How To Create A Webinar Registration Page

Listed as one of our 13 online marketing trends of 2013, content marketing is sure to play a strong role for any online marketer this year. Informational webinars, in particular, are extremely effective at presenting real value to your audience. Of course, in order for webinars to be effective, you'll need to establish a smooth registration process and signup page that encourages users to register and actually attend your online presentations. This post will cover 10 elements of a signup page that increase webinar registrations and attendance.

1. Ditch the GoToWebinar Form While a large portion of online marketers (myself included) use GoToWebinar for webinar hosting, you should avoid using their signup pages. The pages include extremely small entry fields, a poor call to action, and aren't very user friendly in general.

While it certainly requires a bit more work, it is much better to create your own custom signup page. This will allow you to embed a form directly on your website rather than linking out to a GoToWebinar signup form. Embedding your webinar signup form on your own website's domain will allow you to customize and, more importantly, track the performance of your signup page.

2. Clear, Concise Forms Now that you're free to customize your webinar signup form as you see fit, be sure to design a clear and user-friendly signup form. This means keeping the number of entry fields to a minimum and only asking what you need of your subscribers. Often, all you need to ask for is the user's name, email address, and maybe the company they work for. Be sure to keep your data fields large with top-aligned text. This will make the form easier and faster for the user to complete.

large form

3. Convey Value Through Description Include some very brief copy to describe what the user will learn or get from your webinar. It is best to keep this information in bullet point form so that the value of your webinar will be quickly conveyed.

4. Register for Free CTA Cap off your form with a bold call to action that stands out. Personally, for Blue Fountain Media, I use this opportunity to remind the user that the webinar is free with "Register for Free" call to action. Of course, always be sure to test and figure out what works best for you.

5. Highlight Q&A & Solicit Questions If you don't already incorporate a Q&A into your webinar presentations, add one. Q&A is essential for keeping your webinars engaging. Providing a Q&A also enables you to solicit questions right on your signup page. Presenting users with the option to ask questions now can help ensure their attendance later.

question box

6. Emphasize the webinar's date and time If a user does choose to attend your webinar, the most important piece of information you need for them to take away from your signup page is the webinar's date and time. Make sure the date and time is clearly displayed in a large font that stands out. Also be sure to include your timezone for those far far away attendees.

7. Introduce Your Presenter Be sure to set aside some space on your signup page to introduce whoever is presenting the webinar. Use this space to include the presenter's name, title, and a small photo. This small bio makes a virtual presentation feel a bit more real and increases the chance that a user will register and attend.

8. Examples of previous webinars Webinars are a bit of a time commitment. One way you can prove that your webinar won't be a waste of a business hour is to offer clips of previous webinars. Add a small collection of past webinars to your signup page so users can get an idea of the real value you are offering them.

webinar archives

9. Track your signup fields The best signup page is one evolves with what you learn from tracking and analytics. Aside from enabling goal tracking for successful webinar registrations, you should also track your form fields in google analytics. However, form field tracking is only necessary if you have included several form fields that ask for more than the standard name and email address.

10. Follow Up With Successful Registrations After a user registers for one of your webinars, the easy part is done. Next, you have to ensure that the registered user actually attends. Direct successful registrations to a thank you page where you include a link for attending the webinar and boldly restate the date and time in which it is taking place. Also provide the option for users to add the webinar to their Outlook or Google calendar to remind them and include any hardware/system requirements for attending. Lastly, make sure to send email notifications to remind those who registered about the webinar. Your email notifications should essentially include the same information as your thank-you page and should be sent at several intervals leading up to the webinar. By following these 10 steps will help create a webinar signup page that builds trust in its visitors and will increase registrations. Do you have any additional tips to increase webinar registration and attendance? Let us know in the comments below.