Webinar Planning Checklist

Demand-gen lead names the ICP firmographics (industry, headcount, role titles) and the primary conversion goal — MQL volume, pipeline-sourced opportunities, or sales-accepted leads. Set a target registrant count and target attendance rate (live-attend rate of 35–45% is typical for B2B).

Pick a topic that maps to a known buyer pain in the ICP. Avoid product demos disguised as webinars — registration drops 50%+ when the title reads as a sales pitch. Run the working title past 2–3 SDRs and a customer if possible.

Get written commitment on date, prep-call schedule, and slide ownership. Decide whether a partner is co-hosting (lead-share terms in writing before promotion starts).

Lead-share, GDPR/CCPA data-transfer language, and asset usage rights signed by both legal teams before either side promotes. The partner needs lawful basis to receive registrant data — don't assume legitimate interest covers it for EU registrants.

Tuesday/Wednesday/Thursday at 11am or 1pm ET tend to outperform. Check competitor and major industry-event calendars; a webinar opposite a Salesforce or HubSpot keynote will tank attendance.

Time-boxed segments: intro (3 min), content (35 min), live Q&A (15 min), CTA + close (5 min). Keep total length to 45–60 minutes; drop-off accelerates past the hour mark.

Build in HubSpot, Marketo, or the webinar platform's native form. Required fields: name, work email, company, job title. Optional: phone (TCPA consent if you'll call). Add the consent checkbox separately for EU registrants — don't pre-tick it.

Follow the team UTM convention document — source/medium/campaign consistent across email, LinkedIn, paid, and partner channels. Mismatched UTMs make the post-event attribution report unreadable.

Segment by ICP fit; suppress unsubscribes and recent bouncers. Include the physical address footer (CAN-SPAM) and one-click unsubscribe. For EU recipients, send only to records with opt-in consent on file.

Use a matched audience by job title + company list. Set frequency cap of 2/week so you don't burn the audience. Conversion event is registration form submit (verify the LinkedIn Insight Tag fires post-consent).

Send the partner the co-branded email copy, social images, and their unique UTM-tagged registration link. Confirm their send window so promotion isn't bunched on the same day.

Standard cadence: confirmation email at registration, reminder one week prior, day-before reminder, and one-hour-before reminder with the join link. Test that the join link personalizes per registrant.

Brand manager checks logo lockup, color palette, typography against the brand book. Any customer logos used as proof points need written usage permission on file.

Each presenter runs a 10-minute solo tech check on Zoom Webinars / GoToWebinar / ON24. Confirm wired ethernet, USB mic, and a backup dial-in number. Disable OS notifications and Slack popups before going live.

Talking points per slide rather than full read-aloud script — sounds more natural. Mark transition cues between speakers explicitly so handoffs don't drag.

Two to three polls placed at engagement dips (15-min and 35-min marks). Pre-load Q&A moderator answers for predictable questions about pricing, availability, and integrations.

End-to-end run with all speakers, the moderator, and the producer. Time the segments, test screen-share transitions, and trigger one poll. Identify the kill-switch person if a presenter loses connection.

Rework whatever surfaced in rehearsal — a slow transition, a poll that didn't fire, a speaker who lost the thread. Producer signs off that fixes are verified before broadcast day.

All presenters join the practice room 30 minutes before broadcast. Confirm audio levels, screen-share order, and that the recording starts when broadcast begins (not in green room).

Producer verifies the cloud recording indicator is on within the first minute. A broadcast without a recording loses 60% of its downstream content value.

One person dedicated to chat moderation — not the speaker. Surface the best 5–7 questions for the live Q&A segment; flag pricing or competitive questions for sales follow-up rather than answering on-air.

Producer launches each poll on cue from the script. Read results out loud — engagement signal both for live attendees and for the recording's replay value.

Export attendee list, time-in-session per registrant, poll responses, and Q&A questions immediately after the broadcast. Sync to the MAP (HubSpot/Marketo) and the CRM (Salesforce) so attendance status is on each lead record.

Three sends within 24 hours: live attendees get thank-you + recording, no-shows get a soft re-engagement with the recording, and engaged attendees (asked a question or stayed past 80%) get a sales-prompted follow-up.

Trim the recording (drop the green-room intro and any tech glitches), upload to Wistia or Vidyard, and publish to a gated landing page with the same UTM convention. Add captions for accessibility (WCAG 2.1 AA).

Apply the agreed scoring rule (e.g., attended 30+ minutes AND ICP-fit account) and route to AE/SDR via Salesforce queue. Include attendance time, poll answers, and any Q&A submitted on the lead record.

If the MQL target was missed, demand-gen lead reviews the funnel — registration source mix, attend rate, content fit, and lead quality — and proposes adjustments before the next webinar in the series.

Report the funnel: registrants, attend rate, engagement score, MQLs, SALs, opportunities created, pipeline influenced, and CPA by source. Compare to the pre-event target set in step one.

Cut 3–5 short clips for LinkedIn and YouTube Shorts, draft a recap blog with the target keyword, and add the on-demand link to relevant nurture sequences. Each clip needs alt text and captions.