MBA1295 Q&A Wednesday: Should I start with live or automated webinars?

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Foreign. Welcome to the Hundred Dollar MBA show because as you get better, so does your business. That's why we deliver daily 10 minute business lessons for the real world. I'm your host, your coach, your teacher Omar Zenholm. I'm also the co founder of the Hundred Dollar mba, a complete business training and community online and today's episode is a Q and A Wednesday episode. Today's question is from Terry and Terry asks should I start with live or automated webinars? Good question Terry. As many of you know, I've run over 500 webinars, run a company called the Webinar Ninja Webinar Software, Shameless Plug and I get asked this question quite frequently so I'm happy to address it right here on the show. Webinars are such a powerful way for you to grow your audience, get new leads, make sales, keep your customers. It's great for and actually deliver webinars as a part of your offering your product or bonuses. So in today's episode I'll be going into the advantages of live versus Automated and what to start with. If you're starting out with webinars, this is sort of a mini game plan for you to know which one to choose and how to implement. So let's get into it. Let's get down to business. So Terry asks, should I star with live or automated webinars? On today's Q and A Wednesdays question, I want to say, first of all, both options are very powerful and have their advantages. Live are great because nothing converts better than a live webinar because of the interaction, because of the connection you have with the audience, because you can answer questions and, you know, address rebuttals right then and there, right in front of them. You're able to cater your sales offer based on their needs. Live just converts better. Automated is great because it still helps you convert, but it saves you time because you can scale it, you can automate it. You don't need to really be there to run the webinar because it's a recorded video. People could choose from several different times because again, it's automated and they'll watch the video. And you can automate certain things like your offers and your polls and things like that to keep it somewhat interactive still, even if you're not there live. But if you're asking me, and that's the question today, should you start with live or automated? My answer is start with live. This is what I do. What I do is I actually run the same webinar a few times over live. So I'll run the. The same webinar every two weeks, same topic, same format, everything three or four times. Then I would take the best. Take the best version of that webinar. Maybe the third time I did it was great. Maybe the fourth time was even better. I take that version and I turn it into an automated webinar, or I use it as an opt in or a lead magnet, or I use it as training for my current members. But there is a different way you'd be delivering a webinar if it's live. You're gonna be more interactive, more engaging. You're gonna be on your game. You're gonn a game. And therefore your performance on camera is gonna be much better than if you're just sitting alone in the room, you know, facing your webcam. Trust me, I've tried both. And even if your live is not perfect, you stumble, you make a mistake, you skip a slide, no problem. It's natural, it's authentic, and it's gonna make for a better automated webinar down the road. So I would start with live webinars, and you don't have to do a new webinar every week. You could do the same webinar every week or every two weeks and just run that webinar just like a comedian runs the same set and just goes to different comedy clubs. You want to do the same thing. You want to have the same quote unquote speech workshop that you give. Perfect it, Perfect your delivery, perfect your interaction. And when you feel comfortable, you can use that recording later on as an automated webinar. Or not, you could continue to do it. Now, if you are curious about how to run a webinar efficiently, I have two free options for you to learn again. I run a software company called the Webinar Ninja and we offer a lot of free training. Number one, we have a course that you could take as a seven part video course. It's like webinars 101, showing you how to create and run a live webinar. If you go to webinar ninja.com, you can go to the header menu, it says free training. Click on that link. It's going to take you to our course called your webinar blueprint course. It's a seven part course, like I mentioned, totally free and it's going to give you everything you need to plan your first webinar. Now we have webinar specific training every two weeks. If you want to attend our live webinar, if you want to see how I run webinars, if you want to see firsthand what it looks like as an attendee, just go to webinar ninja.com workshop and sign up for our next live webinar. This is not a shameless plug. This is actual training that you can use and you can actually implement immediately after the training to help you run a live webinar. Now, if you want more training, we also have a blog, so check us out@webinarninja.com blog so getting started, start with a live webinar. Make sure you get the nerves out in that first few webinars. Get comfortable with the software you're using and nail your presentation. You know your area of expertise, but do you know how to deliver it? That's what it's all about. Delivery and get a few live webinars under your belt. Don't worry about the attendee numbers, don't worry about how many people registered. Just run the live webinars. No matter what the size of the audience is, the point here is to get your webinar to a point of professionalism where you're really good at delivering your webinar. That's really your main goal here, not to make sales and not to grow your audience. Now that could happen. It's very likely. It will happen. But if it doesn't for any reason, don't feel bad because, hey, the exercise you're doing right now is to improve your presentation skills. And you gotta just jump in there and do it. I always say the hardest thing about doing a webinar is doing your first webinar. Now, I would say after doing at least five live webinars, you feel comfortable doing webinars. You have some information, you have some models that you can use. You have some recordings from your webinars in the past where you can use this. Automated webinars. You could start looking at what webinars should you run. So they are good to be automated. Automated webinars are great for, you know, sort of screening customers, like a precursor. Hey, if you're interested in my product, here's a webinar you can sign up. It's an automated one. It walks you all through. It's a demo. And if they're interested, they can sign up for the offer or they get signed up for a live webinar. A lot of people do an automated that leads them to a live and then they start closing people, meaning closing the sale in the live webinar. Remember, automated webinars are great for scaling your message, scaling your training, scaling your sales. But they're passive, right? People really can't interact that much. You're not there to interact. So encourage them on the automated webinar to email you or email support. Or if your software like Webinar Ninja does, if they send a question, it goes to your email. So there you can reply later on asynchronously via email.

