Proven and Tested Step-by-Step Strategy to Conducting a “Magnetic,” Evergreen Webinar

Conducting a webinar is one of the most efficient ways to engage with potential customers in an ever-evolving remote digital world . And in today’s advanced and competitive marketing age, to have a high-impact webinar, it is essential to plan and optimize every aspect of its preparation and execution: 

• Your target audience, their challenges and goals;
• Topic, components and content of the webinar;
• Landing page content and structure;
• Promotional methods and strategies;
• Follow-up process.

At the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, more and more marketers continue to incorporate webinars into their marketing strategies. For instance, according to the annual report conducted by BrightTALK (B2B webinar platform), there was a 95% increase of content production in 2020 as more and more marketing professionals turned to webinars, videos, and virtual events to engage and convert their audiences. BrightTalk also reports that 79% of B2B buyers view webinar or video content one or more times a week, and 96% of professionals view such content at least once a month.

Usually, on average, 20% to 40% of webinar registrants turn into qualified leads and about 5% make a purchase at the end.

It goes without saying, if you haven’t embraced webinars yet into your lead generation strategy, it is the perfect time to take such leverage as it might leave much more money on the table.

In this short article, we are going to reveal our tips, concepts and step-by-step processes we used to create a magnetic, high-converting webinar through which we generated 1,260,500 Euros and achieved a show-up rate of more than 50%.

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We call it magnetic because it will help you attract—like a magnet—high-quality prospects on command.

So are you ready to prepare and create a powerful webinar that can abundantly sell your product or service and transform your brand into a well-known respected identity?  

Let’s get started:

1. Know your target audience, their challenges and goals

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Hands down, the most important thing you can do to prepare for your webinar, is to understand your audience and know exactly what they long for.

It will not only help you with the relevant topic and content selection, targeting advertising, but also you will help to effectively speak to your potential customers on an emotional level.  

It might sound extremely obvious, but you’d be surprised how many other business owners and marketing professionals overlook this, then wondering why their efforts do not pay off in the end (low registrations and attendance rate, unqualified leads, high drop off rate, low conversion rates etc.). These all can be the result of the incorrect messaging, which is not relevant or appealing for your target audience. 

You have to first understand exactly what your audience needs and what their pain points are, so you can address them through your marketing message. Thus, you will attract highly-qualified leads. 

You could have the greatest product or service in the world, but if your marketing message is off, then It will roll off your audience’s mind like water off a duck’s back. 

But first, how do you come to better understand your audience? 

You need to do research. 

You can conduct deep, audience-enlightening research by: 

• Interviewing people in your target audience. You can call your existing customers and ask them relevant questions, e.g., “What struggles do they have at the moment? What would they like to improve?”  
• Conducting surveys among people in your target audience. For example, we sent out a questionnaire to our customers asking them what kind of situation they wanted to prevent during COVID-19 and received very interesting insights. 
• Training your sales team to always ask questions at the end of sales calls. Your sales reps should always ask questions while closing the deal, e.g., “Why did you decide to buy our product/service?”. Also alternatively you can analyze qualification calls and see what challenges and goals people who became you customers had. 

As a result, using these methods, you can take top common challenges your customers have and turn them into your webinar topics as well as use them in your marketing messaging. 

We consider a webinar being an advanced marketing and sales tool that requires planning, preparation and costs involved. It is recommended to withhold from conducting a webinar until you find out exactly what it is your audience wants. This approach will save you from wasting your resources. That will also allow you to craft a highly-accurate sales pitch and messaging that speaks to your audience on an emotional level, which will lead to more leads and sales.

2. Topic, components and content of the webinar

As you already managed to identify the topic of your webinar, now it is time to have your webinar’s content and structure planned out. 

We love to use the principle of Zeitgeist (general trend of thought or feeling characteristic of a particular period of time) while planning our content to increase relevance, accuracy and urgency. 

Basically, if something profound is happening in that period of time, you may want to include it in your pitch. 

And a great way to find that out is by simply keeping track of your local and world news.

For example, when we were getting ready for our webinar, many people were struggling to keep their business afloat due to the pandemic lockdowns.

However, our clients were thriving during that time. 

And that’s because we helped them with transcending any lockdown.

For instance, we mentioned in our message that our product worked well despite the lockdowns.   

Obviously, if you tailor Zeitgeist (any current circumstances) to your particular situation and link it to your messaging, it will help you attract and convert more leads as your product or service will become relevant to current trends and events. 

Now let’s dive into the details of what actually goes into your pitch and webinar, and how to make it more effective, interactive, and a much more enjoyable experience for your audience.

We will discuss it in 3 parts: ‍

Part I will be your intro. ‍

Part II will be all about your content.‍

Part III will be all about your offer. ‍

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Part I. Introduction to Your Webinar

For your intro, there are 3 critical sections that you will need to cover.

