How to Use Bots to Register Your Webinar Registrants

Traditionally, registering prospects or customers to your webinars has been done using forms. However, you can easily use a bot to register a participant with one question and one click!

In this doc, we'll cover

• setting up a simple webinar-focused Playbook
• triggering Marketo actions from Playbook conversions. 

Configuring your Bot Playbook 

First, head to any of your existing Playbooks or create a new one.

Name your bot, then you'll be brought to the flow builder. 

At Drift, we use a simple, two message bot.

The first message sets the expectation on the content of the webinar, and we use customized language in the email capture so that our registrants know that we will be sending them more information with the email they choose to provide in the registration flow. 

One you've you've configured the copy of the email skill, you'll want to also click on both Valid and Unwanted outputs and use the Tag conversation option. Use an existing tag or create a new one. We'll need this later!

Once users go through the bot and provide an email, we end the bot flow with a Goal. We use the Goal to send them some useful information:

1. The Zoom link they will need to tune into the webinar
2. An AddEvent link so they can add the webinar to their calendar
3. Reassurance that it’s ok if they didn’t get all of that information, as we’ll be sending them a confirmation email with all the details as well

Setting up the Goal

Hover over the Conversation Status box at the bottom of your bot and click the gear icon. Select Add New Goal.

Set up your Goal name and your lead stage. Then, input your webinar information as the Bot Message. We recommend also Marking as CQL and setting the conversation to auto-close.

And that's all there is to it for the Playbook!

Automating the Workflow

Now that you have your Playbook configured, your leads need to be passed into your marketing automation system so that you can actually send them that confirmation email, along with reminder emails, and any nurture emails you want to send after the webinar is over.

We'll be showcasing the Marketo workflow, but if you use a webinar hosting platform like GoToWebinar, you can use Zapier to pass over your registrants into your system. Check out this help doc for more insight into the Zapier workflow!

Triggering Your Marketo Workflow:

If you’ve set up the Marketo integration already, you're ready to continue! If not, check out this help doc to learn how to connect the integration. You'll also want to make sure you’re passing over the New Conversation Activity. 

In Marketo, you’ll want to use the trigger of “New Drift Conversation to build your Smart List.

From there, add two constraints to your Smart List: the Conversation Tag and the Conversation Playbook. This will ensure that you only pass over leads who get the specific tag applied to them from the specific Playbook!

From there, you’ll be all set to create your confirmation, reminder, and nurture emails just like you would with any other campaign!

Once you've done that, publish your Playbook! 

Still stuck? Email us at support@drift.com. Not using Drift yet? Get your free account here.