Learn how to create Zoom Webinar Campaigns in Act-On. This guide covers all that is required to launch a Webinar Campaign from Act-On.

Essentials to get started

• Active connection to Zoom
• Zoom Video Webinar license

Instructions

To create your Webinar Campaign, the following tasks must be completed. Read on for step-by-step instructions.

1. Create a Webinar in Zoom
2. Import the Webinar to Act-On to create a new Webinar Campaign
3. Create a Registration Form
4. Add Panelists (optional)
5. Create and Customize your Messages
6. Schedule and Send your Messages

Step 1: Create a Zoom Webinar

Before you start in Act-On, create your webinar event in Zoom. Some notes on this step:

• Only Single-session events are supported
• Configure all Questions and Custom Questions for your Registration.
  • Note: Making changes to Zoom Registration Questions after creating the form in Act-On may lead to registration problems. More info here.
• Make sure to turn off automated emails from Zoom for every message you will to send via Act-On:
  • No Confirmation Email to Registrants
  • No reminder email to Attendees and Panelists
  • No follow-up email to Attendees
  • No follow-up email to Absentees

Step 2: Import from Zoom and Create a Webinar Campaign

Next, log in to Act-On. Go to Automation > Webinars and locate your webinar. Click on the webinar title to import and start creating your campaign.

Step 3: Create a Registration Form

To create a webinar registration form, you can either start with a new form by clicking +Generate Form or you can use an existing one by clicking +Copy Existing Form.

Generate Form

Clicking on this button will generate a default Registration Form. Act-On will import all of the Required fields in your Zoom webinar. Recommended best practice.

Copy Existing Form

Clicking here will take you to a list of forms existing in your account. Click on the form to see a preview. Click Copy next to the form name to create a copy of this form for the webinar campaign. The new form will automatically have a name matching the webinar title.

When copying, you will need to review the registration fields for your Zoom webinar and manually add all required fields to the form. Act-On will notify you when these fields are missing. For more information, see Handling Required Fields for Zoom Webinar Registration Forms.

When you create your form, an associated Landing Page and Form Signup List are also created. If you intend to embed your form into a different location, you will need to update your sign-up form link to match the URL for the page your wish to your direct traffic to.

Step 4: Add Panelists

Here, you can add the name and email address of any Panelists you wish to invite. Click Add Panelist, enter their information and click Add.

Once their information has been entered, you can click Send Invite to send them a webinar invitation, or you can click Delete to remove them.

Important Notes:

• The Panelist Invite is sent by Zoom, not by Act-On.
• If your webinar has the Panelist setting for Send invitation to all newly added panelists immediately then Zoom will auto-send an invitation but it will not reflect in Act-On as sent.
• Panelists added in Zoom will import into Act-On when you click on the Sync button at the top right.

Step 5: Create and Customize your Messages

Available messages for your webinar include the following:

Message Type	Description	Available Messages
Registration Responses	These are form autoresponders, which are sent when a contact has registered for your Webinar using the Act-On Registration Form and/or when their registration is approved or rejected. You may enable/disable these messages as needed.	Auto-Response Registration Accepted* Registration Rejected*
Promotion Messages	These are messages you can send to a marketing list or segment to promote the webinar and invite contacts to register.	Invitation Message(s) Last Chance Message(s)
Reminders	Scheduled messages that send prior to the webinar to remind registrants of the upcoming event. The messages include the webinar link. These messages can only be scheduled at a specific hour (e.g., 3:00PM). Act-On cannot guarantee prompt message delivery (such as, within five minutes) therefore we recommend sending your reminder one hour prior to the event.	Reminder Message
Follow-ups	Message(s) you can send after the webinar.	Follow-Up Message

*Registration Accepted and Rejected messages are available when your Zoom Webinar requires registration approval.

Create your Messages

Default registration responses are automatically created, regardless of the option you choose when you create your form. For all other messages, you have the option to use a Blank message, or to start with an existing design.

Message Content for Webinars

For all message types except Follow-Up Messages: When you select Blank Message, you will start with a default message that contains basic information.

When you design a message from scratch, you will need to include your webinar details. Content to include depend on which message you are designing. The chart below provides the content that is the default for each message type.

