How to host a webinar

You want to show a room of buyers what you know, but you have no email list, no audience, and you are afraid nobody will turn up. Here is how to host a webinar for free: one 30-minute live session on a problem your buyers already ask about, a free sign-up page and video room, and 14 days of personal invitations. If you post twice and wait, you may get 6 sign-ups and 2 people live, and decide webinars do not work; at 100 invitations a day, you will know within two weeks if your topic brings calls.

Do these three things

About 3 hours a day for 14 days, then 1 hour on the day itself. Judge it after 1,400 invitations, not by how many people came.

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1. 1Today: pick one problem your buyers ask you about, set a 30-minute webinar 14 days from now, and put up a free sign-up page on Luma linked to a Zoom room.
2. 2Every day: send 100 personal invitations and 2 posts on each channel until the day. After the webinar, send everyone who came a personal message offering a 15-minute call.
3. 3Every Sunday: count invitations, sign-ups, people who came live and calls booked, by where each one came from. After 1,400 invitations, keep or change the topic and set the next webinar 2 weeks out.

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1. Pick one problem your buyers ask about and set a date 14 days away

Pick one problem your buyers already ask about, write a title that promises to fix it live in 30 minutes, and set the date 14 days from today. People sign up to get a problem solved, not to watch a company talk about itself.

Write down 10 questions buyers asked you in the last month: in customer interviews, sales chats, emails, and the online communities where they ask for help. Paste them into ChatGPT or Claude with one line on who your buyer is, and ask for 5 webinar titles that each promise one result. Pick the one that matches the question you hear most. Then send the 5 titles to 5 buyers or past contacts and ask: "Which one would you give 30 minutes to?"

[Fix / Set up / Get] [the result your buyer wants] live in 30 minutesFor [who it is for]. Bring your own [example]; we will do one live.

Then decide the date and the one thing you will ask people to do at the end. One ask only: a 15-minute call, a trial, or an order.

• Date: 14 days from today. That gives you 1,400 invitations at 100 a day. In Goldcast's 2026 report on 26,190 business webinars, Monday had the highest share of sign-ups who came live, so pick a Monday if it fits your buyers. Pick a time inside your buyers' working day, in their time zone.
• Length: 30 minutes. It fits inside the free Zoom limit in step 2.
• Format: you teach or fix one thing live, then answer questions. A product demo can be part of it, but never all of it.

If you run a SaaS: fix the problem live without your product first, then show how your product does it in 3 minutes. The ask is: "Start a trial, and I will set it up with you on a 15-minute call."

If you run a B2B company: pick a costly decision your buyers make, such as "how to compare [3 kinds of supplier] before you sign". Ask attendees to bring a colleague. The ask is a 20-minute call about their own case, the same call your first B2B clients come from.

If you run a D2C store: a live "how to use it" session works better than a talk: [a routine, a fix, a before and after]. The ask is a product link with a code that ends 48 hours after the webinar. Also post the session as a short video afterwards (step 6).

If you run an agency: review 3 attendees' websites or ads live, with their permission, chosen from the sign-up answers. The ask is a free 20-minute review of their own site. It also gives you proof for getting your first client.

If you want to run it with another company to reach their audience too, that is a joint webinar; the steps for picking and agreeing with a partner are in co-marketing. The rest of this guide works either way.

• Tool: a Google Doc and ChatGPT or Claude.
• Time: 1 hour.
• You will have: a title, a date 14 days away, and one ask.
• It worked if: at least 3 of the 5 people you asked pick the same title and say they would come.
• Common mistake: a title about your company, such as "Introducing [product]" or "Our 2026 roadmap". Nobody you do not know signs up for that.

2. Set up a free webinar on Zoom with a Luma sign-up page

Host the webinar for free with two tools: a Luma event page for sign-ups and reminders, and a free Zoom meeting for the room and the recording. Together they do what paid webinar tools do, at $0, for up to 100 people live.

Why these two. Zoom's free plan holds 100 people for 40 minutes, and it can record to your computer from the desktop app. Free Google Meet runs 60 minutes but cannot record on a personal account, and you need the recording in step 6. Luma's free plan gives you a sign-up page, unlimited guests, reminders by email and text, and a list of who joined. If your company already pays for a Google Workspace plan that records, Google Meet works too: pick it as the location in Luma instead.

1. 1

   Make the Zoom account

   Sign up for Zoom's free plan and install the desktop app on a laptop or computer. Local recording does not work on phones. In the Zoom web settings, open Recording and check that "Local recording" is on.

2. 2

   Create the Luma event

   On Luma, create an event with your title, date and time, and 3 short lines on what people will get. Choose Zoom as the location and connect your Zoom account, so Luma makes the meeting for you. Every guest gets their own luma.com/join link, and Luma records who clicked it.

