3 No fail tips and tricks to AVOID the dreaded no-show webinar.
Today is the day! You’re doing the webinar Watusi and are amped beyond belief for your first real broadcast. You’ve vacuumed the corner of your bedroom you use as a “studio” and staged it to look professional, yet inviting. You’ve showered, powdered, spritzed and even ironed your one white shirt that doesn’t have pit stains (nobody needs to know you aren’t wearing pants) and are ready to emote. You’ve got plans for this webinar. You’re going to sell the bejeesus out of your product and immediately buy your very first over-water hut in Fiji.
In 3, 2, 1…. Start Broadcast button gets clicked aaaaaaaand you begin.
Hot Damn! Those Crest White Strips worked! You can see your own gleaming smile as you give the performance of your life!
Very discreetly, at the two minute mark you check your Room numbers and are only mildly alarmed that it says 0 attendees. You thought hundreds of them would be waiting in the room for your show to start based on your registration numbers alone. Where are they? Taking a quick breath, you power forward with the presentation and check again five minutes later. Still 0. Now, the beads of sweat start to appear, congealing the powder you secreted away from your daughter’s bathroom to keep your oil slicked forehead from blinding your audience. Another five minutes… Not one single person.
What. The. Flock. Is. Happening?
Nothing.
A while ago we asked you what your biggest fear about doing webinars was. Well, this… This was your Number 1 answer. Numero Uno. This creepified story of having a no-show webinar. Know what the second biggest answer was? Not recouping your ad spend because no one shows. Not to worry, we’ll talk about that in another post, because it’s uber important and we don’t want anyone to have to answer to an angered spouse for spending your Disney money on Facebook Ads that didn’t pay off.
For now, let’s address the Horse before we get to the literal Cart.
Typically, I like to give the bottom line at the bottom of a post, but I think in this case, you need it now… When you schedule a webinar, you have one goal…
Get butts in seats. Period.
It doesn’t matter how prepared you are, how amazing you look, or how flippin fantastic your content is if no one sees it. You’ve got to get those bodies where they belong.
It is YOUR job to make sure the registrants know WHY they cannot miss your webinar.
Don’t be mistaken. It is not the same reason that made them want to register in the first place. They registered because they saw a quick “benefit” to them by possibly watching your webinar. However, getting them to actually show up… This requires them to know “the benefit of the benefit” and it’s your job to get that across.
Sooooooo. How? One word, mon ami.
Indoctrination.
Yes, you must pre-indoctrinate in order to populate the seats before you can fascinate the masses and disseminate your message.
Your registrants need to understand the possibilities of things they’ll MISS by not attending your webinar. Missed possibilities are missed opportunities. Your webinar is an EVENT where ANYTHING can happen. It is your crusade to cure their pain, fill their void, feed their need.
You must drive home that each event is a unique opportunity for them to become better. How do they know they can become better? Because you’re going to focus on ordinary people, both before and after they applied your teachings and show them, firsthand, that what you say to do is everything they need to be successful.
Indoctrination is about changing the mindset of someone so they clearly see your point of view. To be clear, you don’t need to change their own personal point of view. Instead, you get them excited about your agenda!
To do this, there’s nothing like good old-fashioned email. Absolutely use social media, as well, even if it’s only last minute. But, you’re going to want to communicate with your registrants every day via email. However, make no mistake. These emails should NOT be standard pitch emails. They SHOULD be juicy and delicious, stack the shizzam, cool stuff for free emails.
I say this to you knowing it isn’t actually easy to craft anything juicy or delicious that doesn’t include actual meat. So, the way to combat that small, insignificant detail is here. Include the following in the body of your pre-indoctrination communications:
- Videos. Videos. Videos (anytime you can use a video, doooo eeeet)
- Free Downloads
- Free reports
- Case studies
*Helpful Hint: You don’t need to only begin the indoctrination process by sending an email. You can start right away by including a link to a free training video on the post registration Thank You page. Start stacking the cool, giving the benefit of the benefit immediately.*
Ideally, pre-indoctrination is best started 2-3 days before the webinar. Do not spend weeks indoctrinating. It’s not the best use of your time. There are three key days before your broadcast that you want to make the Big Push for attendance. And, considering that for every 3 registrants, 1 will attend IF you’ve done your Indoctrination well, imagine how those numbers look if you don’t. Craptastic, right? Let’s avoid that.
Broken down into 3 days, this is how your indoctrination emails should look:
Day 1 Video 1: Post any “updates” that have occurred since registration. Here’s where your case studies come in handy. For example, “Check out Suzy’s photos and jaw dropping transformation before and after she started my proven program for healthy living without diets or starvation.” Post a link to a video interview with Suzie… Hello Juicy!
Day 2 Video 2: This is your time to overcome objections, or speak to people’s fears about why your program may not be suitable for them. This is where past survey data comes in especially handy. For example, say you surveyed your mailing list and asked them, “What is the ONE most important factor that prevents you from getting an advanced degree?” And, the most prevalent answer was, “I can’t afford it.” In this scenario, your Day 2 email headline would be, “Important survey data about the financial hardship for adults returning to school…” Here, you give the registrants a chance to learn they aren’t the only ones who can’t afford academia. No one wants to feel alone in this state and will appreciate knowing they aren’t. They, in turn, identify another reason they want to attend your webinar, which happens to be about ways to get free money for higher education. Include a video clip with case studies or brief reports about the rising cost of education and, wait a minute… You just got Delicious. See what we’re going for?
Day 3 Video 3: I call this the Bonus/Scarcity email. Your headline could be something like:
“I can’t believe this happened..”
“I never thought I could do this…”
“Solved! I didn’t think it was possible…”
Offer a free download with the Top Ten most common misconceptions people who (fill in the blank) were able to beat. Or, Top Ten most important daily habits of people who (fill in the blank), as it relates to your webinar topic. They can be brief bullets. The webinar is the get down and dirty nitty gritty, so keep your emails to only what keeps them wanting more. This pushes registrants to want to make time to watch your show. This is what you want.
Freebies will serve you well here. They needn’t be long or verbose, just information rich. For example, if your webinar is a slide presentation, you can offer your webinar notes as a free download. A cheat sheet, if you will. Everyone LOVES having notes ready made, especially if it means they can pay the closest attention to your content, which allows them greater success, yes? Yes.
When crafting your indoctrination emails, keep this statement in mind:
It’s not about the product. It’s about the registrant’s ability to have success with the techniques you teach.
*A brief word on Retargeting (brief because it deserves it’s very own post and will have one)… Your registrants are a custom audience, so retargeting is both relevant and smart. If you’ve got retargeting skills, use them in your indoctrination.*
Moooooving on….
We’re getting to the last few hours before your webinar. Apart from the Indoctrination emails, you’ll want to send system email reminders about the webinar the day of, 15 minutes prior, then another 10-15 into the start of the webinar. That particular email can say:
IT’S NOT TOO LATE!!!! Log in now, we’re just getting warmed up.
Additionally, use SMS and voice messages if you have that capability. You can even add links to cheat sheets of webinar notes in a text message, giving your indoctrination that final poke that could mean the difference between attendance or not.
So, finally, the Indoctrination end game:
- Appreciate their need
- Annihilate their fear
- Eradicate their objections
- Substantiate with success stories
- Demonstrate why YOU are the expert
- Perpetuate their success
For even greater detail on beefing up your webinar attendance and more juicy, delicious bits on Indoctrination, check out Webinar Genesis. The Webinar Genesis training comes free when you join WebinarJam.com.