The Recipe for a High Converting Webinar

Ever thought webinars are dreary and tiresome? What if I told you they are the most potent weapon in your marketing arsenal? In this spirited exchange, we expose the common pitfalls that make webinars dull and monotonous, like running for too long, lengthy introductions, and packing way too much content. More importantly, we share the secret recipe for crafting a riveting webinar that captivates your audience, sparks interest, and influences them to act.

But hold on, we don't stop there! Let's delve deeper into the art of producing webinars that are not just endurable but downright irresistible. Uncover the significance of incorporating sales psychology and sidestepping the unexpected sales pitch. We dissect the five critical phases of a webinar, taking your audience on a psychological journey, stirring curiosity, and manufacturing a demand for your offer. Plus, get handy tips on leveraging webinars in your business and utilizing them for partner launches. So, brace yourself for a wealth of knowledge that could potentially turn your marketing strategy upside down!

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Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:00

Webinars have gotten a bad rap over the last few years, but I hate to break it to you. Not only do they still work, I have seen time and time again that they are the most valuable marketing asset in your business when done right, and on today's episode, I'm going to break it down for you, so stay tuned. What change becomes possible when 100,000 people are impacted by your work? This question came to me one day and I have been working to find the answer ever since. Hi, I'm Jess and I help online course creators amplify their influence and create a movement with their message, and on this podcast, I'm sharing the simple strategies and systems to help you impact more people with your programs so you can create quantum growth in your industry. You are listening to the Quantum Course Creator Podcast. Hey there, and welcome back to the Quantum Course Creator podcast, jess.

Speaker 1: 0:27

Here and today I am dishing all about my favorite thing and really the most valuable marketing asset in your business, and that is a webinar. Now, before you go blah webinars, don't freak out. I know that webinars get a bad rap right. Webinars were all the rage back in like 2016 to 2018, and they really became this kind of monster of a thing and people are saying that webinars are dead, that webinars don't convert anymore, and honestly, I think that's total crap. I just think that the way that we do webinars has changed and we need to follow along with the times and look at the trends in the industry to improve our webinar performance so that they actually do start converting again. There's a few different reasons why I think that webinars are the most valuable marketing asset in your business and I'm going to dig into that in today's episode, but first I wanted to share some of the biggest mistakes that I see people make when it comes to creating their webinars. And again, you're likely doing this because somebody taught you to do this. Even like the biggest, most well-known names, in course, creation are still doing it wrong. Right, they are teaching way too long of a webinar format. People are losing interest. They're going way too in depth with the intro. There are so many things that people are making mistakes on and I really want to touch on this in this episode and how you can optimize your webinar so that it actually converts and becomes that really valuable asset in your business. So the first mistake that I see people make when it comes to their webinars is they are too long.

Speaker 1: 1:20

I had a conversation with a potential client the other day and she said that her webinars, on average, are 90 minutes long. 90 minutes who has time for 90 minutes? The longest time that most people watch a TV show is 42 minutes. Right, we know that people's attention span is not that long, and especially if it's either live or if it's a simulated live recording. We will talk about that in a minute.

Speaker 1: 1:34

But you're holding people hostage for 90 minutes. They cannot leave their computer for 90 minutes. People have other shit to do. You guys, 90 minutes is too long, and if you're sitting here like, oh shit, my webinar's 90 minutes. Well, I got some good news for you, because we're going to talk about it in a second, but your webinar should not be that long. There is a perfect time frame I'm going to talk about that in this episode but it should not be 90 minutes.

Speaker 1: 1:47

So, first things first. It's too long. Your webinars are too long, and webinars that are too long, people don't make it to the end, and we all know that the pitch is at the end. So if they're jumping off before the pitch, it's probably not because they don't want to hear the pitch. It's probably because, like their kid is screaming or like they have to go, there are other things in people's lives. 90 minutes is too long.

