How to create webinar invitations that drive registrations 

The webinar is the marketer’s party. Okay, these learning and lead-generation gatherings probably aren't as fun without the punch bowl and perfect playlist — but at the planning stages, there's the same fear. What if nobody shows up?

For webinars (and, presumably, parties) — it all comes down to the invitation.

Email is simply the most effective channel for promoting webinars. 2012 data from BrightTALK shows 58-64% of people attending thanks to email and direct invitations. The 2013 ON24 Webinar Benchmark Report states that 80% of registrations come from a combination of email and site promotions.

Your webinar invitations also deserve their own emails. Justine Jordan, VP of Marketing at Litmus, advises that you go beyond tacking on promotional mentions on regularly scheduled marketing messages:

Georgiana Laudi, VP of Marketing at Unbounce, also reports: “70% of all our webinar registrations come via our invitation emails.” For our own upcoming welcome email webinar, we can thank our dedicated invitation emails for 76% of registrants so far.

That’s all to say — your invitation emails are vital to a successful webinar! Let’s look at how to make them super effective to bring more people to your web party.

Webinar invitation email are all about making it easy for people to say yes and see what the value is for them. Here are all the ingredients you need:

• WHAT: Webinar title
• WHEN: Date and time of the webinar
• WHO: Introduce the people presenting, especially if there's a guest
• HOW: Calls to action to register (buttons, links, etc.)
• WHY: What’s in it for the reader? What problem will you help them solve?
• WHAT: What will people learn? What should they expect from the presentation?
• CARE: The invitation is an early exercise in being a great and empathetic host. Make it easy to sign up. Address blockers by informing folks whether the recording will be available if you can't attend the live event. Set expectations by being clear about any Q&As.

Here's an example from Litmus of all those elements at work:

Now let's explore some tips to make those ingredients shine.

The challenge of coordinating any type of meeting online, whether it’s an interview, chat, or your amazing webinar, is getting timezones correct. You’ve probably put thought into scheduling your webinar at a time that makes sense for your audience — but don’t make your readers have to do timezone math (which, for some reason, is always more complicated than regular math).

Most people attempt to account for this by including 2-3 timezones in their invite. Some even go so far as to provide a link to a timezone converter. But the best treatment of timezones in webinars invitations that I’ve seen come from Litmus and Skillcrush.

Skillcrush provides a handy "Convert to your timezone!" link, which sends you straight to a page with the correct conversion. You can use timeanddate.com's handy Event Time Announcer to set up this type of link for your own invitations.

Spelling out the problem or challenge is an effective tactic for two reasons. It forces you to take on the perspective of your audience — and provides a great lead-in to your description of what people can take away from the presentation if they sign up. That “you have this problem” plus the “we help you solve it” one-two punch ultimately helps to craft a compelling pitch.

Email on Acid promises to solve a common problem that haunts most email marketers: the Great Fear of Hitting Send. This approach results in much more compelling copy, like the call-to-action to “eliminate that awful pit in your stomach,” than something blah like “learn the best practices of email deliverability.”

Here’s a great example from Unbounce that also pinpoints a problem that causes doubts and insecurity:

The pain of getting copy to pop is real. Unbounce taps into that and promises to deliver “a foolproof system for writing targeted, persuasive copy for all your landing pages—without losing your mind.” Who wouldn’t want that!

The fact that you’re writing as a business or professional is never a reason to sound like you’re filling out a corporate fill-in-the-blanks form. Even if there's a bit of a formula to webinar invitations, what will make your message compelling and convincing is your ability to connect as people.

Simply by providing photos of the people involved in a webinar, Bit.ly makes their invitation more appealing and warm. The way they’ve formatted their email is also helpful — everything you need to know at a glance, right at the start. Invitation messages are no occasion to bury the lede.

Wistia’s screenshot of a video with Kristen not only shows a human face behind the upcoming webinar but it’s also a simple, inviting way for people to find out more about the event. You could create one or two teaser videos to capture interest and strengthen people’s motivation to actually attend the webinar live.

Making a personal connection can be accomplished simply with tone and style. Joanna Wiebe is one of the best copywriters out there — and of course her webinar invitation doesn’t disappoint.

In a matter of 10 lines or so, she gets across everything you need to know, from identifying the existing challenge, the promise of a solution, and details. This checks off all the webinar invitation elements, and it's done in a succinct, totally relatable way, signing off with a casual, personable "See you there, jo"

While persuasion principles are handy in marketing your webinar overall, the scarcity principle is especially fitting to add motivation oomph to emails. Scarcity is persuasive because people tend to want what they can’t have. You’ll find examples of this when you see language expressing a scarcity of time or space — “now”, “limited seats”, “special invitation”, “time’s running out”, etc.

Here’s an invite from Iris Shoor at Startup Moon that applies the scarcity principle 4 times in her copy. Can you identify them all?

1. “special invite for you”
2. “exclusive webinar”
3. “Spots are limited.”
4. “We want to bring you more than what you can find on Google.” Promising exclusive knowledge in your webinar is a smart touch.

Webinar email campaigns span more than the invitation itself. There are teasers, confirmation message with logistics and details, and follow-ups. But that doesn’t mean you should only send one dedicated invitation email.

Send at least two invitation emails, with the second one coming close to the date of the webinar. That way you can put the time scarcity persuasion principle to work — with phrases like “last chance”, “time’s running out”, “only X days/hours” to motivate in your copy and subject line. Multiple invitation emails are also a great opportunity to try different angles and tactics to entice readers.

Go straightforward with the subject line.

And for the from name, we recommend going with the familiar and following whatever pattern your recipients are used to. Just make sure not to overlook the "from name" detail — you might end up with something by mistake like "webinars".

Of course, at the end of the day, testing is the best way to see what works.

Ready to start sending your webinar email invitations with a best-in-class customer engagement platform? Start a free 14-day trial of Customer.io Journeys today!