3. 3

   Add one question

   On the Manage Event page, open Registration and add one question with options: "Where did you hear about this?" (your channels, plus "A message from [your name]"). This is self-reported attribution, and you will count it in step 7. Add a second, short text question if you want: "What do you want to fix?" It tells you what to cover.

4. 4

   Test it with a friend

   Ask a friend to sign up, check they get the confirmation email, then join from their Luma link while you click Record in Zoom. Stop after 2 minutes and open the file to watch it.

Luma sends its own reminders 1 day and 1 hour before the start; you cannot edit them. Keep the public event link handy: it is the link in every invitation and post in step 3. If you have a website, add the link to it, and use the same title. A full landing page can wait.

• Tool: Luma (free), Zoom Basic (free) and its desktop app.
• Time: 45 minutes.
• You will have: a public sign-up link and a room you have tested.
• It worked if: your friend got the confirmation email, joined from the Luma link, shows in the Guests tab, and you can watch the test recording with sound.
• Common mistake: using free Google Meet and finding out on the day that there is no Record button. The other mistake is planning a 60-minute session on free Zoom: it ends at 40 minutes.

3. Invite 100 people a day for 14 days

Invite 100 people a day by personal message, every day for 14 days, and post about the webinar 2 times a day on each channel you use. Personal invitations bring most sign-ups when you have no list; posts alone reach too few of the right people.

Count it backwards. In Goldcast's 2026 report, 6.8 million people signed up for business webinars and 2.2 million came live: about 1 in 3. If you want about 20 people live, you need about 60 sign-ups. At about 5 sign-ups per 100 personal invitations, that is 1,200 to 1,400 invitations. 100 a day for 14 days gets you there.

Who to invite, in this order:

1. Everyone who already knows you: past colleagues, clients, people from customer interviews, trial users, your email list if you have one.
2. New people who fit your buyer. 100 a day empties a list fast, so add 100 new names every day, from a free lead list. Find each decision maker's email, or use LinkedIn for people you are connected to.

Let AI draft, then make each one true. Paste 10 names at a time into ChatGPT or Claude, each with one thing you found about the person, plus the template below. Ask for one invitation per person. Read each draft, make the first line true and about them, and send it. That is about a minute an invitation, so about 2 hours a day.

Subject: [the problem, in 3–5 words]Hi [first name],[One true line about them: something they built, wrote or said.]On [day, date] at [time, their time zone] I'm running a free 30-minute session: [title]. I'll [do the fix] live, then answer questions. You can bring your own [example].Here is the link to save a seat: [Luma link]If the time doesn't suit you, sign up anyway and I'll send you the recording.[Your name]
[Your company, postal address]
Not for you? Reply "no" and I won't write again.

Follow up with everyone who has not answered, up to 3 times, 3 days apart, until the day. Add one new line each time, such as a question someone asked when they signed up. Stop the moment someone says no. The follow-up guide has the timing.

Keep email safe. Send one message at a time from your normal email, not a bulk tool. Ask your email host to confirm SPF and DKIM are on. If you email more than about 50 strangers a day, set up a second domain and warm it up first. In the US, the CAN-SPAM Act also covers business email: every message needs your postal address and a way to say no, and you must honour a "no" within 10 business days.

Post 2 times a day on each channel you use, for 14 days: 28 posts per channel. Each post teaches one small part of the topic and ends with the link, like these post ideas. AI drafts them from your 10 questions; you add a real screenshot, a number or a story. Use your own profile, not only a company page: LinkedIn as a founder, X, or Instagram for a store. Then share the link once in each of your communities' event or self-promotion threads, where their rules allow it. In subreddits and Facebook groups, read the rules first.

[One mistake or question your buyers have about the problem, in one line.][2–3 short lines: what to do instead.]On [date] I'm fixing this live for 30 minutes, with your examples. Free. Link: [Luma link]

Add a LinkedIn Event. On LinkedIn, create an event, choose Online, and set the Event format to "External event link" with your Luma link. You cannot change the format after posting. Then open the event, click Share, then Invite, and invite 1st-degree connections who fit your buyer. LinkedIn allows 1,000 event invitations a week across all your events. That is a limit on top of your 100 personal messages, not instead of them.

If you run a D2C store: most invitations go to past customers and people who follow you, by email and direct message, plus 2 posts and 2 short videos a day. Ask each customer to bring a friend.

