They say that failing to plan is planning to fail.
I don’t know who “they” are, but I disagree.
When a webinar (or any other business project) fails, it generally is NOT the fault of a missing plan. It’s almost always directly related to a lack of experience.
For instance, it might never occur to you to plan for the possibility of suddenly developing a dry, scratchy throat midway through your webinar performance. But after the first time it happens, you’ll always keep a hot drink and some lozenges on hand.
You can’t PLAN for every eventuality unless you KNOW every eventuality. And, that’s an unreasonable goal.
But here’s the good part…
You don’t have to learn entirely from hard, bitter experience. You can cheat the universe, and learn from the experiences of veteran webinar hosts by paying attention to and following their strategies.
So, your goal for your next (or first) webinar shouldn’t be to make a “plan”. It should be to absorb considerable knowledge from other experienced webinar hosts to put together a logical series of steps that will allow you to prepare a successful webinar AND a successful webinar marketing strategy.
And once you have that, you’ll have…
Okay… well I guess it’s still a plan. But it’ll be a plan based on what works rather than your best guesses.
If I was going to sum it up in a short, pithy business cliché, I would say…
Failing to put together a plan based on the experiences of expert webinar presenters and, instead, trying to figure it out entirely on your own, is planning to risk having a craptastic webinar.
This business catchphrase thing is so easy!
New subheading please!
“Ready to Assemble” Webinars
“Ready to Assemble,” “Flat-Pack,” “Self-Assembly,” whatever you like to call it, only a fool would try and put together a piece of furniture without carefully studying the instructions. Or, better yet, let your spouse do it so you can blame them when it falls apart.
Webinar strategy is a little bit like that. There are lots of pieces to fit together. If you’ve read a few books, watched a few videos, and attended a few webinars that teach the process, you’ve probably got a whole bunch of ideas and techniques rattling around on your head. But if you don’t have by step-by-step instructions, things are going to get messy.
For the most part, it’s about understanding the best order to put everything together.
Even if you have a rough idea of the appropriate sequence (just like you know that the coffee table surface goes on top of the coffee table legs), mistaking the order of things can become problematic.
For example, what happens if you open your webinar registration page too early before crucial formation steps have been completed? If your conversion rates tank as a result, you can’t easily go back and get a do-over. You may have already doomed yourself to a webinar audience that never reaches double figures.
For instance, at WebinarJam, opening our registration page and sending out our marketing messages is Step #9. There are some important jobs that need to be completed and nailed down before we even consider starting to let people in.
So, how about it?
How would you like a “Ready to Assemble” style webinar worksheet that lists all the steps you need to complete to put on a successful webinar AND the correct order in which to carry them out.
Our webinar marketing plan consists of 11 steps. And to give you a taste of how this works, here are the first three…
STEP ONE: PLANNING
Define your webinar goal (sales, paid or free training, brand awareness). What experience do you want your attendees to have before, during, and after your live event?
STEP TWO: INCENTIVIZE
Spend some time brainstorming an incentive to get people to join your webinar, and/or an incentive to buy your product on the webinar. Valuable information-based bonuses are a powerful motivator to inspire action.
STEP THREE: BUILD YOUR CALL TO ACTION
Having a clear understanding of your primary goal, will ensure that you create your webinar content in a way that supports your endgame, all the way though. Whether this is getting the viewer to buy a product, join a cause, take action on what you’ve just trained them on, or just “like” you on Facebook, knowing right from the start of your planning process what action you want them to take at the end of your webinar is key to building persuasive content.
Download the WebinarJam Marketing Plan… FREE!
If you build a “Ready to Assemble” wardrobe without looking at the instructions, the end result might still look pretty good. But the bracket, the handful of screws, and that weird L-shaped piece of wood that you have left over is a sizeable clue that the whole thing is probably going to fall apart once you start trying to hang clothes inside the thing.
We’ve been putting on highly successful webinars for years, serving tens of thousands of viewers and generating millions of dollars in sales. Why insist on learning from your own experience (and mistakes) when you can simply learn from our experience (and mistakes)?
As a webinar software provider (WebinarJam) it’s in our best interest to ensure our customers produce great events. But even if you’re not currently a WebinarJam client, we wouldn’t ever turn you away. No way, man.
If you want a copy of our WebinarJam Marketing Plan, you’re absolutely welcome to it. And all you need to do to claim your free download is register for and attend the 12 Secrets Webinar and learn to expertly host a webinar of your own.
It’s a completely free webinar and, in addition to getting your hands on our coveted webinar marketing plan, you’re going to discover some amazing webinar tips and tricks, many of which I can guarantee you won’t have heard before (even if you’ve been watching our webinars for years).
Here’s another hackneyed catchphrase a Norwegian proverb for you…
“Experience is the best teacher, but the tuition is high.”
I actually like this one. If you’re hosting webinars, the experience will come as a matter of course. But if you begin by learning from other people’s experience, you’re giving yourself a massive head start.
And all you have to do is reserve your place on the 12 Webinar Secrets webinar. Look forward to seeing you there.