How to Host Webinars With No (Or Almost $0) Budget

Putting on a webinar is a great lead generation tactic, which is why so many snazzy internet marketers have added them to their marketing mix.

You might have given thought to conduct your own webinar, but then the reality of what goes into producing a successful webinar paralyzes you. You become cautious, then self-doubt kicks in because unlike those experienced marketers, you don’t have the authority to gain enough traction in a reasonable time frame.

Moreover, how can you put on a webinar when they are so expensive and time-consuming?

The truth is, you can deliver a wildly popular and profitable webinar on a small budget if you are frugal and smart with your approach.

Here are 8 webinar promotion strategies that you can use to put on a top-notch webinar with little to almost no marketing budget.

Strategy #1: Tweak Your Landing Page.

For many prospects, the first interaction they’ll have with your brand is your sales/landing page, if you have one. While most people might drive webinar prospects right to their signup form, it is still likely that they’ll have some form of promotional content in support of that signup page. In any case, it is important that you pay attention to good content marketing practices and optimize your promotional content for maximum reach.

Having said that, it’s actually a smart idea to use a sales page especially if you don’t have a strong following. It will give people a good introduction to your business and create a sense of trust.

Of course, quality copywriting for an effective sales page doesn’t come cheap. However, you don’t need to hire a professional content marketer if your budget is small.

To save on costs while maintaining quality, you can:

• Use the sales page provided by the webinar hosting company. Of course, you will need to tweak it to fit your needs but it’s a great starting point.
• Take a few content marketing courses or find and read good copywriting tutorials. There are plenty online.
• Hire a freelancer. With the many marketplaces online today, contracting a professional, affordable copywriter is a great, cost-effective way to get a strong copy for your sales page. Start with Upwork, Speedlancer, Fiverr.

Whatever you decide, it is essential that you ensure that your promotional content is well-written, persuasive, clear, and optimized.  

Strategy #2: Exclude Undesirable Leads.  

It’s one thing to target based on demographics with a focus on your ideal audience. It’s a whole different game when you rethink targeting to not only include your ideal prospects but also exclude your undesirable leads with qualifying questions.

Remember, not every lead is a good lead i.e. a good fit for your product or service, so you don’t need to attract everyone to your webinar.

The idea here is that you want to reduce your costs by improving the quality of your leads. This will get you fewer conversions, but that’s a good tradeoff if you’re getting better leads, right?  This is especially true if you are using PPC (and therefore not paying for impressions) since you won’t have to worry about wasting money paying for bad, unlikely-to-convert leads.

Now, how do you ask qualifying questions?

Ask questions that exclude your undesired leads and include your ideal prospects. If your webinar is tailored to ‘marketing tips for beginners’, for example, a simple qualifying question could be, “are you a novice marketing professional” or “do you have less than 2 years’ experience with digital marketing? This webinar is for you”. Those kinds of questions will obviously filter out an experienced professional who likely isn’t interested in your offer.

Strategy #3: Test and Optimize Your Ads.

When it comes to webinar promotion, paid advertising should be a central piece of your marketing puzzle. Specifically, you should consider running AdSense Ads, YouTube Ads, Facebook Ads or Solo Ads. There are several options.

Whatever service you decide on, it is essential that you optimize your ads, especially if you are paying per click/view.

Here are a few tips:

1. Split test, don’t set and forget. Use different variations of your ads and track how they are performing against each other. This analysis might reveal, for example, that while two ads may be successful at encouraging people to click through to your site, only one ad is driving them to actually sign up for the webinar.
2. Use separate ads for desktop and mobile. This way you can optimize your bids based on the type of device.
3. Pay attention to your CTAs. And A/B test the hell out of them! Not sure if “Sign up now!” is better than “Register today.”? Run them side by side against each other and let the data tell you which one is more effective.
4. Test bidding strategies. Use a small portion of your marketing budget to test CPC and CPV. Your aim will be to reduce the cost per conversion but still manage to drive enough volume.
5. Use demographic info to target. Use traits such as age, location, and income to narrow in on your ideal customers.

