#210 - 3 ways to 2024-proof your webinars

Hey guys, it is Kate here. And welcome back to the Doing It Online podcast. Today we are going to be talking webinars and three simple tweaks you can make to make sure your webinars, which are still one of my absolute favorite ways to convert online, but make sure that they are 20, 24 proof. So basically how we can take the good old fashioned webinar and bring it up and in to the new world. Are you ready? Let's dive right on in.

Okay, guys, so you've probably heard a lot of screaming on the Internet that what used to work isn't working anymore. And people are lumping into that same category one of my favorite ways to sell online and that is the good old fashioned webinar. And when I say webinar, in case you are not familiar with what that is, a webinar is basically a prerecorded. Well, because I like automated webinars, but it's basically a video sales presentation. So yes, you can do them live, I pretty much never do. Or you can have them set up to run on Evergreen. And one of the reasons why I love webinars and why I am still seeing webinars work really, really well is that when somebody actually sits down and does watch the webinar, you know, they are basically sitting down and committing to like 45 minutes to an hour and a half with you with where you can take them through getting to know you, getting to trust you. You can teach them some things, you can give them some ahas, which makes them realize that actually this person knows what they're talking about and they're probably doing, you know, this, they're doing things in a different way and isn't that interesting? And then you can introduce them to your amazing offer, walk them through it in detail, tell them about all the bonuses, get them super excited about it, and give them the option to buy. There's very few other ways out there that allows you to do that entire process, the entire no like, you know, trust purchase process in one hit. Webinars are pretty much one of the only ones out there. But as we are seeing pretty much across the board, while the actual webinar itself is still working, things like show up rates are drastically dropping. The amount of time people are happy to sit on a webinar, also drastically dropping. And so even though I love webinar and I still believe that a good old fashioned 45 minutes to an hour ish video recording has its place in your marketing ecosystem, there are definitely some 20, 24 updates that are Working just as well, if not better, and oftentimes really a lot better. That and these are just new takes, new updates, new tweaks on the old school webinar. So I want to walk you through what they are right now. So the first one out the gate is one that is really acknowledging how audiences have changed and shifted and how their consumption has shifted, and that is the audio webinar. Giving people the option to consume your webinar as an audio like a podcast, rather than having to find the time in their day to sit down to watch you while, you know, they've got kids screaming in the background or phones beeping or all these other distractions going on. So, so if you can give them that option of the audio option, a lot of people are finding that they're getting a much higher consumption rate. Now, there is the caveat of that, is that the person is most likely going to be doing something else at the same time. So they're probably not necessarily concentrating quite as hard and as exclusively. However, if it means you're getting twice as many people consuming a lot more, that's still going to be beneficial. The other thing to bear in mind, if you do offer an audio option, and I say option here because I think, feel free to try it out, test it, let us know how you go. But I think some people still do want to see you. You have to acknowledge that some people are visual and some people are auditory. And this is just allowing for people to choose what works best for them. So when having done that, having said that, knowing that people are going to be listening to our webinar and is going to change slightly how you share your content, it's not going to make sense to do a whole lot of visuals or visual walkthroughs like I love to do online calculations and demonstrations, and you can't really do that in an audio setting. You also have to think about things like your call to action at the end. They're out and about, they're driving, they're picking up the kids, they're going for a walk. You're not going to have the same option of showing a button on the screen at a certain time. So have. Do you get around that? Usually it's giving them a really simple short URL to go to or having, you know, making sure there's a button underneath the audio player that you share with them so they can very easily, when it is the time, they can very easy click through and purchase. That's option number one, adding an audio version. Option number Two, and this takes it like that next step further of again realizing that the way people consume has changed and that they're attention span and their perceived attention span has changed. And that is to actually take your webinar and break it down into chunks. We haven't tested this yet, but I'm really excited to test it soon. But it's basically taking the same webinar format, that same flow that has been tried, tested, perfected over years, introducing yourself, introducing the problem, talking about the common mistakes people are making, giving them some, you know, good actionables and the ha moments and then, you know, introducing your offer, following that very similar format, but breaking each down into like a little minisode into a little snackable piece that's maybe around 10 minutes each. Which for a lot of people, particularly if they're feeling busy and