Your First Webinar

How webinars can increase engagement – and conversion rates

Have you ever run a webinar? If you haven't, then it's time you did because they’re incredibly powerful. And, to help you get started, I’m going to share some key tips.

If you prefer to watch rather than read, you can watch my video here. 

Live? Or pre-recorded?

The first big question to think about is whether you should run webinars live or pre-recorded.

Some great software exists that allows you to create webinars as videos and then run them on any schedule you like. Once a week, for example. People log in to watch the webinar, and it feels live. As a concept, it has a lot of appeal. However, one problem I’ve found – and other people’s research bears this out – is that even though pre-recorded webinars may feel live, conversion rates are significantly lower.

Tip #1: Run them live

My first tip then is to run them live. That way, you can give whatever offer you’re making a real sense of urgency. If, for example, by the end of the webinar you want people to have booked a meeting with you, you could just open up your calendar to the first six people that respond. Which obviously wouldn’t work so well if it was a repeat of a pre-recorded webinar!

PowerPoint? Or webcam?

While there’s nothing wrong with PowerPoint slides and voice, I’ve found you get much higher engagement – and a better conversion rate – by using a webcam. (You may also hear it called a livecast or a webcast.) There are two main advantages:

·       it’s more engaging – and the more engaging things are, the longer your audience stay around and the more likely they are to take the next step with you

·       it saves a ton of time!

To explain a little.

In a conventional webinar with slides, you need to make sure something changes on the screen – either a new slide or a transition of some sort – every 20 seconds; otherwise people lose interest. This means that for a 60-minute webinar, you need 180 slides. And that many slides would take at least a day to create.

Tip #2: Use a webcam

I don't know about you, but I certainly haven't got time to spend a day writing PowerPoint slides. Instead, in all my webinars, I use a webcam. Sometimes I'll show something on the screen, but I don't use slides. So, if you do get into webinars, use a webcam. It's much easier and you'll get better results.

If you found this valuable and would like to learn more about value pricing, I run a free live online training session every month with a topic chosen by you. Attend live and you can ask me any questions you have. Click here to register and I will send you an invitation to the next session.

Wishing you every success on your pricing journey

Mark Wickersham

Chartered Accountant, Public Speaker and Author of Amazon No.1 Best Seller “Effective Pricing for Accountants”