Module 2, Lesson 3 Webinars That Convert The Pre-Webinar Phase Five Free Strategies To Boost Webinar Registration Well hey good looking, welcome back to Module 2, the Pre-Webinar Phase. In this lesson I am going to give you the Five Free Strategies To Boost Webinar Registration. What You Will Discover! The Big Picture: How to Boost Webinar Sign Ups the Right Way! The Fill-Up Formula How to use free content to drive more webinar signups.! Inviting your Email List! Social Media Cover Photos and Posts! Video: Instagram Stories! Video: Facebook Live The Big Picture! Facebook ads will be the best way to fill up your webinar seats with genuinely interested leads. There is no way around it. I get into full detail all about Facebook ads in Module 2, Lesson 4. There will be no stone left unturned. I ll walk you through step by step.! You will also always want to invite those on your list (if you have one). Facebook ads are not free and you need some free strategies to fill up your webinars. I m also going to talk about inviting those on your own email list. If you have an email list we re going to talk about the details to get that done right. Page 1
! In addition to these two top strategies, you should always take advantage of free social strategies too!! In this training, we will dive into what s working right now! That s why I ve included details about social video because it is incredibly hot and effective. As social media changes I ll continue to update this video. Strategy 01: The Fill-Up Formula BONUS The Fill-Up Formula: This is actually a bonus inside your member s area of Webinars That Convert. I want you to watch that video in its entirety. The goal of the Fill-Up Formula is to help you create free content around your webinar topic to start growing your email list even before you re ready to market your first webinar. If you are planning on using Facebook ads the Fill-Up Formula will help you build a targeting group of really warm leads so that when you are ready to market your webinar you have a targeting group that will be ready to sign up. You can show your ads to them and you re going to get really solid conversions with that strategy. The Fill-Up Formula is a must. Go check out that bonus video. But not yet. Stay with me here. I will give you a little teaser about the Fill-Up Formula.! A content-focused webinar plan that is a SMART strategy to jump on early, even before you re ready to promote your webinar.! Blog! Podcast! Video! Pre-Webinar Opt-In Freebie. The goal is to create content that is directly aligned with your webinar topic and then create a pre-webinar opt-in freebie. People will give you their name and email for a freebie and then you are growing your email list. When you re ready to invite people to your webinar you ve already started to grow your email list. Page 2
I ll show you a few examples. I did this (see slide screen) when I first started marketing Webinars That Convert. I had a webinar ready to go but before I actually released the webinar registration page I started to grow my email list with this block post: Four Webinar Myths and How to Avoid Them. I also turned it into a podcast episode. As you can see, I wrote this in 2015 and I still use it today because all of the content is relevant and it drives a lot of traffic to my webinar registration page when I do it right. By doing it right, I mean that I wrote the blog post and then I also included a freebie in the blog post, the Five Rookie Webinar Mistakes. You can find this on my blog if you want to walk yourself through it. When people click on the big yellow bar I take them to a registration page. I built it with Lead Pages and I teach you how to do that in the Tech Library. I used Lead Pages to create a stand-alone opt-in page where people can sign up for my freebie. I actually build a Facebook targeting group so that I can retarget anybody that goes to the blog post with my webinar invite ads when I m ready. I teach you how to do that in the Facebook ads video. I also attract people to sign up for my email list with this freebie and I can email them a webinar invite. It works two fold. Again, all of the details are in the bonus. I have added the formula underneath the tab that says, Extras. Look at the top for Extras and then underneath that tab you will find bonuses and this bonus is in there. I didn t put it below the video because it is actually discussed in another video. I want you to watch The Fill-Up Formula to get all of the details. Page 3
Strategy 02: Inviting your Email List If you have an email list, it is important to invite your list to your webinar early. With at least one-week notice, send out your first invite. That is seven days in advance. A few days later, either mail to only those who did NOT open your email or to all those that have not yet registered. I would send a second email a few days later to everyone that still has not registered even if they opened up the first email. But you can do it the way that suits you best. If your list is large (over 10,000), consider sending out a third and final invite right before your webinar, a day before the webinar. That way you make sure your audience has had an opportunity to sign up. We all know we might open an email, get distracted, and not take action. You want to definitely give your email list at least more than one opportunity to sign up. Here are a few details to make sure your invites convert. Subject Lines Matter! I want you to specifically play around with what you actually add to your subject line. For me, if I put invite into the subject line or new webinar or new master class or new workshop (whatever you are calling it) and then the title, that typically converts well for me. By convert I mean that people are opening the emails. That s the only goal of your subject line, to get people to open the emails. Once you put in the very beginning section (the headline section) of your email that s going to get them to keep reading and want to click and sign up. The subject line is all about getting people to open up your email so play around with different subject lines to see what will work best for your audience. Make it easy to register the registration link needs to be in there multiple times. I like to put the registration link early and also in the middle and in the P.S. I think adding a P.S. is a smart decision. Page 4
