Hosting an online webinar is one of the most powerful online marketing strategies for nutrition practice. The reason is simple: video is the king when it comes to connecting with your audience. More than written content, an online webinar allows you to establish an immediate connection and trust with attendees — while you provide them with information that is valuable and relevant to their needs.

This established trust will allow your audience to feel confident that working with you via your programs and services will be the right fit for them.

Proper marketing of your online webinar will ensure that you successfully:

• Attract your target audience
• Push attendees towards your “call-to-action”
• Capture valuable insights into your audience and their interest
• Nurture your relationship with attendees for future events, services and programs

Follow our checklist for best steps to take before, during and after you webinar:

Steps to take 4-6 weeks pre-webinar

1. Choose your online webinar platform:

To get started, you’re going to need a platform to host your online webinar. There are serval options out there, and they all come with their advantages and price points.

One convenient option to get started, is Zoom which allows you to schedule meetings and webinars for free on their Basic account. Webinars can be hosted for 40 minutes and up to 100 people unless upgraded to a paying plan.

For Healthie providers, Zoom integrates directly with the platform and you can schedule your webinar through your Healthie account. Learn how to set up your first webinar through Heathie here or schedule or book a live session to learn how to make the most of Healthie telehealth.

2. Strategically schedule your webinar:

First, pick a day/time that generally works for your target audience. Generally speaking, the most popular times to schedule webinars are Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursdays around 11am-12pm or later in the evening around 7pm. Attendees are usually going to tune in during their lunch break or post-work. You may also want to take time-zones into consideration. If most of your audience will be from another time zone, consider setting the time that will fit for the time zone.

3. Offer for FREE or charge a fee?

How your price your webinar will depend on the outcome that you would like to achieve. Therefore, every webinar should have a purpose that drives success for your nutrition practice. If your goal is purely to build an email list or generate leads for your practice, then a free webinar provides a great way to capture the largest audience. If your content is curated and education, or designed for other experts, then charging a fee could be a way to create another revenue stream for your business.

Some examples of reasons to host a webinar:

• Educational programs that generate additional income for your practice
• Generate client leads
• Establish yourself as an industry expert
• Understand your audience and gauge what may be of interest for future marketing efforts, programs and services

4. Launch an email marketing campaign:

Have an existing mailing list? Utilize this list to market your upcoming webinar by sending out periodic emails highlighting what they can expect to learn, and take-away from your presentation. Speak to what needs your audience has and excite them by showcasing how your webinar will provide actionable steps or valuable information. With each email, be sure to include the signup link so readers can take immediate action.

5. Advertise on social media

Since your webinar will be online, it’s important to utilize all of your digital platforms to reach your target audience. If you use Facebook or Instagram, posting 1-2 times/week in advance to your webinar will help raise awareness. A registration link should be included in the post (Facebook) and in your bio (Instagram). An hour before your webinar, post a reminder on Instagram and Facebook as a last push for people to sign up and a reminder to tune in.

Tips for marketing your online webinar on Instagram:

• Post 1-2 times/week in your Instagram stories
• Add the registration link to your bio
• Use relevant hashtags to target your ideal audience and your topic – you can use up to 30 hashtags in each post!
• Create several engaging Instagram Stories series about the webinar, answering any questions + prompting viewers to visit your link in bio to register
• Create a count-down stories post with your webinar date/time to remind people to tune in and to register
• Make a follow-up post asking people to email you if they weren’t able to attend but would still like to view the recording.

Steps to take during your webinar

Make it interactive, and learn from your audience

Every webinar offers you a chance to learn about your audience. Some platforms will allow you to pre-create questions or polls that you can easily activate during your webinar. Therefore, it will increase audience engagement, helping to retain them throughout the talk. It will also give you some insights into their demographics, interests, and challenges, which you can use curate future content.

End with your call-to-action

The end of your webinar is the opportune time to pitch your program, product or service. You’ve given them a sample of what you’re offering, but it’s important to provide them with clear, next steps to take. In marketing speak, this is your call-to-action. A great incentive to get people to take the next step is to provide attendees with a limited time to sign-up or purchase at a discounted rate

Maintaining momentum post-webinar

Close with a post-webinar survey

One of the best ways to gain feedback and ideas for future marketing campaigns is to immediately include a post-webinar survey for attendees. For most platforms, you’ll be able to include a link to your survey which will pop-up once attendees exit the webinar.

Download your webinar

Immediately following your webinar, you’ll want to make sure that you download the recording. Depending on the webinar platform that you use, you may need to adjust your settings to ensure that the session is recorded. But don’t let your hard work go to waste, there are several ways you can continue to use this webinar in future marketing efforts:

• Send a “sorry you missed it” email to registrants that were unable to attend live
• Add the webinar to a program or educational series
• Save the video as a resource for future attendees
• Post the video as a downloadable item for prospective clients, in exchange for them providing their name/email (similar to an ebook or other downloadable item)
• Turn the video into audio only and generate a podcast library for subscribers

Craft a “thank you for attending” email

It’s important to have a “drip email campaign,” in place to help nurture registrants into following your call-to-action. The first email in this campaign should go out the same day, or the following day.

Sample post-webinar drip email campaign:

• Day 1: Thank you email — thanks for attending, include the recording and also remind them of your special offer (ie. signup by the end of the week for my XYZ program and receive 25% OFF)
• Days 3 + 5: More information on your XYZ program or service that you’re promoting
• Day 7: Last chance to sign up for 25% OFF
• Day 15: Did you miss your chance to sign-up? There’s still space to register and take advantage of: list benefits to clients

Segment your audience list for future email campaigns

Everyone that attended your webinar can now be added to your mailing list, segmented by their interest. And this will allow you to strategically target this audience for any future, relevant events, products, services, and updates. So prevent people from hitting unsubscribe by making sure you’re only sending content that is relevant to their original interests.

For example: if your webinar was focused on nutritional needs for female athletes, they may not be interested in receiving updates about your upcoming weight loss program. By segmenting your audience (ie giving them a tag or label as Female Sports Nutrition) then you can be reminded which content will be valuable to them.

Continue to nurture the leads that you’ve acquired here and eventually convert them to paying leads.

By following these steps, you’ll be able to successfully market and host your first online webinar. Most importantly, share information that is truly valuable to your attendees. However, there’s nothing more disappointing than tuning in to a webinar that just doesn’t deliver on what was advertised. By being authentic and yourself, you’ll be able to showcase everything your practice as to offer and be able to build a genuine connection with your viewers.