If you’ve ever attended my one day Presentation Secrets events or have been following the recent 14 day Speaker’s Challenge videos (see earlier posts on this blog), you’ll know I’m a huge fan of webinars. I figured that in today’s blog post I’d share some of my secrets so you’ll be fully prepared for running your own successful webinar event.
The reason I love webinars so much is because they are a great way to test your presentation before a live speaking event. In my experience they convert very well for sales too, so if you have an awesome product or program to offer then running your own webinar event is a way to make a good return…and you don’t even have to get dressed as nobody can see you!
In this blog post I’m going to talk you through how to set up your webinar and how to make sure you get your message to market match in the first of this two part webinar success blog series.
Let’s get started…
First things first, the webinar software
Ok, if you don’t already have access to webinar software, you are likely to need to make a financial investment. We use GoToWebinar which costs $99 per month but it will pay for itself over and over. There is a more basic version if you only have a handful of attendees or there are a few free webinar programs that you might want to try out to get you started.
Do some research and find the one that best suits your needs. Be sure to dig out a few reviews to check out other people’s experiences too as you don’t want to put the effort into organising your webinar and getting the marketing right, only for the webinar program to let you down by being unreliable.
Ok, now let’s move on to the steps to running your own webinar.
Set a date and time
Choose a day and time that works for your expected audience giving consideration to where your audience is based. Remember that 7pm Melbourne time is 8am GMT…that’s fine; a lot of my webinars are run at this time.
However, if you are based in Melbourne but you expect your audience to mainly reside in say, New York then 7pm Melbourne is 3am New York! That doesn’t really work does it?!
To attract the most attendees you will need to be the one staying up late if you and your audience are on different time zones.
Set up your webinar in your chosen software
Work through the sections and enter the webinar details’, making sure the correct time zone is selected then add your photo or logo
TIP: in GoToWebinar this logo image size is 200px x 200px so you might want to resize your image in advance.
At this point you’d also add your title and webinar event information but before we get to that, I want to share some ideas with you to make sure you get this part right.
This is how I prepare for writing all my marketing copy. You may have a slightly different way of doing your own preparation but these fundamental questions should form part of your strategy.
Ok, so the essential thing is that you get your message to market match! Your message has to talk to your market. Your audience will be compelled to attend your webinar if they feel emotionally connected to your message. It’s not what you think they want but what they do want that will win the day.
So how do you know what your message is? I invite you now to make a list of these questions, think of your ideal client or the person you are addressing with your event and answer the questions from their mindset.
Who is your market? Describe them demographically
You’ll need to narrow down your niche…it’s no good just saying you want to connect with mums; you need to be more specific. Perhaps mums aged 40+ in the UK who parent children who have just left for college that are struggling to adjust. Does that make sense? Figure out exactly who you want to talk to.
What are their psychographics? What is going on is their mind?
Staying with the above example, it’s perhaps fear that their life won’t be the same again? Anxiety that they have no purpose now their child is independent? Maybe they’re realising that their child was the common bond that kept their marriage together and feel guilty for feeling that way?
What is going on in the mind of your audience? Make a list.
Emotionally – what do they fear? Not getting their work done? What are their big fears?
This isn’t a repeat of the last question…for this response we’re looking to dig a bit deeper into their emotions. The mum whose kid has just gone to college might be feeling lost, listless, aimless, a lack of purpose, terrified that her perfect family life may never be the same again and scared that she will never be happy. She may be nervous that if she has devoted her life to caring for her family she might need to get a job etc
Are you still with me here?
Frustrations; what drives them to distraction? What frustrates them?
Perhaps her husband isn’t recognising her feelings and she feels alone? Maybe she is looking for a job and can’t find anything because she isn’t familiar with the work environment anymore? She wants to make changes to her life and can’t or doesn’t see why she needs to and feels frustrated that society is making her feel she should? What is frustrating your audience?
What do they really want?
Maybe she wants her kid to come home and to turn the clock back to when she had a purpose? It’s likely she just wants to feel that she is needed, reclaim that feeling she was doing something worthwhile?
What they need? Sometimes want and needs are different
She might want her kid back home forever but that isn’t a realistic option. What she needs is to fill her life again by refocusing and finding something she loves to do and that will fill the emotional space left by her child flying the nest.
Does all this make sense? When you sit down and think through these questions for your own target market you will get a much clearer picture of how to find your message to market match.
What does your message need to say to speak to your audience?
Which title?
Your webinar title will be the most important aspect of your marketing. If your title doesn’t make your audience sit up and listen, they won’t want to know any more and will make the decision there and then that your event isn’t for them.
Let’s assume for a minute your webinar content is based on finding you life purpose when your role as a mum is over. If you were the parent in the example I’ve used, which of these would touch you more?
“Finding your life purpose once your role as a mum is over”
Or
“How to repair the hole in your life when your kids have flown the nest”
The second headline is the one that exactly describes how the mum in my example is feeling doesn’t it?
So spend some time and find the best title for your webinar and go back to your webinar set up and add your new title.
Then we come to the main body of the copy.
When you write your marketing copy, write to one person…bring into your mind one person who fits your target audience and write to that person alone.
I often see people writing to a crowd of readers and using terms like “some of you”; you need to make the reader feel as though you are writing to them alone and you can only do so if you write to one single person in your copy.
Think who you are writing to and then compose your copy that addresses every single response to the questions you answered earlier. If you already know someone who fits the bill of your ideal audience member, then write to that person…it does make it easier if you are writing to someone you know.
TIP: It’s likely you’ll be writing your copy in MS Word or another word processing package. Copy and paste your completed copy into Notepad (PC) or Textedit (Mac) to remove all the formatting. Otherwise when you paste into GotoWebinar, the text looks a bit all over the place if there is incompatible formatting included.
Now you’re ready to market your webinar to your email list, on your website and social media profiles and any other marketing avenues available to you.
For more info on GoToWebinar, click here
In the next blog post I’ll share some tips for running the webinar on the day itself…the smaller details that can make all the difference and how to avoid the mistakes I’ve made in the past.
Are you planning to run your own webinar soon? Perhaps you’ve run several already? Please do leave me a comment and share what strategies you use…what works and what doesn’t in your experience?
If you’d like to join me for my Presentation Secrets tour, check out the dates below to find out when I’ll be in your city…I’d love to see you there.
MELBOURNE: Friday 9th March 2012
BRISBANE Monday 12th March 2012
ADELAIDE Monday 19th March 2012
SYDNEY Wednesday 21st March 2012
To book your ticket, click here
If you’re in the UK, we’ll be in London in May 2012 and you can register your interest and be the first to know when we go on sale by clicking here.
