Triple Conversion Rate of Webinar and Courses with Social Proof

People love actionable lessons that help them or their businesses be more successful. That’s why webinars and online courses are so popular nowadays. What’s more, this content is a powerful conversion machine: for instance, the best webinars convert about 55 percent of attendees into paying clients.

Considering that, your main goal is to motivate as many people as possible to roll in. But how can you ensure the highest subscription rate to get more leads?

Here comes social proof. Social proof is an insanely powerful method of increasing your conversions. If you want to make a high converting landing page for your webinar or course, follow these nine simple, yet effective social proof tips.

Let’s dive in.

Choose the business objectives of your webinar or course

Why you are doing it? What results are you expecting? Although many thousands of views are a good metric, chances are, you need more business-oriented goals – like a specific number of qualified leads or downloads of your content assets (white-papers, ebooks, etc.). If your webinar or online course doesn’t generate leads… Who cares how many views you have gained? However, if it’s your first webinar, don’t set unattainable goals.

Establishing the goals and metrics will help you identify your target audience and content that converts. Analyze the performance of your past content and business trends to increase the chance to convert viewers into customers.

Create a dedicated landing page

A landing page is a crucial stage of preparing for your webinar or promoting your courses. It’s a game-changer: the more converting elements are located here, the more attendees and new customers you gain. Besides advanced conversion optimization tactics (we’ll take a look at them in the next sections), there are a few ground elements you shouldn’t miss out.

First, prepare a summary and some preview content like a short video introduction. Also, it’s a good idea to place here links to your blog posts, white-papers or other videos your users will find useful. Next, incorporate a banner that promotes your webinar or courses into other website pages. Make sure to use dedicated webinar software for the job, too.

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A registration form is another important element of this landing page. Make it simple and reduce the number of fields to increase your conversion rate. However, it’s a good idea to add a short question and ask if a user is interested in a demo or your expert consultation regarding the services you provide.

Now let’s move to tactics on how to turn your landing page into a conversion machine!

Introduce yourself with the help of independent social proof

Social proof is a powerful way to drive conversions on a webinar or course sign-up. Nowadays social proof elements are mandatory: nobody will trust you without a history of success. Here is a shortlist of social proof techniques to start with while crafting your landing page to get more attendees:

Reveal your qualification

To start with, you should say a few words about yourself to show your expertise in the webinar or course subject area. To prove your qualifications, state your years of experience. Also, if you have guest posts published on top blogs, mention it.

State your professional accomplishments and awards

Various industry-related awards and accomplishments build trust with the landing page visitors. Considering that, mention any recognizable awards or honors. But before that, think a bit about what can really impress your target audience and add to your authority.

Feature your partners’ and customers’ logotypes

Facts about working with big household clients or customers can impress your website visitors and motivate them to register. Use high profile clients.

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Use statistics to show the value

Show people you’re an expert: dollar amounts or specific numbers from customers’ case studies to prove that your expertise leads to true results.

There are other numbers you can use for the sake of social proof – Social Count.

This widget, placed on your landing page, displays the number of your social media followers. Visitors can become your social media followers with just one click. Using Social Count, you gain more trust, grow your following and get a chance to engage these prospects in the future.

Now let’s take a look at the following picture:

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You may notice another social proof method that increases conversions – Star Rating. You’ve seen it many times on different resources. Star Rating is the most recognizable expression of user satisfaction. It perfectly fits your webinar or course landing page.

Here’s one advice: don’t chase the highest Star Ratings. The statistic shows that the ideal star rating is between 4.2 and 4.5 because it is more realistic than a perfect 5.0 rating.

How to get this rating? Luckily, using Trust, you can automatically gather and display this kind of review. When users convert on your website (make a purchase, sign in, download an ebook and leave their emails, etc.), you can send them (either manually or automatically) the link to leave a review.

Once users receive the link, all they have to do is to click on it, leave comments and approve their email address. Trust will process the review and show it on your website after you’ve approved it. What’s more, the upcoming features of Trust include the possibility to include star ratings from other rating platforms like ProvenExpert, etc.

Showcase text and video testimonials

Show your credibility to increase the conversion rate with the help of text and video testimonials. For instance, you can feature testimonials left from attendees from your previous webinars. If it’s your first webinar or course, don’t hesitate to place testimonials from your existing clients who can prove your expertise.

Anyway, testimonials are a powerful way to increase conversions. The vast majority of us trust online reviews as much as recommendations from friends or relatives. Speaking of a video format, video testimonials go beyond text ones: 64 percent of people more likely to make a purchase after watching a video. Why? Videos are more easy-to-consume, persuasive and enjoyable compared to text testimonials. Videos sell, not being salesy.

The only thing to remember here is that you should feature trustworthy testimonials from real people. Considering that, include a full name, photo, city or job position to the testimonial.

