinars aren’t getting enough traction?<\/span><\/h3>\nTry the\u00a0platform<\/a><\/span>\u00a0geared for driving engagement!<\/span><\/h4>\n<\/h3>\n
.<\/span><\/p>\n Webinars are primarily used by organizations looking to distinguish their brand, connect with new people\u00a0and share their expertise and passion. The trickiest part of hosting a webinar is getting people to register and attend!<\/p>\n Consider it this way: you could spend hours crafting the perfect webinar. You could create the best content the world\u2019s ever seen. \u00a0You could have every slide so well timed, people might start calling you\u00a0Maestro<\/em>. But what does it matter if no one attends?\u00a0\u00a0Worse yet, what if no one even looked at the webinar invite you prepared?<\/strong>\u00a0That would truly be a shame!<\/p>\n Email inboxes nowadays are flooded with webinar invitations. Each day, hundreds of thousands of webinar emails are sent out. \u00a0(That doesn’t come as a real surprise –\u00a0webinars have become essential<\/a><\/span><\/strong>\u00a0for marketing teams driving for lead conversion.) \u00a0It makes sense that email open rates hover around\u00a025%<\/a>\u00a0<\/strong><\/span>(as of earlier this year) –\u00a0people are getting inundated!<\/p>\n Nailing the webinar invite is just as important as putting together an interesting and useful webinar. \u00a0But what differentiates an amazing invite from the one going into people\u2019s spam boxes? \u00a0A successful webinar invite doesn’t take much…just five simple things<\/span>!<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n And don’t forget! \u00a0Send reminder emails leading up to the event! \u00a0Check out the full Slideshare at right!<\/p>\n At MeetingOne, we’re nearing the three-year mark of our webinar marketing program. \u00a0That’s three years of webinar invites. \u00a0In those three years, we’ve produced over\u00a0three dozen thought leadership webinars<\/strong><\/span>,<\/a>\u00a0a handful of series, and we’ve helped co-market just as many with our partners, like Adobe, Carahsoft, and Virtual Gurus. \u00a0And our optimization\u00a0email efforts have grown with the 5 above, simple tips.<\/strong><\/p>\n These webinars have featured thought leaders of online meetings, virtual training, and marketing webinars. \u00a0Crafting emails for such widely different audiences has been challenging at times. \u00a0And it has involved a lot of adaptation and tinkering. \u00a0Here are a few examples below:<\/p>\n The email at left was an early webinar invite we sent out. \u00a0The one at right is just over two years old. \u00a0And the one in the center was sent out recently. \u00a0Although the formatting has remained consistent, there are five big differences:<\/strong><\/p>\n We also run series of three emails for our webinars. \u00a0As you will see below, each webinar invite is different.<\/strong>\u00a0\u00a0The first has the most information, including bullets outlining relevant topics that will be discussed. \u00a0The second draws more attention to the speaker by incorporating his\/her picture. \u00a0Our “Last Chance” email is mostly graphical, given it also serves as a reminder.<\/p>\n Much of what I’ve covered above addresses how we’ve come to drive more clicks for our webinar invites. \u00a0What I haven’t noted is how we’ve increased Open Rates.<\/p>\n Like all of you out there, we’ve been working hard to increase our Open rates for each webinar invite we send. \u00a0Getting there has involved two significant changes to our approach:<\/p>\n Everyone knows you have to segment. \u00a0Generalized emails simply don’t drive the engagement you need.<\/p>\n When we first started the program, we were sending pretty broad emails out, simply banking on catchy subject lines. \u00a0In the last year, we’ve increased our segmentation significantly.<\/p>\n At this time, we have broken out various lists by title, industry, customer, and lead. \u00a0We can now use 23 lists for our webinar emails. \u00a0This makes it much easier for us to address our different audiences in more direct and meaningful ways. \u00a0We’ll tailor our subject lines and email body to reflect those groups’ pain points and needs.<\/p>\n Although we’re still surveying the results of segmentation, we know we’re engaging more qualified leads.<\/strong>\u00a0 And our connection with customers makes them “more sticky.”<\/p>\n Sure, it feels good to look at your contact list and be able to say, “We have a million billion contacts.” \u00a0But if only 1% of your million billion open emails from you, it’s pointless. \u00a0Having thousands of inactive contacts can only hurt your “rating” with email providers.<\/p>\n When we first started our webinar program, we filtered some. \u00a0We had our “Watch List” and “Unsubscribe List.” \u00a0That certainly helps. \u00a0But when we decided to more aggressively filter our lists in the last quarter, it was like watching Bruce Lee in “Enter The Dragon.”<\/strong>\u00a0\u00a0We were chopping through hundreds of contacts that were simply not engaged.<\/p>\n The result has been tremendous. \u00a0For our webinars, we’ve seen a 15% increase in open rates in just a few short months. \u00a0<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n
\n<\/div>\nCrafting the Perfect Webinar Invite Email<\/span><\/h2>\n
\n5 Keys for a Perfect Webinar Invite Email
<\/a><\/span><\/h3>\n\n
\nLearning from MeetingOne’s Webinar Invites<\/span><\/span><\/h2>\n
<\/a><\/p>\n\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
<\/a><\/p>\n
\nIncreasing Open Rates<\/span><\/h3>\n
\n
\n<\/strong>.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n
\nIncreased Segmentation<\/span><\/h4>\n
<\/p>\n
\nAggressive Contact Filtering<\/span><\/h4>\n
\nRock Your Next Webinar<\/span><\/h2>\n
\nNow that you have the knowledge, we hope you will be able to nail every webinar invitation from here on out! \u00a0Unfortunately, your work’s not over. Even after you deliver that fantastic webinar, you still have one task left. \u00a0To learn what you still need to do – check out the second part in our blog series:<\/strong><\/p>\n
\nSending the Webinar Follow up Email
\n<\/a><\/span><\/strong><\/em>.<\/span><\/span><\/h4>\n<\/a><\/p>\n
\nEver worry your\u00a0webinars aren’t getting enough traction?<\/span><\/h3>\n
Try the\u00a0platform<\/a><\/span>\u00a0geared for driving engagement!<\/span><\/h4>\n
<\/h3>\n