Speaker 1: 1:58

The second thing is holding people again hostage with your long ass intro. Again, I get this right. I understand the logic of having a long intro. You want to establish authority, you want to establish expertise we get it. However, if you are positioning your webinar correctly, you really don't have to build that on the webinar, right. There's pre-marketing things that are going to build your expertise well before the webinar starts and nobody really cares about your like 30 minute diatribe about why you're amazing, right, people don't care. People get turned off by this. It comes across very like ego tistical and very narcissistic, and long, long, long intros are out. They're out. We're not doing it Right. That's a big mistake I see people make.

Speaker 1: 2:25

The third big mistake that I see people make is teaching too much, too much teaching, both teaching for too long and also teaching too much information. One, people do not come to a webinar to like learn your entire framework in 45 minutes, right? Or 90 minutes. If you're doing it wrong, right. That is just not what they're there for and again, that's a mispositioning of your webinar. That is doing the wrong thing at the wrong time in your webinar. And what happens is either people are like, oh my God, this is too much, I can't do this right now. So they completely check out mentally.

Speaker 1: 2:44

And then you pitch a course and they're like I can't get through this webinar, like I'm not going to be able to do this course either, or they walk away and they're like awesome, I know exactly what to do. I have a to-do list, I know what I'm doing. I don't even need this course because I got it. And if you've ever heard either of those objections, it's likely because you overtaught in your webinar and I get it right Like you want this to be valuable, you want to give people value, you're a giver, you're an educator. It's what you do. However, your webinar is not the time or place to overeducate. Sure, you're going to be teaching, but not like we're going to talk about that. But over educating on your webinar or teaching too long or too much is only going to keep people from finishing it and from buying your offer, and neither of those things are actually good for your ideal clients. So not good.

Speaker 1: 3:11

And the last thing, the last mistake, is not crafting an effective pitch. We're not pitching at all. Again, like this client, this potential client that I was talking to had no pitch in that 90 minute webinar and then wondered why it wasn't converting. No pitch, my friends. Like, you've got to pitch, okay, but it doesn't have to be gross, it doesn't have to be awkward. You don't have to expect people to jump off and if you do your webinar right, the pitch is kind of like the present at the end it's the dessert after dinner, it's the exciting part that they're like oh yes, this is exactly what I was waiting for, right. And so when you position your webinar accordingly, that part doesn't have to be like the gross aftertaste. It gets to be the exciting, tasty part at the end of your webinar. So these are some mistakes, and if you've been making any of these mistakes, don't worry about it. You're not alone. So many people are. And because people are still teaching this. So you probably learned badly or saw an example badly.

Speaker 1: 3:42

And now is the time to rethink the webinar. We should like rename it or something like a fun and R, I don't know, but we're going to rethink the webinar and create webinars that do not suck. So how specifically do you do that? Well, the first thing is you want to keep it short and sweet. People are busy, people have shit to do. People do not have time to watch something for 90 minutes to learn more about your offer, right. And so I really think that the sweet spot for a webinar is anywhere between 35 and 55 minutes, putting that nice juicy spot right in at the time of most TV shows, which is 42 minutes. If you can keep your webinar anywhere between 35 and 55, right around the 42 minute mark, you are going to be golden. This is proven to hold people's attention, and there will be different parts in the webinar that are going to keep people's attention, but that timeframe is something that most people can find the time to invest in. Right, and their time and attention is an investment they are giving you and not the latest thing on Netflix their attention right now, and that is important to recognize and it's important to keep in mind, right, that people are giving you their attention and that attention is valuable, so make the most of the attention while you have it.

Speaker 1: 4:25

The next thing that is really key when you are building out a webinar that doesn't suck is, rather than giving them the step by step, focus instead on highlighting the gaps or slash and giving them the roadmap. So what do I mean by this? They're two different ways that I teach webinars are two kind of like a choose your own adventure paths with your webinars. And the first one is a. It's a framework webinar. So you're going to be presenting your core framework, your messaging framework, and really talking about the gaps between where they are, where they want to be, and how your framework fills in those gaps. And so when you're highlighting the gap and you're showing them the difference between what they're experiencing, highlighting some of the mistakes that they're making or could potentially be making, and then showing them how to do things differently, not only are you going to create more demand for your offer, but you are also going to really keep their attention and show them why it's important to keep listening and why and how you can help them.