• Tool: Gmail, LinkedIn, X or Instagram, a Google Sheet to log every invitation, and ChatGPT or Claude to draft.
• Time: about 2 hours a day for invitations, 30 minutes for 100 new names, 30 minutes for 2 posts on each channel. About 3 hours a day.
• You will have: 1,400 invitations sent and logged, and 28 posts on each channel.
• It worked if: you get at least 5 sign-ups per 100 invitations. If you have fewer than 2 per 100 after the first 300, rewrite the first line and test a second title from step 1 on the next 300.
• Common mistake: posting the link 3 times and waiting. The other mistake is pasting the same invitation to hundreds of people. Each one needs a true line about the person.

4. Write a 30-minute run sheet and rehearse it twice

Write down what happens in each minute of the 30, then rehearse the whole thing twice with a timer. A run sheet keeps you inside Zoom's 40-minute free limit and gives the ask at the end its own 2 minutes.

Give ChatGPT or Claude your title, the 10 questions from step 1, and the answers people gave to "What do you want to fix?" on the sign-up page. Ask it to fill in the run sheet below. Then add what only you have: one real example you will work through live, such as a customer's before and after, with their permission. Keep slides to 5 or fewer. Most of the 30 minutes should be you doing the work on screen, the way a good sales deck leaves most of a call for questions.

0–3 min · Who it is for and what we will fix: "[Title]. By minute 20 you will have [result]. Type your questions in the chat any time."3–20 min · Fix it live: [step 1], [step 2], [step 3], on [a real example, or an attendee's example from the sign-up answers]. No product until minute 17. At minute 17, 3 minutes on how [product] does it.20–28 min · Questions: read each one out with the person's first name, answer it in under 2 minutes.28–30 min · One ask: "If you want help with your own [problem], book a 15-minute call: [link]. I'll send the recording to everyone tomorrow."

Rehearse twice, with a timer, in the Zoom room, with Record on. The first time, alone. The second time, with one friend who asks 2 questions. Cut anything that pushes you past 30 minutes.

• Tool: a Google Doc, ChatGPT or Claude, and Zoom.
• Time: about 2 hours, once.
• You will have: a run sheet and two timed rehearsals.
• It worked if: the second rehearsal ends by minute 30, the ask is said out loud, and you can watch the recording.
• Common mistake: 40 minutes of slides about your company and 5 minutes for questions. People came for the fix.

5. Host the webinar live and record it

Open the room 5 minutes early, press Record, and follow the run sheet. Run it even if only 2 people come: everyone who signed up gets the recording.

• 5 minutes before: open Zoom from the desktop app and click Record in the toolbar (choose "Record on this Computer" if a menu appears). Free Zoom meetings stop at 40 minutes, so open only 5 minutes early; that still leaves 35.
• At the start time: begin. Do not wait for latecomers; they can catch up on the recording.
• During: read questions out by first name and answer them. Write down every question: they are your next posts, pages and webinar titles.
• At minute 28: say the ask and paste the link in the chat.
• After: stop the recording. Zoom turns it into a video file and opens its folder when the meeting ends.

If fewer than 3 people come, run the full 30 minutes anyway; you will send the recording to everyone who signed up.

• Tool: Zoom desktop app and Luma.
• Time: 1 hour, with setup and wrap-up.
• You will have: a recording, a list of every question asked, and the names of people who asked.
• It worked if: at least 1 in 4 of the people who signed up came live, and at least 3 asked a question.
• Common mistake: waiting 10 minutes "for more people to join", then running out of time before the ask.

6. Follow up with everyone within 24 hours

Within 24 hours, send the recording to everyone who signed up, and send each person who came live a personal message offering a 15-minute call. This is the step that books the calls.

1. Share the recording. Upload it to YouTube as Unlisted: anyone with the link can watch, and it does not show in YouTube search. If your YouTube channel is ready for it, make it public instead. Then, in Luma, open Manage Event, then Blasts, and send one message with the recording link to all your guests.

2. Message every person who came live, one at a time. Luma's Guests tab shows who clicked their join link, and the Insights tab shows Zoom's attendance. Write to each one. Mention their question or what they typed, and offer a 15-minute call about their own case. AI can draft each message from your notes on what they asked; you check that the detail is right. These calls are discovery calls, not pitches.

Subject: your question about [topic]Hi [first name],Thanks for coming yesterday, and for asking about [their question].[One line that answers it better than you did live, or one thing you'd try for their case.]Want 15 minutes on your own [example]? Here is my calendar: [link][Your name]

Subject: the recording: [title]Hi [first name],Here is the 30-minute recording: [link]. The fix starts at minute [3].If you'd like help with your own [example], here is my calendar for a 15-minute call: [link][Your name]

3. Follow up with everyone who has not answered, up to 3 times, 3 days apart, with one new line each time. Stop at the first "no". Add everyone who signed up and agreed to hear from you to your follow-up emails. Log every call in your sheet or CRM.

