Webinars are a powerful tool in any marketer’s toolkit. They attract new leads, engage your audience, and even upsell customers. But, one of the most significant benefits of webinars is that they can help you close more sales.
According to the 2021 ON24 Webinar Benchmarks Report, 68% of webinar attendees in 2020 converted to a sales opportunity. That’s up from 48% in 2019. But, to capitalize on this opportunity, you need to have a solid webinar follow-up plan in place.
In this guide, let’s explore some of the best practices for following up with webinar attendees and driving sales.
1. Send an email to attendees
The first thing you should do after your webinar is send a thank you email to everyone who attended.
This email should be sent within 24 hours of your webinar and should include:
• A thank you message
• A link to the recording of the webinar
• A link to the slides of the webinar
• A call-to-action to book a call with you (if you’re selling high-ticket offers)
• A call-to-action to buy your product
The most important part of this email is the link to the recording of the webinar. This is because the majority of people who registered for your webinar did not attend. You can even adapt this into a cold email by sending the recording and slides via cold email software to relevant prospects who never registered at all—framing it as value-first outreach rather than a sales pitch.
2. Send an email to no-shows
If someone registered for your webinar but didn’t attend, there are a few things you can do to re-engage them.
First, send them an email with a link to the recorded webinar. You can also include a brief summary of the key points covered in the webinar so they can get the main takeaways without having to watch the entire thing.
You may also want to consider sending them a special offer or discount code to encourage them to take the next step in your sales funnel. After all, they’ve already expressed interest in your webinar topic, so it’s likely that they’re a qualified lead.
3. Create a blog post
Take the recording of your webinar and turn it into a blog post. This is a great way to repurpose your webinar content and give your audience a new way to engage with it.
You can simply take the recording and transcribe it to create a blog post. Or, you can use the recording as a jumping-off point and write a new post that covers the same topic.
Make sure to include a call-to-action (CTA) at the end of your blog post that encourages readers to take the next step. This could be to sign up for your next webinar, download a related ebook, or contact your sales team.
4. Share the webinar on social media
Social media is a great place to share your webinar content. You can post the webinar recording, the slide deck, or a brief summary of the webinar topic.
If you have a webinar landing page, you can link to it in your social media posts. If you don’t, you can link to the webinar recording on your website or YouTube channel.
You can also create social media ads to promote your webinar. This is a great way to reach new prospects and get them into your sales funnel.
5. Host a podcast
If you’re looking to repurpose the content from your webinar, consider creating a podcast episode.
You can use the audio from your webinar and turn it into a podcast episode. You can also pull out pieces of the webinar and create a podcast episode from that.
For example, you could pull out the Q&A portion of your webinar and create a podcast episode from that. This is a great way to repurpose the content and provide value to your audience in a new way.
6. Interview the speaker
If you hosted a webinar with a guest speaker, interviewing them about the topic of the webinar is a great way to create more content and drive webinar sign-ups.
But, you can also use the interview content as a follow-up to the webinar. You can use the interview as a blog post on your website, as a social media post, or even as an email to your list.
This is a great way to get more mileage out of your webinar content and provide value to your audience.
7. Host a Q&A session
Even though your webinar is over, your relationship with your customers doesn’t have to be. You can still engage with them in a meaningful way by hosting a Q&A session about your webinar topic.
This is a great opportunity to answer any questions your audience may have missed during the webinar. You can also use this time to ask your attendees for feedback on your webinar. This will help you improve your future webinars and build a stronger relationship with your audience.
8. Create an ebook
After the webinar, you can take the recording and turn it into an ebook. This is a great way to repurpose your content and provide a new piece of content to your audience.
You can use the slides as the chapters of the ebook and then write the body copy based on what you discussed during the webinar. You can also add additional information that you didn’t cover in the webinar to make the ebook more robust.
Ebooks are a great way to generate leads because you can gate them with a form and then use them as a lead magnet. You can also send the ebook to your webinar attendees as a thank you for attending.
9. Call the attendees
If you’re able to, call the attendees of the webinar. This will give you an opportunity to connect with them on a personal level and answer any questions they may have about your product or service.
You can also use this time to ask for feedback on the webinar, and to learn more about their specific pain points and needs. This information can be incredibly valuable when it comes to following up with leads and closing sales.
10. Launch a referral program after the webinar
Your webinar attendees are already engaged and have shown interest in your expertise — making them great candidates for referrals. After the event, consider inviting them to join a referral program where they can recommend your product or service to peers in exchange for rewards.
This works especially well because webinars often attract industry professionals who know others facing the same challenges your product solves. Using tools like ReferralCandy, you can easily set up and automate referral campaigns. The platform manages tracking, payouts, and communication — so you only pay for results, making it one of the most cost-effective follow-up strategies available.
Conclusion
Sending a follow-up email to your webinar attendees is just the beginning. To truly capitalize on the event, you should continue to engage your leads with more content, offers, and personalized interactions.
