How To Run a Webinar - My Entire Process from Start to Finish
A walkthrough of running webinars from topic selection through converting attendees to paid offers. The host's first webinar had nine attendees and three sales. Later, tighter topic selection, moving from Leadpages to Mighty Networks, and preferring live formats for interaction made a difference.
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I hosted my first webinar back in 2018 and I was super nervous. I think I had like nine people attend and I sold three online courses. So overall it went pretty well. But I have learned a lot since then. Webinars are a tried and true way for you to provide value, showcase your brand, and build your audience. But if you've never hosted one, it can be intimidating to figure it all out. So in this video, I'm going to take you behind the scenes and walk you through my entire webinar process, including planning, promoting, hosting, and follow up. Maybe this will simplify things for you and give you some ideas for how you do your own webinars. So, with that said, let's get started. First, let's talk about webinar topics. My very first webinar was called how to make your first YouTube video. And I see where I was going with this because making your first YouTube video is a first step in the bigger process that is building a YouTube channel. So, two problems with my first topic. First, it's still too broad, even though it's how to make your first YouTube video, because are we talking about cameras? Are we talking about the idea behind the video? Are we talking about how to upload this video to YouTube? Depending on how much experience someone has in their YouTube journey, it's going to be different for everyone, even though we're talking about the same thing. The second thing is that probably most people who are trying to build a YouTube channel have already made their first YouTube video. And what they're really looking for is how to level up from being a total beginner. This webinar was a lead generating awareness, this type of webinar. So the people that are signing up for this webinar haven't heard of me, haven't heard of my brand, don't know about my products and services. So I really wanted them to watch the webinar and feel empowered, feel inspired. I later changed my webinar to the five steps to jumpstart your YouTube channel. This was so much more effective, both for my attendees and for me as a webinar host. When I switched to this topic, two things happened. First, my conversion rate went up. And second, I was actually able to follow up and see the changes that people made on their YouTube channels after attending my webinar. And it was great because I could use those screenshots to promote the webinar in the future. So it was a total win, win. Now let's talk about landing Pages and collecting RSVPs. This is going to depend on whether you're doing on demand webinars where someone would sign up and be able to watch it instantly, or live webinars where someone has to wait until the actual date and time for them, you know, to attend the webinar. But either way, you do need a webpage, a landing page where people can see the details of the webinar and be able to sign up for it. So here's the old landing page for my old webinar which served as the top of a marketing funnel. So this is one that people could sign up for and watch on demand. Right at the top we've got the title of the webinar, a description of the webinar. I really like to include a bullet point list of the takeaways. So if you in this free workshop, you're going to learn X, Y, Z. Also, I make it very clear that it is a free workshop and it's one that you can sign up to watch instantly. And this is when I use leadpages. So this actual site is built on leadpages and this form would go to ConvertKit. Below the fold, I give a little bit more background in terms of why someone should sign up for this webinar. Like how did you get the right people to watch your YouTube videos, et cetera, et cetera. We're covering all this more in this free workshop. And then underneath that I go into a little bio about me. Underneath that I have screenshots kind of just as proof. This is like the equivalent of reviews, right? Just kind of like validation of who I am and other people that I've worked with in the past. And then under that is just another sign up form. Okay, let's talk about the webinar presentation. So for this webinar, which is an hour long, I have 115 keynote slides in my presentation, which might sound like overkill, but I like to take the approach of if you have five bullet points, then each bullet point would be on its own slide versus one slide with all five bullet points on it. I just think it keeps it more engaging when the visuals are always changing and there's always something fresh to look at. And nowadays if someone wanted to press pause or take a screenshot, they could totally do that if they really needed to capture the content on the screen. So, so instead of showing you all 115 slides, I'm gonna walk you through the overall flow and the main beats of this webinar. So first is the intro, like a title slide and a few housekeeping things. And a very brief bio about me. I'll do a full bio later on in the presentation, but you'll see that a lot of my slides have just like one sentence and really big font. So even though I have 115 slides, it's not like, know they're dense slides, they're. They're really very brief. But again, I just think it keeps it more engaging and fast paced. Then I transition into a you section. So this is like really trying to get the people to understand that I know how they're feeling to kind of show that you're in the right place. And this webinar is exactly for you. Moving on, I tease the agenda. So I want to give people kind of some expectations of what they're going to get out of the webinar. But obviously I don't want to give it all away. So my webinar is called the five ways to jumpstart your YouTube channel. But instead of like saying exactly what the five ways are, for example, here's the first way. How to develop a video production process that works for you. That's specifying what we're going to be talking about without actually talking about the whole thing, right? So it's more of a stay tuned because this is what you're gonna get out of it. The next section is my bio, but I make sure to frame it in a way that, that also goes off of, hey, I know exactly how you feel, because I have felt the exact same way. So maybe you can relate. I actually include that in the slide. And then, you know, I talk about my journey, how I go into this. I include pictures of me figuring it out, me putting in the work, me doing the trial and error to kind of show like, I took this roundabout way to learn all these things. But this is why in this webinar, I've condensed everything based on my experience to see what