How to Build Webinars for Business Growth and Development
Do you want to know the secret of the successful use of webinars? Secrets that build webinars for business growth. Webinars are essentially one- or two-hour live video streams, usually like mini-courses. Anyone viewing the webinar can type in questions and comments throughout the presentation.
Why webinars are one of the best form of content for any business
First, viewers typically place a higher value on webinars than other forms of free content, which means that they pay closer attention to what you’re showing them.
In addition, since the webinar is done live, they are forced to pay attention so they don’t miss anything.
Finally, webinars allow you to connect with audience members in a real way. Other than creating a conference and trying to convince your audience to attend it, webinars are the best way to talk to hundreds, even thousands, of people at once.
And unlike with a blog post, you can actually answer the questions your audience has in real-time during a webinar.
A few businesses have published results of their webinars.
Adobe claims a solid 19% conversion rate, while Buzzsumo says that 20% of webinar attendees turn into paid customers.
If you want to make a high converting webinar, follow these six steps.
Step #1: Warm up the crowd
Despite being a great sales tool, a good webinar isn’t a sales pitch at all. A good webinar is a lot like a blog post. It actually provides value to the audience without asking for anything in return.
And just like with a blog post, you shouldn’t start off by digging right into the meat of your topic.
The point of engaging here is two-fold: first, you start to loosen up, which will make your presentation better, and second, you get your audience into an engagement mode.
Since you’re interacting with them now, they are more likely to interact throughout the webinar.
Tip 1 – Ask a few questions
It’s always good to ask questions during the webinar, but it’s especially good to do at the start.
Basically, when you get your viewers responding in the chatbox, they get used to it. And that makes them more likely to respond to you and ask more questions in the future.
Ideally, you want to get them in this habit early.
Tip 2 – Have a quick chat
You should always arrive 10-15 minutes early to make sure that you don’t have any technical difficulties, which do happen from time to time.
Assuming everything goes smoothly, you will likely have a few minutes before you can start the webinar.
There are always a few people that come to the webinar early.
This is a great time to start talking with them about anything in the chatbox.
Tip 3 – Ask attendees to fill out survey
Instead of asking questions and getting responses in the chatbox, you can have your viewers fill out a poll or survey.
Step #2: Establish clear objectives
A webinar is all about giving value, but it’s about giving the right kind of value.
Until that time, everything in your presentation should have two purposes.
Phase #1 – Make the benefit better
Viewers sign up for webinars for two main reasons.
Either they have a problem that is causing them or their business pain and they want to solve it, or you’ve made a great promise that they’d like to get.
Here’s some examples:
Pain: “I’m not getting any organic search traffic.”
Webinar: “7 steps to ranking #1 for long-tail search terms”
Benefit: “I wouldn’t mind making more money even if I’m doing okay now”
Webinar: “6 ways you can make an extra $1,000 per month”
Whatever the reason, you need to mention it early on. Remind them why they are there and what they will get out of the webinar if they stay for the whole thing.
Phase #2 – Educate viewers about a solution
Don’t just educate them in general—educate them about specific solutions.
This will be the meat of your presentation, where you break down solutions, step by step:
Most viewers don’t care about the technical stuff going on in the background. They just want solutions that they can apply.
Step #3: Create some intrique
Webinars can provide a ton of value for your visitors. This is why your number one priority should be to keep them interested in your material.
There are a few things that go into this.
Without an intriguing topic, no one will show up
Interest starts with your topic. If you have a seemingly boring topic, no one will want to attend the webinar, no matter how good your actual presentation is.
The most important part of drawing attention is the title of the webinar. It functions exactly like a blog post headline.
Most of the same rules of writing a powerful headline apply here too.
You want to include specific results that your reader is looking for while not giving away the answer.
How do you get people to stay?
After you get your audience to register and attend the webinar, you still need to keep them intrigued by your material.
They’re either not sure if this topic is really important to them, or they already know a lot of the things you’re covering but just want to see what you say about a few key aspects.
There are two things you should do.
First, don’t reveal everything about your solution at the start of the webinar.
But if your webinar is something like “7 secrets of…”, start with a really good one, and then mention that your last one will be the best one.
