Create a new webinar in GoToWebinar and invite guests with Pardot

Updated 11 months ago by Matthew Smet

GoToWebinar erases the headache and hassle from webinars. No matter your goal or skill level, you’ll quickly see why so many love GoToWebinar. Go from preparing a webinar to presenting in fewer steps – and have a lot of fun along the way. (Watch the Video)

To invite guests to these webinars and allow them to register, we will use our marketing automation tool "Pardot". This helpdoc will go through all steps to create the webinar, create the registration flow and invite your guests.

------------Creating the webinar------------

Create parent & child campaign in Salesforce

Parent > based on "Parent" template
Child > based on "Webinar" template
naming convention!

Create a webinar in GoToWebinar

Click "SCHEDULE +" in the top-right corner
Fill in the basic info (title, description, date, start/end time, ...)
Always add "Marketing Excellence" as a co-organizer
Review the "SETTINGS"
Update the "BRANDING & COLORS" > "LOGO" with a banner for the webinar and make sure it includes the SD Worx logo (no more than 400x200 pixels - 100KB).
Update the "BRANDING & COLORS" > "COLOR" with a custom color for Title/Button: #7C2855

If you want the default "co-organizer", "logo" and "colors", you can duplicate the WEBINAR TEMPLATE, which will be scheduled in the far future so it should always be visible in the "dashboard".

Update the "confirmation email to registrants" in GoToWebinar
Update the "reminder email" in GoToWebinar
Remove the "follow-up email" in GoToWebinar
(you can create/request a follow-up email but it should be created in Pardot!)

-------Creating the registration page-------

This section can be done by StudioWorx team, fill in the request form.

A video (NL - 2h 30m)tutorial for building these registration pages can be found here: https://web.microsoftstream.com/video/7e831360-36b1-4e10-9994-4c15cbb47781

Create a folder in Pardot
Create a LIST for adding the "responded" to in Pardot

naming convention!

Clone a FORM in Pardot

Copy the example form in the "Content" folder
Add completion action to add to the new "responded" LIST
Add completion action to add to the new webinar
Add completion action to asign to the correct lead queue
Add completion action to add to the correct CRM campaign (status "RSVP yes")
Update the "Thank You Code" with the correct EventCategory: webinar-registration (conversion tracking in Google Analytics)
naming convention!

Create a PAGE in Pardot
(this is optional --> Only necessary if FORM is not embedded in iframe)

Use the a layout template to your need
Fill in the "title" and "description"
Fill in a nice-looking "vanity url" for sharing
naming convention!

For inviting internal contacts (colleagues) you should use the registration page that is provided inside GoToWebinar. You cannot use the Pardot registration page because this would cause the creation of a lot of unnecessary "leads" in Salesforce.

-------Creating the invitation emails-------

This section can be done by StudioWorx, fill in the request form.

Create emails in Pardot (+ Salesforce for the campaigns)

See helpdoc "How to send emails in Pardot" (link)
naming convention!

-------Creating the follow-up emails-------

This section can be done by StudioWorx, fill in the request form.

Using the "Reports > Connected Apps > Webinars" you can get an up-to-date view of the number of registrations and after the webinar took place you can easily get a view of who attended and who didn't.
With the necessary Pardot permissions you can also use this report to add all "attended" or "no show" contacts to a new LIST for sending the follow-up email to.
Create emails in Pardot (+ Salesforce for the campaigns)

See helpdoc "How to send emails in Pardot" (link)
naming convention!

-------Updating campaign member statuses in Salesforce-------

After the webinar you can update campaign members with status "attended" or "no show" in Pardot/Salesforce (can only be done by Pardot admins)

Always let marketingexcellence@sdworx.com know when you are having a Webinar so they can add in their planning to update the campaign members the day after the webinar tool place.