Webinars are a great way to engage with clients, prospects, and professional connections, but only if they sign up and then show up.

In this blog, we’ll share tips for getting more people to sign up for your webinar.

Then, next week, we’ll share some of the things you can do to encourage more people who sign up to actually show up.

1. Give your webinar a great title

Blog headlines and social media hooks need to be compelling, and the same is true of your webinar title.

As a rule of thumb, you should spend at least as long writing the title as you do the invite.

You can leverage AI here, too, by:

• Writing two headlines yourself
• Giving them to ChatGPT or Claude to review and provide feedback
• Using HeadlineStudio to score the headlines and see how they can be further improved.

2. Think carefully about your topic

The topic of your webinar needs to be relevant, interesting, and (ideally) timely.

“10 ways to avoid the Government’s IHT raid” will always encourage more people to attend than “An investment market update”.

“5 ways business owners can save tax in 2025” will get more sign-ups than “An economic outlook”.

Why?

The first two headlines address potential attendees’ current pain points. They’re timely, too, and the inclusion of a number quantifies the learning outcomes.

3. Choose the right time and day

Choose the wrong day, and you’ll be presenting to a half-empty online room.

It’s always worth experimenting and seeing what works for you, but here are our recommended starting points:

• For a B2C audience: Tuesday, Wednesday, or Thursday at 7.00 pm.
• For a B2B audience: Again, mid-week, so a Tuesday, Wednesday, or Thursday, but at 10 am. You could also try after lunch, but attendance to B2B webinars we’ve run at 2 pm has always been lower than ones in a 10 am slot.

4. Choose the right duration

I know many advisers, planners, and business owners who are tempted to run short webinars because they believe it’ll encourage people to sign up.

I get the logic, but how much value can you deliver in 20 minutes?

Probably not a lot.

Studies show that around 45 minutes, including time for questions, is the sweet spot.

5. Make your registration page persuasive

Some webinar registration pages don’t explain the benefits of attending, who the webinar is aimed at, or other basic information, such as how long it will last.

You can do better. The ideal registration page should explain:

• The problems you’ll help attendees to solve
• Who should attend – make people think, “That’s me!”
• The benefits of attending – in other words, what they’ll learn.

You should also explain:

• How long it’ll run for
• What they need to do to sign up
• Whether you’re taking questions
• When the webinar will take place
• What happens after the webinar. For example, that will send a recording.

Ideally, you should explain all of this in around 300 words.

6. Leverage social proof

Social proof builds trust, so people are more likely to sign up if they see others have benefited from your previous webinars.

You can see how we’ve incorporated social proof on the sign-up page for our upcoming LinkedIn workshop.

7. Create a sense of urgency

If people think they can sign up anytime, they’ll put it off, get distracted by other things, and forget.

Instead, consider encouraging action by:

• Emphasising that spaces are limited
• Setting a deadline for registration.

8. Make signing up simple

The easier it is to sign up, the more people will do it.

Remove friction by:

• Keeping your registration form short (name and email should be enough)
• Automatically adding the webinar to people’s calendars after sign-up.

The fewer hoops someone must jump through, the more likely they are to sign up.

9. Send dedicated invites

I’ve seen some businesses bury their webinar invite in their newsletter.

As you’ll read in tip #15, newsletter promotions have their place. But relying solely on them is a mistake that’ll reduce the number of people who sign up.

Instead, your invite should be sent in a dedicated email that’s wholly, exclusively, and only about the webinar.

10. Send multiple invites

You’ll get more people to sign up for your webinar if you send the invite more than once.

For this week’s Yardstick webinar on using AI to improve your marketing, 197 people signed up from the initial invite and 31 from the reminder email.

The numbers for last month’s webinar with Samantha Russell were 128 and 35.

Sending automated reminders also encourages people who have signed up to show up, so it’s a win-win.

11. Consider the timing of your invite

The more notice you give people of your webinar, the more people will sign up.

Bear in mind, though, that longer notice periods often mean fewer people show up. So, the timing of your invite is a delicate balance between the two.

Try sending the initial invite three weeks before the webinar, with a reminder invite one week before.

12. Use guests to boost attendance numbers

As much as it bruises my delicate ego, inviting a guest speaker to a webinar boosts sign-up numbers.

That’s especially true if they’re relatively high-profile.

So, consider inviting carefully selected guests to boost your sign-up numbers and take advantage of the halo effect.

There’s a caveat. Avoid choosing guests just because they’ll make your life easier and save you from having to present.

13. Promote your webinars across multiple channels

In our experience, you’ll get most of your webinar sign-ups from email invites, but that doesn’t mean you should ignore other promotional channels.

If you’re active on the likes of Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn, share your webinar there. Explain the benefits of attending, let people know when it’s happening, and don’t forget the registration link!

Start around a month before the webinar will run, and post about it at least once per week. Remember that not everyone in your social media network will see every post you share, so once is not enough!

14. Create a teaser video

A well-made teaser video can significantly boost sign-ups because it helps potential attendees build a relationship with you before the event.

Keep it to 30 – 60 seconds, and highlight:

• The main benefits of attending
• The key problem your webinar will solve
• A strong call to action (e.g., “Register now – spaces are limited to X”).

You can post this teaser on social media, email it to clients, or add it to your registration page.

If you’re being joined by guests, particularly well-known ones, consider asking them to record a short promotional video for you, too. Phill Agnew was kind enough to film this one for us!

15. Promote via your email communications

If you send a regular newsletter to your clients, prospects, and professional connections, this is a great place to promote your webinars.

Here’s an example of an advert we include in our weekly newsletters:

You could also include a reminder in your email signature.

The point here isn’t solely to encourage new sign-ups (when was the last time you clicked an email signature link?). Instead, the goal is to provide a timely reminder for existing registrants to remember to attend.

16. Run great webinars

If someone attends one of your webinars for the first time, enjoys it, and gets great value, they’re more likely to return.

The opposite is also true.

Pour your heart and soul into each webinar, and you’ll be rewarded by people returning time and again.

How we can help

Running webinars, especially for the first time, can be daunting.

If you want support, we’re here to guide you through almost every aspect of running and promoting a webinar (not presenting, though – that’s all down to you!).

Our webinar services include but aren’t limited to the following:

• Helping you choose the right topic
• Designing the presentation slides for you
• Writing and building the registration page and email invites
• Agreeing and implementing a promotional strategy to maximise attendance
• Running technical sessions with you to ensure everything goes smoothly on the day
• Editing the recording and sending it out to everyone who’s registered for your webinar
• Recommending ways to repurpose the recording so you get the maximum possible benefit from your efforts.

If you’d like to know more, email hi@theyardstickagency.co.uk or call us on 0115 8965 300, and we’ll set up a no-obligation meeting.

As we mentioned, though, getting people to sign up for your webinar is only half the battle. Keep an eye out for part two next week, where we’ll cover how to encourage registrants to actually show up.