LinkedIn Live: A Comprehensive Guide to Hosting, Promoting, and Repurposing

Choosing LinkedIn Live as your preferred platform for hosting webinars offers distinct advantages over other social media and webinar platforms.

In this guide, we will explore the reasons for selecting LinkedIn, delve into effective promotion strategies, and provide insights on how to leverage your live content for months to come post-webinar.

Why LinkedIn Live?

Of the many social media platforms, digital marketing tools, and sales solutions out there capable of hosting webinars, what does LinkedIn Live have to offer that’s different? 

Use LinkedIn Live as a softer pitch

Not every lead is ready to purchase your product/book a session/[insert your offering here]. But that doesn’t mean they’re not interested in what you have to say. Webinars present a unique opportunity to provide value to your target audience even before they make a purchase: they can take an educational approach, a personal one, or present case studies and success stories to show off your product or services.

Inviting your prospects to a LinkedIn Live event offers them a way to stay engaged in your product offerings—without a hard commitment. Not only are webinars a great way to offer something other than the same old email content, but you’ll be showcasing the human behind the business, helping build more affinity towards your brand. Use this email flow to promote your LinkedIn Live event to warm leads. 

LinkedIn Live as a top-of-funnel marketing channel

LinkedIn is a platform primarily used by professionals, making it the ideal space to reach new, highly targeted audiences for your product or service. Hosting live events on LinkedIn allows you to engage with a business-oriented group of people to showcase your expertise and offerings to potential clients or partners.

Currently, LinkedIn boosts LinkedIn Live events by recommending them to users on the main feed. That means the platform helps generate buzz around your event for you. 

Capture emails with LinkedIn Live

There are multiple ways to collect signups for your LinkedIn Live. The first is on the LinkedIn Live platform itself. However, it’s not guaranteed you’ll receive the email list of registrants. Registrants signing up via LinkedIn have the option to check a box that shares their information with you—many will be inclined to not check it or may miss it. This is fine for leads who are already in your system (for example, a warm lead in conversation with a sales rep)—you can send those contacts directly to the LinkedIn page so they can sign up.

But for top-of-funnel folks who aren’t in your database, we recommend creating your own signup form. Being able to manage your email lists ensures your ability to nurture those leads following the event. You don’t need a fancy marketing platform (like HubSpot, Salesforce, or Marketo) to do this—a basic Google form will usually suffice. Just make sure you set it to private so other registrants can’t see who else submitted the form.

Once they’ve signed up, provide a 3-email sequence to remind them of the upcoming webinar: schedule these to send 1 week, 1 day, and a couple hours before the webinar begins, with a link to the LinkedIn live event.

Promoting Your First LinkedIn Live

Once you’re set on hosting your first LinkedIn Live, it’s time to get some attendees interested. Below we lay out a step-by-step plan, plus copy to help you promote your event.

Share your webinar organically on LinkedIn

LinkedIn is inherently designed for networking, industry-specific discussions, and professional development. So what better place to post and share widely about your webinar than on the world’s #1 professional platform itself? (And no, this isn’t a promotional post for LinkedIn!)

Organic LinkedIn promotion often results in more authentic engagement, since content is shared within your network based on its relevance, rather than paid reach or an email list. And don’t rely on your network alone—ask coworkers, employees, partners, and even friends and family to post to their LinkedIn about the event. Provide them with language to make it extra easy for them. Here’s some copy to get you started.

Promote it in your company’s email signature

Email signatures offer prime real estate, yet it’s a spot that’s often overlooked. You’re sending out dozens of emails a week and that means dozens of potential eyeballs on your email signature. But make sure it’s something actionable—in this case, a CTA to your upcoming LinkedIn Live event.

Use a service like Canva to create a 650x150 pixel graphic that plugs your webinar and links to the signup page, then add it to your email signature for at least two weeks leading up to the event.

Run paid ads for your LinkedIn Live webinar

There is great power in paid ads. If you’re able to put some dollars behind your LinkedIn Live event, you’ll see significantly more signups in a shorter period of time. We suggest limiting your ads to the platform where you’ll be hosting your event: LinkedIn. According to LinkedIn, 75% of B2B marketers choose the professional platform for their ads over any other social platform.