overwhelmed, the thought of sitting down and going, oh, I've got to watch this 50 minute video. No thanks, too hard, I'll do it later. Or, oh, I can just start now and watch this first one. It's only 10 minutes. That seems a lot more doable. And I myself, because I am a, you know, chronic register for webinar person, but never attend. Like, I know there's an offer at the webinar. I am what you would call an extremely. Not to make my, you know, toot my own horn. I'm. But I'm extremely sophisticated consumer. I know what's going on, I know what all the tricks are. And if I see someone and I'm interested in what they're saying, I want to know what their offer is. So I'll register for their webinar so I find out what the offer is. I'm not attending the webinar, I don't have the time. However, when I've seen a few people start to do this where they basically, instead of going, hey, sit down and watch this 50 minute thing, they're like, look, we've got this series of videos, all with very tempting names, by the way, total clickbait, amazing, but all just snackable. You just start with the first one. Okay, I'm gonna listen to this first one. Sounds great. And then you get to the end of that, you're, oh, now I wanna know the second thing. And all of a sudden I listened to all of them. I did the thing that I never do. I sat through a webinar's worth of content. And they also, as a bonus, the ones I've seen and I've seen this a few times, so I feel like there's a bit of a. Obviously some very smart person out there teaching it. They also have the audio option for each one, so you could listen to it like a bunch of little mini podcast episodes, which is what I actually did. That's option number two. Basically take your webinar and break it down into more digestible, less overwhelming feeling series of chunks. And bonus points if you can offer those same chunks as little mini or audio episodes too. Okay, on to the final 2024. Glow up and I first heard about this particular strategy from a friend of mine, Joel Irway. He's got a better name for it, but it's basically a mini webinar. So this is a mini video training as a mini version of your webinar that is usually less than 10 minutes. This is one we have been testing and it has been working, but brilliantly. And not trying to cram obviously everything, but just trying to make sure you get across the most important points to make people go, I trust this person, I believe this person. They obviously have something that's valuable and different and I want to find out more. Where this works though is I wouldn't be trying to replace your standard one hour webinar with a 10 minute webinar because they're actually different and they do have different strategies behind them that 10 minutes. While yes, it is enough to get people interested and wanting to find out more, it does not have enough marketing muscle to convert the same as the hour long webinar. So whereas you know the hour long webinar you can run usually run cold traffic to it and have someone go from literally never having heard of you before to purchasing your one of your 500 to $2,000 programs which within a few hours doesn't quite work the same with that 10ish minute mini webinar. So what you want to do is understand like how they work and then go and see where this therefore fits in your strategy. So with the mini webinar you usually would either run it to a very warm audience, so for example your warmest leads running it to them. They're the ones who are already, they know where your offer is, they trust you, they've already shown interest. Like that could be a segment that if you're wanting to run it directly to sale could work. Or you need to add some additional marketing muscle behind it. So for example, if you were wanting to run cold traffic, you would use it as almost like a legion, as something that's going to get people to to be interested, be excited, be aware that you are someone they want to work with and want to know more. And then you would invite them to the next step of either applying and putting through an application funnel or getting them onto a sales call. But I wouldn't ever expect that little nine minute video to actually completely replace your webinar. It's just a different version of it. And I know that within live launches, what people have been doing is actually creating their little 9 minute version, 10 minute version of their webinar and sharing it after the whole version to those people who didn't attend, with a kind of assumption that, hey, you didn't have enough time to attend the main webinar. Look, I've given you the highlights, come check this out. And so that's another little way that just acknowledging the fact people are busy and adjusting and tweaking your strategy slightly to accommodate that can help you to really increase your conversions and therefore really increase your sales. So that was it, guys. Just to recap, number one, audio version, number two, snackable version and number three, mini version of the webinar, all totally 2024 friendly. If you are going to be trying any of these out or if you have tried any of these out and you have any thoughts, any feedback, any results, please let us know DM us comment below. We would love to hear it. And if you found this valuable, if this gave you even one little aha moment or something to try, it would mean so much to me and my team if you could like us, follow us and share us. Because that's how we get the word out. That is how we make sure we get as many eyeballs and ear holes, I guess, on our content. And you know, that's, you know, that's why we do what we do. So thank you guys. Thank you for nerding out with me this week. I hope you have loved it and I look forward to sharing more nerdy goodness with you next week. I'll see you then.