How to Get Your First 1,000 Webinar Attendees Without a Big Audience

If you’re new to webinars, or you’ve been running them for a while but can’t seem to grow your audience, this one’s for you.

You don’t need a giant email list or a huge social following to start. You just need a simple, repeatable way to bring in the right people, and that’s exactly what I’m going to share with you.

Here’s how to get your first 1,000 attendees showing up to your webinar. 

Why you don’t need a big list to start

When I first started running webinars, I thought I needed thousands of people on my email list before I could make any real sales. But in reality, you can fill a webinar room with a few hundred highly targeted people and still generate the same or more sales than someone with a massive audience.

When I started, I had 30-60 people registering for my webinars each week. That’s it. No massive following, no big email list.

But I kept going. Every week, I added another 30-60 people to my list. That’s what I call compounding list building: small, consistent wins that add up.

In my first year running webinars, even with my endless oversharing and less-than-perfect calls to action, I built an email list of about fourteen thousand contacts and earned roughly $250,000 in online course sales. And my webinars lasted over two hours each!

It’s not about the size of the list. It’s about the quality of the audience and how you bring them in.

Step 1: Find your ideal audience 

Before you worry about numbers, figure out where your people hang out. Here are some easy, low-cost places to start:

• Facebook & LinkedIn groups- Find active, niche communities around your topic. Join the conversation, answer questions, and drop your webinar link only when it’s clearly adding value. If you have an existing audience, consider running your group.
• Reddit & Quora- Jump into real conversations where people are asking the exact questions your webinar answers. Give a thoughtful, non-salesy answer, then share your
• webinar as one of the ways they can go deeper.
• LinkedIn posts- Share posts that lead into your webinar topic and invite engagement. When people comment or react, follow up with a personal invite. Keep it warm and relevant, no cold pitch blasts.
• Instagram stories & reels- Use Stories for quick behind-the-scenes peeks or countdowns to your webinar. Use Reels to share bite-sized value that ends with a soft call-to-action to join.

Start 2: Start with the right offer

Before you even promote your webinar, make sure you’re clear on what you’re offering at the end. Your topic, your hook, and your promise should all lead naturally to that offer.

Ask yourself:

• Who exactly am I helping?
• What problem are they desperate to solve?
• How does my webinar lead them to the solution?

When you nail this, your messaging becomes magnetic. People will sign up because they see the webinar as a direct path to solving their problem.

Step 3: Use simple promotions to boost signups

Promote your webinar to your email list, even if it’s small. 

• Affiliate Partnerships– Partner with people in your niche to promote each other’s webinars.
• Giveaways or Bonuses– Offer a ‘show-up bonus’ for attendees or a special bonus for the first 50 signups.
• Paid Ads- You can start small ($5/day) to get more people seeing your content and offers.

Step 4: Keep it simple with paid ads

If you’ve got even a small ad budget, put it behind your webinar sign-up page.

You don’t need a complicated funnel, just:

• An ad with a strong hook
• A clear promise in your headline
• A simple sign-up form

Start small, test your messaging, and scale what works.

Step 4: Create content that drives registrations

Your content should make people curious and give them a reason to sign up.

• Short videos (Reels, TikToks, YouTube Shorts) with a clear CTA to join your webinar.
• Carousel posts on LinkedIn or Facebook.
• Free value posts answering common questions in your niche.

Every piece of content should point people back to your webinar.

Step 5: Make it easy to share

Turn every attendee into a promoter. Give them a reason to invite friends or colleagues, like a bonus resource, access to a replay etc. The easier you make it for people to share, the faster your audience grows.

Step 6: Focus on building relationships

Even if your first webinar doesn’t hit 1,000 attendees, the connections you make will compound over time. Follow up. Stay in touch. Offer value beyond the webinar.

This is how your audience grows from hundreds to thousands and how your webinars become the go-to event people don’t want to miss.

Bottom line

You don’t need a giant audience to run a successful webinar. You need the right offer, the right people, and a clear, repeatable way to bring them in.

If you found this useful, subscribe to my YouTube channel, I share more tips to help you present, sell, and grow your audience with webinars.