Building a Webinar Marketing Strategy for Ecommerce

Few things matter more in ecommerce than reaching the shoppers most likely to buy your product. Proven tactics like pay-per-click ads, email marketing, social media marketing, and SEO can help you get the word out. You can also borrow a tactic that’s common in the business-to-business (B2B) community: webinars, an online video presentation that can spark industry conversations and encourage conversions. 

As a business-to-consumer (B2C) marketer, a webinar might prove an effective tool for personalizing your outreach. Here’s how to get started.

What is webinar marketing?

Webinar marketing is the use of live or prerecorded online presentations for demonstrating products, increasing brand awareness, sharing expertise, and answering questions. Businesses can use webinar content to educate, engage, and convert potential customers.

Some of the earliest webinar marketers were in the B2B industry, selling software-as-a-service (SaaS) to a target audience of corporate professionals. However, B2C companies can find webinar marketing success and introduce their physical products to a global audience of qualified leads—those who have already shown interest in your products. 

If you pack your presentation with valuable content and keep your audience engaged, your webinar can spur business opportunities. The virtual events industry, which includes webinars, is projected to grow from $226.75 billion in 2025 to $849.53 billion by 2035. If you run an ecommerce store, think of a webinar promotion as the modern equivalent of an in-store cooking demo, a skin care master class, or a gadget tutorial.

Phases of webinar marketing

A webinar marketing strategy is a comprehensive management plan that outlines how you will attract, engage, and convert webinar attendees into customers. An effective webinar marketing plan breaks down into three phases:

1. Pre-webinar preparation

This involves defining your webinar goals, such as selling 50 units or collecting 500 emails, and creating digital marketing assets to encourage webinar registrations. You can use your social media, email lists, word-of-mouth, and even a dedicated landing page to promote your webinar.

2. Webinar execution

During the execution phase, you focus on delivering high-value content. A great webinar captures its audience’s attention with features like educational content, guest speakers, interactive elements, and live demos. 

For example, a coffee roaster might host a “Perfect Pour-Over Master Class,” where roasters can showcase how to use the beans and equipment, and answer questions via a chat widget during the live course.

3. Post-webinar follow-up

The post-webinar strategy centers on conversions. You can try to capture qualified leads by offering special discount codes to attendees. You may also send them follow-up emails with details about the products or services featured and plans for your next webinar.

Although 75% of marketers report a preference for live webinars, you can also repurpose webinar content on your website and social media channels.

Types of webinar marketing in ecommerce 

Webinars can be a versatile tool in your ecommerce marketing tool kit. Here are some popular formats to consider:

• Product launches. Use a live, virtual event as the kickoff for a new product. By showcasing a new handbag or perfume line, for example, you can explain the vision behind the design and build buzz to maximize your launch-day sales volume.

• Product demos and live walkthroughs. Provide live demonstrations to show how a physical product works, answer questions in real time, and directly support purchase decisions with follow-up outreach to attendees.

• Customer training and onboarding. These webinars help new buyers learn setup, care, or advanced usage. This form of post-purchase support may help you reduce customer support tickets and improve product satisfaction. This, in turn, can boost your bottom line because existing customers spend 67% more than new ones.

• Use-case education. Going beyond onboarding, you can offer practical, task-focused virtual events to help customers get more value from the product and lower post-purchase friction.

• Thought leadership. Carefully curated webinars that go in-depth and provide expertise can help you build brand credibility and position you as an authority on topics relevant to your niche. 

• Community chats. You can use webinars as community gathering hubs where loyal customers can share success stories, discuss their pain points, and pose questions—either to your company directly or to fellow users. By showing that you prioritize customers, you can drive loyalty—54% of “customer-obsessed” companies experience greater loyalty and retention.

How to craft a successful webinar marketing strategy

1. Define a product-led conversion goal
2. Choose a webinar format
3. Capture registrations
4. Promote the webinar
5. Automate save-the-date reminders
6. Prepare the physical space you will use
7. Select a webinar broadcast platform
8. Conduct the webinar
9. Automate post-webinar follow-up for buyers and non-buyers
10. Measure revenue impact

To craft a successful webinar strategy for physical products, treat each event as a project life cycle with a clear beginning, middle, and end. If you’re a Shopify brand, you can use the platform’s integrated technology to manage the entire webinar-related sales funnel—from capturing leads to tracking profits. Here’s a step-by-step guide to planning, promoting, and executing a successful webinar.