What I do in my webinar invites, with some of them, the P.S. will actually really quickly sum up the invite. I ll say, If you just skimmed to the bottom you can sign up for my brand new workshop called XYZ. Click here to sign up now. If you sum up the entire email in the P.S. that tends to be a good strategy. I sometimes play with that. Add images to your emails The image should link to the registration page. If you ever see any of my webinar invites you will see an image in the invite and if people click on the image it goes directly to my webinar registration page. The image usually says the title of the webinar. Check out my examples! I made this easier by giving you some examples. As a cheat sheet for this module I included Amy s Webinar Invites Swipe File. You ll see some examples of emails I ve written in the past that have converted really well to get my own email list to sign up for my webinars. I think my Swipe File will help you understand how to do it right. Strategy 03: Social Media Cover Photos and Posts Social media is so incredibly important to get people to sign up for your webinars. But I want to show you some tips and tricks to do it right. On Twitter and Facebook I always include a cover photo. This (see slide screen) is on Twitter and because the Twitter cover photo is not linkable I actually have to put the URL so that people know where to go to sign up for my free master class. This is not an active way to get people to sign up for your webinar but if you re in a live launch and, heck, if you re doing automation, you can still use this strategy. Why not include it so that when people come to your social media channels they see an instant call to action? Page 5
I do this on Facebook as well. It tends to be more effective on Facebook than it is on Twitter. Here are a few things to think about. I actually say, Click to sign up in the Facebook cover image. I do that because if I click on Click to sign up it actually opens the image in a light box. As you can see (see slide screen) to the right, I tell people about the actual master class. I take time to actually write a little blurb about the master class and then link to it in the URL. The image doesn t go directly to the registration page but when they click on the image the light box opens and they will see a direct link to the URL. Backing up just a little, underneath the cover image you will see a blue box that says, Sign up. As an admin of that page, if you click on the box you will get a drop down and you can click on Edit Button. When you do that you can make sure it is going to the URL of your registration page. You can also choose the button. I like Sign Up the most because it makes the most sense for a webinar. This is a little look behind the scenes. You can make sure the button on your Facebook page will go directly to your webinar registration page. Good stuff, right? There are a few other things I do during a webinar promotion. One of the things we tested a while back that proved to be really successful is that I created quote cards. I didn t create them, I had my designer put them together. But we found a few quotes either from me or other people and put them into an image. As you can see (see slide screen) we actually linked at the bottom to my master class. People couldn t click this and go directly to the registration page but they could see the URL and type it into their browser and go directly there. I use these on Instagram and Facebook. Page 6
Here are a few others (see slide screen) that I use. You can see the content related to what the webinar was about. The first two are from me. I then used quotes from other people and changed it to Wise Words at the top instead of Amy Says. Another thing that s working really well is if you animate your images. That s not really the right term. They are really just short little videos but there are a lot of cool, free apps and tools out there to take a graphic and turn it into a little video. Videos are really effective right now on social media so you might want to take these static images and turn them into little mini videos. Again, just Google it and you will see a lot of apps and tools you can use. Another thing I wanted to talk to you about when it comes to social media is taking people behind the scenes as you re working on your webinar. In this case, this was a post I did when I was working on an update for this program you re in now. I was getting ready to relaunch Webinars That Convert. I was updating the Facebook ads video, which tends to be the one that people ask about the most. My husband came in and I was stressed that morning. He was really sweet and brought in some cucumber water to make sure I stayed hydrated. I snapped a quick photo. I posted about it and here I got to brag about my sweet husband but, really, if you look closely, it says, Today as I m working on a brand new Facebook ads training for my webinars course I then went on to say what he was doing. You can always plug what you re working on in the context of real life. This was a real, honest post. This truly happened but it gave me an opportunity to talk about what I m working on. As you re working on your new slides for your master class or workshop snap a behind-the-scenes photo and post it on Instagram and Snapchat and Facebook Page 7
