Five Tricks To Convert Free Trial Users Into Promising Customers Using Webinars
Have you checked your email recently?
How many webinar invitations have you received from 6 months to one year?
And most importantly, how many webinars did you attend in the same period?
Most webinar invitations go unnoticed or are discarded by the users. We are guilty of registering but not attending them at the last minute.
And few of us are guilty of attending the virtual event but not taking the CTA at the end of the session.
Webinars are hit or miss.
Yet, they are one of the only channels to educate prospective customers about your product, service, or event during the social distancing new normal only when webinars are done right.
For example –
“In 2020, Tomorrowland, the Belgian electronic dance music festival, organized a virtual event that resulted in more than 60 artists filming brand new sets on 6x8x8-meter green screens in four different locations – São Paulo, Sydney, Los Angeles, and Boom (Belgium) itself. This online event had over 1 million attendees worldwide, compared to the usual crowd of 400,000 during Tomorrowland’s live concerts.”
Yes! Tomorrowland is a musical feast; garnering such a massive crowd over the Internet is not surprising.
We are not saying webinars can fetch attendees for your business event equal to the numbers pulled by a musical event like Tomorrowland. No!
All we are suggesting is that webinars can serve to win more participation and generate handsome conversions if it is done right.
Yes, the 40% show-up rate is frustrating. And the conversion rate is even less.
Still, data shows that “webinar conversion rates show an average of 35% to 45% registrant-to-attendee conversion rate.” And “communication webinars have a higher conversion rate of approximately 67.05%.”
Yes, the figures might differ. But, your area of concern should be the 60% of webinar registrants who never showed up during the event.
There lies your answer to questions like –
How to increase the number of registered participants?
How to increase the number of registered attendees?
How to increase the number of conversions?
And, since we are trying to use webinars to convert free trial users into loyal customers, the chances of getting actual conversions boil down to 30-70. Why?
That’s because we use newsletters to send webinar invitations, right?
Email remains an uphill battle for many.
Again, studies have shown that “over 20% of emails go missing or end up in spam folders. The average email open rate for all industries is 21.33%.”
There’s a 50-50 chance or less that your clients will open the emails or go for a free trial of your software/platform/product. And, the chances of getting them converted into good leads are less.
However, “a single webinar could get you over 1,000 leads.” So, you must pick up the tricks to optimally utilize webinars as a tool to convert free trial users into prospective leads and get a higher conversion rate.
Here’s how you can achieve the impossible task –
#Trick 1: Identify the Root Cause
What should be your first approach to addressing a lingering issue?
We try to identify the root cause of the problem and find solutions to the same problem right where it started.
For example –
Medical personnel and doctors do that all the time. Most diagnoses require doctors to address the root cause of the ailment alongside fighting the symptoms.
If we approach each problem, personal, professional, or otherwise, by investigating the root cause and finding a remedy for the same, we can overcome the issue in no time.
Likewise, if your software’s free trial users are not converting into actual customers, try to identify the real reason behind their lack of willingness to become paid users.
The best way to do so is simply by approaching your trial users and indulging in a one-on-one conversation with them.
Try to talk to them to figure out what stops them from converting into paid members after the initial trial.
Is there a problem with your software?
Is it not a user-friendly platform?
Is the algorithm challenging to understand?
Do they need further guidance around the software features?
Maybe your trial users are not educated enough about your software or what kind of solution you are trying to offer them. Or perhaps they are unsure your software has addressed which area of their concern.
There can be many possibilities, right?
How can you understand what kind of challenges they are facing while trying your software? Only a candid conversation with your customers will help you to detect the root cause?
So go for it – have a conversation and reach out to those who need your expert guidance.
#Trick 2: Choose the Medium to Distribute Webinars
Yes, sharing your webinar with prospective customers or those still in the ‘hit-and-miss’ category via emails is tricky.
That’s because newsletters have a higher probability rate of getting ignored completely.
