There’s a major myth out there that webinars are complex, time-consuming and expensive to create.
It simply isn’t true.
Remember this sentence: Webinars That Work = The right Presentation on the right Platform for the right People.
If you’re not going to read on, my one take away is this. Join and experience as many webinars as possible. Learn from them, what works, what they do, when they mess up, when they lose your attention. The more you experience, the more patterns (as discussed below) will become clear.
If you follow that formula, you’ll create online presentations and webinars that engage your audience, deliver value and result in more revenue for your business.
The Structure of your Webinar to follow
1. Here’s who I am.
This first step is a little tricky. Some audience members may know a lot about you. To others, you may be a complete stranger.
Your best bet is a tight script that hits the high spots. Only your mom cares that you were president of your high school chess club (and she’s only pretending.) Let your audience know how your background makes you relevant to them.
2. Here’s what I’ve got for you.
It’s no secret that you’re trying to sell something, and prospects want to know what it is. So tell ‘em. But don’t go overboard. Ask yourself the magic question: “What does a person need to know about my product or service to make a purchase decision?”
3. Here’s what it will do for you.
Now we’re getting into the meat of the presentation, the part that answers the prospect’s burning question: “What’s in it for me?” We’re talking benefits.
Think about three types of benefits: immediate, longer-term, and eventual. For example, maybe the product saves the customer time and money immediately. In the longer-term, she can use those resources to accomplish other business goals. The eventual benefit is a more profitable business.
4. Here’s how to get it.
This is the beginning of your closing sequence, and you’re walking a razor’s edge — one slip-up, and you’re bleeding. First make sure they know exactly what they get. Then state clearly how they get it. Do they click a button? Visit a website? Call you?
5. Bolster your authority.
People like to believe they make up their own mind. But the truth is, we have a strong instinct to follow the herd. So prospects want to know who else agrees with you. You might provide a strong testimonial. Or relate a case study. You could cite a scientific paper that proves your point. Or quote an expert.
6. Reverse the risk.
But what if your product or service is too new to have all these things? In this situation, consider providing a guarantee. It’s a practically foolproof way to lower the prospect’s fears and increase conversions.
The guarantee can vary based on the risk you’re willing to shoulder. For example, a digital product might have a negligible cost per unit. So you might provide a money-back guarantee for 30 days, 90 days, or even lifetime. But if you’re selling your time, maybe you’ll simply promise to do anything within reason to make sure they’re satisfied.
6a. Add value (optional).
If you’ve ever listened to an infomercial, you’ve heard these transitional words: “But wait!” It means the announcer is about to add free steak knives, or give you free shipping, or both — “but only if you order in the next 10 minutes.”
If you decide to use the add-on technique, it’s a great opportunity to impose a time limit to increase urgency. How can they resist?
7. Close again.
In step four, you explained exactly how to get the product or service. But don’t rely on the prospect to remember. Instead, restate your call to action.
Why it works
This sequence replicates the thought process human beings use for making decisions. Your job as a salesperson is to think on behalf of your prospect.
Steps 1-3 provide facts to satisfy the intellectual requirements of a decision. Steps 5, 6 and 6a provide emotional fuel for overcoming resistance. Closing steps 4 and 7 make it easy to say “yes”.
With a sales structure in place, you can relax, educate your prospects, and help them solve a problem. Add just a touch of entertainment — delivered with your irresistible charm — and you’ve got a winning formula. People like to do business with people they like.
Structuring your actual webinar content
Ultimately, your job is to deliver on what you promised.
Here’s how to do that:
Remember the 80-20 rule. Give them solid content 80% of the time and only promote for the remaining 20% and not the other way around like it’s normally seen.
Start by welcoming people who are showing up live and creating engagement and excitement by asking where they are joining from.
Make sure your audience knows they are in the right place. Tell them who the webinar is for and who it is most likely NOT for.
Give them a reason to stay till the end by teasing with a bonus they get only if they stay on the webinar with you.
Set the agenda of the webinar and tell them exactly what they are going to get. I also recommend saying upfront that after the teaching, you’ll give them an opportunity to work with you and accelerate your process so they know what to expect. Also, by doing this, you stay in integrity and teach with confidence.
Introduce yourself and tell your story. Make it brief and relevant. Talk about parts your audience can relate to. Build in some social proof but don’t dwell on it too long.
Give them the content you promised. Don’t feel like you have to give away a kitchen sink. Another helpful thing to keep in mind is to think of your webinar as the what and the why and your paid offerings as the how. Your job on the webinar is to bring clarity around your audience’s struggles and challenges, and give them a few actionable steps to see results. It doesn’t have to be everything you know on the topic because nobody expects that.
Transition smoothly into your pitch. Talk about your paid offering and say exactly what they are going to get. Now, don’t be tempted to rush through this process. People who are really interested in investing with you will want to know all the details and will likely have questions. People who have no interest in buying will drop off or already have at this point. Also remember, the better you do with your educational content, the more confident you’ll feel pitching. Giving away that content for free earns you the right to pitch.
Share case studies that are relevant to your audience and results that they can see themselves achieve.
If it’s a live webinar, rather than an Evergreen (repeating) webinar, stay on to answer questions as long as you want but be respectful to other people’s time and let them know it is completely okay for them to leave early.
Using slides when creating a stellar presentation
Make a really good first impression. Show people that you know what you are talking about and you mean business.
You need more slides than you think you need. This is one of the biggest mistakes people make. They create a small handful of slides and spend too much time on each slide. Which leads to boredom.
You need to have a ton of slides – seriously. Don’t put too much text on each slide, don’t put in too many bullets and don’t spend more than a minute on each slide and keep moving fast to keep people’s attention.
Use slides with images to break up the flow of the text-only slides and use slides to ask questions and engage with your audience, especially if you tend to get so focused on the teaching that you forget to do this.
Use slides to make transitions to the next point you are about to make or easing into your pitch.
Don’t read your slides word for word. Use them as a guide and to keep people engaged. And don’t obsess about making your slides looking perfect from the get go. Yes, a professional looking slide deck can make a big difference to your webinar but always remember, content trumps design.
Your slide deck is there to support you and your content, that is all.
Presentation = Stories, Not Facts
Presentation, for example, is the delivery vehicle for your webinar – the way you deliver your content, the way you tell your story and the way you structure the experience for attendees.
Your presentation must start by focusing on where you once were, what happened, and where you are today.
Even more important, what you share during your presentation must lead your target audience to believe that they can achieve their specific goals or dreams as a result of what you’re sharing with them.
It’s also important to remember that great presentations are not filled with facts and figures. Instead, they unfold like epic stories – with colourful characters, conflict, drama, humour and the promise of a happy ending.
People = The Right Ones vs. The Wrong Ones
People, of course is the biggest variable in creating a webinar that works.
Without the right people on your webinar, all is lost.
Just like with marketing on LinkedIn, the riches are in the niches when it comes to webinars. You must focus on defining your target audience.
Don’t try to be everything to everyone. Instead, focus on the niche audience or group you can best serve and who would most benefit from your product or service.
Next, knowing how to find, engage and invite the right people to your webinar is one of the most important methods you must master.
There are several ways to go about this, including social media channels, email marketing, paid advertising, guest blogging, podcasting and more.
The benefit of building a solid brand that is on topic and related to your webinar or online presentation is that it becomes an easy, even seamless transition for people who enjoy your content in one specific area (such as a podcast or blog) to also sign up and attend a webinar.
The key is stay on task and on target, and using various types of content marketing (blogs, videos, podcasts, eBooks, etc.) to warm up and funnel your target audience over to a webinar registration page.
Paid ads can also work, but I’ve found that the quality of people who come in via your free content (i.e. they read your guest blog post, listened to your podcast, etc.) is far higher than those who come in “cold” after clicking on a random Facebook Ad.
Sending traffic to your webinar
Well the easiest way with https://t4s.site is a landing page which “sells” your webinar.
Popular landing pages include a promo video – a short video that, getting to the point, tells the audience why they should attend the webinar, what they will learn or get from it, or how they will benefit.
People are busy – be very clear about who the webinar is for, and in return for their time, why they should attend.
Add an Evergreen countdown (the T4S countdown element) and a clear Call To Action (a button to your webinar sign-up page for example).
You can even show your webinar on a second page in your funnel right inside https://t4s.site – just add your video and be sure to give a clear way for “what next?” – an opt-in form, or a buy now button, and so on.
If you’re doing this, combine your landing page with an opt-in form, and then after opting in, send them to your webinar video page.
PS. Credit for the above to several others including Agnes Jozwiak and John Nemo.