1. Define a product-led conversion goal

Decide exactly what physical product you want to sell or accelerate. This could be a brand new SKU, a product bundle, or a high-consideration item (one that buyers usually heavily research before purchasing). 

Then, set a goal for your webinar. Examples of goals include demo-to-purchase conversion, where leads convert upon seeing how the product is used. Another example is post-webinar bundle sales, where the webinar demonstrates why customers would benefit from purchasing bundled items rather than a single product.

2. Choose a webinar format

If you’re trying to sell merchandise, choose a format that makes a strong selling point—such as live product demos, setup walkthroughs, comparisons, or care and maintenance training. This is preferable to high-level presentations that explain a product’s specifications but don’t delve into real-life use cases.

3. Capture registrations

One of the best places for promoting webinars is your own ecommerce website. Use Shopify Forms to create customizable pop-up or inline forms within your Shopify website so visitors can register for the webinar. You can create a separate registration page or have the registration form pop up on high-traffic pages. 

Share the link for your registration form on social media, or ask followers to comment so you can send them the link as a DM. 

4. Promote the webinar

Use Shopify Messaging to send invitations to existing customer segments. Since Shopify brands get 10,000 emails per month at no extra charge, they can send a multiday countdown with reminder emails to build excitement. Shopify Email seamlessly integrates with Shopify Forms, helping to promote webinars effectively with the use of these twin marketing tools.

You can also spread the word using paid ads and social media posts with relevant hashtags to boost attendance and generate buzz for your event. Share sneak peeks of what the webinar will be about, whether that’s guest speakers discussing key points or previews of the new product you’ll be showcasing.

5. Automate save-the-date reminders

Set up Shopify marketing automations to trigger a confirmation email immediately after someone signs up, followed by a reminder one hour before you go live. This can help minimize no-shows and maximize turnout.

6. Prepare the physical space you will use

Test your physical setup well in advance of the webinar. Check lighting and camera angles to ensure your visuals shine. Have all items you plan to demonstrate within arm’s reach so you don’t have to turn your back to the camera to retrieve things. If you’re filming in an office or a space used for other purposes, make sure there are no distractions in the background. 

7. Select a webinar broadcast platform

Although you can broadcast your webinar on general usage video platforms like YouTube and Instagram, other video tools specifically designed for hosting webinars can make the process efficient. Here are some options: 

• Crowdcast is designed for creators and direct-to-consumer (D2C) brands. It feels more like a social platform with a single URL for registration, the live event, and the replay. This can help if your aims include community building, and if you plan to host future webinars via the same URL.

• WebinarJam offers conversion features like urgency timers, live “active offers,” and the ability to spotlight a customer on camera during a Q&A session. These features boost engagement and can turn the webinar into an interactive activity.

• If your sales strategy includes selling to other businesses, you might consider Livestorm, a browser-based option that is targeted toward B2B lead generation. It integrates with customer relationship management (CRM) tools like HubSpot and Salesforce, making it an option for brands with longer sales cycles.

8. Conduct the webinar

It’s now time to host your webinar and execute on your plans. Introduce your product and highlight its unique value proposition (UVP)—the key points that make it stand out from the competition. Demonstrate how the product is used, walking through typical use cases. 

Teach your audience how to choose the right variant and highlight product bundles if applicable. End your presentation with a limited-time offer or bonus directly tied to the featured product.

9. Automate post-webinar follow-up for buyers and non-buyers

Use Shopify marketing automations to send a customized post-event follow-up to different audience segments. Send a thank-you message via email with product links and limited-time discounts. You can also send a recording to those who attended and may want to play back crucial sections, and those who registered but missed the event. 

Ensure that all follow-up emails link directly to the exact product or bundle featured in the webinar, with messaging that refers to what was demonstrated live. This is not a place to inject standard-issue marketing copy.

10. Measure revenue impact

In the days after your webinar, measure the project’s performance, via analytics tools like Shopify marketing reports. Analyze how many sales were driven specifically by your webinar email campaigns and the registration form.

Going beyond sales reports, you can also follow up with webinar participants to gather feedback about what worked and what didn’t. Between the hard sales data and human feedback, you can glean a lot of actionable insights that will help you optimize your next webinar.