 Section one: What the client will get out of your webinar.

You need to tell them why you are holding this webinar and everything you will cover (key components), right at the start. 

Why? Because this will let them immediately know if this webinar is for them.‍

Section two: Who this works for and who it doesn’t work for. 

You have to let your prospects know exactly who you can help and who you can’t help. Also it is very beneficial to explain why some businesses won’t be able to benefit from your product or services.  

The reason for this is because it will help build tons of trust for your brand and it will keep people from getting buyer’s remorse (when someone regrets making a purchase). 

This also helps weed out the wrong people from purchasing your product or service.‍

Section three: Who is your speaker and why should they listen to him?

Basically, in this section of your intro, you will want to prove that your speaker/presenter knows what they are talking about. 

To prove this you will want to show — not just tell — their awards, screenshot proof of claims, previous real testimonials.   

Why do you want to do this? 

Because people are extremely skeptical nowadays due to many marketers faking their claims and results. 

It will help to develop a massive delta status (set your audience into the listening mode) as well as trust and rapport. 

Part II. Content

Section one: Address what your target audience struggles with.

Calling out your prospects' pain points at the start is extremely powerful because it will let them know that you are a source that can help them. 

Not only that, but immediately calling challenges out lets them know they are in the right place and you understand them.‍

Section two: Present value content while breaking down their beliefs and addressing objections. 

Now it is time to present your valuable content which people can actually take out from your webinar and start implementing. 

With each piece of value content you present, you will need to break down any limiting beliefs your audience may have about themselves, their offer and the market. You will also need to show them what holds them back from achieving what they want and how to fix it. 

For example, imagine you mentioned that they could achieve 6-figures a month with their coaching business.

A lot of your audience might immediately believe that isn’t true.

So what you wanna do is show examples of people who were just like them that got extraordinary results with your method. 

Once you do this, they will start believing that they too can get similar results. 

And this will also handle their objections which will ultimately lead to more sales.

Also, after every piece of content, you should ask your audience questions such as:‍

“Does this make sense? Type 1 in the chat if you understand this.” ‍

That way, with this control question, you will know if your content addressed every single one of their objections. 

Just remember, breaking down their limiting beliefs is crucial to the success of your webinar and it will serve as a prerequisite to sell your product later on.

Part III. Your Offer ‍

This is where you’re going to ask your audience to take action and buy. 

Usually we ask our listeners whether it is ok if we show them our solution on how they can achieve their goals even faster. And all of them are usually very excited to hear about that. 

However, before you do that, you must show testimonials and proof of results.

You can accomplish this through screenshots, bank account numbers, graphs, etc. ‍

Tip: A sneaky way of injecting extremely powerful proof into your webinar is to bring on a LIVE case study. 

That’s right, a live person to come on and tell them of their success with your product or service. 

The great thing about this is that, not only will it make you seem more legit and genuine, but the audience can ask your client questions about his experience. 

That way, they are getting first-hand information from someone who actually went through it. 

While showcasing the success stories and results of your customers, you can ask questions, e.g., “What would it mean to you if you could increase your revenue from 0 to 1M EUR in just 12 months?”. This will help them imagine that they are already there. 

And finally present your offer (price) with a rock-solid certainty. There is a nice technique to ask the prospects how much they think the solution would cost, before actually naming your price. 

Another popular technique most marketers do is “discount” the price of their product. 

We, at Marketing.MBA, never do it.

Why? Because it subconsciously lowers the value of your product in your prospects eyes. 

Instead, what you want to do is tell them the firm price of your product or service (without a discount).

Then, mention that the price of your product may rise in the near-future and provide a logical reason for that. 

3. Landing page content and structure

Your tone, visual identity and copy on your landing page makes the first impression and serves as an introduction to your company and products. You need to put your best foot forward to share your message in an authentic and impactful manner.  

There are the following key components of the webinar registration page that cannot be missed out and should be planned in an accurate manner: ‍

Headline: You will need to craft a catchy, timely and value-driven headline as that is the first thing which will attract the attention of your target audience. 

Having a powerful headline on your webinar landing page that speaks directly to your audience; and gives them what they want (in your message) will greatly increase your registrations. 

For example, in our case it was: “3 ways how to digitize your sales in 2021 and establish your offer on the market despite lockdown and recession”. 

Our headline was extremely successful as it was the major thing most of our clients struggled with and wanted to improve. 

