You are thinking about webinars or have made the decision to use webinars to build and grow your business, you deserve a high 5. Webinars have higher CTRs, sales conversion rates and email list building abilities than many other online marketing methods. webinars are brilliant for so many reasons, however, you are nervous?. am I right?
Think about a form of marketing you are good at, something you enjoy that brings in results, it may be blog post writing, it may be live video or something else. Then think about the first time you ever attempted to do that?. Were you scared? Did you feel like you may end up hurting your business more than helping it?. You may have felt you would mess it up?
I remember when I first committed to running a webinar, putting it out publicly to say…hey come along I'm running a live webinar…. and it filled me with dread, I felt physically sick which just got worse when I got my very first subscriber to that webinar, it all became very real and very scary. back then webinars were quite new and technology wasn't anywhere near as good as it is now.
These are common feelings when any business owner, large or small, learns to use a new tool that will build their business online and their reputation, we've all been there. however, there are things you can do to reduce that feeling. That will help you feel more comfortable and prepared to make sure that your first experience is a good one.
Let's take a look at 5 common webinar marketing mistakes that happen all the time and importantly simple ways to avoid them, if at the very least you can think about these and learn to deal with them before you go live on your webinar you will be 5 steps ahead of me when I ran my very first live webinar for my business.
1 – Not Enough Planning Time
Slow down. You are no chomping at the bit to access the many benefits of webinars for building your business. However, when you don't plan enough, test your webinar software and your script/slides and get comfortable first, you can do more damage than good for your business.
Running test webinars to get really comfortable with the software takes away so much stress when you run your first webinar, most people will take a glance and ‘wing it' but I can tell you testing, testing and more testing will help you so much more than just going for it.
Test your slides, find a quiet time when you can run through, I will talk more about scripts in future blog posts but word for word scripts don't work, they make you sound very robotic , your slides are there to guide you through your topic/ training and so, therefore, practicing with them will really help you out.
2 – Using Inferior/unstable Webinar Software
It's really important you reduce your tech problems before they crop up, the delivery from your software supplier should never be a worry nowadays, I've tested most of them and there are alot out there that are pretty good , there are also some that I just couldn't get on with or didn't provide the functionality that I wanted in my webinar.
Keeping your viewers at the front of mind when making a decision will always give you the steer that you need when choosing your platform. I use Demio
and i also us Easy Webinar
3 – Settling for Inferior Audio
Webinars are video and audio-driven. In many cases, your videos are simple screenshots or slides. In every case, bad audio will kill the best webinar . In the testing phase, do whatever it takes to deliver high-quality audio. This means hosting your webinar from a quiet, calm, distraction-free environment, using a high quality microphone and capable webinar software.
Ensure that you have a wired connection to your internet so that the connection is as stable as possible and try to get the family if they are using the same internet connection to stop streaming Netflix or playing the latest online game. All of these things will help you get a stronger connection and deliver a more reliable audio.
People are very forgiving or poor visual quality but if the sound is poor they WILL leave in droves.
4 – Using a “Sell, Sell, Sell!” Mentality
Webinars work because people have fun. They are interacting with you and each other. There is a “right now”, “being part of a group” process that other marketing channels simply can't replicate. Think of value, not sales. Provide incredible free value during your webinar. Don't sell during the webinar “body”. If you do make an offer at the end of your webinar, be certain that what your webinar attendees pay in return for the value they receive is so attractive that they can't pass up on the offer.
Don't sell throughout your webinar. Leave that for your call to action.
If your ONLY goal for running a webinar is tosell throughout then you need to rethink your sales strategy as this just does not work.
5 – Limiting How Much Your Audience Can Participate and Interact
Why do people love attending live webinars? Because they want to be heard! They want their opinion noted, their questions answered, and their problems solved. Those webinars that allow your audience to interact and engage with you will always be your highest grossing and highest converting webinars, because you allow your prospects to be a part of the process.
For your first webinar it may be a good idea to keep the chat to you only, this stops streams and streams of conversations going on in the background that distracts you from the content you are delivering. you can, of course, get a partner in to help manage the chat and Often when I run a webinar Sarah will be in the chat answering and guiding the questions through. This really helps in keeping the webinar to time.
NOTE: – do not ignore your comments, I have been on many webinars where the chat was really lively yet the presenters totally ignored all the comments, This really won't help you build your community and your relationship with your webinar viewers.
Conclusion
Of course there are more things you can think about when looking to run your first webinar and if you are interested in really becoming prepared then feel free to get my 7 Webinar Templates to really kick start your journey into webinars.
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