and Twitter, whatever platform works best for you, and tell the story of what you re doing behind the scenes. This always gets the conversation going. This post had over 16,000 views, which is crazy, considering it s really a silly post and not that important. But people love the behind the scenes. Think about that as you re creating your webinar. Strategy 04: Instagram Stories I absolutely love Instagram stories. That says a lot coming from a girl that doesn t technically love to be on video. I love Instagram stories because I feel they are a great snapshot into your life and what you re working on just like the behind-the-scenes photo I just showed you of my husband, Hobie, as I was working on a new training. Let s talk about Instagram Stories.! Instagram Stories allows you to post short social videos.! A short video story about your webinar can be powerful.! The secret is to understand how the platform works. The best way to understand how a platform works is to play around with it! Watch other people s Instagram Stories. Start creating your own.! With Instagram Stories, you can get creative with how you talk about your upcoming webinar. Let me walk you around Instagram Stories just in case you re new to them. When you go onto Instagram make sure you have the most updated app. At the top you will see all of the InstaStories. If I had a current InstaStory I would see my profile picture first. At the time I don t have a story so I m seeing everybody else that I follow. It is important to know that InstaStories last only 24 hours. After 24 hours they go away and I kind of like that. It keeps everything really current. Page 8
If I were to click on an InstaStory I will see their video clips. They are in increments of 15-second video clips, very similar to Snapchat. I love that you can tell a story about your upcoming webinar inside an InstaStory. I want to show you an example of somebody that I absolutely love on Instagram. Her name is Jasmine Star. She is a branding specialist and expert and the girl knows Instagram. At the time that I was creating this training she just happened to post an Instagram story all about her upcoming webinar. I screen grabbed the heck out of that to show you what it might look like for you as well. The first thing Jasmine did is put the camera on herself. That is always a good idea for InstaStories so people can see you, they are real, they are in the moment. She talked about tips that she wanted to share with her audience. She actually has a webinar coming up about Instagram. Next, instead of doing a 15-second video like she just did in the other clip, she took a screen grab. You can do that as well. She says, Do you know why you re not getting MORE Instagram followers? This is just an image on InstaStories. She included text over it and you can do that. If you re familiar with Snapchat you know you can actually type in some text on top of your image and that s exactly what she did. This is a super simple image. It s her socks on her carpet. I don t know why she has two different socks on but she does. The next InstaStory that popped up was Jasmine talking about three reasons why you re not getting the Instagram traction you want. She says, I m going to walk you through the three reasons why. But before I do that I want you to screen grab the next screen because I have a webinar coming up all about Instagram. Page 9
The next screen was her carpet again but she did a little fun graphic around it and typed insta180.com/webi. She told people she was going to give them three reasons Instagram isn t working for them right now but before she did that she wanted to tell you about the webinar coming up, screen grab the next image so that you can check it out. After the image she shared some more 15-second video clips of her talking about how to make Instagram work for you. This is a great outline on how to share about your webinar on InstaStories. You show the video camera on you telling people exactly what you are going to teach them. You mention you have a webinar coming up. You have a screen grab of the exact URL. Then you go back to yourself on camera giving more tips about your topic. You then remind them to come to your webinar. You will get better at this as you try it. I definitely fumble but here s the great thing, if you record a video and don t like it you can just delete it. It doesn t automatically upload. You can do it five times then find the one that works for you and upload it. You then record another one and upload it. You are uploading increments of 15-second videos or just a screen grab where you can write on it and type into it and all that good stuff. Give yourself a little wiggle room to get used to this. Watch a bunch of other Instagram stories. I m telling you it is incredibly powerful once you get used to it. If you are interested in learning more about Instagram, my dear friend Jasmine has a program called Insta180. It is excellent. I highly recommend you check it out. Page 10
Strategy 05: Facebook Live Facebook Live is a little bit more intense than InstaStories. I wanted to ease you into the social stories and then talk to you about a really, really effective platform, Facebook Live. First let s set the stage.! Facebook Live is getting more exposure on Facebook than any other type of post; Facebook favors VIDEO. The more video you put on Facebook, whether it be live or prerecorded, it s going to be pushed out into the newsfeed more often than any static post you put onto Facebook.! Consistently adding value will increase audience interest, ultimately helping you get more webinar signups.! Video builds trust and affinity and when your content is solid it sets you up as the expert. You can do Facebook Live about any topic that is related to your webinar and you can send people from Facebook Live to your free blog post, like I talk about in the Fill-Up Formula, or you can use Facebook Live to send people to your webinar registration page. I suggest you do both. Let me break it down for you just a bit. You can use Facebook Live via your smartphone. You can record direct to camera with your face via your smart phone. Or, you can record whatever is in front of you as well. Most people on Facebook Live will record direct to camera because it s personal and is in the moment and is live. The live component of Facebook Live is what makes it so engaging to your audience. They can post questions underneath your video. You can respond back to them. That live-in-real-time is really powerful. On your smartphone you re going to look for Live Video, that little icon. Then you can type in what your video is about and then when you press Go Live it will Page 11
