As you’ve probably noticed, there are more and more of them being held all the time, and I’m starting to have my own webinars…in hindsight it’s taken me too long to get on the bandwagon myself!  I have some exciting ones planned coming up that I’ll tell you about soon.

The use of webinars is exploding for good reason…because THEY WORK!…here are a few reasons I can share with you that they do work so well.

1. They Hold People’s Attention Very Well

A blog post like this is actually very bad at capturing someone’s attention. And if you’re ready this text right now, I’m proud of you!…Because most readers will just scan the sub-headlines of this post and move on to the next thing. Most people never make it all the way through a post because their attention is so scattered.

Because a webinar is like an “event”, it naturally holds attention MUCH BETTER. On average webinars range from 45 to 60 minutes long. I’ve been on many that go longer, but 45-60 is the optimum length that will keep your viewers’ attention the entire time. With their full attention on a webinar, you’re able to things that are difficult or impossible to do from your blog; like building your relationship and trust with your followers, delivering your complete message all at once, and also creating rabid followers by giving away pure free content and value.

2. You Get Instant Feedback

After you write a blog post, you have to wait to see if anyone gets involved enough in your article to post a comment. And, most of the time, 95% won’t.

On a webinar, you can ask them for feedback right then. As the moderator, you can also see all of their names, and if you wanted, you could call them out individually and ask questions. Your viewers watching the webinar can type in questions and comments into a message box along the side of the presentation window. And you see them flowing through real-time, allowing you to answer them back right then.

A mentor of mine, Daegan Smith, does something on his webinars that I think is very effective. To ensure everybody is paying attention to the webinar, and not just surfing around the web or doing something else in their house, he will make a certain percentage of the attendees respond with an answer to a question he asks, before he moves on to the next topic. For instance, if there are 40 people in the room, he might say, “Tell me the #1 key to having a great webinar that I just told you.”, and go on to tell the room,”I will move on to the next topic when 25 of the 40 people in the room tell me that #1 key.”

Can you imagine the level of interactivity you can create with your followers, that you never could with simple blog posts?!

 

3. They Have Implied Scarcity

Anybody who has been involved in marketing knows full well the power of scarcity. Because a webinar is LIVE, it automatically creates a sense of scarcity; it’s happening now and only now, not just a stagnant sales page that is posted on the internet. With scarcity on your side, you can drive people into action far better because they are there at that moment, you can make a special offer or promotion that is only good for those attendees on that night, and at some point soon the webinar is going to end.

 

4. They Are Sales Machines!

The reason you see everybody and their brother in online marketing doing webinars is because, from a marketing viewpoint, they work incredibly well. The average sales page converts at less than 10% (and usually much lower than 10%). But it isn’t uncommon for a webinar to convert as high as 20%-30%. However, it goes without saying the results depend upon your presentation skills and the value of your offer.

So, in combination of all the reasons listed so far, webinars flat out SELL! And, if your business depends upon making sales online, you would really be leaving piles of money on the table if you’re not using webinars in one way or another.

 

5. They Are Reusable

All that time you put into making slide and a presentation for the webinar, and then the energy in promoting it and actually hosting it, don’t all have to be for just a one-time deal.  You can record the webinar, and then it can be reused in several ways.

• Use the recording for future presentations. Split it into a series of free videos to give away.
• Turn the webinar recording into a product of its own that you can sell.
• Set up automated recurring webinar replays, or Evergreen Sales Funnels, allowing your visitors/followers to RSVP by selecting from a set of pre-scheduled times the one that is convenient for them. And as a side note on this one, don’t make it sound like it’s live when it really isn’t. There’s nothing wrong with it be recorded, but just be honest about it and let them know it is.
• If you’re in network marketing, you know how tough it can be to train the same thing over and over to new people…with a webinar, record your training and put up to a site where a team member can browse through and learn on their own time.

I urge you to think about how you can implement webinars into your business plans. You have to keep up with the changes on the internet if you don’t want left behind, and everyone is obviously taking off with webinars.

 

6. You’re The Expert

Any person writing a blog post can make it seem like they’re an expert. On a live webinar event, you just can’t fake it. If you’re in front of people at an event, and you’re giving a presentation, you must have some knowledge and experience on your subject or it will show right through…and the same goes for webinars.

Now, if you’re newer to building your business, or for other reasons, this can seem like a daunting task for you. But, don’t make it more complicated than it really is. I know when I started out, I had thoughts of what if people listening know more than I do on a subject…It doesn’t matter! Hosting a webinar puts you into the expert role for the people listening to you…the ones who are interested will stick around to the end, and those are the ones who you want to work with anyway. And you’ve just established yourself as a leader with these followers because you took the initiative to host the live event.

7. Leverage!

If you want to make it big in any business, you’ve got to employ leverage in some way or another. Doing things that continue to work for you long after you set them up, allowing you to step aside and pursue something else. Hosting webinars will help you with this in several ways. Of course, recording them and reusing in other places creates leverage. If you’re building a network marketing organization, you’ll be simultaneously training your leaders on your teams to do the same thing, allowing you someday to step aside and let them take over.