Guides / Webinar follow-up
How to follow up webinar attendees in HubSpot
Sort every attendee by two things: their lifecycle stage in HubSpot, and what they did at the webinar (asked a question, clicked a call to action, watched without interacting, or registered and didn't come). Give each combination one action. Contacts with an open deal get a task for their owner, leads and MQLs who asked something get an email that answers their question, and no-shows get the replay.
The usual alternative is one “thanks for joining” email to everyone. It is easy to send, and it ignores the most useful thing an attendee gave you: the question they asked. The steps below use standard HubSpot features and the export your webinar platform already produces.
What you need before you start
- The attendee export from your webinar platform, with each person's email and whether they attended. Time watched helps if your platform records it.
- The Q&A export, with the email of the person who asked each question and whether it was answered. Anonymous questions can't be tied to anyone.
- Clicks and poll answers, if your platform records them per person.
- In HubSpot: each contact's lifecycle stage, contact owner, and whether there is an open deal with their company.
If you aren't sure your platform gives you all of this, the webinar data checklist lists what to switch on before your next webinar and what to export after it.
Step 1. Get attendance and questions into HubSpot
Most webinar platforms with a HubSpot integration send registrations and attendance to HubSpot, often as a marketing event you can filter contacts by. Fewer send the questions. Check what yours sends: open the record of someone who asked a question during your last webinar and look for the question on their timeline.
If the questions are missing, import them. Create two contact properties, for example “Last webinar question” (multi-line text) and “Last webinar question answered” (yes or no), then import the Q&A file and match rows to existing contacts by email. Keep the exact wording of each question, because you'll quote it in the follow-up.
Before importing, remove colleagues, speakers and partners from the files. Otherwise they end up in your follow-up lists.
Step 2. Segment by lifecycle stage and behaviour
Two fields decide the follow-up. Lifecycle stage tells you who the person is to your company. Behaviour at the webinar tells you how warm they are right now. Put the two in a grid and decide one action per cell.
| Lifecycle stage | Asked a question | Clicked or asked for a demo | Attended, no interaction | Registered, didn't attend |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Customer | Email with the answer; a support ticket if it describes a problem | Task for the account manager | What's new for their account | Replay, pointing to the relevant part |
| Open deal | Task for the deal owner with the question and a suggested answer; no automatic email | Urgent task for the deal owner | Note on the deal | Note on the deal; the owner decides |
| SQL | Task for the owner; the answer by email if nobody acts within two days | Task with a meeting link | Email from the owner with one resource | Replay, sent by the owner |
| MQL | Email that answers the question, with a demo offer | Offer of a short walkthrough, and a task for the SDR | Replay and one resource | Replay and the key moments |
| Lead or subscriber | The answer, plus related content | Offer of a trial or demo | Your usual nurture | Replay and the next webinar |
You don't need every cell on day one. Start with the first column. A question is the clearest signal an attendee gives you, because it says what they need in their own words.
Step 3. Decide who acts: the owner or an email
When a salesperson already owns the relationship, give them a task with the question and a suggested answer, and send no automatic email. A marketing email arriving in the middle of a negotiation can work against the owner. Emails are for contacts without an active sales conversation. A customer who described a problem should reach support as a ticket.
Check consent before you email anyone. Ask your privacy team what your registration form and privacy notice cover. A careful default is to send people who haven't agreed to marketing emails only the answer to the question they asked, with nothing promotional.
Step 4. Write follow-ups that quote the question
A good follow-up repeats what the person asked, answers it, and offers one next step. With a personalisation token for the question and one for the answer, a single template covers a whole segment.
Subject: Your question from the Acme Ops product webinar
Hi Priya, during the webinar you asked: “Can we bulk edit across all our workspaces?” We didn't get to it live. Yes: admins can do it from the workspace list, and the help centre has a two-minute guide. If you'd like to see it on your own workspaces, book a 20-minute walkthrough with Luis.
Example (fictional data)
Have someone who knows the product check each answer before it goes out. Leave pricing, roadmap dates and legal questions to the person responsible for them. A wrong answer in writing does more harm than a late one.
Step 5. Build lists and workflows, and switch them on last
Create one active list per segment you're going to act on, with a name anyone can find later, such as “[Webinar 2026-10] MQL · asked, unanswered”. Then build the workflows that create the tasks or send the emails.
Workflows and behavioral events need Marketing Hub Professional or Enterprise. On Starter you can still use properties, lists and email templates, and send to each list by hand.
Keep every workflow off until someone has read the list and a sample of the emails. Switching a workflow on takes a second, and an email sent to the wrong list can't be recalled.
Step 6. Check what happened, and pass the questions to product
A few weeks later, look at each segment: meetings booked, deals created or moved forward, tickets opened. Compare the segments you acted on with the ones you didn't, and keep what worked for the next webinar.
Send the questions to your product team too. Product teams can act on a short list of requests ranked by how many people asked and who they were. A raw export usually goes unread.
Common mistakes
- Sending the same email to customers, open deals and new leads.
- Allowing anonymous questions, which can't be matched to anyone afterwards.
- Waiting too long. The question goes stale, and platforms keep reports for a limited time.
- Automatic emails to contacts in an active deal.
- Leaving the questions in an export that product never opens.
How Keepstage does this
Keepstage After-Show is post-event intelligence for HubSpot teams. You send the export of a webinar you ran on Zoom Webinars, ON24, Livestorm, WebinarGeek, Demio or Goldcast. We match every question to the person who asked it and to their lifecycle stage, open deal and owner in your HubSpot.
Sales gets the Call Sheet: a follow-up matrix by lifecycle stage, in HubSpot, with lists, templates and workflows switched off until you've reviewed them. Product gets Next Act, a ranked list of what attendees asked for, with quotes. A person reviews every item before it reaches you.
Prefer to start without a call? Request a free Questions-only snapshot: send only the questions column of a recent webinar, with no names or emails, and get your top 10 asks within 48 hours.