Message Type	Blank Message Content
Promotion Messages	Webinar Name, Date, and Time "Add to Calendar" Links Link to the Registration Form
Registration Responses	Webinar Name, Date, and Time "Add to Calendar" Links Webinar ID, Passcode, and Phone number to dial in Meeting Link (also called Join URL)
Reminders	Webinar Name, Date, and Time "Add to Calendar" Links Webinar ID, Passcode, and Phone number to dial in Meeting Link (also called Join URL)
Follow-Ups	Blank

Add a Meeting Link or Join URL

You may need to add this if you are using a message other than the default Blank Message.

To add a Join URL to your messages, you will need to include the Join URL personalization, {{Join URL}}, as a hyperlink so the registrant can click on it.

Example: If you create a button you can insert {{Join URL}} in the button’s URL field:

Follow-Up Message Content

Follow-Up Messages are typically are sent to segments based on registration and attendance history, so you may wish to make more than one follow-up. For example, you may wish to send a Thank You note to those registrants who did attend, or to send a copy of the recording to those who missed out.

Currently, Act-On cannot automate the following content for a Follow-Up Message:

• Post-event survey
• Link to the Event recording 

If you do wish to include a recording link for your attendees, you can wait until after the event and manually enter the recording URL from Zoom. 

Create Follow Up Segments

Before scheduling your Follow-up Message, you may want to create the appropriate segments in your Webinar Contact List. To do this:

1. Click on Follow-Up Segments 
2. Click on the Create Segments button
3. Check the box for each segment you want to create:
4. Click Create Segments

If you wish to create segments based on more advanced criteria, you may do so by going to Contacts > Other Lists > Webinar Lists.

Step 6: Schedule and Send your Messages

When your messages are ready, you will want to launch them. Saving a message with a selected schedule does not send the message. Once you have selected the schedule for your message, you will need to click Submit Launch Request. It’s important to do this for all of the messages for your campaign.

FAQs and Troubleshooting

Can I import custom questions for my registration form?

Yes! When you are creating your form, choose +Generate Form. All of your Zoom Webinar Questions and Custom Questions will import into your Act-On Form.

I made a mistake. How do I make changes or start over?

This depends on what you need to correct. Clicking Delete in the webinar listing will remove the Webinar Campaign from Act-On and you can start over with your marketing content. However, this does not delete the underlying content (Form, Landing Page, a list if it exists, and any Messages). It also does not delete the webinar from Zoom.

Zoom Webinar Settings

If you need to make changes to the webinar title, date/time, or any other settings available in Zoom, make the changes in Zoom, then go to the Act-On Webinar Campaign and click the Sync button at the top right side. 

Registration Form or Registration Questions

If you need to add questions to your Zoom registration after creating the form, we recommend deleting the existing form and generating a new one. Some questions in Zoom require specific drop-down values (such as Country). Creating a new form will import the correct drop-down values so you do not need to manually enter these fields.

Option 1 - Delete your registration form and start over

1. Go to Content > Forms and find your webinar form
2. Hover over the form name and click on the trash icon to delete
3. Repeat for the form's associated Landing Page (it usually has the same title)
4. Next, go back to Automations > Webinars, click on your webinar title
5. Create a new Registration Form

Option 2 - Edit your existing form

If you have already distributed the form link and you are unable to create a new form, you must manually enter the drop-down values for each field you are adding. For Country drop-down, you can use the Country Dropdown Content Fragment that is available in Act-On's Content Catalog. More information.

You must also ensure the field mapping matches the field names in Zoom or data will fail to sync.

Messages

• Registration Response: Click Replace to start a new message or choose an existing one to copy.
• All other Messages: Click Delete to remove the message from your webinar, then you can add a new one.

Why wasn’t my reminder message sent at the scheduled time?

There are a few reasons this could happen:

• If you chose a schedule and then saved your Reminder Message, it is not ready to be sent. You must click Submit Launch Request.
• If you scheduled the Reminder Message to send at the same time your webinar started, Act-On cannot guarantee timely delivery of messages such as webinar reminders. We suggest sending a reminder message one hour prior to the scheduled event. Recommended best practice.

Why is my Zoom webinar not updating with new signups?

There are a few reasons this could happen.

• You have renamed or replaced your Form Signup List. When you create your registration form, Act-On automatically creates a list called "Signups from [My Webinar Name]".  If you have replaced or renamed this list, any signups from your Act-On Form will not sync to Zoom.