Speaker 1: 5:03

The second kind of webinar I recommend is after if your content, or maybe you had a really juicy what's it called lead magnet, that kind of showed down your framework. The next kind of webinar that you can do, if they already know and understand the framework, is a roadmap webinar, and a roadmap webinar shows them the next few steps right. Oftentimes, when we're stuck in a problem and we know that we have a problem, we know that there's a gap between where we are and where we want to be the biggest hurdle is really wrapping our head around how to start getting that outcome. If we knew, we would already be doing it right. And so a roadmap webinar kind of lays out the next few steps for them. It shows them the path ahead and then positions your course as the step-by-step manual of taking those steps, like the map quest directions of how to get on that path. And so both of these kinds of webinars really create more demand for your offer while still being incredibly valuable for your audience. And so not teaching on your webinar is not necessarily a bad thing. It doesn't mean that it's not going to be a valuable webinar. It just means that it's going to give them more context into how you can help them.

Speaker 1: 5:43

And some of the most important parts of this side of the webinar is really tapping into the sales psychology. Your webinar should not be like intro, teaching a pitch, and unfortunately that's what a lot of people do, right? They're like hi, I am who, I say I am and I'm amazing. Now I'm gonna teach you a bunch of shit. Now buy my course, right, and that is not the most effective way to create demand for your course. Cause, again, your webinar is not there to educate your audience. Your webinar is there to create demand for your offer and to educate your audience on your offer. So you have to assume that your audience, that there's an offer at the end of this. There should be no surprise offer, and that should be.

Speaker 1: 6:10

One of the mistakes that people make is like not being transparent about the purpose and the outcome of the webinar. Nobody likes being surprised pitched at right. I can think about my parents used to talk about this. I've never personally been in this situation, but, like you, used to be able to get like a free vacation in Vegas, but you had to sit through this two hour time share presentation. No one feels good about that, right? Nobody wants to be like bait and switched right. Nobody is into that. So making it really clear what the intention is of the webinar makes it easier to then go into it and position it in a way that's not only going to be valuable and helpful, but is also going to create demand for your offer, which is what your webinar should be doing.

Speaker 1: 6:33

So the way that I teach webinars is I break it down into five core phases, or five different sections of your webinar that are really going to move people through this psychological journey and create demand for your offer, without overwhelming them with content or keeping you on too long, and so I'm going to break down the five phases and kind of what the core whatever it's called intention is of each phase, so that you can really look at your webinars and see, like, do I have these phases? Am I touching on these things? Because these are really the core pieces that you want to move people through. So, obviously, the first phase is the introduction, right, getting them introduced to you, to the topic, helping them create context if they're in the right place, really kind of just introducing you and the topic to the audience. And then the second. That's a very short phase, right, that is not more than like five minutes should not be a long piece of your webinar. The second piece, though, is pretty. It's not long, but it's also valuable, and I call this one make the case.

Speaker 1: 7:07

So the second section of your webinar is where you make the case. This is where you're really going to touch on what they may currently be experiencing and what they desire to be experiencing and really kind of illustrating the gap of that and helping future pace them into what things will look like when they have this problem solved. So by really putting this right up front and center, it helps position this information and gives them context in their brain, right. You're kind of like opening up the file cabinet and picking the right file and saying this information will be filed in this middle folder, inside this file, right? And when you give people context to what you're about to teach them, it not only helps them absorb the information better, but it helps them really kind of wrap their head around the information and they can say, okay, this is going to help me achieve this. This I can file into this section in my brain because I'm going to do this webinar. So that's a really important piece of this is making the case for what really absorbing this information and potentially purchasing a program will mean for them in the long run.

Speaker 1: 7:43

So then, phase three is really the juicy phase. I hate that word. Why do I use that word? It's really the meaty phase. It's meaty any better.

