I think it’s human nature to have some anxiety about the potential errors we can make anytime we’re starting a new journey, either business or personal. But, I know it doesn’t have to be all bad…. there’s more than one meme out there that talks about errors made bringing us one step closer to success, right? Case in point:
I’m no stranger to errors. Some big, some small, all bringing hard earned lessons. That said, I also think it’s better to avoid an error if we can, if nothing else, just to save time and money.
Because webinars are our business, we see a pretty dynamic range of mistakes get made every day, sometimes by our customers, sometimes by jv partners, or affiliates. BUT, if we can prevent YOU from making a mistake, we’re going to do try our damnedest to do it.
What do you think is the biggest mistake you can make, right out of the gate, that will just about guarantee a ghost town webinar? Not sure? Not to worry. I’ll answer!
In addition to revealing a key mistake that webinar hosts often make during the promotion phase, I’m also going to share two of the most important steps you can take that will increase sales conversions, increase audience anticipation for your event, and help you lose six inches of belly fat in just three days eating french fries and ice cream.
Yeah, that last one is BS. There is no miracle working here…. Just working 🙂
Anywho…
The reason I mention this is not simply to delay the revelation of the aforementioned #1 Mistake in a desperate bid to reach my required minimum word count. I bring this up because the title of this article doesn’t entirely accurately reflect the content of this article.
And this is both very deliberate and very relevant to what we’re about to discuss.
Tell you what… Let’s come back to that in just a moment.
How to Ruin Your Webinar
For most people, the first real contact they have with your webinar is your Registration Page.
They may have been warmed up a little through an email or social media post that brought them to you, but your Registration Page is still, arguably, one of the most critical elements of your webinar setup.
How critical, you ask?
Well, consider this….. At Genesis Digital, when we want to improve the sales figures for one of our webinars, one of the first things we look at is improving the conversion rate on our Registration Page. It’s often far more productive to work on getting more people into the top of the funnel, than it is to try and wrestle an extra 1-2% out of the sales pitch at the end of the webinar.
As you already know, WebinarJam provides some fantastic, attractive, quality-tested Registration Page templates for you to choose from. But they’re not silver bullets. You still have to tweak and customize them to fit your event.
And this is where people often go wrong…
Right at the top of the page.
THIS is the #1 Mistake….
Writing a headline that talks about the webinar
Seriously.
At this point, people don’t care about WHAT your webinar is about. They care about whether or not your webinar is going to offer a BENEFIT that is of interest to them.
Your webinar registration page headline isn’t the place to discuss what your webinar content covers. It’s the place to evoke curiosity, agitate pain, and create desire.
Basically…
It’s a headline.
And just like the headline of a sales page, a video sales letter, a lead-capture page or a marketing email, it needs to grab the attention of the reader and draw them into everything that comes next. This is why we also call it a Hook. Grab that attention! Ensnare them! Hook ‘em!
If you fail to do that, people will bounce away before they even get a chance to seriously consider attending your event. That means minimal conversions, minimal attendees, next to no sales, and lots and lots of those blasted tumbleweeds.
That’s what I meant at the outset when I started qualifying what this article was about. I could have called this article…
An article about the importance of writing a proper headline to promote your webinar
That would be more accurate, sure. But would it get as many clicks?
Probably not.
The article title I chose is less descriptive, but it creates far more curiosity. The idea behind it is, if you’re someone who hosts webinars, we want you to read it and think, “Huh, there’s something I could be doing that’s wrecking my webinars? I should probably check that out.”
And then, once you’re truly drawn in by my silky prose and sharp wit (ahem), hopefully you’ll keep reading the rest of the article to see what other interesting and useful nuggets I might have to share.
So, next time you’re putting together a webinar Registration Page, spend some time thinking about the headline you’re going to use. It’s one of the key factors in the effectiveness of your marketing push.
The art of writing a headline is a subject we go into great detail in here. But, to get you started without overwhelming, try using the format that we most often fall back on:
The really good, without the really bad, even if…
For example…
Incredibly fast exercise routine that will chisel away belly fat, without having to give up Doritos, even if you only have ten minutes a day to spare!
The webinar platform that makes hosting profitable events easy, without costing a fortune, even if you’re a complete newb!
Bake scrumptious, moist chocolate cake, with no dry or burnt edges, even if you’ve never baked in your life!
Tease Your Audience
Here’s a bonus tip for your Registration Page that is second only to headline in terms of importance. Offer your visitors an immediately delivered freebie for registering for your event.
Although, instead of “freebie,” we prefer the term “freemium”.
This distinction comes about because “freebie” is typically associated with a cheap, throw-away gimmick. What you should actually be giving away is something that has a high perceived value. Premium.
But even that isn’t enough.
Sometimes people offer entry into a prize draw as an incentive to register or they offer a freemium that is appealing but unrelated to the webinar subject matter. In both instances, this misses the point.
You see, a freemium isn’t just about increasing your registration conversion rate… it’s also a part of the “indoctrination” process.
A freemium should be selected (or created) for the purpose of enticing the registrant to attend the webinar.
Think for a moment about how important that is by considering what happens when you get this wrong.
Imagine giving away a freemium so awesome that your registration conversions go through the roof. Now, imagine that the freemium is so awesome your registrants are too busy enjoying it to be bothered to attend your webinar.
That’s more than just shooting yourself in the foot. It’s shooting yourself in the foot, then while you’re hopping around in agony, tripping on a tree root, where you catapult down a rocky, thorny bush filled hillside only to land on a porcupine. And a skunk. And they are both pissed. We’re talking really bad day here.
The trick to an effective freemium that increases both registration AND attendance conversions is to give away a main event TEASER. Something that only makes sense when used alongside your webinar content.
For example, if your webinar is going to reveal the five secrets to making the perfect margarita, your freemium could be a video, a report, or a mind map, that reveals what the five secrets are. And then the webinar reveals how to correctly carry out those secrets.
In other words, the freemium reveals WHAT your audience needs to do, and the webinar reveals HOW to do it.
When you get right down to it, the best freemium is a tease. It gives away enough for your audience to be impressed, but holds back enough that they feel compelled to attend your webinar to get the full picture.
***
Does creating a compelling headline and an enticing freemium take extra effort?
Yeah, a little.
But they’re important.
It’s easy to get so wrapped up in the webinar itself that you miss the importance of everything that comes before (and after).
Putting on a great event is a great goal to shoot for. But all that effort will be for naught if no one shows up.
A great headline and an attractive freemium will get your webinar campaign started off properly and allow you to nuke those damn tumbleweeds from day one.
Be sure to check out more content related to the 5 Laws of a No Fail Webinar here on Genndi.com. If video learning is your thing, The 5 Laws BONUS videos come FREE with your purchase of WebinarJam or EverWebinar!