4. Use the recording again. Cut it into short clips, one per question, and post them as 2 of your daily posts. Repurposing and short-form video show how. Turn the best question into a page on your site. In Goldcast's 2026 report, 91% of people who watched a business webinar recording watched nearly all of it, so the recording keeps working.

If you run a SaaS: on each call, offer to set up the trial while you are both there. People who start with you are more likely to become paying customers.

• Tool: YouTube, Luma Blasts, Gmail or LinkedIn, and your sheet.
• Time: about 2 hours the day after, then 15 minutes a day for follow-ups.
• You will have: the recording with everyone who signed up, and a personal message with everyone who came.
• It worked if: you book at least 1 call for every 5 people who came live.
• Common mistake: sending one "thanks for attending" email to everyone and nothing else. Nobody books a call from a group email.

7. Count your numbers every Sunday and set the next webinar

Every Sunday, write one row in a sheet: invitations, sign-ups, people live, recording views, calls booked and what came of them. After 1,400 invitations, keep the topic if it brought calls, change it if it did not, and set the next webinar 2 weeks out.

Webinar | Invitations | Sign-ups | Sign-ups per 100 | Came live | Recording views | Calls booked | Trials or orders | New customers
Where sign-ups came from: messages | LinkedIn | X | communities | other

Use the answers to "Where did you hear about this?" for the sources. Then apply the rules:

• At least 1 call per 5 live attendees: keep the topic. Run the next webinar on the next question from your list, 2 weeks out, and put the date in your content calendar. Nearly 1 in 3 business webinars is now part of a series, in Goldcast's 2026 report. A series also gives you a reason to invite everyone again.
• Under 2 sign-ups per 100 invitations: the title is the problem. Use a different question from step 1.
• Sign-ups but no calls: the ask was weak or came too late. Say it at minute 28, with a link, and send the personal messages within 24 hours.
• 0 calls after 2 webinars: move those hours into 100 messages a day asking for a call directly, and keep the recordings as content.

Once a month, look at the webinar next to your other channels in a marketing review.

• Tool: Google Sheets.
• Time: 20 minutes each Sunday.
• You will have: one row per webinar, and the date of the next one.
• It worked if: you can say where every call and new customer came from.
• Common mistake: judging the webinar by how many people came live. 6 people who each book a call beat 60 who leave.

Where Scout7 helps

Scout7 speeds up the posts in step 3 and the content after step 6. The invitations and the webinar itself stay with you.

Step 3. Image Studio makes image posts with captions in your brand's voice from an idea you give it, such as one of your 10 questions. Add the webinar date to the Brand Calendar as your own event, and Scout7 plans later posts around it and schedules them to LinkedIn, X, Instagram, Facebook, Threads and Reddit. Video Studio can make a short portrait video invitation from a script. You approve every post and video before it goes live.

Step 6. Content Co-Pilot can research the webinar topic and draft a full article on it, asking you shaping questions first. Answer them with what came up in the Q&A. It can then turn the article into a LinkedIn carousel. You edit and approve both.

Your webinar checklist for the next 14 days

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Work through this list with an AI assistant

It drafts the work and keeps track of what is done.

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Step 1 · Pick one problem and set a date 14 days away

• Write 5 titles from your buyers' questions, test them on 5 buyers, and set the date and the one ask.

Step 2 · Set up a free webinar on Zoom with a Luma sign-up page

• Create the Luma event, connect Zoom, and add the sign-up question.
• Test sign-up, joining and recording with a friend.

Step 3 · Invite 100 people a day for 14 days

• Every daySend 100 personal invitations with the Luma link.
• Every dayAdd 100 new names to your list.
• Every dayFollow up with everyone who has not answered, up to 3 times.
• Every dayPost 2 times on each channel about the topic, with the link.
• Create a LinkedIn Event with the Luma link and invite connections who fit.

Step 4 · Write a 30-minute run sheet and rehearse it twice

• Write the 30-minute run sheet and rehearse it twice in Zoom with a timer.

Step 5 · Host the webinar live and record it

• Host the webinar, record it, and say the one ask at minute 28.

Step 6 · Follow up with everyone within 24 hours

• Upload the recording and send it to everyone who signed up.
• Message each person who came live, one at a time.
• Every dayFollow up with everyone who has not answered.
• Cut the recording into clips and turn the best question into a page.

Step 7 · Count your numbers every Sunday and set the next webinar

• Every SundayFill in one row of the webinar sheet.
• After 1,400 invitationsKeep or change the topic and set the next webinar.

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