You may have an extremely informative session prepared for your webinar, but if people do not sign up or attend, your efforts will be in vain. So, how can you ensure that your webinar receives the attention it deserves?
Guest speakers are one of the most effective strategies to increase the number of people who attend your webinar and raise its credibility. A well-chosen guest speaker can help you broaden your reach, add value to your content and attract a wider audience. But how does it work? In this blog, we’ll look at some of the ways guest speakers might help you promote your webinar.
What is a Guest Speaker?
Before knowing how a guest speaker helps in promoting your webinar, let’s first understand what a guest speaker is.
A guest speaker is someone who is invited to speak at an event, webinar, seminar or conference, but is not a part of the organization hosting the event. Guest speakers are usually subject matter experts, influencers or thought leaders in a specific field and they are brought in to share their knowledge, experiences and insights with the audience.
In the context of virtual events and webinars, a guest speaker adds extra value by offering a fresh voice and a different perspective. They help make the session more engaging and trustworthy for attendees.
How Guest Speakers Can Help in Promoting Your Webinar
1. Expanding Your Audience Reach
When you organize a webinar, you likely promote it through your company’s social media, email list and website. But what if there is a huge audience base that you have yet to explore?
This is where a guest speaker comes in. When you invite a guest speaker to your webinar, you tap into their existing audience, which can significantly increase your reach. This process also helps you in reaching new people who might not have otherwise found you.
Let’s now understand how this process works:
- Many experts and influencers have built a strong personal brand and have a loyal following. When they promote your webinar on their social media, email or website, their followers will become aware of your event as the guest speaker will introduce your event to their audience who might not have heard of your brand before.
- Many guest speakers have industry connections who trust their expertise. These people may join the webinar simply because they respect the speaker’s insights and if your speaker is from a different industry or demographic, they can help you in attracting an audience that you wouldn’t have reached otherwise.
- A well-known speaker carries credibility and their audience is more likely to be interested in what they have to say, making them more willing to attend the event. People trust the recommendations of the speakers they follow. If an expert endorses your webinar, their followers are more likely to register and attend your webinar.
For example, imagine you are hosting a webinar about social media marketing and you invite an expert who has 1M followers on LinkedIn. If just 10% of their audience signs up for your webinar, that’s an additional potential attendees who wouldn’t have heard of your event otherwise.
A well-selected guest speaker can turn a small event into a widely recognized webinar just by sharing it with their network.
2. Enhancing Credibility and Authority
In today’s digital world, trust is everything as it plays a crucial role in attracting an audience. If people don’t trust your brand or believe that your webinar will offer real value, they won’t sign up.
This is the time when guest speakers bring credibility to your webinar and it helps to convince potential attendees that your webinar is worth their time. A guest speaker who is well-respected in your industry instantly boosts the credibility of your webinar.
Let’s now understand how guest speakers build trust and authority:
- If your guest speaker is a recognized expert, their association with your webinar automatically enhances its legitimacy because your audience perceives the webinar as more valuable and trustworthy.
- People trust authorities who have been featured in major publications, spoken at conferences or worked with top brands. So, even if you are a recognized authority, having another expert reinforces your credibility.
- When your webinar features a well-respected speaker, attendees assume that the event will be high-quality, which leads to more sign-ups and improved brand’s status in your industry.
For example, if you are running a webinar on financial planning and bring in a guest speaker who has written a best-selling finance book, attendees will feel more confident that they are learning from someone who truly understands the topic. As a result, more people are likely to register and attend your event.
3. Diversifying Content and Perspectives
No matter how much expertise you have, your knowledge and experience may be limited, compared to a subject matter expert. So, bringing in such a guest speaker adds variety, depth and new viewpoints to your webinar, as they bring fresh insights and different perspectives which makes your webinar more engaging and informative.
Let’s now understand why diversity in content matters:
- A guest speaker may have tackled industry challenges in a way you have never considered, as every expert has unique experiences and insights that can offer fresh ideas to your audience.
- They might share success stories, research findings or personal experiences that add practical value to your event. As a result, some attendees may find the guest’s experiences more relevant to their own situation.
- Guest speakers often bring unique strategies, examples or case studies that your audience wouldn’t hear otherwise. As a result, some attendees might relate more to the guest speaker’s background, making the session more engaging and relevant.
