A webinar’s success rests on finding and promoting to a target audience. You can use lead management solutions and marketing automation systems to narrow down and select your target audience based on your industry and viewer interests.

However, getting an audience to actually attend your webinar presentation can be a tough challenge. There’s always the chance that only 50%, or even less, will show up on the designated schedule. Registration doesn’t guarantee 100% attendance either.

You’d want viewers to attend especially if you want to engage with them during the webinar presentation and beyond.

Here are five ways to help you drive webinar presentation and viewership:

(1) Provide channels for attendees to interact with the presenter

Both live and on-demand webinars can provide access to attendees, particularly in asking questions and in clarifying things within the scope of the presentation. You can have registrants send questions via centralized email (in advance) or Twitter.

For a live webinar, there’s always the presence of the presenter and an assistant that manages the Q&A and other tools available to the audience. Same goes with on-demand (archived) webinars, only that they don’t get the answers to their questions on a real-time basis.

(2) Provide access among attendees

This can be a feature or tool within your webinar where attendees can communicate to one or a few other attendees. You may integrate Twitter chat, for example, to let viewers engage and exchange their ideas/viewpoints on your presentation. You may also integrate LinkedIn that allows you to invite your attendees to connect and join your LinkedIn group where you share your slides and other related content.

(3) Draw prizes during your webinars

You can get creative when it comes to drawing prizes. It can be an ‘early bird’ contest for the first three attendees, or the first five registrants who actually attend the event. This raises interest and the willingness of most registrants to actually attend the webinar they’ve signed up for. And of course, make sure to have enticing prizes at stake – ensuring they’re related to your industry or the audience’s interests.

(4) Give your attendees a ‘reminder call’

If you have money to invest on this strategy, there are voicemail messaging software which you can use to send out a calling campaign on your webinar attendance. You can pre-record a reminder which can be sent automatically to all your registrants. You may use this tactic as add-on or backup for your email reminders.

(5) Have exclusive offers for your attendees

Make sure to tell registrants that they will be getting access to exclusive information before the rest of the world and make sure to use scarcity to drive demand. An exclusive offer can range from an e-book, special report, white paper, case study, or a combination of any of these content types.

In spending time on getting as many viewers as you can possibly can into your webinars, the chances of getting less than 50% is much higher. The number of registrants may be significant, but the true test is when they actually sign-in and be there for the event. So, encourage prospective registrants and signed attendees by providing them more value other than the great content you have prepared especially for them.