As you can see, we also included Zeitgeist (“lockdown”, “recession”) in our headline as it was relevant at that point of time.‍

Sub-headline: In the sub-headline, it is advised to show the value your audience will get from your webinar. For example we said: “Proven strategies from more than 1,000 trusted German clients with small or medium-sized businesses provide you with an exact roadmap on how your business can automatically acquire new customers in just 90 days”. ‍

Image or Video: Another thing you would need to choose is a professional-looking image or a video. Usually landing pages with videos have more engagement than landing pages without videos. ‍

Value Bullet points: Before someone actually sign-ups for your webinar, they will want to know what exactly they will take out and learn from it. Briefly list the topics in the form of benefit. 

For example, we could simply say: “You will be able to digitize your sales process”, but instead it would be more appealing to say: “You will be able to get highly-qualified leads and break sales records by digitizing your sales process”.  ‍

Social Proof:  Showcase the most successful, genuine, emotional and honest testimonials of your previous webinar attendees. That will build more trust. Add real names, images and job titles. ‍

CTAs (call to action): Include congruent noticeable CTAs to encourage your audience to sign up for the webinar. Ensure to place at least 2-4 CTA buttons on your page. ‍

Event Details: Make sure the date and time of your webinar is stated clearly on your landing page. ‍

Scarcity Timer: Scarcity timer tells the prospect how much time they have left to be able to sign up for the webinar. It causes urgency and helps more people “pull the trigger,” so to speak.‍

Sign-Up Form: Keep it clean and simple. Ask prospects to provide you with only the most necessary information such as first and last name, work email, phone number, job title, company name. The process of registration should be fast and easy. ‍

Tip: Do not forget to indicate how long your webinar will last as nowadays people are extremely busy and will need to accommodate their schedules to attend the event. Usually we try not to exceed the limit of 2-2,5 hours for a single event. 

4. Promotional methods and strategies

When it comes to webinars used for marketing, promotion is key to success. It is advised to start promoting your webinar at least 7-15 days in advance. Put extra effort into promoting a week before your webinar as that’s when the majority of registrations occur.

Tip: longer promotional campaign = more registrants 

You should always start promoting your webinar with an email campaign to your current subscribers and contacts as usually half of your audience will come from email. 

According to the ON24 Benchmark report 2021 and based on our experience, mid-week promotional emails perform best. Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday are the strongest performers, accounting for around two-thirds (63%) of registrations.

After sending a personalized email to your contacts, take the following steps: 

• Create automated email reminders that will be sent to prospects who have been invited but not yet registered.
• Create email templates sales reps can send in their one-on-one communication with prospects.
• Set up an automated email to notify reps when one of their prospects has registered for your webinar. This will help them engage and close those prospects down the road.‍

‍Hack: 15 min before your webinar starts, send out an email to your contact list saying that you are live now and ask them to join. We usually get around 700 additional last-minute  attendees who come directly from this type of email.

Also you will need to consider targeting advertising as that helps to reach out to completely new people. 35% of people who usually purchase our products are completely new customers who never interacted with our brand before. And it is an extremely high number. Usually this number is around 5%, but because of the fact that we usually provide so much value, proofs, testimonials as well as address all pain points during our webinars, a completely new audience develops trust and rapport very fast and ends up buying our products.

You will want to advertise to your customer-based and look-alike (1-3%) based on your customers' audiences. 

It is best to advertise on such channels as Google, Facebook, Instagram and Youtube. 

Another amazing and powerful platform to advertise on is LinkedIn. However, you should be skilled to advertise on LinkedIn as the cost per acquisition is very high and if you do not possess prior knowledge and experience you might just be burning money. ‍

Tip: While advertising we usually use a long-format copy which works the best. As for creatives so far videos perform the greatest. However, we do not neglect images as well and always split-test different types of ads.

Also, in your ads, you would want to call out your audience directly. For example, if you use videos as creatives, you could say: “Dear entrepreneurs, business owners….etc”. Without a doubt, this will help to attract the right people. 

5. Follow up process

So what do you do with all the people who joined your webinar but didn’t make a purchase? 

It goes without saying, you will have to follow up with them until conversion. 

Basically you will need to build a follow-up email sequence. Your emails should be full of proofs and testimonials from previous customer results. 

You would need to speak to prospects on an emotional level throughout the entire follow-up campaign. Everything should be backed up by the benefits people will get while working with you. 

Usually we send out the first follow up email to people, who attended a webinar but didn’t buy, 4 hours after the webinar, - and pitch them again. People are still warmed up and are under a good impression. 

A good span of time between emails is 4 hours after, 20 hours after, 48 hours after, 56 and 68 hours after the webinar. 

Also you might want to run retargeting campaigns to reach people who didn’t buy from a different angle. 

Final Words

Nowadays, webinars are gaining more and more popularity and becoming a critical element of any marketing plan . Despite the fact that they require a lot of preparation and planning, if executed correctly, they can bring a high return on your investment.‍

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