Another option is to provide an incentive to viewers who watch the entire webinar.
The bonus might be:
a recording of the webinar
a related bonus e-book
a transcript of the webinar (or a PDF of it)
or a special offer
Step #4: A buying audience is engaged
I’ve mentioned a few times so far how important an engaged audience is. Let me clarify what I mean by that. Engagement is a measure of how much focus your audience is giving your webinar.
If you have low engagement, it means that people aren’t paying attention, despite watching the webinar.
It could mean that they’re zoning out maybe because the presentation is boring, or it could mean they’re distracted by email or social media.
A small percentage will just keep the webinar on to see if you offer a free bonus at the end, but don’t worry about those viewers.
A highly engaged audience will watch everything, and a decent portion of those viewers will jump at the chance to interact with you.
The more involved viewers are with you, the more invested they will be in the solutions you’re presenting.
Here are a few different ways you can encourage engagement.
Suggestion #1 – Launch a poll
Every once in awhile, it makes sense to see if viewers are actually understanding what you’re saying and getting value from it.
Launch a poll.
If you’d like to do it informally, just ask a question and get responses in the chatbox.
But if you also want to know if you’re presenting effectively, a poll is a good idea because you’ll get concrete feedback.
Not only will it give you good information, but it will also make your viewers solidify their learning.
Suggestion #2 – Don’t read slides
One way to bore your viewers quickly is to create slides with a ton of words on them and just read them out loud.
If you’re going to do that, why do they need you?
Instead, put a few words on a slide, which attract attention, but fill in the blanks yourself.
Suggestion #3 – Mention viewers by name
This tactic is great at making your viewers feel more involved.
Mention viewers.
Instead of just being a screen name typing into a chatbox, your viewers can feel like they are part of the webinar if you address them by their names along with saying something positive:
Suggestion #4 – Small webinars can be better than large ones
The default tactic is to try to get as many people to register for your webinar as possible. It’s not a bad one.
This is impossible if you have hundreds of viewers on the webinar.
But if you only had up to 50, you could cover quite a few scenarios and make a few big sales.
Then, note the audience size right away at the start of the webinar.
Step #5: How to effectively close
If you’ve done everything up until this point right, making your pitch is actually really easy.
Effectively close.
First, transition into your offer
The only way to really mess up at this point is to say, “Well, that’s all I have for you today. Now I want to show you a product to buy.”
As soon as you say something like that, the viewers will feel like they are being sold to, and no one likes that.
With a webinar, there’s an understanding that in the end you might make an offer, but it should flow naturally from the topic of the webinar.
The offer should have two qualities: it should be unique and valuable.
Hold a Q&A session after the pitch
Before you even mention your product, tell the viewers that you will answer any questions they have in just a minute.
Although a large percentage of viewers will drop off here, the ones that stay are the ones that are really interested in your solutions.
Step #6: You accomplish this
So, what should you do to maximize your conversion rate? Follow up with them within 24-48 hours.
Assuming you’re using software like GoToWebinar, you will have access to all of your registrants’ email addresses.
Here’s what a good follow up might look like:
Subject: Recording of last night’s webinar on [topic]
Hi [name],
I know that we covered a lot in the webinar yesterday, and it’s easy to miss things. That’s why I’ve put up a recording of the webinar that you can stream or download. Here’s the URL:
[URL of the webinar]
If you still have any questions about what we covered, just reply to this email, and let me know what they are.
Additionally, you still have 48 hours to take advantage of the 20% discount.
This is a pretty special offer that doesn’t come around very often, and I feel you could really benefit from [product] in 3 ways:
(benefit #1, #2, #3)
If you want to take advantage of the offer or want more information, click here:
[URL of the landing page]
Best regards,
[your name]
Finally, make your past webinars publicly available.
The bottom line
Webinars might be the single best tactic to not only attract visitors but also convert those visitors into leads or customers.
They offer a unique opportunity to engage with your potential customers, which no other form of content can match.
Mike Schoultz is a digital marketing and customer service expert. With 48 years of business experience, he consults on and writes about topics to help improve the performance of small business. Find him on Facebook, Twitter, Digital Spark Marketing, and LinkedIn.
