We've been talking a lot about webinars and showing you special tips that can make the organization of your online events smoother. The time also came for us to run a webinar on April 27th! Our team decided to collaborate with LearnWorlds. We shared our knowledge about digital learning and using webinars in your business strategy. How has education changed? How can you benefit from creating online courses? And how to build a successful online business you can sell using webinars?
We've answered all of these questions (and more) and wrapped it all up in this article, so keep reading.
LiveWebinar & LearnWorlds about education, webinars, and collaboration technology
We called the event "The Power of the Webinar - How to Teach Live Classes and Sell More Courses" because we believe that collaboration technology can shorten the distance between people and bring more value to them no matter where they live.
Our LiveWebinar team partnered with LearnWorlds - an all-in-one platform to create, sell, and market your online courses and provide online training.
Two hosts ran the event:
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Matthew Lee - National Sales Director at LiveWebinar, who has worked in the webinar industry for over 20 years;
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Panos Siozos, PhD - LearnWorlds co-founder and CEO of LearnWorlds.
It was dedicated to everyone who wants to share their knowledge via the Internet, no matter their business size or experience. Even those who haven't hosted a webinar before or don't have an online business yet could benefit from the content shared by our experts. The idea was to show creators, entrepreneurs, and business owners some best practices, unusual ideas, and the right technology to make their overall strategies stronger and bring more revenue.
During this event, we showed real case studies, tips, and software demonstrations to guide each participant step-by-step through the process of creating online pages, running webinars, and selling live classes. We want to show you that webinars are a powerful tool that can build brand awareness, attract new audiences, as well as increase sales and revenue.
And for those familiar with creating educational content, distribution, and promotion, we have industry insights and studies that show the leading global trends.
You can still (re)watch it here 👇
Although it was a live event, we recorded it to enable our audience to come back to the video content whenever they need.
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It's 90 minutes long in total, consisting of 2 insightful presentations and a Q&A session.
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It gathered over 215 participants from all over the world, including: Cyprus, Finland, the USA, Poland, France, and even Trinidad and Tobago!
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Our moderation team answers questions on the chat immediately during the event to make the whole experience smoother and avoid disruptions.
How did the shift to digital impact education and online events?
source: Matthew’s presentation
The event started by describing the social and economic situation, as well as trends that matter and will be important for businesses in the near future.
The pandemic has changed the way we work, communicate, socialize, consume, and learn. That's a big challenge and opportunity for the education sector, since more and more courses and classes are moving online. Along with that, the global e-learning market is growing.
However, the tendency to establish more online courses started to emerge even before 2020. Right now, it has accelerated not only due to coronavirus restrictions but also thanks to the benefits one can get from digital education, including:
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location independence (remote working, nomads)
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financial freedom (side income, create your own job)
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time independence (passive income, escape the 9-to-5)
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everything online (business, commerce, learning)
How do webinars fit into this?
Webinars are the perfect way to share knowledge. They can be used in synchronous (live video meetings) or asynchronous (recorded lessons) ways. What's more:
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A single webinar can achieve 500-1,000 registrants.
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Eventually, 2-5% of attendees will purchase at the end of the webinar.
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If you don't know whether you should go live or record a course, there's an option C - you can try creating on-demand courses that may contain live meetings with the instructor (we call them evergreen webinars).
We asked, you answered
During the event, we also conducted a survey to see how you perceive the role of webinars in your business strategy. Performing real-time tests helps to adjust content to the participants' needs and expectations.
We found out that:
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30% of those asked stated that you reach more leads with webinars.
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20% of the surveyed said webinars make you look more professional.
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18% of people answered that webinars allow you to extend your brand and 17% said that they help you scale marketing efforts.
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The remaining attendees stated that you can reach targeted accounts with webinars.
Webinars - where education meets technology
As more and more people start to familiarize themselves with online methods of communication such as video meetings or webinars, it's helpful to show exactly how businesses can implement technology into their daily operations. With the shift to digital, education goes hand in hand with video software systems to bring students and teachers together.
The future of learning is online
According to technavio, the online education market has already grown by 17.6% in 2020 compared to the previous year. Until 2024, its growth is predicted to accelerate at a CAGR of 18%. There will also be several players occupying the market, so the sooner you start working on your digital brand awareness and reputation, the better.
This is the perfect moment to choose the right automation tool and focus on creating educational content. As Panos stated in his presentation - the webinars and materials you share don't have to be perfect straight away. It's better to start with something that you can polish during the process instead of postponing it to make every facet flawless. You can also repurpose your content later on and create blog posts, presentations, seminars, or even ebooks from what you've already prepared!
