Even though webinars are one of the best ways to convert new clients, webinar fatigue has set in and it’s fierce.
A few years of information light and sales heavy content has made it difficult to attract new customers to a webinar – but that doesn’t mean they’re dead, it just means we have to work a little harder to get your perfect client on the call.
In this overcrowded webinar market – how do you do that? How do you stand out from the rest of the Internet noise and stand out as someone who has something valuable to offer without sounding like just another sales pitch?
We took a look at some of the most successful webinars our friends have launched over the past year and here’s what separated the successes from the webinars everyone ignored.
Create a Relevant and Captivating Title
Everyone (and I do mean everyone) is sick to death of seeing webinars that make broad stroke promises.
Marketing expert Melanie Duncan shares with her readers that a successful webinar title must be at least one of these three things: curiosity provoking, benefits focused or strategically specific.
By zeroing in on a title that speaks specifically to your target audience’s pain point with a curious twist – you’ll have more of the right people signing up. Also, by adding a time element, you evoke a sense of urgency. People want to know how long of a time investment the desired results will take. For example, instead of titling it “How to get more Qualified Leads for your Business” you could title your webinar “How to get 10X More Qualified Users for your New App in 30 Days.”
In the second title, the type of business mentioned was specific and numbers were used to quantify just how many leads you’re talking about and in what time period. This means your audience knows specifically what they’re being promised and if they have a need for this, they’re the exact right kind of audience.
Give Truly Free Content First
Free = NO email address.
In marketing, there are very few tools more powerful than the read magnet. Thanks to the influx of opt-ins and subscribe options, people are more protective of their inboxes than ever and less likely to give their email away to someone they don’t know.
To turn these readers into webinar attendees and get them on your list, you have to give them a reason to trust you. By publishing a relevant blog or guide that’s easy to Facebook advertise and then retarget – you can focus on providing nothing but pure, valuable information first.
Later, you can re-target these readers as a warm audience with your webinar offer and they won’t be skeptical of you wasting their time. Instead, they’ll be excited to learn more – and will actually show up to the call!
Tell a Story in Your Facebook Ad
One of the biggest mistakes we see when companies and entrepreneurs advertise their free webinar on Facebook is that their ad jumps into the money talk and benefits – immediately.
Here’s the problem with that – getting people to attend your webinar is highly dependent on the kind of copy you persuade with. Persuasion copy walks your potential customer down an emotional “buyer’s journey” and with that means they have to know your story, so they understand that you get their struggles.
For example, instead of telling the story that simply talks about business and results i.e. “ Here’s how we can help you find 3,000 qualified leads a month” you would start with the why and the founder’s personal struggle that led them to this solution instead. It could read “when I started in sales, I was lucky if I found 15 qualified leads a month and even luckier if I could close one. The financial heat was a turning point, and I finally discovered how to automate the process to find more qualified leads and close more deals.”
Your personal story and your company’s journey is what separates you from the Internet static and is critical to highlight if you want people to register for your webinar.
People have to buy you first, before they’re ever interested in your products or service.
Information Heavy
Content creators have had to seriously crank up their game in 2017. People aren’t trading their emails for two tidbits of information nor are they so eager to give away their free time, unless they know the content is going to be rich.
With SEO trends leading the way with “dense content” people expect the same information-dense content from webinars as they do from blogs. Read: Tons of value, little self-promotion.
Over the last few years webinars have gotten the reputation for being misleading sales calls. While you absolutely want to still sell your services, the first 80% of your webinar should be jam-packed with the relevant information you promised. Do this, and you’ll actually sell more.
Mix Up Your Q&A
Q&A time is a necessary part of every webinar, but the same “wait ‘til the end to answer questions and then I’ll sell you on my services” is tired. One of the best ways to engage your audience is to actually engage them all the way through the call. During your presentation, stop for a few minutes and ask interesting questions or for their opinion. It’s never been more important that you break up the monotony of your presentation.
What if you’ve pre-recorded your webinar?
Make sure to do the presentation live at least once, with real questions and real talk-back time with your audience. It’s also a good idea to have a list of questions that people asked previously – based on your company’s FAQs that you can go through. Let your audience know you’ll be going through a list of questions that were asked ahead of time, so people don’t get frustrated when they can’t raise their hands.
Plan 30 Days Ahead
One of the reasons webinar newbies fail is because they simply don’t give their marketing plan time to work. It takes time to advertise read magnets, send your email list updates about your webinar and promote it with enough leadway to actually get people to sign up. Most heavy promotion (emails) take place the week of the webinar, since people will forget about it sooner than that, but warming them up for a month prior helps build the trust you need and get them on your list.
Any other tip you would add to this list? We would love to hear! Just comment in the section below.
Also, feel free to check out some of our past webinars!
You might learn some things about Zight (formerly CloudApp), like the power of annotated screenshots or how much time you can save sending screen recordings.