How To Run Webinars That Don't Suck

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Hey founder,

A LinkedIn connection of mine DM’d me last week. Let’s pretend his name is Paul.

He filled me in on a 2-day, in-person workshop he’s hosting in late May. He wanted some advice on ways to promote and sell it.

He didn’t have much to spend on paid promotion. He was more interested in organic channels.

We set up a coaching call to talk options and put a plan in place. On my list were:

1. Organic social media

2. Newsletters

3. Webinars

4. Landing page

I ordered them this way intentionally. These four channels pair well with the four stages of Paul’s (and everyone’s) sales funnels:

Awareness: Paul will post valuable content on 1-2 social channels will bring awareness to the problems his workshops solve.

Interest: As his social connections become aware, he’ll move them to an owned channel like email where he can continue to give value and earn trust.

Desire: He’ll announce 1+ webinars to his email list (and social), where he’ll give more value and showcase his style & expertise — moving prospective customers from “I like it” to “I want it.”

Action: As he crosses from marketing to selling, his landing page will enable his prospects to take action and pay for his workshop.

There are other channels for each stage. These are just some of my favorites, and a good match for Paul’s needs and budget.

He’s also short on time, otherwise we would have also considered lead magnets and waiting lists.

Making good progress, until…

Paul took a few pages of notes. He was stoked with the plan so far… Until we got to webinars.

I remember saying, “OK, the next one to set up is a web…”

He cut me off, “Jay, let’s skip webinars. I don’t want to run them.”

I asked why. He shared, “They’re just not for me.”

I probed some more.

To paraphrase, he revealed, “They just feel weird. Like, no one is going to plunk down their credit card after listening to my hour-long sales pitch. It will also take too much time to build. Plus I’ve never run one and now doesn’t feel like the best time.”

I smirked and said, “Man, you’ve been to some shitty webinars.”

I continued, “That’s definitely NOT what I had in mind. Let’s talk it through a bit and then you can decide if we keep it or replace it.”

“Fair enough.” Paul replied.

Luckily, I happened to be building this upcoming webinar 👇🏼

I was able to show Paul how I create webinars that feel good, deliver value, and convert well.

What follows are some of the key takeaways that led Paul to commit to running his own webinar.

By following along, you’ll learn:

💎 How to overcome the typical pitfalls & objections of our first webinars

💎 The unrivaled conversion rates of webinars — not just for selling workshops, but any product or service

💎 How to avoid running webinars that suck

📌 If you’re a premium subscriber, keep a lookout for a behind-the-scenes look of how I built my upcoming webinars, what I researched & learned, and how they converted.

Subscribe today if that’s something you’d like to see.

Webinars take work

The pushback Paul had with webinars is the same many of us have: They’re intimidating and take a lot of work.

Fear factor

Webinars require new skills like presenting, storytelling, and performing. Like anything else, you’re going to suck a little (or a lot) at first.

You might dread your first 5, 10, or 50 webinars. Take it from someone who has a heavy introverted side.

But you WILL get better.

Your confidence will pick up and you’ll begin to enjoy them. Especially when you see your conversion rates soar.

Webinars average 55% conversion rates. That’s bananas when compared to 1-2% for social and 5% for email.

Hard work

You’re also not gonna whip up a valuable webinar in an hour.

Plan to spend 2-3 weeks preparing and building your first few webinars.

You’ve got to learn:

• The tools & tech to use (even if lo-fi at first)

• Crafting your story arc

• Creating your visuals/slides

• Building in your offer (the thing you’re selling)

• Packaging it all together

• How to rehearse, tweak, rehearse, trim, rehearse some more

When you combine the intimidation and work required, it’s no wonder webinars are often the marketing tactic on the chopping block.

But beyond the high conversion rates, there’s more good news…

High LTV of one webinar

(LTV = lifetime value)

Once you find a setup and structure that works, you’ll leverage it to guide all your future webinars. That means, you’ll shrink your timelines from weeks of setup, to days or hours.

You’ll also run the same exact webinar several times. Rinse and repeat. Each time, your list will grow and you’ll sell more stuff.

Once your attendee count starts to fade, you’ll change the name, swap out the stories you tell & examples you share, and reboot.

All fair, so long as you continue to refine and improve your webinar to that point that it doesn’t suck.

Webinars that suck

Did you find yourself nodding along with Paul’s rejection of webinars? Why?

If you’re like me before I ran my first webinar, you might picture them to feel like some cringy infomercial.

That you’d have to pretend to be some used car salesman, peddling your products-for-sale.

Truth is, we’ve both sat in plenty of these sleazy webinars. Where we felt like we were being sold to — from the minute we joined till the closing Q&A. Gross.

I’ve also joined webinars that lulled me to sleep. Where the host read their 200-slide PowerPoint sales presentation to me, in monotone.

That’s NOT the kind of webinar you or I want to run. And it’s not the webinar your audience will feel good attending. Which means those 55% conversion rates will be closer to .5%.

Instead, we’re going to run webinars everyone feels good being a part of — you and your audience.

How? That’s exactly what I’ll cover in next Sunday’s deep dive.

I’ll share the five guidelines I use to build high-value webinars:

1. Set the table

2. Tell one story

3. Teach one thing

4. Make it interactive

5. Help with the next step

See you then! And Happy Easter if you celebrate. 🐰 🐣 

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