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There are a few tips to make your text and video testimonials even better. First, ask people who are leaving testimonials to describe their situation before and after watching your webinar or using your services to get a small, yet completed success story.

But what if you don’t have any testimonial yet? Where should you start? Instead of begging your clients to leave a testimonial, let video testimonial software like Trust do it for you.

Here’s how it works: once the customers convert (make a purchase, sign in, etc.), you send them a simple link. Once they click on the link and share their testimonials and e-sign a contract (it’s optional), Trust will automatically process data. Then you just approve the testimonial, and it goes live on your website as a clickable notification widget or static/carousel element.

When it comes to collecting video testimonials, Trust is here to help too. Actually, Trust is the most convenient way to collect video testimonials because it allows you:

Make use of existing videos from Facebook, YouTube, etc.
Record your own video testimonials in a few easy steps.
Upload any video file.

Emphasize scarcity

Let’s face the truth: there is an ocean of other things people can do instead of visiting your webinar or viewing the course. Using scarcity will help you beat these ‘competitors’. Scarcity is a way of showcasing something as a limited opportunity. Emphasizing scarcity, you motivate people to take action – enroll your course or attend your webinar. For fear of missing something, people say yes more frequently.

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How can you incorporate scarcity? There are a few ways you can do it with your courses or webinars:

By limiting space

Put a limit on the number of seats of your webinar. There’s a technical reason for that too: most webinar platforms have limits of 1,000 people. However, you can set the lower limit, especially if it’s your first webinar. What’s more, counting down the number of available seats motivates your website visitors to register. Counting down to the end of registration and the start of the webinar pressures participants to register. Also, adding a countdown timer can significantly increase your conversion rate.

By limiting access

Let everyone know that it’s a one-time webinar or course. Emphasize that there will be no second chance to view it. Not offering a reply is another powerful way to increase scarcity.

To really pump up the scarcity, you could not offer a replay of your webinar or course.

By showing user activity notifications

When we see something like ‘Only 10 seats remaining’, it makes us act. But when we notice that some other people are looking at the same page at the same time… Or that a few people have just booked their seats… This social proof technique, called user activity notifications, brilliantly creates urgency around your webinar or course.

The Activity Notifications feature provided by Trust, shows the number of people looking at the same page (the ‘Visitors’ feature) and the number of people who have just made action on this page (the ‘Conversions’ feature). Showing off these numbers generates more leads.

Note! In case there aren’t enough conversions in a given period of time, you can switch to the ‘Conversion Totals’ mode in the Trust dashboard and show conversions in a specified period. If you don’t get enough visitors yet too, you can use statistics for a specified time period instead of real-time user activity.

Use pop-ups mixed up with social proof to increase registration rates

Don’t be greedy – offer website visitors one more opportunity to claim their spot on the webinar by adding exit pop-ups to your registration page. Exit pop-ups show a special offer when the user is going to leave the page. Pop-ups are amongst the most effective tools when it comes to maximizing conversion rates. To ensure the highest possible registration rate, add a social proof element (a short testimonial, user activity notification, available seats left, etc.) to your pop-up.

Encourage users to share your landing page

Nowadays word-of-mouth, a specific form of social proof, is probably the most powerful form of promotion. The truth is, people will be more likely to register for your webinar if their friends recommend it.

Luckily, if someone finds your offer exciting, there’s a good chance they’ll tell others about you. But don’t miss this opportunity! What you should do is to just place social media buttons on the thank-you page, allowing registrants to easily share your webinar or course with their friends on social media. The good idea here is to offer a small incentive for this action (a discount for the next webinar, free ebook, etc.).

A/B test your landing page

A/B testing allows you to find the ideal combination of social proof elements on your landing page. In a nutshell, the A/B test is a process of showing different versions of your landing page to different groups of visitors. Doing that, you can understand which social proof elements (real-time user activity, video testimonials, etc.) lead to the highest conversion rate. The most convenient tool for running A/B tests is Google Optimize. The best part is that it offers a free plan.

Bonus tip: Don’t forget to update the landing page!

Webinars and courses are very time-consuming. Don’t let your efforts to get lost to the wind. Instead, when the webinar or course is over, update your landing page. Your new message can be something like ‘Get the webinar recording’. That will motivate website visitors to give you their emails and allows your webinar to keep converting leads.

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The resulting checklist for you to benefit from social proof

Webinars and online courses have seen rapid growth in the past few years. And there’s no surprise: this content happens to be one of the most powerful tools to generate more leads.

While promoting webinars and online courses, social proof ensures the highest possible registration rates. Why? Social proof drives home the idea that website visitors really need what you’re offering.

Here are a few actionable steps to inject social proof into your promotions:

1. Choose business-oriented and attainable goals of your activities;

2. Create a dedicated landing page

3. Introduce yourself with the help of independent social proof: