Webinars are really powerful, especially if you want to use them to get coaching clients, sell more of your courses, or sell consulting offers. If you want to run a webinar but you’re not sure where to start, here are five steps to run a successful webinar.
Successful Webinar Step 1: Remind Your People
The first step is to remind your people. You want to make sure that the registrants for your webinar actually show up, so don’t be shy about reminding them that it’s happening. To do this, you can send an email on the day before, on the day of, five minutes before, and then if you’d like, even five minutes after.
I’ve got a four-part email series that I like to send out and I want to make sure I send out each of those emails. That includes the first email to say, hey, you’re registered. Then I send another email saying, hey, we’re getting started tomorrow.
I send the third email on the morning of to say, “Hey, your webinar is tonight.” And then I send them an email about five minutes after we’ve already started to say, “hey, we’re starting.” That’s at a minimum.
I also like to use a messenger bot. I’ll often use Facebook Messenger in order to send a message to notify when we’re about to get started. Especially if I’m doing a live stream or something like that instead of an actual full webinar. No matter if I’m hosting a live stream or a webinar, I always like to remind my people. That’s the first step to running a successful webinar.
Successful Webinar Step 2: Test Your Tech
The reason that I like to send my email five minutes after the webinar starts is because it allows you to take care of any tech issues that might arise. That brings me to my next step to run a successful webinar, which is get your tech together early, test out your tech. It’s important to understand that sometimes tools and tech don’t work the way that you want them to.
About 5 to 10 minutes beforehand, I like to make sure that all of my tech is running. I’ll also do a test run to make sure everything is going the way that I want it to. But even if you do a test run, sometimes the tech still doesn’t work the way that you want it to work. However, doing that test run is still going to be helpful. Don’t leave it out.
The tech that I like to use to run my webinar includes Open Broadcaster Software along with Facebook Live. I’ve also used Zoom webinars in the past as well as Google Hangouts, or Youtube Live in order to run a webinar. I like to make it very simple for my live webinars just because I want to see the comments in real time.
I prefer something that is simple and easy to use, so that’s what I use for my tech. If you’d like to see other marketing software that I use, check out my marketing resources page.
Successful Webinar Step 3: Get Interaction
The third step in order to run a successful webinar is to get interaction. Webinars can get really boring really fast. That’s why I’ve created an Anti-Webinar script and I’ll share more about that later. Webinars can get really boring, especially when you’re covering a topic that’s pretty dense or something that’s hard to learn. For example, how to create a webinar sales funnel is a pretty heavy topic, so you want to keep their attention from the very start.
There’s a specific formula that I like to use. I call it my Anti-Webinar formula and it really helps keep people engaged from the start all the way to the very end. You’ve got to keep your webinar engaging. Otherwise, people are going to stop watching or get distracted. In order to get that interaction and engagement ask questions. You can ask questions like:
- Hey, are you picking up what I’m putting down?
- Are you feeling this?
- Is this sounding good?
- Do you have any questions?
Sometimes it’s difficult to get a response for that last question, because if your viewers can’t think of something right away, they won’t say anything. In that case, I like to prompt them with telling them what to type in. I might say something like, “We’re about to move into number three. If you’re ready for number three, type three.” That’s a simple way to get engagement going so that people don’t fall asleep.
But you also want to make sure that your content is engaging and that’s why I really liked the formula I’ve put together. Don’t worry, I’m going to share that with you in just a second. Now we’re going to move into the fourth way in order to run a successful webinar.
Successful Webinar Step 4: Include Just Enough Content
The fourth step in order to run a successful webinar is don’t overwhelm (or do?). There are two specific methods in order to run a really successful webinar.
Option 1: The Overwhelm Strategy
The first is actually overwhelming the attendee with all of the content. If you have a really complex topic that you know has a lot of moving parts, sometimes you do want to overwhelm them. You want to share with them everything that you’ve got. Then by the end of it they feel you really know what you’re talking about.
This strategy really only works when you’re selling a done-for-you service. By the end of your webinar, you want them to be in awe by how well you know your topic, but also just a little overwhelmed to implement it themselves. When you’re selling a done-for-you service, overwhelming them with all of your content is perfect.
Option 1: The Empowerment Strategy
When you’re selling a coaching service and it’s your job to help people find the answers deep within themselves your webinar needs to be just a little bit different. It doesn’t necessarily need to overwhelm them with the ‘how.’ It needs to empower them with the belief that they can get results with you, with your method, and with the program that you’re offering. When they believe they can get results with you and your method and your program that allows them to take the next step.
Helping them to come to that belief is a little bit different than overwhelming them with the how you’re going to do it. There’s a very fine line, but writing a really good persuasive webinar has those two elements.
You’re either going to overwhelm them so you can offer your done-for-you service or you’re going to bring them through a journey of empowerment and belief. The journey of empowerment is still teaching because they get those ‘Aha’ moments. The entire goal is to get them to the point where they feel empowered to make a change and that you are the person to help them make that change.
And now we’re to the fifth and final step to create a successful webinar. And that’s follow up.
Successful Webinar Step 5: Follow Up
Often people believe that the majority of sales will come from the live webinar, but the truth is, most of your sales will come from the follow-up.
Some sales will come with the replay. Along with the replay, send follow-ups with testimonials and send examples of how you’ve helped people in the past along with where they were before they started with you.
There’s a very specific email sequence that you can send to follow up to help you make even more sales. If you need help with any of this, I’ve got a free training that’s going to walk you through my process of creating that Anti-Webinar so you can create an engaging presentation.
I’m also going to share with you how I get coaching clients from webinars, and finally, I’ll share with you how I get webinar registrations so cheap that it makes the return on investment that much higher.
You can get more details and join me on this training by going to YouveGotClients.com/anti-webinar in order to join.