Webinars work at every step of the customer journey - the AIDA model
If you think that webinars work only to attract people and build brand awareness, we'll prove you wrong. In his presentation, Matthew Lee assigned specific functions that a webinar can perform at each stage of the AIDA model.
How to pick an impactful topic for a webinar (attention)
When creating a webinar, you don't want to attract random people who aren't willing to become your clients. You want to reach precisely your target group, and to do so you need to speak their language.
What does this mean?
Write down a few issues they might be able to overcome with your product (here: an online course) and tailor your message to hit right into the pain point.
Suppose you're running a workshop about Adobe Photoshop. Think which title would be more catchy for you:
"Hey! Come and learn how to use Adobe Photoshop" - such slogans can be a little boring. Whatever kind of business leader or user sees your topic, they might not even know they need to learn this program. Try changing the topic to: "Hey! Do you want to create images that drive more traffic to your website?" in order to drive attention to the actual business cases. Use a greater number of action words that matter more to the potential user.
The teaching part (interest)
We've got the attention of potential students, but now we need to convince them to take part in our educational webinar. One of your goals here is to demonstrate your authority as a source of information.
What to focus on in the educational part?
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build trust and relationships with your audience
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provide real value for your target group
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remember about the power of reciprocity
The pitch part (desire & action)
You did it! People feel the need to attend your course. To make them convert and hopefully stay with you for other educational events, you should focus on providing value and educating. Avoid pitching, even if you feel the urge to do so. Instead, use the academic part of the webinar to leave a trail of breadcrumbs leading to your solution!
What should you focus on during the educational part?
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reinforce your benefits
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use a clear and powerful CTA
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create a "special offer" or a "special price"
Mix all of these ingredients to get a perfect base and fill it with valuable content that will make your attendees come back and recommend your company to their friends and business partners. Promotion will then be just the icing on the cake.
Must-haves for your first educational webinar
Matt Lee gave a speech about building a webinar strategy for online learning. Fantastic content is crucial, yey without proper planning and a catchy CTA your revenue might still be lower than expected. Matt has 20 years of experience in the industry, and here's what he shared with us.
Plan your webinar - elementary points
Planning is key to avoiding chaos whatever you do, but how much time should you strictly dedicate to each part of the video meeting? It all depends on the length of your webinar, and you can adapt the right proportions to your particular case.
Matt showed this during his 40-minute lesson example and divided it into 4 parts:
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start with a quick and engaging introduction (10 minutes)
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go through what they will learn (5 minutes)
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during the teaching part, focus on sharing precious educational content (20 minutes)
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pitch with a CTA (5 minutes)
How to create the perfect call to action?
Speaking of the Call To Action - it's not easy to come up with gripping words that will make leads convert. We can't tell you the golden recipe for success, as there's no one size fits all solution in this matter. Each CTA has to be adjusted to the goal you want to achieve, your audience’s preferences, and the kind of online event you're running.
When writing a CTA, double-check if you:
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Use action words
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Focus on value
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Build curiosity and anticipation
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Test them!
What features are the perfect fit for online learning?
It might be overwhelming to choose the right pricing plan, especially at the beginning of your online education journey when you don't yet know what options you (and your students) can't live without. Above you can see a little handout of features that might come in handy to this kind of business.
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Recordings - people often ask if you can record a webinar so that they will be able to re-watch it later. It's also handy when you're creating an online course for sale as a downloadable program.
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Live meetings - no matter if you're running a 1-to-1 or 1-to-many webinar, this is a must-have. Consider social media live streaming to raise brand awareness too.
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Permanent rooms - if you teach a group of students periodically, setting up a new room each week is tedious and inconvenient. Choose software that enables you to create a room once and always meet with the same link.
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Evergreen webinars - to interact with your attendees during pre-recorded video content and make them feel as if the whole experience was 100% live.
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Online collaboration features such as a shared whiteboard, real-time polls & surveys, breakout rooms.
Over to you
Now it's your turn- you have to decide whether you're ready to enter the digital world. If you want to find out if it will work for you, LiveWebinar offers a free trial.
If you missed our event then subscribe to our social media channels such as Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter where we will remind you whenever a new webinar is planned. And if you want to see what else our experts shared with the participants, you can watch the video on YouTube and subscribe to our channel.
Stay tuned for upcoming webinars!