The internet is currently flooded with content, so users have become pickier about what they want to do in their free time. If you want them to spend it on watching your webinar, you have to be sure that it provides valuable content. What’s important for your business at the end of the day is the number of leads generated thanks to hosting a live stream.
Sometimes webinars are engaging and provide insightful knowledge, but the audience doesn’t exceed a few people. Of course, from your company’s perspective, say 10 leads who will become your clients are more worth it than a thousand random guests, who will never make a purchase. But hosting webinars also has some other goals, such as creating the image of an expert or reaching new customers. So, do you want to create webinars that convert?
Why does hosting webinars give you a great ROI?
If so many business people right now are investing their time in hosting webinars that convert, there has to be something to it and in webinar conversion rates. CEOs and managers don’t have the leisure of spending time on things that don’t bring them profit. So why is creating webinars that convert a top priority?
Firstly, you don’t have to invest money in it - or it requires a very small amount of financial contribution - so the webinar conversion rate is likely to be satisfying. What is necessary to use is a streaming platform that enables you to connect with the audience. Most of them offer the possibility to connect your webinar with social media channels in order to reach participants via Facebook or YouTube, and thus show your content to more people. When it comes to some other advantages of streaming platforms, they will for example simply improve your webinar’s quality, but they aren’t vital. Some platforms allow you to host a few webinars free of charge, so at the beginning you don’t even have to pay a single penny.
Of course, it’s crucial to have the equipment to run webinars that convert and to make webinar conversion rate satisfying. You need to have a computer with a video camera and a microphone, but we assume that if you’re reading this article then you already have a digital device to work on. Actually, even a smartphone can handle streaming a webinar, although the quality might be poorer. It’s surely a better experience to watch a streaming video with the best equipment, but an average laptop would also do the job. You can invest in external IT gadgets - a camera or a microphone - but they’re not must-haves in the beginning.
So, what exactly is essential for making webinars that convert? Here’s a list of 7 things to take into account when planning a live stream if you want to have excellent webinar conversion rate and skyrocketing results.
#1 Solve a problem
Users expect a webinar to broaden their knowledge in a particular field and dispel some doubts. When planning a live video, keep in mind that you should make it useful. Create a webinar that convert around gripping content and interesting business insights that might not be common knowledge.
Provide your participants with an extraordinary experience. Decide whether your webinar would be a masterclass concerning an interesting topic that refers to your work, a Q&A session, or an “X-step” guide to leveraging their business.
If a service or a product you sell has features that aren't a particularly intuitive representation of your product (or a certain function) you can create a webinar that convert with a ‘how-to’ tone. But there’s a catch. Remember that your clients can read about features on your website, so only do it if there’s a demand for such a tutorial. Show them this feature in action and don’t make an Ikea instruction manual out of your webinar.
Some people prefer to learn through watching tutorials instead of reading, and that’s one strength of webinars.
#2 Tell a story
Webinars can help with creating a concise image of your company. By spreading insightful knowledge, you can easily become perceived as an expert in your field, and thus gain trust within your audience. It’s also a great form of online marketing, based on valuable content.
The ability to tell a compelling story is a game-changer when hosting a webinar that convert. People want authenticity, so refer to examples that you know from your own experience and make it personal. It’s an opportunity to teach your attendees the hands-on methods that you’ve tested in real life and used successfully. Have you established a company from scratch and achieved skyrocketing results? Make a webinar that convert and prepare a few lessons to learn, based on your story.
#3 “Stay tuned for an upcoming event”
When you know what you would like to talk about and why, then think about the marketing strategy. To make a webinar that converts, after identifying your audience, choose the platforms that are the most relevant. Here is a list of useful tips on how to set up a Facebook campaign to achieve an outstanding conversion rate. Pay attention to creating a robust promotion that starts early enough and remember to still talk about a webinar after it ends.
If you think about promoting to build webinar that convert, make the most of an email campaign. Send reminders via email but try to avoid spamming and send them only to the list of interested participants. What to do if you don’t have an email list? You can drive traffic to your registration page by social media posts and ads or guest posts to build up your contact base. You can reach new leads by sending a link to your webinar directly via email. Why is it so important? According to this study, the standard webinar conversion rate from opening an email to purchasing, is around 23%, which is 23 times more than on social media posts - where conversion rates are lower than 1%.
#4 Watch the numbers
Speaking of webinars that convert, the numbers will show if your webinar was successful and leveraged the results of previous ones.
Make a survey after the webinar to know what your audience expects and what can be improved. Poll your audience to see who is willing to buy your product. Try to get detailed reports about participants and run polls, which provide handy insights to capture extra information from participants. Thanks to this you can better understand how people found your website and why. Compare your generated leads, divide them into hot, warm and cold and distinguish the ones that have potential from the rest of the participants. Remember to generate statistics and evaluate them to make your webinars more efficient.