And there’s a good reason for that: While professionals may be on Facebook and X, they’re not often thinking about optimizing processes or professional development while they’re there. When you run ads for your webinar on LinkedIn itself, make sure to point users to a landing page or signup form (like the Google form mentioned above). That allows you to collect any and all email addresses that sign up—which wouldn’t be the case if you point them directly to the LinkedIn Live event itself.

Setting Up Your First LinkedIn Live

Paying attention to your technical setup is key to a successful LinkedIn Live webinar. You don’t want to skip this section—ensuring your broadcast runs smoothly will help keep your attendees engaged, and present you and your brand as professional and trustworthy. 

Use a streaming service

Why use a streaming service when you can go live directly on LinkedIn? There are a few good reasons. First, streaming services ensure technical support, reducing the risk of glitches the day of, and making for a smoother broadcast. Second, many streaming services offer customizable branding. You can set your name using company colors and fonts, plus add a company logo. Finally—and most importantly to marketers—streaming services save a high-quality recording of your webinar. You can chop this up into bite-sized videos later to repurpose in email, sales, and marketing materials. More on that in a moment. Most popular streaming services, including StreamYard and Riverside.fm, offer all of these features.

Run a tech check

You do not want your tech to fail you the moment you attempt to start the event. For that reason, it’s wise to do a practice run-through of every technical component of your live event. Set up a test stream and make sure you know every element that needs to be in place before going live. Set up a test LinkedIn Live event and make sure it connects seamlessly to your streaming service. You do not want to waste time on technical difficulties day-of, nor do you want to waste your audience’s time. Make sure your tech is sorted prior to your live event. 

Include a Q&A session

You know what keeps people coming back? Value. Folks love it when a product or service—or in this case, your webinar—answers their exact questions and solves their problems. Do this by including a Q&A session in your LinkedIn Live event and publicizing it widely. That gives viewers the chance to come prepared with their questions.

Plus it’s good promotion for your next event—attendees (or people watching the recording) will remember you hosted a Q&A and will be ready next time with questions. 

Post-Webinar: Stretching the Lifetime Value of Your LinkedIn Live 

At this point, you’ve successfully promoted and hosted your first LinkedIn Live event. That means you’ve created content that you can now repurpose and use for months to come. Let’s look at how to do that.

Incorporate clips into an email drip campaign

Incorporating webinar clips into an email drip campaign is a strategic move that adds dynamic and engaging content to your communication strategy. There are many ways to frame this type of content—as compelling teasers, a glimpse into any valuable insights and expertise, or product/service highlights.

Video content tends to capture attention more effectively than text alone. In fact, 96% of marketers (up from 88% in 2022 and more marketers than at any point in the last nine years) told Hubspot that they see videos as an important part of their conversion strategy.

Plus, the use of these LinkedIn Live clips in email nurture campaigns allows for gradual and strategic delivery of content, keeping your brand and the webinar’s value at the forefront of recipients’ minds. That means more engagement and more engaged leads throughout your campaign.

Generate social media content

As we briefly touched on before, repurposing LinkedIn Live content on social platforms is a savvy strategy to extend the life and reach of your webinar. Transform the webinar into bite-sized video clips, capturing key highlights, tips, or engaging moments that resonate with your audience. And you don’t have to stick to just the video footage either. Repackage the information into visually appealing graphics or infographics that distill complex information into shareable and digestible snippets. Share impactful quotes as text posts. And use them to foster engagement and discussion.

Additionally, think about converting the webinar into a series of engaging images for platforms, like Instagram or Pinterest, if you have a professional audience there. These small ways to creatively repurpose your LinkedIn Live content extend the usefulness and lifetime value of the webinar. 

By strategically leveraging LinkedIn Live, promoting the event effectively, and repurposing content, you can build a powerful online presence, engage your audience, and maximize the impact of your webinars for long-term success. If you're ready to take your online event or webinar strategy to the next level, contact Right Side Up today!

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