has actually worked and what hasn't been as effective. I've also found during this section where I talk about how I got into this, a lot of people say, me too, right? So even though everyone's story is different, they can relate to things of like, you know, feeling embarrassed or feeling lost and confused and stuff like that. So that's why I do talk about my journey, but in a way that's not just like, here's. Here's me and how successful I am, but I was just like you. I also felt embarrassed and lost and confused and etc. Towards the end of my journey, I talk about the wins, right? Like what YouTube has allowed me to do. Because even though it's different from what I imagine or what I think most people imagine, I become my own proof, right? Like I was also a beginner. But here's what my YouTube channel has allowed me to do. Then I talk about the other people that I've been able to help, just to emphasize that it's not that I just got lucky. These are other people that put in the work and they got real results. Then I get into the core content, which basically consists of 5 to 10 slides that explain each bullet point. And if someone wanted to take things a step further, I introduced them to my step by step system, which is my online course 02 to Piro. Then I have a bunch of slides explaining what zero to YouTube Hero is, what is included, what we talk about in each module. There's also a lot of client testimonials and other comments and stories of success. And then finally it is time for thank you and Q and A. Also, I do want to give a shout out to Mariah Koz, who is an online business coach, but she's the one who taught me everything I know about webinars, including how how to format this webinar. Next, let's talk about webinar platform or where to actually host your webinar. So when I first started I actually just used YouTube. It's free and people know what it is. There's a familiarity there. So I didn't think, at least on the viewers end there would be any tech troubles in terms of connecting and watching the webinar and being able to comment. And so I would just schedule a live stream for the future and then take that video link or that live stream link and embed it into a webpage or an email. And it was also great because this was hosted on my YouTube channel where I have tutorials, I have my previous live streams. So anyone who is new to me or my brand could see my YouTube channel after the webinar and see all of that content already there. But I quickly outgrew that, mainly because I was having to use multiple tools just to do my webinars. So yes, the actual webinar was done through YouTube, but then I was using LeadPages to build my landing page and my signup page and all of the different pages that I need for my webinars. And then I was also using ConvertKit to do the signup forms and collect email addresses and send out communications like sending out the replay link and all of that. There's also a huge latency lag with YouTube Live, which is so frustrating when you're doing a webinar live, right? Like, I don't think it's so much of a problem if you're doing an on demand webinar because it's just a video. But when you're trying to do a Q and A and there's a 30 second lag, or you're like okay, let me know where you're from and there's no one chatting in the comments for 30 seconds, it's a little awkward. Two years ago I moved to Mighty Networks and I've been doing my entire digital business on Mighty Networks ever since. I can create a landing page for people to sign up for my webinar. I can collect payments for a webinar if I wanted. And the best part is that if an attendee wanted to make a purchase for me, so join my private community or buy my online course on their end. It's basically like a one click add on experience because they're already part of a Mighty network. They don't have to sign up for a different platform or create a different account somewhere. It's all built in into the same place. It's also really easy to send out messages, send out reminders, post the replay, create a community just for people who attended that specific webinar if I wanted. And the live streaming has zero latency. There is no lag even in my office that has like really bad WI fi. There is no lag when it comes to me asking a question and people being able to answer that right away in the comments. Now let's talk about hosting or recording the actual webinar. The benefit of creating something that is an on demand webinar is that it's a prerecorded video. So I record everything, the talking head parts and the screen shares and the keynote presentations. You using a program called ECAMM Live. I take it all into another program called Final Cut Pro which allows me to edit it all together and then I upload it to Mighty Networks. I definitely prefer doing live webinars because I just think that there's so much more fun. Obviously I'm there and able to interact with the people who are attending. And it's always different every single time. It takes a lot more energy on my part, but it's always great to be able to meet new people, especially people who are just starting this journey that I am so passionate about, which is YouTube. And when it's time to go live, I basically just switch between this shot that you're seeing right here, the talking headshot where I'm addressing the audience and looking them eye to eye. And then also my keynote slides. And lastly, let's talk about communications. So this depends on whether someone is signing up to watch this webinar on demand or live. But basically there are a couple of key points and key messages that I send to the people who have signed up for this webinar. The first is the day before the webinar starts. The second is five minutes before the webinar is starting, which includes the link to the live stream. The third is the thank you, usually an hour after the webinar has ended. And what I also like to do is include screenshots from the live session comments just to show the people who weren't able to attend, like, hey, this is what you missed out on. But it's not too late to join in on the fun because the replay is available and then the last message gets sent a few days after the webinar is over, just as a final reminder to watch the replay if people haven't already, but also to include any offers that I had made during the webinar, like a discount to my online course or something like that. So that is my webinar process. And I think that webinars are still such an effective way to introduce people to your brand and your services and products. And thankfully, with all the tools that exist today, it's never been easier to host webinars. Now, if you found this video helpful, you might be interested in my Studio Tour video where I walk you through my entire live streaming and video setup from start to finish. Thanks for watching and I'll see you in that video next.