Strategy #4: Take Advantage of Free Trials.

There are several webinar platforms out there. Almost needless to say, most are less than desirable. If you are just starting out, ensure you use a webinar platform that offers free trials.

In fact, sign up for more than one. Additionally, take some time out to conduct dry runs and compare results across different platforms. Try it before you commit to purchasing. 

Once you find the right platform, you can conduct your live webinar within the trial period to see how well everything comes together during the live event. Of course, this may still cost you a few bucks early on if you need more features that come included in the free trial package.  

Strategy #5: Choose Cost-Effective Webinar Software.

It goes without saying, but I’m gonna say it anyways…not all webinar platforms are created equal. There are a bunch of super low-budget, no-frills platforms, there are many high-end, high-value webinar platforms out there. Many of them offer rich, robust feature sets.

However, there are also several lesser known solutions that offer the same features at a lower price point. In other words, the most expensive solutions aren’t necessarily the best.

This is where quality research comes in. When looking for webinar software, pay attention to features. Once you compile a list of feature-rich software options, at a good price point, go through their reviews one by one.

In addition, you need to search for a webinar platform that offers at least 3 different pricing options. Next, you need to obtain the cheapest pricing without compromising on features. MaestroConference, for example, offers plans starting at $49/mo or $39/mo if billed annually, and all plans include essentially all of the core features. 

Strategy #6: Partner with an Influencer.

Regardless of your industry, you are bound to find people who are considered the thought leaders with large audiences. These experts already have the organic reach that you need to promote your event.

A good way to get an expert on your webinar is to invite him/her for an interview. While some people will request money to show up, you can certainly find influencers who are willing to participate just for the sake of doing the interview and getting exposure to a new audience.

In any case, think about how you can provide a worthwhile exchange of value, whether it be a unique experience, such as an exclusive event, a free version of your product or something similar.

Importantly, you need to keep in mind that like other relationships, partnerships with influencers should not be one-off. The best way to get influencers on your webinar is to nurture these relationships and ensure mutual benefits. This means that even when there isn’t a specific campaign or event on the horizon, keep in contact and continue to offer value in whatever way you can.

Once you are able to partner with an influencer, he/she will certainly extend your reach and increase exposure for the webinar.

Moreover, during the event, you may just get an endorsement from your guest for your product/service. Additionally, there is the unseen benefit of becoming associated with their expertise.

Strategy #7: Plan Content Around the Webinar.

Educational, actionable information is still the backbone of the internet. For this reason, content marketing will always be a major part of your online strategy. This means you should be providing steady, useful content for your audience.

However, close to the time of the webinar, double down your efforts on proving specific content similar to the topic of your webinar with a clear focus on providing value. Additionally, you should also be focusing on getting people into your funnel.

Once you provide useful content over a period of a few months, it becomes much easier to convince someone to sign up for your webinar. Moreover, you can repackage some of your content for re-use during your webinar.

Strategy #8: Do Guest Posts.

Posts on your personal website might not do a lot in the way of webinar promotion if you don’t already have a strong following.

Guest posts can help with that. With a proper guest posting strategy, you can easily enhance your reach around the time of the webinar. Many blogs and websites will allow you to link back to your signup page within your bio or even allow you to directly promote your webinar. Use your guest posts to talk about subjects that are similar to and will help build interest in your webinar and your product/services.

It’s however important to realize that guest posting should be part of a larger webinar promotion and marketing strategy. This means you shouldn’t wait until close to the time of the webinar to start guest posting. You should simply amplify your efforts during this period.

Conclusion

There are certainly many misconceptions surrounding webinars, especially as it relates to costs. As we have outlined above, there are ways (at least 8 of them) you can conduct and promote informative and effective webinars that don’t empty your piggy bank but still deliver a large drove of leads and good ROI. You just need to be smart and work smart, be cost conscious but not cheap, and do the work.   

Have you found any other effective ways to promote your webinar on a low budget? Please post your webinar promotion ideas as comments below. We’d love to hear your thoughts.