Webinars as a platform for training and education are quickly becoming mainstream.  More and more companies are recognizing the value they deliver in the form of qualified leads as well as for generating new subsets of prospects.

This is the first in a series of articles about webinars as a business tool.  It does you no good to have the greatest product in the world or the best presentation in the world if nobody shows up to listen to what you have to say.  Here’s a formula to help you forecast how many registrants and attendees you can expect when you set out to plan your next web event.  It’s a good idea to work your way backwards through the funnel to assess your needs.  Just how many people do you have to invite (or atleast expose to your invitation) to ensure a “good” (relative to your individual requirements) turnout?

Size of Audience (# of people you invite) x Number of contacts (# of times you invite them) = Total Contacts
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Total Contacts x Typical Response Rate = # of Registrants
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Registrants x .4 (40% is the typical attendee to registrant ratio) = Total Attendance
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Let’s say you have a database of 5,000 subscribers, you send them 1 invitation and a response rate of 2% – Let’s apply the formula:

5000 subscribers x 1 invitation = 5,000 contacts
5,000 contacts  x .02 response rate = 100 registrants
100 registrants x .4 attendance ratio = 40 attendees

Applying this formula to your own situation will help you plan your marketing efforts to ensure a successful event.  Have I missed anything?  Let me know how you forecast attendance if you do it differently.

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