What a webinar follow up email has to do
The hour after a webinar is the warmest your audience will ever be. They have just spent real time with you, they remember what you said, and they are still deciding whether to act on it. The follow up email is where that decision either moves forward or quietly fades.
Every good follow up does four things. It thanks people as people, not as a list. It delivers what was promised during the session, so the email is useful even to someone who never wants to buy. It recaps the one idea worth remembering in a sentence or two. And it names exactly one next step, whether that is a replay, a booking link, an offer, a survey or the next session.
What it should not do is try to repeat the whole webinar, stack five links of equal weight, or change the tone from the warm host people met on screen to a pushy sales letter. Write it in the same voice you used live. If you made a joke at the start of the session, the email can nod to it.
- Send it the same day, ideally within a few hours of the end.
- Split it in two: one version for attendees, one for registrants who missed it.
- Lead with the promised resource, then the recap, then one next step.
- Sign it from the host by name, with a reply address a person reads.
Consent, unsubscribe and the one-a-day rule
Before any template, the ground rules. Email the people who registered or entered their details at the door, because they asked to hear about this event. Do not add them to unrelated newsletters or promotions unless your registration form clearly said you would and they agreed. If you plan to keep emailing after the event, say so on the registration page in plain words.
Every follow up that markets anything must carry a working unsubscribe link and the sender details your local email rules require, and opt-outs must be honoured promptly. A simple preference line helps too: tell people they can reply to stop hearing about this topic while staying on your main list.
Keep the pace humane. Send no more than one marketing email per person per day, across everything you send, not just this campaign. If someone is also in your weekly newsletter or another launch, pause one so they do not get two on the same day. A single, well-timed note beats three in an afternoon, and it protects the goodwill the webinar just earned.
Template one: the thank-you email for attendees
Subject: Thank you for coming, [First name]. Here is the replay
Hi [First name],
Thank you for spending part of your day with us at [Webinar title]. It was a pleasure to have you in the room, and the questions in the chat made the session better for everyone.
As promised, here is everything from today:
Replay: [link]. Slides and worksheet: [link].
If you only remember one thing, make it this: [one-sentence takeaway in your own words].
Your next step: [single action, such as book a call, join the programme or save a seat at the next session] here: [link]. [One sentence on who it is for and when it closes, if it does.]
If anything from today raised a question, just reply to this email. I read every reply.
Warmly, [Host name] [Company]
You are receiving this because you registered for [Webinar title]. Unsubscribe: [link]. [Sender address].
Template two: the email for people who missed it
Registrants who did not attend are not a lost cause. Something came up, and most of them still care about the topic. Do not scold, do not say you noticed they were absent in a way that feels like surveillance, and do not send them the attendee email with its references to the live chat.
Subject: Sorry we missed you. The replay is ready
Hi [First name],
Life happens, and [Webinar title] is ready for you whenever you have time. The replay is here: [link]. If you are short on time, skip ahead to [the section most people found most useful] around the middle of the recording.
The worksheet we used is here too: [link].
When you have watched it, the natural next step is [single action]: [link]. And if you would rather join live next time, the next session is on [date]. You can save a seat here: [link].
See you soon, [Host name]
You are receiving this because you registered for [Webinar title]. Unsubscribe: [link]. [Sender address].
- Keep it shorter than the attendee email; the replay does the work.
- Point to a specific moment in the recording so the replay feels manageable.
- Offer the next live session as an equal alternative, not a consolation prize.
The second follow up, subject lines and common mistakes
One follow up is often enough. If you made an offer with a real deadline, a second email a day or two later is fair, as long as it is useful in its own right. Answer the two or three best questions from the chat, link the replay again, and restate the offer and the honest deadline in one short paragraph. Then stop. If there is no deadline, there is no reason to invent one.
Subject lines work best when they are plain and specific. Say what is inside and who it is from.
Common mistakes are easy to avoid once you see them: sending the attendee version to no-shows, burying the replay under the pitch, linking to a replay that has not finished processing, using a no-reply address, emailing people who never registered, and following up so often that the unsubscribe becomes the most clicked link.
- Your replay and slides from [Webinar title]
- [First name], the worksheet from today
- The three best questions from today, answered
- Last call for [offer], closes [day]
- The next session is [date]. Want a seat?
Where your branded room makes follow up easier
Follow up is only as good as the list behind it. In a BrandedRooms room, every guest enters a first name and email at the door, tagged by event, so you finish the session knowing exactly who walked in rather than guessing from a registration export. On a Generic Room you can export that list as a CSV and load it into your email tool. On a Branded Room, guest details go to your CRM or email tool with tags and follow-up funnels move guests into the next step you choose, such as the replay, an offer or the next event.
Two honest notes. Guests who join through the desktop meeting app instead of your room page skip the door, so keep your registration list as a second source. And the live effects you fired on the page are not in the meeting platform's recording, so if the confetti moment matters in the replay, screen-record the room page.
Whatever tool you use, the rule stays the same: write the email for a person who just spent time with you, and give them a reason to be glad they opened it.