How Can You Get Started with Webinar Marketing?

Hey folks, Nick here. Webinar marketing begins with value and ends with value. Making the right connections through this effort means focusing that value to as specific an audience as possible. Just remember that trying to directly sell whatever you’re peddling via a webinar is likely to fail spectacularly. Don’t be lazy. Be earnest and be patient. Cultivate your audience. Help them solve problems and use examples and next step initiatives to start introducing how your service/product/solution gives them what they need, want, and/or desire. If you don’t have time to read the rest of this article, hopefully this much sticks with you. For everyone else, let’s unpack webinar marketing!

Bring enough value for the folks you want to be talking with, and they will engage with you. This means that the primary focus of this exercise is to deliver something of significant value that is Uniquely Better. Others may cover the same topic/category you do. Spend a little time researching your audience(s) and readily accessible material around the topic you want to champion for your audience. 

Since webinars are typically considered long-form content, we have to acknowledge and respect the TIME and ATTENTION we are asking our target audience to give to our content versus the billion other ways they could spend their focus. Here are seven things to help you use webinar marketing to target, connect, and continue with the right connections for your organization or business.

1. Who Is This For? 

Your audience should never be “everyone!” Design your webinar for a specific audience—the more specific the better. 

Notice that this step comes before the “What are we talking about?” step. You may be looking to reach a broader audience, but you are likely going to have way more success if you break up that audience into smaller, more focused subsets. Yes, you have to do more webinars and tailor your content to each one, but so what? You want to be effective and efficient for your target audience(s). This way you can provide specific, relevant examples for each audience and keep them fully engaged 100% of the time you are asking them to spend. Also, when it’s time to drive them towards next steps, you can make your directions and asks much more focused, and therefore more effective. 

• EX: This webinar is for builders in the Southwest who are looking for eco-focused methods of wall insulation. 
  • Let’s say this was for builders across the US. Then use the above example to perhaps break them up into geographic regions or climate-specific scenarios since that impacts relevancy.
  • If it’s part of your business development strategy to also educate home buyers so they push their architects and builders to adopt what you’re selling, you can adopt this webinar to address specific Business to Consumer audiences, not just your primary Business to Business audiences. 
• EX: This webinar is for moms trying to find the right vehicle makeup for three kids under the age of 8.
• EX: This webinar is for CPG (consumer packaged goods) entrepreneurs looking to launch their first product in the hard liquor category. 
• EX: This webinar is for women lawyers aged 29–55 who struggle to find friends they can relate to, be vulnerable with, and who will hold them accountable.

2. What Are We Talking About? 

We defined who we are talking to first because who we target should inform what content we are delivering. You may have more than one audience as mentioned above, which will likely (and probably should) modify your “what” for each of those specific audiences. The “what” should clearly and succinctly articulate what your webinar is about for the specific “who” we defined above. 

I like to think of it as the key major takeaway. This is also where the title of your webinar comes from. The end result of this exercise can be a statement, a question, or step-by-step actions that dial in your webinar marketing.

• EX: Designing and building sustainable, eco-friendly custom homes in Texas with non-toxic, life-lasting materials—comparing methods, cost, processes, ease of execution, upkeep, and real world results.
  • Boom, do one for each city/state/region you serve!
• EX: The 12 elements a vehicle needs to best accommodate taxiing around three kids under the age of 8—A buyer’s guide to the 12 Essentials Checklist and Our 2023 Top 5 Picks from Economy to Luxury. 
  • Date means that you will need to produce a new one of these every week/month/year, which lends to both urgency and relevance of your target audience. 
• EX: Essential information to launch a direct-to-consumer liquor-based product—what every CPG entrepreneur needs to know before launching their hard liquor product starting in-state and moving across state lines. Avoid fines or even jail time.
• EX: Why is it so hard for women lawyers to make friends and be in community with people they can trust and respect, and what do we do about it? We have some ideas for you. 

3. Why Does This Matter? 

Your audience likely knows why this webinar matters to them, especially if it’s content they are already searching for organically. That said, everyone likes confirmation whether they know their “why” or they don’t, so let’s spell it out for them. This helps them self-validate that they are your right audience—the audience you want to be connecting with. This also helps them understand and justify the time and focus you are asking from them. One to three sentences are all you really need to convey this information.

