Building an Email List with Webinars: Capture Leads for Future Marketing

Email marketing has become a powerful tool for businesses in today’s digital landscape. It allows companies to connect with their audience directly, promote their products or services, and build a strong relationship with their customers. Building an email list is an essential aspect of email marketing and can significantly contribute to the success of your marketing efforts. 

Webinars represent a powerful tactic not only for lead generation from the live event but also for building your email subscriber list over time. This email list becomes an invaluable marketing asset.

In this guide, we’ll explore proven strategies for maximizing email list growth specifically from your webinar campaigns. You’ll learn creative ways to capture new subscriber contacts before, during and after your webinar – both from attendees and non-attendees.

Follow this playbook, and your webinars will become the fuel powering your ever-expanding email subscriber engine. Let’s dive in!

What is email marketing and why is it important?

Email marketing: A powerful tool for your business

Email marketing refers to the practice of sending marketing messages and information to a group of people via email. It allows businesses to reach their target audience directly and deliver personalized content. With modern email marketing tools and automation, it has become easier than ever to create and manage effective email marketing campaigns.

The importance of growing your email list

Building and growing your email list is crucial for the success of your email marketing strategy. An email list consists of individuals who have willingly provided their email addresses to receive updates, promotions, or valuable content from your business. Having a larger email list means reaching more potential customers, increasing your brand visibility, and ultimately driving more conversions and sales.

Email marketing best practices: What you need to know

While building an email list is important, it is equally essential to follow email marketing best practices. These practices include obtaining permission to email subscribers, providing clear and valuable content, segmenting your list for targeted campaigns, and ensuring compliance with privacy regulations such as GDPR. By adhering to these best practices, you can maximize the effectiveness of your email marketing campaigns and foster stronger relationships with your subscribers.

Why Building Your Email List Matters

Before we detail list-building tactics, let’s quickly review the benefits of prioritizing email list growth:

Future Marketing Channel

You own this list forever as an asset to promote other offers, content and events to interested contacts.

More Personalized Communication

Collecting emails allows you to segment and target outreach for higher engagement.

Increased Webinar Registrations

Email is the #1 driver of registrations, so growing your list means larger potential future audiences.

Identifiable Leads

Emails give you identifiable contacts to follow up and continue nurturing after webinars conclude.

Social Proof and Credibility

The size of your list signals your reach and authority, building trust in your brand.

Low Cost Per Lead

Email drives high ROI compared to other channels for both lead generation and sales.

Flexible Delivery

You own your email channel, allowing you to deploy campaigns instantly on your terms.

In short, email subscriber growth powers all other marketing efforts. Now let’s dive into list-building strategies tied specifically to webinars.

How can webinars help you build your email list?

The role of webinars in lead generation

Webinars play a crucial role in lead generation. They provide an opportunity to showcase your expertise, educate your audience, and engage with potential customers. By hosting webinars, you can attract individuals who are interested in your industry or topic and capture their contact information, including their email addresses.

Using webinars to capture email addresses

Webinars offer a unique opportunity to capture email addresses from attendees. When individuals register for your webinar, you can ask them to provide their email address as part of the registration process. This allows you to build your email list with targeted leads who have already shown an interest in your content or offerings.

Effective strategies to grow your email list with webinars

To effectively grow your email list with webinars, consider implementing strategies such as offering additional resources or exclusive content to webinar attendees, sending follow-up emails after the webinar, and partnering with influencers or industry experts to co-host webinars. These strategies can help incentivize sign-ups and maximize the number of email addresses you capture.

What are the best practices for email list building?

Segmenting your email list for targeted campaigns

Segmenting your email list is crucial for targeted email marketing campaigns. By dividing your email list into specific groups based on demographics, preferences, or behavior, you can deliver more relevant content that resonates with each segment. This approach increases the chances of engagement, conversions, and overall success of your email marketing efforts.