Speaker 1: 7:49

This is really like the core of your webinar and should be the longest section of your webinar, and this is where you are either laying out your roadmap or your framework. So in a roadmap webinar, you're outlining your methodology or process for achieving that result, and this is more effectively done with an audience who is solution aware but are who are still just trying to decide on your solution. So if your audience already knows that they want to buy a course on sourdough, your webinar is not going to try to make the case on why they want to buy a course on sourdough or why they want to learn more about sourdough. It should help them see why your way of doing sourdough is going to be the best way for them. So does that make sense?

Speaker 1: 8:11

You're really, when you're doing a roadmap webinar, you're speaking to somebody who is solution aware but not necessarily like if they are clear on buying your solution or not. And the other kind of webinar is that framework webinar, and in a framework webinar, you are outlining the three pillars of your messaging framework to give them a bigger picture of what they need to have to get to the result that they want. So this is really for a client or an audience who is problem aware but not necessarily a solution aware. And so if they know that they have the problem but they don't really know what they need to have to solve it, this is a really good webinar for those people because it's not only going to help them visualize the solution to their problem they know they have the problem. You're really making the solution clear to them but it also positions your offer as that solution to that problem. So it really does a job for problem aware but not yet solution aware people.

Speaker 1: 8:41

And inside phase three, you are going through each piece whether it's a piece of your framework or a piece of your methodology and you are talking about it. But you're also talking around it, and this sales psychology framework that I teach inside of my webinar process really helps them understand and again create context for where this information is going to file. And so you are introducing the concept or the module or the piece of your methodology and then you are really giving context to that. Why is it important? What are some mistakes that people are making when it comes to that? And then breaking down the core steps of that thing so that it becomes really digestible.

Speaker 1: 9:05

Again, if you were to say like, hey, let's go to Disneyland, I could. Maybe I'm not going to probably get there. I've driven to Disneyland at times, but you would have some kind of concept of like the direction to drive to Disneyland, but you probably could not just hit the road and go right, and so your webinar is going to kind of give them the basic directions of how they need to go, where your course is really going to be, like like driving instructor or like map quest directions on, like the turn by turn, exactly how you get there. So you're going to break down the bigger concepts, you're going to help them understand the basic steps, but not really giving them any of the stuff I said. We're teaching them how to do it, and this is really key, because over teaching not only is overwhelming, but it also isn't over delivering. We tend to think that over teaching is over delivering, but it isn't. It gets people into overwhelm, it doesn't get them into action or it gives people a false sense of confidence because you didn't prepare them what they actually needed in order to get there, and so this is really an important thing to know that, while you may think that you're serving them, you may actually be hurting them.

Speaker 1: 9:42

The other thing that I like to pepper my face three with is for each piece, or each pillar, or each bullet that I'm talking about. I also add supporting proof or testimonials. So I will add an example, I will add a testimonial, I will give them something else to compare it to so that they can anchor that information into their mind, and so these are really key pieces when creating that context for them and, like I said, this is gonna be like the meat and potatoes of your webinar and really should be the biggest chunk of time no more than 20 minutes. This should not be more than 20 minutes of delivery for this piece. Then comes the transition, and this is something that I think a lot of people struggle with when it comes to a webinar. Right, they're giving all this information and then they're like and, by the way, of course, I and the transitioning between giving and asking does not have to be complicated, it doesn't have to be awkward, it doesn't have to be uncomfortable, and it's all about this one thing that you are likely missing and not space for, which is the buy-in.

Speaker 1: 10:18

So you want to get them like in on the same page. Right, you're getting their buy-in, you're getting their energetic commitment to the next step in the process, which is the offer, and so you're helping create context for that coming offer. You're helping them see, like, why they are here, what they want to accomplish, and then you're helping them decide either you can keep watching free webinars and Googling this or Pinteresting it trying to solve your problem, or you can invest in a system that will get you X outcome with a proven process right, and they already know the proven process because they just watched the webinar. And so this is really where you're going to get their energetic buy-in, where they're gonna be like yeah, you know what I am, like this is a big enough problem and I see that you can solve it for me, but I'm ready to hear more. Or they'll be like you know what, like this is not that I'm gonna shoot for me, but I feel like I have a decent idea of what's next. And that's really where the transition happens. And it's a good thing for people to say you know what? I'm not interested in an offer right now, and this is something that I think a lot of people stigmatize, or we don't talk about this.

