The ONLY Webinar Cheatsheet for Coaches and Trainers

The world is waking up. Sort of. And that is why…

It’s time to get your Webinar game on.

Online events are more popular than ever right now, for good reason. So how can you, as a coaching entrepreneur, take advantage of that?

You may have been engaging with your followers and lists through emails, short videos on Instagram or YouTube, and even sending out video messages. But never underestimate the power of a great webinar my friend.

Appointment Marketing

Is a fancy term for webinars and a whole host of online events that we’ll be covering this month. You can take your webinar game to new levels with the right technology, some know-how and a lot of enthusiasm.

Webinars can look like anything you want them to:

• Summits
• Certification courses
• Multi-day trainings
• Retreats & Camps

Even if you stick to the simple 1-3 hour format for a live webinar there is so much you can do to optimize your webinar experience. And when you do that you can increase your visibility, your following and your influence.

So let’s dive into the best strategies for webinar hosting. And remember…

SMILE! You’re on Candid Camera!

(well, hopefully it’s not too candid;)

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5 Laws of Success for Appointment Marketing

A few years back I got to interview Donna Fox, the head of marketing at WebinarJam.

Full Disclosure: I use WebinarJam, which is how I got the opportunity to ask Donna on my show. I also use Kartra and both of those links are affiliate links. I love both of these products. Please feel free to poke around them and figure out which one works best for you.

Anyhoo…

Donna had, for many years, been the head of WebinarJam’s online support desk.

She was privy to all the issues, resolutions, tips, tricks, bugs and fixes their customers came up against everyday.

So I sat down with her one day to pick her brain about what she saw as the greatest strategies for hosting webinar events. She did not disappoint.

She calls these strategies The 5 Laws of Successful Webinar Hosting. Let’s break them all down here.

1. The Law of Successful Registration

Before you even start your webinar you gotta get people interested and registered. And one of the best strategies for engagement is how you present your webinar.

You need a powerful Registration Page. Yes, it is a sales page for your webinar funnel. But, for all intents and purposes, you don’t want to ‘sell’ on this page, you want to invite. Very important distinction.

You want to stay away from the exclamation “Sign up for my webinar!”

Why? Simply, you’re asking people to join you on a journey. That takes time and planning. That’s different than a regular sales page where someone can browse, test and buy at their leisure, on their own time, for the most part.

Also, state clearly the content they’ll be learning, the features of the webinar and the benefits they’ll receive. Just like any other sales page.

So respect peoples’ time by asking them to join you…

“We’re inviting you to join us.” “We’d love it if you could attend…” “We’re hosting an event and we’d love it if you could be there.”

All of those are much more inviting and respectful of people’s time and schedules. Plus, the beauty of a webinar is that is has its own time limitation built in, especially if it’s a live event. It’s a certain day and certain time and if you miss it, well that’s on you.

Everyone knows that online events are time sensitive so you don’t have to pound that point home. Usually.

Invite. Don’t sell.

2. The Law of Attendance

Make sure they show up. You don’t want to host a webinar to a room full of crickets. So make sure you have a good system in place to remind people of your upcoming event.

Text messages still have a 99.9% open rate. So, if it’s available to you, use a text messaging system to remind people of your event.

When you remind them let them know the content, features and benefits of your webinar, just like you would any product. Tell them specifically, the features they’ll be able to take advantage of during the webinar: breakout sessions, Q&A, surprise giveaways, etc. Give them a lot to look forward to.

3. The Law of Successful Webinar Stick

How do you keep people on your webinar? There are actually several ways to ensure people stick around. And here they are:

Good Content –

Nothing beats good content. Make sure your content is relevant, actionable and interesting.

• Is your content relevant to your audience?
• Can people take simple action to get the results you espouse?
• Is your presentation and execution interesting, fun and entertaining?

Before you do your webinar test it out. Create a test audience of friends, family and colleagues. Allow them to give you honest feedback. This is one reason why even coaches need coaches.

I present, speak and train from the stage all the time. I’ve come to rely on testing out my new content with others. In fact, even though I’m a coaches’ coach, I still have my own coach.

I still work through my own roadblocks and blind spots with my coach. And those blind spots include making sure my new content is good enough for an audience.

So use the resources you have at your disposal to vet your content, making sure it’s worthy of the devotion you are seeking.

Have a Giveaway –

The only thing that beats good content is a good, old fashioned giveaway. Everybody likes free stuff. And people get excited when there’s a little competition involved.

So you can have a giveaway or you can make it a contest. Either way, save it for the very end so people stick around. Get it?

Seed, don’t Sell –

No one wants to log onto a webinar to find it’s just one, long sales pitch. No fun. And that’s the easiest way to get no one back to your next webinar. Instead of selling, simply seed. Sprinkle, throughout your content, little hints of what you want to sell to them at the end. No need to pound everyone over the head.

They’re a captive audience, and if your content is good then they’ll stick around and hear you out.

