Webinars are one of the most expensive forms of content marketing for businesses. They often cost much more than traditional content marketing media like blog posts or social media posts. In fact, the average webinar done by a company costs between $3,000-$5,000. This accounts for the equipment, software, and presenter's time.
Even with the cost of creating webinars, they are still a high ROI activity. Although webinars are very effective at generating leads, they only work if people actually attend the event. The best way to ensure your participants attend your webinar is to send them reminder emails. Reminder emails ensure that your subscribers haven't forgotten about the event and give them the information they need to join.
What is a webinar reminder email?
A webinar reminder email is a message sent to subscribers to remind them of an upcoming webinar. It includes information about the event, like the date, time, and how to join. On average, companies typically send between 2-3 webinar reminder emails after someone opts into the webinar. This allows you to create a sense of urgency and ensure that your subscribers don't forget about the event.
Components of a webinar reminder email
Before getting into the nitty-gritty of how to craft a great webinar reminder email, let's review the components that every reminder email should have. The average webinar reminder email will have these components:
- Date of the event: The most important part of a reminder email is the date of the event. This ensures that your subscribers know when the webinar is happening and can plan accordingly. The date should clearly be displayed in the email so that there is no confusion. This should also include the time of the event along with the time zone.
- Title of webinar: In your webinar reminder email, you'll want to include the title of the webinar. This allows your subscribers to know what the event is going to be about and if it is something they're interested in. The title should be clear and concise so that your subscribers know exactly what the webinar is about.
- Company name: If this is the first time someone is attending your webinar, it's vital that you remind them of the company hosting the event. Most people won't remember they signed up for a webinar until they get the email. Making sure you highlight the company name in your webinar is essential for building brand awareness.
- Panelists: One of the primary reasons why people attend a specific webinar is because of the presenter. Make sure to list all of the panelists that will be on the webinar so your participants know who they will be learning from. This is a good way to both market your webinar and incentivize your subscribers to attend.
- Registration details: Different webinars have different registration details. For example, some webinars might be free while others are gated behind a paywall, while others require a Zoom ID. It's crucial for companies to ensure that the registration details are accurate and that email subscribers receive them. Failure to do this can halt the entire webinar.
- A symbol of urgency: Most webinar reminder emails will have something at the end like a CTA with some urgency, a specific button or a tool like a countdown timer. Adding urgency to your webinar reminder email is crucial to help your subscribers make the commitment to attend. Without this, it's very easy for them to forget it and miss out on the webinar.
- Pro tip: For additional information or even promotion, you can always use an email signature generator to add links or just provide extra space for CTA.
How to create a webinar reminder email
Now that we've covered the different components of the webinar reminder email, it's time to write it out. Here are the steps you should follow to craft a well-written webinar reminder email:
Craft your subject line:
The first roadblock against having a successful webinar event will be people not opening your emails. Crafting your subject line is crucial because it will be the first thing that your attendees see in their inboxes. Write a short, sweet, and to-the-point subject line that accurately reflects the content of your email. Some good examples include:
- "You're invited to our upcoming webinar!"
- "Reminder: Webinar on XYZ is happening tomorrow!"
- "Join us for our webinar on XYZ this Wednesday!"
You can experiment with your subject line by including the date and time, or even the title of the webinar. The goal is to make it clear, concise, and attention-grabbing so that people will want to open your email and click on your webinar link.
Write your email body:
After your subject line, your email body is the most important part of your webinar reminder email. This is where you'll want to include all of the information we talked about earlier, such as:
- the date and time of the event
- the title of the webinar
- presenters
- your company name
In the body of your email, it's important to highlight the benefits of attending your webinar email. Will attendees learn something new? Will they be able to network with other professionals? Make sure to highlight what they can gain from this and that will hook them into your CTA.
Add your call to action:
Your call to action is what you want your attendees to do after reading your email. In most cases, this will be registering for the webinar or clicking on a link to learn more about it. Your CTA should be clear and concise, with a strong sense of urgency. For example, if you're hosting a webinar tomorrow, your CTA could be something like, "Register now to save your spot!"
Make sure that your CTA is prominently featured in your email so that people can't miss it. A good rule of thumb is to put it at the top and bottom of your email body so that people see it no matter where they are reading. Some digital marketing channels allow you to add buttons, make sure to use this to make it easy for your readers to see and click. Making simple changes like this to your CTA can drastically improve your conversion rates.
Mistakes to avoid when creating webinar reminder emails
Even with a good CTA, subject line, etc, many marketers still fail to have effective webinar reminder emails. Some of the common mistakes that hinder the success of webinar reminder emails include:
Sending too many emails: You should not bombard your email subscribers with numerous reminder emails. Some marketers think that the more times they remind people about the webinar, the more likely they are to attend. Sending too many emails can have the opposite effect and turn people off from attending your webinar. Stick to sending 1-2 reminder emails for each event and you'll be sure to see better results.
Forgetting to personalize: Personalization is key when it comes to email marketing. You want to make sure that each email you send feels like it was written just for the recipient. This can be extremely important if you're targeting decision-makers that are attending a smaller-sized webinar. Sending a generic webinar email to a C-Suite executive will make it much harder for you to get them to register.
Sending at the wrong time: Another common mistake is sending webinar reminder emails too early or too late. If you send them too early, people will forget about the event by the time it happens. If you send them too late, they might have already made other plans or lost interest. The best time to send a webinar reminder email is 1-2 days before the event is scheduled to take place. This will ensure that people have the event fresh in their minds and are more likely to attend.
Not focusing on the benefits of attending: When writing webinar reminder emails, it's easy to get caught up in talking about the event itself. However, it's important to remember that people are more likely to attend if they know what they can gain from it. Make sure to focus on the benefits of attending and what people will learn by tuning in. This has to be specific to your target customer persona. For instance, if your webinar is about financial regulations and corporate transparency, you could highlight the benefit of gaining insights from resources like the FinCEN Report Company, which provides comprehensive information on the Corporate Transparency Act and other related topics.
Here are some examples of what this can look like:
- Are you struggling to generate leads from your website? Join this webinar and learn the 5 steps to creating a social media strategy that works for your business.
- 80% of disengaged employees cite a lack of development opportunities as their reason for leaving. In this webinar, you'll learn the 5 steps to creating an effective employee development program.
- Is your sales team spending too much on travel, learn how you can save up to 90% on travel expenses with expense management solutions
Using copywriting like this is much better than simply saying something like, "Join this webinar to learn more about X." By focusing on the benefits of attending, you're much more likely to get people to sign up.
These are just a few things to keep in mind when creating webinar reminder emails. By following these tips, you can start sending personalized and effective emails that will get people to sign up and attend your event. To learn more about how you can create effective webinars, explore our guide here.