Speaker 1: 10:56

But something I teach and something I think is very important is your launch is not there to convince people to buy your offer. Your launch is there to get people off the fence. And guess what, friends, there are two sides of the fence, right? There's the yes, I'm gonna join you, and there's the no. This is not right for me, and giving people an opportunity to make an empowered decision about which side of the fence they want to be on is what your launch is there for. Your launch is not there to convince them that they have to buy it. No, right, your launch is there to help them say like yeah, this is the right choice for me, I'm excited about this, I'm gonna purchase it. You know what? Now's not the right time, or this isn't the right offer, or this isn't as important as I thought it was, but, thank you, right, and both sides are good things, because you don't want people to leave your launch on the fence. You don't want them to leave not having made a decision, and so, rather than trying to think about things as like how can I convince them to buy, think of creating launches, creating emails and webinars from the place of how can I help them get off the fence? How can I help them make a decision either way, because that's really what it's about.

Speaker 1: 11:31

And that brings us to phase five, which is the offer, and this is where you go into a very well mapped out pitch of your offer. It creates context of the program, it shows them what they're going to get, it positions some social proof and some examples of how it's worked in the past and it really lays out what they will get in the offer. I think that this is really important, because you've probably heard that a confused mind won't buy, and I completely believe that that's true, and I think the more that you can tell them about what they're going to get, the better informed they will be able to make a decision. I don't think that more information is bad and I think that there's some bad marketing advice out there that's like just tell them how they're going to be at the end. Don't worry about giving them the specifics. Don't give them too many details. Too many details means people won't buy. I don't think that that's true. I think that an empowered buyer is an educated buyer and somebody who knows what exactly they're getting. And here is a slightly tangential example of that.

Speaker 1: 12:05

I love ordering things online. I like ordering my groceries through an app to go pick up or be delivered to me via Instacart, and there have been a few instances in which the Instacart or the mobile order information was not specific enough and it ended up in comical results. So my husband told me that we needed more Gallion-sized Ziploc bags, and so I was looking through the app and I found large Ziploc bags and I was like perfect, large Ziploc bags. The large one is the Gallion and I swear to you I had never seen a Ziploc bag bigger than a Gallion. So I was like, okay, what large is a Gallion? The listing didn't say specifically how big it was. It didn't say anywhere on there like how big the bag is, it just said large. And I was like awesome, large, cool, that's going to be a Gallion. So then we got the bags and we pulled the first one out of the box and, you guys, it was like three Gallions. And we still have these big-ass Ziploc bags and my husband makes sure of mine me every time that I order the wrong-sized bags. But it's because the listing was not specific enough and so I inadvertently bought the wrong thing because the listing did not tell me otherwise.

Speaker 1: 12:48

An empowered buyer is an educated buyer and, sure, buying a box is different than buying a course. However, telling people exactly what they're going to get really sets people up for success. It gives people an opportunity to be an empowered buyer. So, yes, focus on the outcomes, focus on what they're going to get, but also get some specifics. Tell them what's going to happen next. I don't think that over educating people on what comes in the box is ever going to make people say, like you know what, it's not for me, too many of us, right, like I don't think that that is going to deter anybody, but it is going to give people an idea of what they are literally going to get.

Speaker 1: 13:09

So something else I really like to do is break down what that process looks like. Again, your buyer may be buying something online for the first time, like this, and so they don't really understand what to expect, and so creating expectations is really key. I'm a big fan of setting expectations, like creating expectations for people that you are then going to fulfill, because the more that people have realistic expectations, the less they're going to fill in their own nonsense expectations. Right, and we know that miscommunicated and misaligned expectations are the root of all failure. Right, nothing happens. That's good when there are misaligned expectations.