The importance of providing value to your email subscribers

Providing value to your email subscribers is essential to keep them engaged and interested in your content. This can be achieved by delivering educational content, exclusive promotions, discounts, or offering access to valuable resources that help solve their problems or meet their needs. By consistently delivering value, you can build trust and foster a strong relationship with your subscribers.

Utilizing email marketing services for effective list building

There are various email marketing services available that can help you effectively build and manage your email list. These services provide features such as customizable sign-up forms, automation workflows, and analytics to track the performance of your email campaigns. They streamline the list-building process and make it easier to engage with your subscribers on a regular basis.

Pre-Webinar: Grow Your List of Registrants

The pre-webinar period represents your first opportunity to expand your email list:

Promote opt-in by default

On your registration form, make your email field pre-checked by default so contacts opt-in just by submitting.

Offer an opt-in incentive

Reward opt-ins with a special gift, discount or exclusive bonus content. But still allow opt-out.

Limit required fields

Only ask for the bare minimum like name, email, and maybe company to remove friction.

Give a preview

Let visitors preview part of the webinar after opting in to demonstrate the value they’ll receive.

Retarget website visitors

Remarket to visitors who browsed your site but didn’t convert to capture more emails.

Promote at the bottom of blog posts/articles

Add webinar CTAs with email opt-ins at the bottom of related content to capture reader contacts.

Run social media lead ads

Run ads on Facebook, LinkedIn, etc. with special offers for joining your email list.

Leverage chatbots

Use chatbots on site to proactively engage visitors and offer webinar opt-ins.

Optimizing your pre-webinar promotions and landing pages results in higher quality email leads for future marketing.

How can you incorporate email list building into your marketing campaigns?

Driving website visitors to join your email list

Your website is the perfect platform to capture email addresses. By strategically placing sign-up forms or pop-ups on your website, you can encourage website visitors to join your email list. Offering incentives such as a free downloadable resource or a newsletter subscription can significantly increase the number of email sign-ups.

Using email newsletters to collect email addresses

Email newsletters are an effective way to collect email addresses from both existing and potential customers. By including a sign-up form or a call-to-action in your newsletter, you can encourage readers to enter their email addresses and subscribe to receive future updates or exclusive content.

Crafting an effective email marketing campaign

Crafting an effective email marketing campaign is essential to engage and retain your email subscribers. This involves creating compelling content, optimizing subject lines and email design, personalizing messages, and tracking the performance of your campaigns. By delivering valuable and relevant content to your subscribers, you can nurture your relationship and drive conversions.

During the Webinar: Grow Your List of Attendees

Once live, focus on capturing the emails of those who attended with tactics like:

Offer limited-time-only bonuses

Incentivize opt-ins with free gifts, discounts and exclusive content available only during the webinar.

Raffle off prizes

Hold drawings for prizes like gift cards or free services only for those who opt-in on the spot.

Poll attendees

Ask a quick poll question like “Would you be interested in joining our email list for more content?” to gauge interest.

Explain the value

Communicate why joining your list for future updates and offers will benefit viewers.

Make it frictionless

Provide an easy email signup link or form directly in the webinar platform for instant opt-ins.

Announce subscriber milestones

Flash up and celebrate hitting subscriber benchmark numbers during the webinar.

Leveraging the live event represents another prime opportunity to grow your email list.

What are other effective ways to build an email list?

Harnessing the power of social media marketing

Social media platforms offer a great opportunity to build your email list. You can leverage social media marketing by promoting your webinars, gated content, or exclusive offers to your followers and encourage them to provide their email addresses in exchange for valuable resources or updates.

Offering a free trial or exclusive content to collect email addresses

Offering a free trial or exclusive content is an effective way to entice individuals to submit their email addresses. By providing a taste of your products or services, you can nurture potential leads and convert them into loyal customers. This strategy builds trust and incentivizes users to sign up for your email list.

