Have you always wanted to host a live workshop but feel intimidated by it? Weāll guide you through the process of building curriculums, live trainings, and webinars that grow your audience and turn them into paying customers.
Just to get on the same page when it comes to terminology, when we say live workshops, weāre using it as a blanket term referring to:
- Webinars: Teaching a topic with a sales call-to-action, like selling a course, at the end.
- Workshops: These could be free with no strings attached OR a paid workshop to bring in revenue.
- Trainings: Teaching to existing customers, like our Wandering Aimfully Coaching Sessions! #shamelessplug
Basically, live workshops are all about teaching something in front of a camera to further your business.
Some of the many reasons weāve loved hosting live workshops over the past 10 years:
- š¤ They create a direct connection with our audience
- š¦ We love teaching things while also having fun
- šø Live workshops are an effective way to deliver value and sell products or services
Whether you want to build an audience, deepen your trust with your customers, or sell a product or service, thereās one thing that helps you achieve all three of those thingsā¦
… establishing authority.
Live workshops allow you to establish authority because theyāre about showing someone you have the skills to solve a problem for them.
Your customers (or potential customers) have a pain point and itās your job to use your expertise to make that pain point go away.
Think of your customers or your audience like someone who has a specific problem or pain point. Your customer is searching for someone WITH AUTHORITY to help them alleviate their pain.
Thatās where you come in!
You use your knowledge and expertise to alleviate their pain through live workshops. Think of your live workshops as if itās your doctorās appointment with them and the goal is for them to leave with some relief.
You customers (or potential customers) have a pain point and itās your job to use your expertise to make that pain point go away.
Weāve divided this live workshop guide into four parts:
šØ Part 1: Creating your live workshop curriculum
This is your bag of solutions to ease your audienceās pain AKA your workshop topic and curriculum.
š½ Part 2: Learning the live workshop tech
You have to learn to use the tools at your disposal to best help your audience. Weāll go over all the tech specs (workshop software, microphones, webcams, etc) to make your workshops top-notch without breaking your bank!
š” Part 3: Going live!
This is where you actually ease your audienceās pain. Weāll share best practices for running your live workshops and how to set up replays.
š° Part 4: How to effectively sell during a workshop
Weāll walk you through how to use your live workshop to actually sell a bigger solution to your audienceās pain.
Letās dive right into it!
Part 1: Creating Your Live Workshop Curriculum and Presentation
First up, letās talk about a critical piece of live workshopsā¦
You need to have a clear goal for WHY you are hosting a live workshop.
Here are some different ways to use live workshops based on different goals:
Across the top of the table, you have different end goals for your live workshop that depict the journey of your potential customer through your marketing bridge*. Your live workshops can either be set up as Free or Paid, depending on your goals.
Note: We really dislike the phrase āsales funnelā around here so we refer to that concept as creating a Marketing Bridge. You can learn more about how we think about marketing and get 13 free marketing bridge ideas in this related article.
šÆĀ Live Workshop Goal #1: Brand Awareness (free)
You can have a live workshop that is all about building brand awareness. It could be something you host on Instagram Live, Facebook Live, or even inside a Facebook Group.
šÆĀ Goal #2: Email List Growth (free)
Then, you can have a live workshop that is behind an email sign-up but youāre not doing any selling. We used to do this in a series called āTransparent Talksā which was just a way for us to deliver value through a monthly training session and get people to sign up for our email list.
šÆ Goal #3-A: Sales (free)
You can also do a live workshop to teach and then sell a product or service at the end. Weāve done various free live workshops to sell our Wandering Aimfully Un-Boring Business Coaching (a $2,000 product). I,šØš»āš¦²Jason, used to host a weekly free live workshop and sold an online course at the end. Remember, the live workshop itself is free but you generate revenue for your business by landing a few sales of a paid product at the end of the workshop.
šÆ Goal #3-B: Sales (paid)
You could sell a paid live workshop where the offer is the live workshop itself. Weāve done this a handful of times, creating a simple sales page to promote the paid live workshop and selling āseatsā to it. This is a great way to get a cash injection in your business AND to validate an idea for a bigger product you might be thinking of building.
šÆ Goal #4: Customer Trainings (paid)
Finally, you could do a live workshop as a part of a paid program or a course like we do with our Wandering Aimfully Un-Boring Coaching Sessions. Hereās a look at our coaching dashboard weāve created for our members which features the upcoming live workshop and the past recorded workshops:
Your live workshop goal should be one of these things:
- š£Ā Iām doing live workshops to build my brand awareness and email list.
