August 07, 2023

How to Write Webinar Follow-Up Emails That Get Results [With Email Templates]

How to Write Webinar Follow-Up Emails That Get Results [With Email Templates]

Webinars are a great way to draw potential customers into your sales funnel.

But if you want to turn webinar attendees into qualified leads, you’ll need a solid follow-up email marketing strategy. Don't make the mistake so many businesses do and ignore the potential of using this strategy for additional marketing! Crafting compelling webinar follow-up emails plays a major role when it comes to engaging and converting your target audience.  

In fact, the overall success of your online event and the benefit you get from it long term depend on it.

To level-up the content marketing strategy of your upcoming events, we’ll take you through how to write follow up emails that drive results. We’ve got some great webinar follow up email templates you can use too.  

Here’s what we’ll cover:

Let's get started!

 

Why should you send webinar follow up emails?

Webinars are one of the most versatile marketing channels around today. 

You can create customer onboarding webinars to orient new customers, marketing outreach webinars that amplify brand awareness and generate qualified leads, and sales webinars that demo your product to interested prospects. (Such webinars can be made even more effective using interactivity and automation.) 

While every webinar has its own goal based on the webinar topic, your ultimate objective remains the same – inspire your target audience to take action after it’s over. 

A well-designed webinar email sequence reinforces the call to action of your original webinar, includes webinar-related content or additional resources your target audience might find interesting, and asks them to share the webinar with their friends. The best webinar follow-up emails serve as essential touch points and feel like a continuation of a conversation that started during your webinar. 

Through webinar email sequences, you can guide webinar attendees towards the desired call to action of your webinar, whether it’s signing up for a free trial, purchasing your product, or attending an upcoming webinar.

cta

 

How should you segment and personalize your webinar follow-up emails?

If you want to boost attendance rates for future events and convert potential customers into qualified leads, a 'one-size-fits-all' approach just won't cut it. You’ll need to personalize your email marketing and target audiences by segmenting your email list. 

One effective way to reach out to audiences post-webinar is to segment them based on their behavior:

  1. Those who registered but didn't attend: Despite signing up and expressing interest, something came up and they missed the webinar.
  2. Those who attended the full webinar: These individuals showed up and engaged with your content.
  3. Those who attended but left early: They attended, but dropped off midway, and missed your call to action (CTA).

By segmenting your attendees this way, you can deliver personalized content that speaks directly to your webinar attendees’ unique experience. This will not only help improve your email marketing, but it also drives audiences further down your webinar sales funnel. 

 

How do you write a great webinar follow-up email subject line?

An effective webinar follow-up email subject line is one of the most important components of webinar follow-up email templates. It’s the first thing your recipients see and can dramatically impact your email's open rate. 

Just like webinar invitation emails, personalized subject lines written in a direct tone of voice are more likely to stand out in your recipient’s inbox. Instead of subject lines that sound like they’ve been generated using automation (for example, "Thanks for attending [webinar title]”), keep your subject lines friendly and personal.

Your webinar follow-up email subject line should also be engaging, create a sense of urgency, and present a clear idea of the email content. Aim to keep it short and sweet, but impactful.

As a rule of thumb, make sure the gist of your subject line is captured in the first 9 words (or 60 characters), so enough of it is visible on a mobile device to communicate what you need to say.

Here are some good examples of webinar follow-up email subject lines: 

  • Subject lines for those who didn't attend: 
     
    • We missed you at { webinar title } – REPLAY INSIDE
    • Sorry you missed the webinar, { first name } – Watch a replay now
  • Subject lines for those who attended: 
     
    • { first name }, here are the bonus materials from { webinar title }
    • { first name }, did you like the webinar with { host name }?
  • Subject lines for those who left early:
     
    • Sorry you had to go, { first name } – here’s a recap of { webinar title }
    • What you missed, {first name } from { webinar title }

These examples give readers the sense of being spoken to by a real human. Using first names to personalize your webinar follow-up email subject lines will also prevent spam filters from moving your emails to the junk folder – as will avoiding the use of exclamation marks!!!

Now let’s take a look at some full webinar follow up email templates you can use. 

 

3 webinar follow-up email templates that work

The best webinar follow up emails use an engaging flow sequence that delivers value to recipients and reinforces your CTA. 

Since each segment of your webinar attendees require a unique approach, we’ve created separate email examples for different target audiences. 

 

1. Follow-up email for those who registered but didn't attend

Webinar registrants who signed up for your free webinar but didn’t show up have missed out on your CTA. When creating webinar follow-up email templates for them, make sure you share a link to a replay of the online event so they can catch up. After sharing the link you should also include your main CTA so that they’ll be incentivized to take action (either once they watch the webinar or read your email).