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To wrap up today's lesson, I highly recommend you start with a live webinar. Your delivery is going to be much better. Your interaction with the audience is going to be much better. Even if you're using as a replay, people that are watching the replay are like, wow, this was interactive. This was great. You answered all the questions in my head. Cause other people asked them and then you answered them. It's fun, it's exciting, and it's gonna allow you to be on top of your game and deliver the best performance. And I like to do my live webinars a few times. Cause when I run it the first time, I'm just getting a feel of the actual content, the delivery. I like to make some tweaks. Later on, maybe I make some tweaks to my slides, maybe the timing of when I give my offer, things like that. And then I run it again. And then I make a few other tweaks. And another again and then I run it again. I make a few tweaks, then I run it again. I really focus on my delivery. What you really want to do is run it enough so when you do it, it's just second nature. You know the next slide, you know exactly what you're going to say. You even know what some questions that are going to be asked because it's the same content. Take the best version, turn it into an automated webinar to pre qualify candidates or you know, lead them into a live webinar after that. Thank you so much for listening. Again. If you're looking for some free training and webinars, go to webinarninja.com, go to the menu, click Free training for a free course. You can opt in anytime and watch the course for free. Or if you want to join my next live webinar and see how I run webinars and you could just basically steal my formula and go ahead and do it yourself, go to webinarninja.com workshop. Thank you so much for listening to the $100 NBA show hit subscribe right now so you don't miss a beat. We're on every app, Spotify, Apple Podcast, Stitcher, Radio, Tunein, Overcast. We're on them all. By hitting subscribe, you make sure that the next episode, once it's ready, gets downloaded directly to your device. So it's ready for you wherever you are. Thank you so much for listening. Before I go, I want to leave you with this. I love webinars. They are the best tool in my book to convert interested people into buyers. There's nothing like a test drive. There's nothing like a demo. There's nothing like explaining and answering questions that specific people have about your product, your service and what you offer. To me, it kind of breaks down the wall of being online. Being online. There's kind of like this screen and kind of voidance. It kind of breaks down the wall of being online. A lot of people feel like there's a void because it's not live. It's not interactive. And that's what webinars are all about. They're very interactive. They're very intimate in a good way. It allows people to feel personable and allows you to really answer specific questions that people have and deliver real value to them. That's what makes it so special. It makes it a huge trust builder. You build trust so quickly with people that it's easy to earn their business. Thank you so much for listening. I'll check you in tomorrow's episode. I'll see you then. Take care.

Is it time to reimagine your future? The right business skills may make a difference in your career. At Capella University, we offer a relevant education that's designed to focus on what you need to know in the business world. We'll teach professional skills to help you pursue your goals like business management, strategic planning, and effective communication. And you can apply these skills right away. A different future is closer than you think with Capella University. Learn more at Capella Eduardo.