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Walking Into a Room Full of Strangers
Think about the last time you walked into a party where you didn’t know anyone. You probably hovered near the snacks, checked your phone a lot, and left early.
Now think about a party where your friends spotted you at the door and waved you over. Completely different night, right? (Same snacks, by the way.)
Your webinar works the same way. When people already feel like they know you (and each other), they turn up and join in.
They’re also far more open to what you’re offering. When they don’t, even a great webinar can feel like a room full of strangers.
That’s what pre-webinar community building is all about. In this post, I’ll walk you through how to turn your followers into a warm, engaged group before you ever announce a launch.
What Is Pre-Webinar Community Building?
Pre-webinar community building is the work you do before a launch to turn followers into a group that knows you, trusts you, and feels part of something.
An audience watches your content. A community talks back…
…They comment, ask questions, share their own wins, and start recognising each other in the comments.
Get them chatting like that, and your launch day turns into a room full of people who already care.
Why Pre-Webinar Community Building Comes First
Look, you can absolutely launch to an audience without building community first. But honestly? It’s a LOT harder.
When people feel connected to you, a few things happen. More of them register, because they want to hear what you have to say.
More of them turn up live, because it feels like their event too. And more of them buy, because trust has been building for WEEKS.
There’s a bonus, too. Engaged followers bring other people with them. They share your posts, tag their friends, and tell people about your webinar, which no ad can fully replace
How to Build Community Before a Launch: 5 Tactics
Start Conversations Instead of Just Posting
Most creators post content and move on (I see this ALL the time). Community starts when you invite people to talk back.
End your posts with a real question people want to answer, like:
Then reply to the comments yourself. When people see you answering, they comment more, and they start to feel noticed.
This is one of the simplest pre-launch engagement tactics there is, and it costs you nothing but a bit of time each day. Not bad, right?
Give Your Followers Something in Common
People bond over shared experiences. So help your followers see what they have in common with each other.
- 🤝 A shared struggle
- 🎯 A shared goal
- 🏷️ A name for your group
For example, a shared struggle might be "we've all been ghosted by a client."
When we research an audience, the common bond is one of the things we look for, because it's what makes people feel like they belong.
Once people feel like "one of us," they're far more likely to show up when you invite them to something.
Go Live Before You Launch
If your first live session is your launch webinar, everyone is figuring it out at the same time, including you. And that's a LOT of pressure on one hour.
So go live a few times in the weeks before. Keep it short and relaxed:
- 🎙️ A quick Q&A
- 🎬 A behind-the-scenes chat
- 💡 A tip you're testing
Your followers get used to showing up live, and you get comfortable talking to them in real time.
By launch day, joining you live feels normal, and that makes a big difference to who turns up.
Create a Place for People to Gather
Social media feeds move fast, so it helps to have somewhere your most interested followers can gather. That could be:
- 📧 Your email list
- 🔒 A private group
- 📢 A broadcast channel
Keep it simple, and please don't spread yourself across five platforms. You want one place where you can talk directly to the people who care most, without the algorithm getting in the way.
Celebrate Their Wins Out Loud
When someone in your community tries your advice and gets a result, share it (with their permission).
This does two jobs at once. The person feels proud and appreciated, and everyone else sees real proof that what you teach works.
Warming Up an Audience Before a Webinar
Your existing followers are a great start, but they're a fixed pool. If you want fresh faces in your community before launch day, paid ads can help you reach people who've never heard of you.
But don't rush to ask them to register for your webinar just yet. First, you need to get them interested in what you have to say.
- Run helpful videos as adsShort videos with no link and no sign-up button.
- Let new people get to know youThey watch, engage, and start to recognise your face.
- Invite the people who watchedCloser to the launch, they get your webinar invite.
For a divorce recovery coach we work with, we ran a video views campaign on Meta.
Her best warm-up video was played nearly 17,000 times, for at least 15 seconds each time, and the whole campaign cost $162 on around $5 a day.
We also ran a campaign to send people to her Instagram profile, which brought in over 7,000 profile visits at about 10 cents each.
So before she asked anyone to register, thousands of the women she wants to help had already been watching her.
We cover how this fits with growing your sign-ups in our post on creator webinar registrations.
Turning Your Community Into Launch Day Energy
Once your community is warm, launching feels very different. And this, for me, is the real payoff of pre-webinar community building.
You’re no longer trying to convince strangers. You’re inviting people who already know you to something they’ve been waiting for.
Registrations come in faster and your live chat is busier.
The questions are better too, because people already understand what you teach.
That’s when the hype and honest scarcity of a live launch really work. If you’re planning one, our guide to running a creator live launch webinar walks you through it step by step.
Creator Community Building Strategy: The Long Game
A good creator community building strategy doesn’t stop when the launch ends.
Your community keeps telling you what they need next. Their questions, struggles, and wins become ideas for your next webinar and your next offer.
And every launch adds new people to the group, so the next one starts warmer than the last.
To see how community fits alongside live launches, paid ads, and automated webinars, have a look at our complete guide to webinar marketing for creators.
Bringing It All Together
Pre-webinar community building is what turns a launch from a cold pitch into an event people want to be part of.
- Start by inviting conversations and replying personally.
- Give your followers something in common, so they feel like they belong.
- Go live a few times before you launch, so turning up live feels normal.
- Create one place where your most interested people can gather.
- Celebrate their wins out loud.
- Then, when you want fresh faces, warm them up with ads that ask for nothing.
Do that for a few weeks before your next webinar, and you'll be walking into a room full of friends (snacks optional). 🎉
FAQs: Pre-Webinar Community Building
Pre-webinar community building is the work you do before a launch to turn followers into an engaged group that knows and trusts you. It includes starting conversations, replying to comments, going live, creating a place for people to gather, and sharing your community’s wins.
Start conversations by ending posts with real questions and replying personally. Give your followers a shared identity, go live a few times before launch day, create one place for your most interested followers to gather, and celebrate their wins so others see what’s possible.
Good pre-launch engagement tactics include asking questions people want to answer, replying to every comment you can, running short live Q&As, sharing behind-the-scenes content, and highlighting your followers’ wins. Each one gets people interacting with you before you ask them to register.
Run short, helpful videos as ads with no link or sign-up button, so new people get to know you first. Then invite the people who watched to your webinar. For one coach, a warm-up campaign got nearly 17,000 video plays for $162.
When followers feel connected to you, more of them register, turn up live, and buy. Engaged followers also share your posts and bring friends, and their questions and wins give you ideas and proof for your next webinar and offer.
How Radical Marketing Helps Creators Build Launch-Ready Communities
We’ve been helping educators and experts fill their live events since 2014. These days, a big part of that work is with established creators who want to turn their followers into a community, and that community into buyers.
We build the full system with you, from community and live launches to paid ads and automation. And we get paid on results.
If that sounds like you, have a look at our webinar marketing for creators page to see how it works, or contact us and let’s talk about your next launch.
