It’s been a long time since I’ve thought about a webinar or online program. In fact, it’s a long time since I made an online course or ran a webinar. The reason is Iit all felt a little jarring and I felt jaded. I made a decision to take some time out and to work with book clients who were referred to me, rather than get out there and shake my ‘thang’. Plus I have been knee deep in words and writing my next book – Tapping into your divine inner wisdom. It hasn’t all be writing and pulling my hair out – writers diarrhea is a problem. Not content with writing too much, I have been mulling over creating new content and thinking about webinars as a way to connect to my potential readers.
Getting this right has feels massively important. It’s about the connection and the community, as much as it is about how we interact and communicate.
I can remember buying into someone’s program about ‘how to do this well’ and being incredibly bored. Such was my disappointment that for some inexplicable reason my heart went right out of this as a marketing and communications tool.
On this course, the first video I watched was about learning styles and how to map these to your webinar to ensure that you keep your different kind of attendees motivated. As I am a fan of learning styles and this is something I use, I was interested to find out more. I discovered that I was a what-if webinar attendee – I do other things while the person is talking, I don’t wait until the end, my mind wanders to possibilities while the person is talking and I go off to explore and contact them directly if I am interested.
And you know what? While ‘watching’ this module, I had become so rigid with disinterest that I was indeed, doing something else. In my defence, when a webinar or online programme / course has been done well I am all ears and I turn off all distractions. I do this because I do not want to miss anything and if it feels like this person is talking directly to me, I give them my attention.
I have run very few webinars, but I have made many online courses and I have been guilty of letting my clients down. This has been more to do with the platform and its rules, rather than how I would have like to create a community. With lots of lovely hindsight, I am going to take what I have learned and make sure that my new webinars and courses tick all of the boxes.
Why does your webinar suck?
In no particular order
You spend too long talking about you. I am here because I am interested in your content, not the 1 hour you take to tell me how awesome you are.
Lesson: Let people know where to find out more about you and get to the point. If you have a story keep it short and provide a link to a blog where they can find out more.
You waffle on for too long. This may have something to do with my learning style, but I like short, sharp and succinct. Short intro and then punchy content.
Lesson: Tell people what you are going to cover, then cover it without the waffle and provide links where they can get more if they are a detail person. State your objectives and stick to them.
I don’t have anything to do. Yes, I know you are talking, and listening is a task, but I’d quite like to be involved, so give me a task to do.
Lesson: Have a number of activities lined up and tell your listeners that at the end they can submit one of them to win something thing.
You don’t give me any handouts. I’d like to have some handouts to refer to and I’d like to have an activity first as well.
Lesson: Add in a simple agenda, with a small amount of value to whet people’s appetites and a task to do that will go with the activities they have to do when in the webinar.
It’s pre-recorded and you pretend it’s live. I used to love the idea that I could record once and then set it up on autopilot to run again. Having watched others do this and seen the live comments that the webinar is pre-recorded, it no longer feels like a good idea.
Lesson: Do it all live, even if it means getting up at an ungodly idea for people on the other side of the world. People love live and you can let those that opted in and couldn’t make have a recording.
You don’t give me anything of value. This comes back to the something useful to do. I know that giving stuff away is a pain, however, if you provide something actionable which is valuable then you can, for those that are interested offer a way for them to work with you.
Lesson: Give your listeners something that kick-starts a process, which will motivate and inspire them to want to know more.
Your sales pitch is dire. I hate with a vengeance those pitches that tell me that your thingy is worth millions and you are letting me in at $97. It’s either $97 or it’s not and if this is a special offer great, but don’t do the huge value add thingy.
Lesson: Price up your offers sensibly and then make a one-off offer that makes sense financially for you and your audience.
Your slides are ugly. This is me being anal – beautiful slides please – no clipart.
Lesson: Pictures paint a thousand words and we want those pictures to look classy. If you do not know how to use PowerPoint, pay someone to make them look good.
You do not show your face. More face time please – I want to see my presenter at the beginning, somewhere in the middle and at the end.
Lesson: No matter how much you want to hide behind your beautiful slides, show your face. I want to look into your eyes.
Other niggles about your webinar
- Your sign up page is too long, I know that long sales pages work, but I hate them. Give me a video (short) that explains it with a sign-up and then a link for the long version, which I won’t follow.
- Your follow-up is full of bull. I don’t care because I have already I signed up and that’s what I want, not endless drips of drippy rubbish pre-webinar non-content.
- There isn’t a place I can come and ask questions. It would be cool to be directed to a Facebook Group where I can pose questions, before, during and after.
- Once it’s all over you mail me every day. Stop. Enough. I will block you.
- You don’t have a neat button that says add this to my calendar. I’m lazy and I want you to make it easy. Remember I am easily distracted so this short cut is ace for me.
- When I buy something, you don’t call me to say thanks, your automated systems do it for you. I might not want to talk to you, but a 10-15 minute catch up would be good. I realise that if 1000’s have signed up this might be impossible. Then you could offer a number of follow-ups, first come first served.
- You don’t show me the webinar time in my time zone and instead send me off to some app that doesn’t work easily.
I hope this doesn’t all sound too negative? This is more for me than anything else, I want to ensure that I go to market, delivering the best that I can. I think that I have a lot more to learn as well.
When I attend webiners, for me, it is important that I go away with something that I can use and not feel like I have had my ears blasted with stuff about you.
Having read back through this I realise that I have a lot to live up to when I make my next live, short, full of value webinar. What else do I need to think of? What does or doesn’t work for you?