#5 Remember that you’re talking to a person
Now, let’s talk about soft skills, which are crucial for nailing a performance, to show you another tip how to make webinars that convert. The bulk of a presentation is how you speak, so pace yourself and control the time. Balance the speed of your speech to pronounce everything clearly, but not too rigidly. Remember that teacher who always delivered a monologue under his breath and monotonously? You don’t want to bore your listeners, so vary your tone and voice dynamics. Show your personality and don’t try to be perfect, as unpolished webinars are more realistic and thus more trustworthy so, they can generate more webinar conversion rate.
Also, balance the level of knowledge you will provide to the attendees. Don’t think of your audience as absolute newcomers, but also don’t speak completely like an academic (unless you’re setting up a webinar for such a community). Look up to public speakers who are masters in their field, and try to follow their tips to leverage your self-presentation skills.
#6 Interaction is key
It’s natural that if you sit on the couch and listen to a person who’s talking for two hours straight with no breaks, you may catch yourself thinking about everything but the topic of the video. To avoid such distractions, interact with your audience and allow them to participate actively in your webinar that convert. Take periodical breaks and ask your attendees if everything is loud and clear.
Decide beforehand whether you prefer to answer any potential questions after the presentation or during it, in order to keep a natural flow. If you prefer the second option, use special features to avoid chaos. For example, drawing on a presentation is a great solution for solving real-time doubts of participants, yet it doesn’t destroy the fluency.
Think of different variations to spice things up, by implementing real-time surveys, short group discussions or small projects to accomplish. Although it might seem impossible to do so via the internet, it’s achievable by creating breakout rooms in the streaming platform. Try not to use external websites or platforms to work on, as this might distract your listeners. If possible, stick to the features available within your webinar system, instead of asking your audience to copy links to other sites to complete a survey. Keep in mind that what matters most is the message that you provide, not the background.
#7 Add something special
Who doesn’t like gifts? Receiving something special makes us feel more appreciated. Especially after leaving data such as an email address to a company, getting more in return than expected creates a picture of a better deal in our minds. So to make your participants think warmly about your business, consider adding a special bonus.
Be the nice guy, show your flawless manners and send a thank-you email after a webinar. As people commonly ask for it, make sure to record the webinar so that it can be used later on-demand and sent to the audience. Also, attach a presentation that you were showing with the message or create a wrap-up with the most important takeaways. Try to make it visually attractive to maintain the esteem of an ‘expert’ and ‘professional’.
Besides, think about collaboration. You can invite a special guest and then host a webinar that convert. Together you can make it more attractive for the audience. That works even better in reverse when you perform in the live video on somebody else’s website. It allows you to reach their audience, who might not have even known about your existence before. Plus, such partnering also helps with making contacts within the industry for future projects.
#8 Nail the keywords
Last but not least, the name can be a game changer, so think of an eye-catching title. As live videos are a part of content strategy, try doing keyword research and choose the best ones, to beat the competitors, but still reach the audience you want to target.
To make webinars that convert, look at what phrases are appealing to users and which they are likely to click on. You can use tools to help you with that, or just go to Audience Insights in the Facebook for Business section and see what words are more powerful. Using concise words that are repeated within your webinar description, social media posts that aim to promote it, and other publications might help with your SEO metrics. We don’t have to tell you how important the copy and title are, right?
Webinars that pay off in a nutshell
If we were asked what’s the most important thing to take out of this article, it’s that hosting a webinar is not rocket science - but there’s a catch. Everybody can create one, but not everyone can make one successful.
To wrap up what was stated above, here are the 8 key takeaways to hosting webinars that convert:
- Make your webinar’s topic useful and help with solving real problems instead of presenting hypothetical situations.
- Webinars work because they are personal, so be yourself and work on storytelling.
- Plan your webinar promotion in advance and remember about it afterwards too.
- Build and expand your email list with lead data by sending access to the webinar in a direct message.
- Gather relevant data, ask your audience for feedback in a survey after the webinar and compare the statistics to see if the webinar conversion rate is satisfying.
- Remember that on the other side of the screen there are people, not robots, so speak as if you were talking to them in person.
- Try to be flexible with answering questions and interact with your audience to keep them focused on the relevant CTAs.
- Give them something extra.
- Know your audience, reach them in their “natural habitat” and use proper language to catch their attention.
That’s what you can do to create webinars that convert. To make the most of these tips, choose a platform that allows you to fully customize the features to fit your needs and support your individual plan. Actually, LiveWebinar ticks all of these boxes.
Now it’s up to you: would you give it a try and boost your potential?