So excite and entice them with little hints here and there. One way to do that is called future-pacing. Give them a mental picture of what their life could look like with the changes you’re suggesting to them. You can use sentences like-

“If you mastered these skills, where could you be in 3 years?”

“Do you see how much easier life will be once you start applying these strategies?”

“Can you see the possibilities of this program in your own life?”

These are proven Seeding Sentences. Myself and other presenters have been using this type of seeding for years from the stage with great success. They’re much more effective than one long sales pitch.

And they’re more efficient too. They let you give your audience an idea of what’s to come and then get back to the important content they showed up to hear.

Have a Q&A –

I have found one of the most important aspects of any online or stage presentation is the tried and true Question and Answer period. People love this experience. It gives them the chance to ask burning questions, listen to other points of view, and engage with you on a personal level.

Watching your host or presenter “take off his persona” (so to speak) and become unguarded and authentic is captivating. And that’s what happens during a Q&A. It’s kind of a little anything-can-happen moment and people love it.

Breakout Sessions –

The same is true for breakout sessions. But this is where everyone listening can “un-guard” themselves and participate authentically.

There is something very intimate and fulfilling about interacting with each other in group settings like this. Breakout sessions can elevate and vitalize a webinar immensely. And they can also help “ground” the information you are teaching.

When participants get the chance to take action on the information you’re giving them it’s going to stick with them long after the webinar is over.

And most appointment marketing technology these days have breakout session features.

4. The Law of Successful Conversion

So, yeah, you want people to feel invited, not sold. You want good content. You want good participation. But you also want good conversion.

At the end of your webinar you want people to take action, not just say, “well that was nice,” and leave. You want them to do something. You may not necessarily want them to buy anything. There are several different ways to convert your participants. You can get them to:

• Buy your product
• Start a Trial offer
• Implement your training with continued education
• Take a pop-quiz
• Download a Workbook
• Like and Follow you on your socials
• Join your list

Make sure you have a clear intention for your webinar. Don’t just decide that you’ve got some good content. You need a plan and you need a funnel.

Where on your funnel does your webinar exist?

Make sure you understand your marketing funnel, where your webinar is in your funnel and what comes after the webinar in your funnel.

These are basic marketing questions and strategies you need to understand if you’re going to have a webinar that is successful.

A successful webinar takes you from Point A to Point B. Point A is where your business is before the webinar and Point B is where your business ends up after you host your webinar.

Your webinar should move the needle of success for your business. If it doesn’t, it wasn’t successful. So what is your intention for your webinar?

Is it to sell the next most expensive product in your funnel? Is it to allow people to sign up for a Discovery session for continued education with you? Is it to expand your list?

In conjunction with great content and curriculum you need to create a great marketing strategy for your webinar. Don’t skip this step or all your work will be for naught.

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5. The Law of Replay and Repurposing

The content you have created doesn’t have to die when the webinar is over. Now you’ve got great content! Repurpose that sh*t!

You can now market the replay to your lists which is a wonderful marketing strategy for the people who missed it the first time. And you can also market it to new people on your list.

And you can use the replays to extend and optimize your conversions, which is a fancy way of saying get more people onboard!

You can also repurpose that content into many other forms: workbooks, audio downloads, a podcast, a short video series for YouTube, etc.

Knee arthritis is my only but huge health problem. I’ve been suffering from this disease for five years. NSAIDs are not allowed in my case because of the allergy, so the alternative is Tramadol. It works well for cutting the pain. I’ve become more active and don’t feel significant discomfort in the affected knee during the day.

But one super cool thing you can do nowadays with most appointment marketing technology is track participants. You can track people who didn’t show up, as well as people who did but left early; and even people who stayed but didn’t convert into your funnel.

After you’ve accumulated that information you can then segment your list into those different buckets and follow up and market to each bucket appropriately. Nifty! So make sure you choose technology that allows you to track participants on a granular level.

The Wrap Up

Life, now more than ever before, is happening online. Take advantage. Create content worthy of devotion. And just as importantly, create a marketing plan for that content.

Follow the 5 Laws of Appointment Marketing:

• The Law of Successful Registration
• The Law of Attendance
• The Law of Successful Webinar Stick
• The Law of Successful Conversion
• The Law of Replay and Repurposing

All these strategies fall under the aegis of having a successful marketing plan for your webinar. Don’t just slap good content on Zoom and call it a day.

Back up that hard work with a marketing plan that moves the needle of your business and gets you from Point A to Point B. And watch your business grow.

What’s the biggest mistake people make when creating new content?

They focus on the ‘what’, not the who.

Everybody gets really excited about their Next Big Thing. And the least successful among us forget to ask their market if they even want that Next Big Thing.

Know your market before you create your content. That way you’ll know exactly what they want and give it to them.

Click here for the most comprehensive avatar worksheet ever. You can use this worksheet to figure out exactly who your market and ideal customer truly is and then market to them exactly what they want.

Do you have webinar content?

Do you have a marketing strategy for that webinar?

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