But we cannot go wrong at the initial stage, right? Our target audience is still our trial users who are evaluating us.
We have two options to share our webinars –
We can share the webinar as a transactional email so soon as customers sign up for the software.
We add webinars or small webinars inside of our software.
A webinar is attached as a slide-out pop-up whenever a user struggles with the functionalities or stumbles over some features while accessing the software.
The slide-out can be made personalized by addressing the user by their name and using the project manager’s face as the latter introduces himself and provides the solution on the spot, adding a personal touch to the whole experience.
Here, the webinar’s content should be crisp and to the point.
Or, if you are asking them to visit the webinar first before giving the software a try, you should provide them with an easy and frictionless sign-up form to fill out.
On the other hand, if you share your webinar via newsletters, the invitation to check out the webinar should come as a transactional email post their initial sign-up for the software.
Again, here are a few points you have to keep in mind –
The email should be short and straight to the point.
The webinar should have your project lead’s smiling or encouraging face for the ‘human-touch factor.
The sign-up process should be frictionless.
And do not forget to share a reminder email 30-minutes before the webinar starts (if the event is live) to all the registered attendees/trial users.
You can use both options to deliver more excellent value to the users.
#Trick 3: Choosing the Ideal Webinar Infrastructure
Choosing the ideal webinar infrastructure is quite tricky too!
Zillion platforms offer you a demo webinar structure to work on and use for your business.
You can approach these third-party providers and create customized webinars.
Else, you can create your version of webinars too! Or organize these events using Zoom or Google Meet, record them and share as and where needed.
But, yes, you should give special attention to the event’s content and course.
Try not to bore or overwhelm your participants and answer their questions individually. Do not stretch webinars for an hour or more.
However, “60-minute webinars have a higher percentage of attendees than 30-minute webinars.” And recording them and sharing them with all the attendees and others who registered but never showed up will help immensely.
Why? Studies have shown that “94% of webinar hosts solve many of their problems by turning live webinars into on-demand webinars just by recording them.”
#Trick 4: Offer a Real Value via Webinars
Why are you creating webinars in the first place?
To educate your prospective customers.
To help your trial users with your software.
To convert trial users into potential customers.
The task becomes easy if you are aware of what you wish to achieve from your webinars.
But, simultaneously, you must understand what your trial users look for when turning to your webinars.
Or why are they not converting into prospective clients after the initial trial of your software?
Once you have the answers to the questions, it becomes a lot easier to create your webinars. That’s because you can provide value to them to register and subscribe to your software willingly.
Unless you offer them the correct value against the price you are charging for the software, you should not expect your trial users to become your lasting customers. Correct?
#Trick 5: Opt for a Well-Defined CTA & Follow-Up Steps
Why do you want your trial users to check your webinar?
If you do not have a call-to-action plan and follow up with them post-trial, you will not have trial users signing up for your software.
The best way to do it is by sharing an automated email with a replay session of the webinar attached so that your trial users can recheck the webinar and take the necessary action.
Or you can ask your project manager (whoever has the authority) to share personalized follow-up emails to the attendees and trial users.
Next, you can call individual attendees to ensure they have a seamless experience accessing your software. Help them if they are still perplexed by the platform.
Keep the email short, engaging, and to the point.
If you share any form for them to sign up for, ensure they have a frictionless experience filling up the details.
Keep them short and crisp.
You don’t want to scare your prospective clients/customers away by providing them with a complex form.
The call-to-action button should come when you are sure the clients will take action as expected. And the message should be clear.
The bottom line is…
The success of these webinars resides in how well you have figured out your conversion-rate problems.
As mentioned earlier, finding the root cause will help you create better webinar content and utilize the same in places where your trial users need guidance.
Get in one-on-one communication to add the much-needed human touch and offer some real value with your engaging webinars. And your CTA message should be clear and follow-up emails to the point.
The rest depends on how you execute the steps correctly.
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