Subject: Missed { Webinar Title }? Catch the replay inside

Hi { First Name },

We noticed you signed up for our webinar, { Webinar Title }, but weren’t able to make it. 

Don’t worry, we’ve got you covered! You can watch a replay of our webinar right here: 

{ replay link }

Here are some key resources we discussed during the webinar that you might also find helpful. 

    • { resource link 1 }
    • { resource link 2 }
    • { resource link 3 }

If you’re ready to take the next step, be sure to { CTA text and link } now!

 

 

2. Follow-up for those who attended the full webinar

Those who attend your webinar are your most qualified leads. They’ve stayed long enough to hear the value of what you have to offer and are most primed to take action on your CTA.

While you should also share a link to the webinar replay, the key focus of this email should be your main CTA. Highlight what action you want them to take first – whether it’s signing up for future events, following you on social media, downloading an ebook or starting a free trial of your product. You might also summarize takeaways and include any additional resources they might find helpful. 

Subject: Thanks, { First Name}, for attending { Webinar Title } – What’s next?

Hi { First Name},

Thanks for watching our webinar, { Webinar Title }. 

We hope you can now see what you stand to gain from { insert main value proposition of product or service }.

To take full advantage of this opportunity, { CTA text and link }.

If you’d like to revisit a part of our session or rewatch the entire thing, here’s a link to watch a replay:

{ replay link }

And while we have you, here are the additional resources we discussed:

    • { resource link 1 }
    • { resource link 2 }
    • { resource link 3 }

 

 

3. Follow-up email for those who left early

Webinar registrants who left early were interested enough to join your webinar, but either couldn’t stay until the end or did not connect with the webinar content. (You can prevent drop-offs due to time differences or scheduling constraints by using automated webinars.)

Since they didn’t get a chance to hear your CTA, they will need a little more information first before taking action. You want to urge them to watch the full webinar recording as well as click on your main CTA.  

Subject: { First Name }, looks like you had to leave early. Here’s what you missed.

Hi { First Name },

We noticed you had to leave our webinar early. Not a problem! Here’s a link to the replay so you can catch up on what you missed:

{ replay link }

After you left, we shared some bonus materials, which you might find useful:

    • { resource link 1 }
    • { resource link 2 }
    • { resource link 3 }

What you really missed, however, is how to { insert main value proposition of product or service }. If you’re ready to take this next step, { CTA text and link } now!

 

When sending out these emails, make sure to personalize them. Save time by using email marketing integrations that will automatically populate first names and other merge fields.

 

When and how many times should you follow up with your webinar registrants?

Thus far, we’ve focused only on post-webinar follow-up. But an effective webinar follow-up email sequence is critical both pre and post-webinar.  

Follow up pre-webinar

Merely sending out webinar invitations is not enough to get people to attend your virtual events. Once you send out webinar invitations, you will need to follow up with registrants. Ideally you should send 2-3 follow up emails. Send a confirmation email to confirm webinar registrations and a reminder email, a few days before and another on the day of the webinar, 10 - 15 minutes before it starts. This ensures your attendance rate remains high, since many people forget.

Follow up post-webinar

After your virtual events are over, you should follow up with your webinar attendees three times. More than this could get spammy and put people off instead of priming them to come back for more useful content. 

Make sure you continue to segment your audience into three groups: those who didn’t attend, those who attended and those who left early. Thus, you may end up sending out 9 different emails, 3 for each group. If possible, stop any additional follow-up once someone has taken action on your CTA, which can have its own email sequence.

Here’s what you need for an effective post-webinar email sequence:

  1. Email #1: Your first email should be sent within 24 hours after your webinar. This can be in the form of a thank you email where you summarize takeaways and send them a webinar recording to catch up on things they might have missed during the session. You’ll need to tailor your  post-webinar follow-up email templates to your audience segment (shown above).

  2. Email #2: Send another email a few days later that includes additional resources and summarizes the outcomes of the webinar. This is a good opportunity to share a summary document or recap of key takeaways and ask people to join your social media community. You should also include your main call to action here. 

  3. Email #3: A week later you can send a final follow-up email, reinforcing the key benefits of what you covered in your webinar and reiterating your CTA.  You might also want to invite them to your next webinar or future events you think they might find interesting, based on their interest in your previous webinar. 

At this point, you can move participants into your regular email marketing lists. 

The best webinar follow up emails are personalized, extend the conversation of your webinar with your attendees, keep them engaged, and get participants into your webinar sales funnel.

Follow-up emails are a critical part of your webinar marketing strategy – so don’t neglect to properly craft and send them!


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