count down 3, 2, 1 and you, my friend, are live. Yes, it s scary the first time. But believe me, you will get a whole lot better at it. I wanted to show you an example of one of my Facebook Lives. This is what I said before I went live (see slide screen). You get the opportunity to type in something before you go live. I typed in, We are Live. Turn up your volume to join us. I said that because when videos play in your newsfeed on Facebook you will notice that there is no volume but the video is playing. In order for people to hear you they need to turn up their volume so just go ahead and tell them to do so. I then said, We are talking about webinars. Specifically, what s more profitable, live webinars or automated webinars. I then ask them to catch me live today at The day I did the Facebook Live I actually had a live webinar coming up. I sometimes do it a few days before and sometimes I do it the day of. You can play around with whatever works best for your audience. Another thing I ve done when it comes to Facebook Live is after the Facebook Live is complete it goes on your Facebook page as a replay. It lives there as long as you want it to live there and it becomes a Facebook post. People can go back to it at any time and watch your Facebook Live but it will now be a recorded broadcast. Before, I have done a Facebook Live and took a little snippet from it. I actually downloaded the video. I did a quick edit of the video. And then I uploaded just a snipped and said, Here s a little snippet to answer the question How do I decide on the free content inside my webinar versus what I offer inside my paid program. Page 12
I took just a little part of my 30-minute Facebook Live and turned it into a mini video and put that on Instagram and Facebook and sent traffic to my webinar registration page. So you can actually take just a snippet if you want. People often ask me what is a good length of time for a Facebook Live video. I think anywhere from ten minutes to 30 minutes is ideal. Thirty minutes is a little bit long so you ve got to make sure you are on track the whole time, it s powerful, and people are asking questions. I think the sweet spot might be 15 to 20 minutes max. You want to make sure you add value. If you need a little more time to do so, by all means, take it. But my big tip for you when it comes to Facebook Live is before you jump on live, create an outline. Make sure you know exactly what you re going to be talking about. When you jump on live you tell people right away what the topic is and get right to it. If you have some kind of list topic it makes it easier, like three ways to do your webinar right or three tips to get your baby to fall asleep quickly. It should be something that relates back to your webinar content without giving all of your content away and the list helps you stay on track. It allows your audience to know where you re going in your communication. That is always great. Setting expectations allows them to stay with you the entire time. One more tip. When I m going to go live, sometimes on the morning of or even the day before, I will tell my audience I am going to be live on my Facebook page. I actually created an image that we can just change out the date, time, and topic easily so that people know if I post the image they know I am coming on live fairly soon whether it is the day before or the day of when I post it. I encourage you to let your audience know you re going to be on live. They probably won t mark their calendars but they will be more aware of it so that Page 13
when you do show up live in their newsfeed they will be more likely to click the volume button and hear what you have to say. Definitely, I want to encourage you to try to do one Facebook Live every single week on your Facebook page to make sure your audience is hearing from you regularly. You are building trust and affinity. You are setting yourself up as the expert, and the call-to-action, when you want it to be on a Facebook Live can be, If you like this and want more tips and strategies make sure to check out my live webinar coming up whenever it s coming up, Here s the link. Go sign up. That s how you drive more traffic to your webinar registration page. Where You Might Get Stuck You don t have to be a video pro. If you re going to do InstaStories or Snapchat (I don t do Snapchat but I know some of my audience has a really big following on Snapchat so go for it) or Facebook Live you might think you are terrible at video. Not everybody has to be a video pro to do well on social video. You do want to practice. Practice makes perfect. The more you do, the better you will get. You do want to prepare and never show up just rambling because people will lose interest quickly. But just know you don t have to get it perfect to make it powerful. Facebook video and InstaStories can still be powerful even if you re not a video pro. Believe me. I m not a video pro and I know a lot of other people who are brand new at video and they are getting some great traction. At least come out of your comfort zone and give it a try. You might be pleasantly surprised. Page 14
The Profitable Webinars Rule Social media is a MUST when it comes to promoting your webinars. The trick is to plan for it in advance and get out in front of it as early as possible. You want to be doing all of this social media even before you start to promote your webinar so that you can build a relationship with your audience. When you do a Facebook Live or a blog post about your webinar topic more people are likely to pay attention and go sign up for your webinar. Do The Work Make It Real Your Action: I would love to see you choose just two strategies from this training and add them to your overall webinar planning. Start out simple. If video is not where it s at for you then try the social media cover photos. I forgot to mention, with the social media cover photos you can use Canva. They have a template for a Twitter cover photo and a Facebook cover photo. Start out simple with something like a Facebook cover photo and also look into the Bonus, the Fill-Up Formula. I think that s going to be incredibly powerful for all of us. Thanks so much for being here. I hope you found value in all of these five strategies to fill up your webinar and I ll see you in the next video. Bye for now. Page 15