Online Event Attendees MIA? Avoid These Mistakes to Get People to Show up on Zoom
Are you tired of hosting webinars that feel like a ghost town? You've put in the time and effort to create a virtual event, but when it starts, your attendees are no-shows. It's frustrating, I know! But fear not – in this blog post, I'll reveal some common mistakes that make it harder for your attendees to show up. The good news is if you are already using Zoom webinar, these fixes are free. Yup. Zero dollars. Get ready to learn how to improve your webinar attendance and make sure people show up!
But first a quick story... Yesterday I missed an online event that I was looking forward to. It was an exciting opportunity. A chance to learn from and network with industry experts without leaving the comfort of my home. I thought I was set. But then a few weeks later I saw one of the speakers post about how great the event was on LinkedIn!
I missed it! How could this happen? Why promote an event only to let it fizzle out? This was an event run for event people, by event people!
I wondered if there were some essential steps the organizer overlooked. It turns out, there were. I thought if an online event management company could miss these, anyone could. But you won't after this! (Link to a post with step by step instructions at the bottom of this post.)
Here we go.
Sender name is critical. When I looked back at my inbox, I realized their event emails had the default sender name, which is Zoom. I use Zoom all the time and am used to getting marketing communication from Zoom. When these popped up I thought, oh, just some marketing email. I never even opened them. Which means I never downloaded a calendar invite.
When the average American receives over 120 emails a day, everything needs to make sense for the email receiver. The reminders should come from the host organization. Don't make attendees work too hard to attend.
How this email appeared in my inbox
2. I only received one reminder. I registered for this event on December 2nd. I didn't receive the reminder until an hour before the event started on December 14th. Zoom let's you send three reminder emails. They could have emailed me twice more to remind me about attending!
Make sure you have these locked in when you set up your event.
3. And finally, no follow up. Like I mentioned, I only realized I missed the event when one of the hosts posted about it on LinkedIn. Ideally, I would have gotten an email after the event saying, “hey, sorry we missed you. Here's a link to the recording. Or, here's a link to a blog post you might like. Or, here's a link to sign up for our next event.” Do you see the difference this could have made in my perception of this company?
With average webinar attendance hovering around 40%, don’t make things harder on yourself. These easy steps can help set you up for success.
If you're saying, wait, I don't know how to do this. This post lays out all of the instructions for you. Here you go!
Did you find this helpful? Send me a message and let me know!