Webinars: a potent sales tactic (and how-to-guide)

The comparative numbers speak for themselves. These are courtesy of Femtrepreneur:

 

• The average conversion rate on social media is close to 0.01%
• Email is close to 1 – 2%

 

But webinars can convert participants into buyers at 10 – 20% and up, in any industry.

 

And your audience doesn’t need to be massive – webinars work well for small groups, even for around 30 or so people. Jenna Soard from YouCanBrand.com, made $17K from one webinar which only hosted 100 people.

 

To boot, the product that was being promoted cost $997, a sum that would usually be too expensive for people to make an on-the-spot decision to buy…

 

Webinars are a powerful sales tactic, no matter the industry or size. This article provides a short guideline about how to use them to boost sales.

What Are Webinars?

Before we get into details, you may be wondering what is a live webinar…

 

Using meeting software, a live webinar is a seminar that is hosted over the Internet. Anyone anywhere in the world can participate if they have a computer or even mobile phone with an internet connection.

 

Meeting software enables hosts to give online presentations by:

 

• Showing presentation screens to participants
• Demonstrating something with digital “whiteboards”
• Allowing Q&A sessions
• Conducting polls and surveys
• Providing the means to get people to register for the webinar

 

Image Credit: Clickmeeting

An example of a meeting software whiteboard.

 

While the offline sales meeting allows people to interact face-to-face, webinars connect people digitally.

Why Webinars Work As a Sales Tactic

It is just about impossible to make a first-time sale to a person who visits your website for the first time. In fact, according to HubSpot, 96% of first time visitors will not be ready to buy.

 

The theory behind that is due to trust, and where these visitors are in the sales funnel process.

 

Essentially, the overall idea is that because there are so many scams online, if you’re not a well-know business already, you’re going to need to earn the trust of people before they buy from you. This is why webinars are powerful – they’re the closest thing to face-to-face interaction in the digital sphere.

 

Because registrants can see the host, and experience their knowledge, your business becomes “real” to them. If your message adds value, and they can see the worth of what you’re offering, its going to be easier to make that sale than on social media, your website, or any other mechanism.

How to Use Webinars For Sales

Strategise the Process

Putting yourself in the shoes of your buyer persona, map out the process and the marketing of your webinar. Since you are holding a live webinar with the intention of making sales, you’re going to want to make sure conversions from registrant to buyer are as high as possible.

 

Use these guidelines when building your process:

 

• Your registration pages should be short, with a compelling headline and a few bullet points explaining the benefits of attending.
• Send reminders to registrants – consider sending an email the day before, and an SMS an hour before the webinar begins.
• Although your webinar is a sales tactic, don’t think of it as such. Instead, you must aim to deliver value. Address their problems, offer solutions and make sure they leave the webinar thinking highly of you because you’ve solved something for them. Promise to deliver specific benefits and be sure to honour it.
• To get as many participants as possible, promote the webinar aggressively for about 3 weeks, especially on the day of the event, as statistics show that many people sign up on the actual day.

Strategise The Participant’s Webinar Journey

1. Introduce the host/s. Tell your story. The point is to show your humanity.
2. Now do something to break the ice, like a poll where you can interact with registrants. It’s important to engage with the attendees. A simple, “type in where you are from” will suffice.
3. Go through the agenda, so they know what to expect. Add a tantaliser towards the end, to encourage people to stick around.
4. At the heart of the webinar, discuss the problem you aim to solve for them, and provide the benefits of why they signed up.
5. Once you’ve completed your main message, which is the part where you deliver value, you can let them know you can solve bigger problems with paid services or products.
6. Make the process fun and interesting by using the tools of the meeting software.
7. Consider allowing the webinar to be recorded as on-demand content.

Summary

Webinars, when done properly, are a powerful way to generate more sales.

 

They work well because they help people to trust you faster, and anyone in the world can attend.

 

To get good results though, the webinar needs to be promoted and the process well thought out.