Speaker 1: 13:30

So what I like to do in my webinar is break down the process of what happens when they buy. And I say okay, so you're going to go to this page, which is the sales page. You're going to pick which price point is the best one for you, you're going to click on this button and that's going to take you to a checkout page where you can get your payment information and then you're going to hit complete purchase. When you complete the purchase, you'll be taken to this page that has a short video for you to watch and a really quick survey for you to fill out to help you along with this process. Then, once you submit that survey, you will get access to the course where you can start watching it right away. You'll also get an email from me that has any additional information you may need, including your password. Right, give people an idea of what is going to happen next so they're not like okay, cool, I bought it now and this is going to save you so much on the back end with, like, customer fulfillment. People will be like where have I accessed this? What are the calls? How do I like when can I start watching this? If you tell people before they buy, they then become a more empowered buyer and they know what's going to happen next, and so they're less likely to freeze when something does not meet their expectation because they know what that is coming. So, again, setting people up for success by giving them what to expect.

Speaker 1: 14:09

I also, in the offer section, like to address some frequently asked questions and the way that I teach FAQs. I teach this in creating a compelling offer program too, which is a mini course that I have, but I teach you how to use FAQs as a way to really address common objections. So, looking at the reasons why somebody may like see a stop sign and have an objection to purchasing a program, answering that in the frame of a question and really giving them some more information that will help them overcome that objection. So that section, the offer section, should last no more than like five to six minutes, with a little bit of time at the end for Q&A. If it is live, if it is not live, don't pretend it's live. That's the worst, you guys. Simulated live, where you're locking people in, is a no-go. So that is how to structure your webinar.

Speaker 1: 14:38

Lastly, I want to talk about how to really leverage your webinar in your business and what's really awesome about a webinar, especially a well-strategized webinar, is that it not only can function well in your business, it can really be a great way to expand your audience and really get in front of more people. So obviously I recommend having a hybrid system of live launching and evergreen funnels. This is somewhere that you could leverage an evergreen webinar that could educate your audience on your offer even ahead of your launches and get them to kind of know what to expect again the expectation game before your live launches. So this can also offer a way to bring in additional revenue, especially if you're driving consistent traffic to it. There's also something really cool that you can do, which is take your webinar on tour and go do partner launches.

Speaker 1: 15:04

So this is where you can meet up with somebody who has the same audience that you do, but maybe doesn't serve them in the same exact way, and present your webinar to their audience. And so what this really does is it takes a lot of the hard work out of that introduction section where you're trying to build credibility, because if somebody else is saying like, hey, this is my guru, this is my person that I go to for this thing and I trust them enough to present them to you my audience. Then you have this third-party validation. You have perceived authority because somebody else is elevating you as an expert and this can be a win-win for both of you because you can offer an affiliate commission for them. I recommend 50%. Honestly, they're giving you the people Like there's a lot that goes into that. So I recommend paying 50% for your affiliate launches.

Speaker 1: 15:31

But you can take your webinar on tour, go, do some partner launches with people that you know, people that you've introduced yourself to, and really create a win-win situation for them, for their audience, and for you and your business and get in front of more people, and a well-strategized webinar will help you do that. So there's a few different ways that you can leverage a webinar inside of like your email funnels, inside of like a full, evergreen funnel, as like a free training that you offer at the end of a blog, or like through your YouTube channel so many ways that you can really put this into your marketing strategy to serve your audience and to kind of back-end, open the doors to your program between your live launches. So I hope that this has helped you kind of look at webinars a little bit differently. I tried not to overeducate you in the section, but I really wanted to help you get an idea of, like the different areas that you need in your webinar and why they are really important, and also give you some ideas of how you can really put your webinar to best use in your business. So I'd love to hear your takeaways.

Speaker 1: 16:08

Do you have a webinar currently? Is that something that you are looking at bringing into your marketing strategy this year? Definitely come hang out with us on Instagram, check out the Tuesday post that's all about the podcast and come interact in the comments there and I will see you in our next episode where we are talking all about. Is this the end of the mega course? Good question. Thank you so much for listening and I will see you in our next episode.