Virtual event marketing: how to promote a webinar or online event

Virtual event marketing is everything you do to get the right people to register for an online event, show up, and take a next step afterwards. In practice that means a clear reason to attend, a focused registration page, a reminder sequence, promotion in the channels your audience already uses, and quick follow-up while interest is high.

Webinars, online product launches, virtual roundtables and multi-day online conferences are cheaper to run than in-person events and can reach people anywhere. The catch is that registering is easy and skipping is even easier. Good marketing closes that gap.

What types of virtual events can you run?

Pick the format that fits your goal:

• Webinars for education and lead generation, often with a Q&A
• Invite-only roundtables for a small group of target accounts
• Product launches and demos streamed to customers and prospects
• Online conferences with several sessions or tracks, sometimes with paid passes
• Live streams on social platforms, such as LinkedIn Live, for open reach

If you also want a physical audience, see our guide to hosting a hybrid event.

How do you plan a virtual event that people want to attend?

Start with a clear promise

Ask what problem your audience has and how your event helps solve it. Put that in the title. "How to cut your sales cycle with better discovery calls" beats "Q3 sales webinar".

Build the agenda as a story

Narrative makes events easier to follow and to remember. Plan the event around one storyline: the problem, what is changing, how to handle it, and what to do next. Choose sessions and speakers that each move the story forward, rather than a list of unrelated talks.

Pick the platform early

Your platform decides what you can do: registration forms, branded pages, automatic reminder emails, polls, chat, breakout rooms, recordings and CRM integration. Simple webinars can run on a meeting tool such as Zoom. Larger events usually need a dedicated event platform. Compare options in our list of hybrid event hosting platforms.

How do you build a registration page that converts?

The event page is where people decide to sign up. It should answer every question an attendee has, quickly.

Include:

• A title that states the benefit
• Date, time and time zone, with a calendar link after sign-up
• A short description of what attendees will learn
• Speakers, with a photo and one line on why they are worth hearing
• The agenda, if there is more than one session
• Social proof, such as quotes from past attendees or partner logos you have permission to use
• A short recording clip from a previous event, if you have one

Keep the form short. Ask only for what you need to follow up, such as name, work email, company and role. Put the registration button near the top and repeat it lower on the page. Test one change at a time, such as the headline or the form length, and see our tips on how to optimize a landing page.

How should you promote a virtual event?

Email

Your own email list reaches people who already know you, which makes it a direct route to registrations. Send an invitation, then a reminder to those who have not registered, and segment by interest or account where you can.

Reminder sequence for registrants

People forget. Set up automatic emails:

• A confirmation with a calendar invite, right after registration
• A reminder one week before
• A reminder one day before
• A reminder shortly before the start, with the join link
• A "we have started" email to registrants who have not joined yet

Our guide to drip marketing explains how to automate sequences like this.

LinkedIn

For B2B audiences, LinkedIn is the obvious social channel. You can create a LinkedIn Event for an online event, either streamed with LinkedIn Live or linked to an external event page. Hosts and attendees can invite their 1st-degree connections, up to 1,000 invitations a week shared across all events. Ask speakers and colleagues to share the event as well. Their networks often reach further than your company page.

Partners and speakers

Give every speaker and partner a ready-made kit: a short description, a link with tracking, a social image and a suggested post. Co-hosting with a partner that serves the same audience can double your reach.

Search and press

Publish the event page on your own site so it can rank for the topic. Note that Google's event rich results do not support purely virtual events, so do not count on an event listing in search. For larger events, a press release can help. See how to write a press release for an event.

How do you keep attendees engaged during the event?

• Start on time and say in the first minute what people will get
• Use polls and questions early, so people stay involved
• Keep sessions short, and plan breaks in longer events
• Have a moderator who handles chat and collects questions
• Offer live captions. The W3C accessibility guidelines (WCAG 1.2.4, level AA) call for captions on live audio content
• End with one clear call to action, such as booking a meeting, starting a trial or downloading the slides

What should you do after the event?

The event is the start of the conversation, not the end.

• Send a thank-you email with the recording to attendees within a day
• Send the recording to registrants who missed it, with a short summary
• Run a short survey to learn what to improve
• Hand warm leads to sales quickly, with notes on which sessions they watched and what they asked
• Put other attendees into a lead nurturing sequence
• Turn the content into blog posts, short clips and social posts
• Invite attendees to your next event

How do you measure virtual event marketing?

Track the full funnel, not just sign-ups:

• Registrations, by source
• Attendance rate: attendees divided by registrants
• Average viewing time and drop-off points
• Questions, chat messages and poll answers
• On-demand views of the recording
• Meetings booked, pipeline and revenue from attendees in the weeks after

Compare these numbers across events to see which topics, formats and channels work best for your audience. For more ideas, read how event marketing can grow your audience.