Implementing lead generation strategies to capture new leads

Lead generation strategies include creating landing pages, opt-in forms, or interactive quizzes that require users to enter their email addresses in exchange for valuable content or personalized recommendations. These strategies are proven to capture new leads and expand your email list with interested prospects.

Post-Webinar Follow Up: Convert Leads Into Subscribers

After your webinar concludes, focus on capturing emails from those who attended as well as those who didn’t:

Share the recording

Send a follow-up with the replay link, asking non-attendees to opt-in to access the webinar recording.

Promote your next webinar

Hype an upcoming webinar in follow-ups and ask contacts to join your list for future reminders.

Provide exclusive resources

Offer opt-in gated access to special resources only shared with your email list.

Run email lead gen ads

Run ads with opt-in offers targeting your webinar demographic and lookalike audiences.

Segment and personalize outreach

Customize follow-up emails based on factors like attendance, engagement and interest.

Develop email nurturing sequences

Send a series of emails that provide ongoing value and promote other webinars.

Highlight subscriber benefits

Continue reminding non-subscribers why joining your list gives them access to exclusive value.

Leveraging post-webinar hustle will help turn both warm and cold traffic into ongoing email subscribers.

Top Email List-Building Tools

The right tools and technology streamline capturing and managing email contacts generated by your webinars:

• Landing Page Builder: Build high-converting webinar registration pages to maximize opt-ins. Popular options include Leadpages, Unbounce, and Instapage.
• Email Marketing Software: Manage contacts and send targeted broadcasts and automated sequences. Top platforms are MailChimp, ConvertKit, AWeber and ActiveCampaign.
• CRM: Track contacts, attribute signups to sources, tag leads and automate workflows. Options like Salesforce, HubSpot, and Zoho.
• Chatbot Software: Bots like ManyChat engage site visitors and offer opt-ins.
• Webinar Platform: integrate or export email lists from your webinar service provider like Demio, GoToWebinar or Zoom.
• Form Builder: Create and embed email capture forms anywhere. Examples: Typeform, JotForm, FormStack.
• Pop-Up/Slide-In Plugin: Convert traffic with opt-in pop-ups. Top plugins are Hello Bar, OptinMonster and Convert Pro.

The right tech stack optimizes list-building before, during and after webinars while allowing you to manage subscriber data.

Avoiding Spam Pitfalls

As you drive email list growth, beware of common missteps that can trigger spam violations:

Always double opt-in

Confirm email validity by requiring a second confirmation after initial sign up to activate subscriptions.

Never purchase lists

Stick to legitimate permission-based sign-ups. Purchased lists will earmark you as a spammer with providers.

Provide opt-out in every email

Include a clear, easy unsubscribe link so contacts can instantly opt out of messages.

Honor opt-outs immediately

Remove unsubscribes from your lists right away to avoid complaints of ignored requests.

Ensure relevancy

Only send emails directly relevant to each subscriber’s interests so they expect and value your messages.

Identify your brand

Include your company name, mailing address, and customer support contact info in email footers.

Avoid sketchy language

Don’t use spam trigger words like “free,” “guarantee,” “limited time,” or “money” excessively.

Growing your email list is powerful but requires extra care to avoid being labeled a spammer if proper practices aren’t followed.

Key Takeaways

A segmented email subscriber list represents one of the most valuable marketing assets any brand can build. And webinars provide the perfect vehicle for attracting and capturing these high-value leads.

Strategically promoting opt-ins before, during and after events allows you to turn both webinar attendees and non-attendees into ongoing subscribers open to your future marketing outreach.

This expands your promotional reach and provides identifiable contacts to nurture into loyal customers over time. Just be sure to honor permissions and avoid spam-like behavior.

Following the tactics in this guide, your webinars will start pulling double duty – driving both immediate lead generation and subscriber list growth for long-term dividends as well.

Put these email list-building strategies into action, and you’ll see your subscriber counts and future marketing power grow with each webinar campaign you execute.