• EX: This webinar helps builders to reduce costs, stand up and out with their offerings, and have real impact on a healthier, more sustainable community. 
• EX: Moms will walk away from this webinar equipped with a much better, deeper understanding around what will make travel faster, easier, more comfortable, more affordable, and more fun with the right vehicle. 
• EX: The webinar summary speaks for itself. Avoid penalties and potential jail time. Become more attractive to potential investors or partners. Increase your audience base, efficiencies, sales, and PROFIT. 
• EX: Healthy community leads to more enjoyment, more passion, and surprisingly more business. This HBR study shows that lawyers in a real community see an increase in successful cases, reduced rates of burnout, etc. 

4. What Are the Key Takeaways?

Two to five key takeaways lend to the same self-validation concept mentioned in the last section. This also allows for you to better discover what elements of your webinar they find truly valuable. Remember, at this time it’s all about value first. You know when you’ve really nailed your takeaways when your target audience asks about next steps with you (which we will get to in a minute) before you’ve even had a chance to get to them. Remember that we want to measure what’s compelling in order to better control the narrative that will eventually drive them to action. 

I’m only going to give an example of one Key Takeaway for each for efficiency’s sake:

• EX: Ten alternative, sustainable materials proven to be as or more effective for the intended use of the products they replace with cost comparisons.
• EX: Based on our proven checklist of desired features, vehicles ranked best in class by price point. 
• EX: What states are best to first begin selling liquor-based products across state lines. 
• EX: The steps as well as a framework to start a core community, how to nurture it, how to keep it healthy, and how to grow it. 

5. How Long Will This Be?

Self explanatory, but a few things to remember about time. The longer it is, the lower the volume of attendees, typically. I say typically because, again, if you hit on the magical compelling mixture that draws a crowd, it could be a five-hour-long marathon and it won’t matter—but let’s be real, that’s very rare. 

Instead, we want to think about what length of time it will take to effectively deliver your key takeaways and fully articulate the next steps (coming up in a minute). A rule of thumb is to keep your talking in this engagement to 45 minutes or less unless it’s a unique circumstance. But also allow for 15–30 minutes of group discussion/questions/response/etc. Be prepared with seed questions in case you have a deadbeat crowd. Remember, webinar marketing is all about driving the right connections, which requires some engagement to get the ball rolling and keep things flowing.

Do y’all really need examples for this step? No? Awesome! Always impressed y’all!

6. Next Steps and Asks

Depending on what you sell, it might be time to start building the bridge between the VALUE you just provided and the VEHICLE(S) that they pay you well for, whether those vehicles are product or service (P/S for short). 

If you have the right connections (vetted and validated by now from the above steps), and you’ve got everything above dialed in, then next steps/asks should be incredibly effective at this point. Depending on what you’re selling, you may offer them an option to move directly to a sales conversation. You may also give them an option to dip their toes in the water, or to move to the next level of education. All of these things largely depend on your industry, P/S, price points, target audience, etc. Most important is that you want them to want to continue the conversation. 

• EX: We dig deeper into tools, materials, methods, and resources 

7. Recorded or Live?

This is all about being compelling. Remember that live you is always, always the most compelling version of you and your content. This is as true for John C. Maxwell as it is for little ol’ me and you. That said, automation is a beautiful thing for reach, scale, and time. 

My recommendation is to start with live webinars and smaller audiences. Cap your webinar attendance so you really have time to interact with your audience and understand what they found interesting, relevant, and/or urgent. Of course give them an opportunity to ask questions, but also allow for a bit of time where YOU can ask THEM questions to better understand what they value and what’s a priority to them. 

When everything about your webinar is fully dialed in, scripted with effective next steps, and documented—and you’re consistently hitting your desired outcome with your audience—then you should start exploring, recording, automating, and expanding your audience reach. 

Okay, I think that’s enough on that for the moment. If you’ve got questions or simply want to talk about webinars and webinar marketing, don’t hesitate to reach out. Or you can always sign up for AE’s ThriveSide Webinar to see these steps in action. Cheers y’all!