For example, if you are hosting a webinar on startup funding, you could invite a venture capitalist who has invested in multiple startups. They will provide insights from an investor’s perspective that entrepreneurs may not usually have access to.
4. Increasing Engagement and Attendance
Webinars often struggle with low attendance rates, even if many people sign up. And, guest speakers can significantly boost live attendance rates and keep the audience engaged by making the event more exciting and interactive.
Let’s understand how guest speakers drive engagement:
- A well-known speaker makes the event more appealing, encouraging more people to join live. If the speaker is someone people admire, they are more likely to attend the event just to hear them speak.
- Many guest speakers bring a dynamic presence, using Q&A sessions, polls and real-world examples to keep audiences engaged.
- A guest speaker can answer audience questions in ways you might not have considered, leading to deeper discussions and if the guest speaker is well-known, people may feel they don’t want to miss the opportunity to hear from them.
For example, if your webinar includes a guest speaker who is known for their engaging storytelling, attendees are more likely to stay until the end instead of dropping off midway or if your guest speaker is a CEO of a well-known company, many professionals will attend just to get insider knowledge and ask questions.
5. Collaborative Promotion Strategies
Your guest speaker isn’t just a content contributor, they are also a promotional partner.To maximize the impact of your guest speaker, you should work together on promotion. The more they promote your event, the bigger the reach.
Let’s understand how guest speakers can help promote your webinar:
- The speaker can share posts about the event on LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook or Instagram or on any other social media.
- If they have an email newsletter, they can send out a dedicated email to their subscribers promoting your event.
- Some speakers might even write about the event on their website or blog post.
- They can record a short video inviting their audience to join the webinar or if they have industry connections, they may invite key players to attend your event.
For example, if your guest speaker has a YouTube channel with 1M subscribers and they post a video about your webinar, it could drive hundreds or even thousands of sign-ups.
Practical Considerations for Hosting Guest Speakers
First, let’s learn how to pick the ideal guest speaker:
- The guest speaker should have enough knowledge about the subject of your webinar. They should have the ability to engage an audience through effective communication.
- The guest speaker should have a sizable following, or their followers should resemble your target audience.
Let us now examine how to work with the guest speaker:
- Due to their hectic schedules, top speakers should be invited far in advance and given important information about the event as soon as possible.
- Verify that their topic fits your objectives and specify their job and any kind of marketing initiatives you anticipate from them.
Potential Challenges and How to Overcome Them
Here are some of the common challenges:
- Popular speakers have busy calendars. So, give them plenty of time to schedule the event.
- The speaker’s message may not always fit perfectly with your brand. So, have a pre-event discussion with the guest to ensure messaging is consistent.
- Poor internet connections or software problems can disrupt the event. So, test all technical aspects before the event.
Measuring the Impact of Guest Speakers
How do you know if your guest speaker was effective for your event or not? So, to track this the key metrics are:
- Compare registration numbers before and after announcing the speaker and check if the announcement results in more registrations or not.
- Measure how many people actually attend the webinar.
- Track Q&A participation, chat activity and poll responses to know if the attendees were actively participating in Q&As and discussions or not.
- Collect attendee surveys to gauge their opinions if they find the guest speaker valuable or not.
Conclusion
One of the best methods to increase your webinar’s legitimacy, audience, and engagement is to invite a guest speaker. An ordinary webinar can become a must-attend event, thanks to the contribution of a guest speaker.
A guest speaker may significantly impact your event, whether your goal is to increase attendance, establish authority, or create more captivating material. Therefore, the next time you organize a webinar, select a guest speaker who can help elevate your event.
FAQs
Choose a speaker whose expertise is relevant to your webinar topic and who appeals to your target audience. Look for someone with a strong reputation, effective communication skills and a relevant following. Examine their previous speaking engagements or content to ensure their style fits your brand.
Send a customized LinkedIn message or email and give them a brief explanation of the webinar’s content, its significance to the audience and the mutual benefits of participation. Provide details about the event, the anticipated number of attendees and your marketing plan. Be straightforward, courteous, and open to working together.
Talk about the webinar’s objectives and main topics during the preparation call. If at all possible, request a sample of their presentation and share an overview or agenda beforehand. Cooperation encourages uniformity and helps to prevent material overlap or misalignment during live sessions.
Offer readily usable materials like hashtags, email templates, suggested captions, event URLs and social media images. These assets give the speaker the ability to advertise the event without having to create original content, which ensures that the messaging is consistent across all channels.