- šĀ Iām doing free live workshops to deepen the connection with my audience and establish trust.
- š¤Ā Iām doing live workshops to teach something and then sell a product/service that teaches MORE on that topic.
- š„³Ā Iām doing live workshops because I run a paid offering and itās how I show up for my customers.
By setting a specific goal for your live workshop, it becomes easier to be satisfied with the result of all your effort.
Now that you know what goal you want for your live workshop, letās talk about building your curriculum!
Remember, this is like your bag of solutions youāre going to use to ease your audienceās pain and build authority with them.
First things first, you have to come up with a live workshop topic
When youāre coming up with a workshop topic, you have to think of your goal and think of your audience (potential customer).
If youāre trying to š£ build your awarenessā¦
- Where do you see a need in the market or a topic that people seem eager to learn about based on content youāve already created?
- What blog post or article have you created that people are already attracted to?
- Is there a specific piece of social media content youāve created that people are engaging with the most?
Answering these questions will give you a range of topics that people want to learn about from you.
For example: If you have a Virtual Assistant Business and you want to target busy entrepreneurs and you noticed that your blog post on Asana is getting a lot of traffic, your workshop topic could be ā3 Ways to Save Time in Your Biz Using Asana.ā
If youāre trying to š deepen the connection with your audience to establish trustā¦
- What skill have you honed thatās led you to create your own process/way of doing something?
For example: If you have a Digital Planner Business and you know that one of the pain points of your audience is that they donāt have enough time to customize and personalize their planners, you can create a live workshop on āHow to Customize & Embellish A Digital Planner in 15 Minutes.ā
If youāre trying to š¤ sell a product/serviceā¦
- What small problem can you solve that leads to the bigger problem that your offer solves?
For example: If you have a course on Selling Printables on Etsy but you know that the initial problem most first-time sellers need to solve is how to even get started on Etsy then it would make sense to build a live workshop on the ā4 Steps To Getting Your First Printable On Etsy.ā
If youāre trying to š„³ show up for your customersā¦
- Ask your customers! What topic would bring the most value to them and what do they need from you?
As an example, we do this a lot in Wandering Aimfully! We have loads of ideas for our coaching sessions so we ask our members which topics are most interesting to them. Thatās exactly how we came to one of our workshop topics āHow To Use Live Workshops Effectively.āĀ š
š Caveat: We donāt believe in teaching second-hand knowledge. Teach from YOUR experience or a process youāve created. If you donāt have enough knowledge, experiences, or a unique process⦠create one. This is your chance to start learning stuff now so that you can teach it later. Remember to stick to your values and listen to your gut on what feels right to YOU.
Live Workshop Topic Example: Using the āInstagram Algorithmā to Your Advantage
Letās look at the Instagram live workshop we did to promote our Wandering Aimfully coaching program because our coaching session at that time was all about setting up an Instagram strategy.
If your goal is a workshop that sells an offering, use the āicebergā concept to come up with your topic.
The topic of your paid product or service is ALL this good stuff beneath the surface of the water. For our case, itās our 2-hour coaching session where we teach an entire Instagram strategy. It was only available inside our paid coaching program.
The topic of your workshop is just ONE pain point thatās connected to your bigger topic. In our example, we chose the topic ā3 ways to use the Instagram Algorithm to your advantageā as our little iceberg on top of the surface. Then, we sold our coaching program that will teach them everything else beneath the surface.
Another way to think of this: your workshop is like a band-aid and your paid offer is the cure.
Now that you have your topic, how do you even begin to make your curriculum?
We have a general formula for running a successful live workshop based on years of experience:
- Problem: Start with the problem youāre solving
- Intro: Then introduce yourself and your experience
- Preview: Preview what they will learn in the workshop
- Teach: The bulk of your workshop is the teaching portion (duh!)
- Pitch: if youāre doing a pitch, give this plenty of time and space
- Q&A: And finally, we love a good Q&A (and so will your audience)
Hereās an example of how the formula works for a 60-minute sales webinar:
Hellos & Welcome (5 mins): Greet people and ask a couple of icebreaker questions as you wait for attendees to trickle in.
Problem, Intro, Preview (5 mins): Start with the problem you are going to solve for them and tell them why they are here. Then do your introduction after that and tell them why you are the person who can solve the problem for them. Finally, give them a preview of what you will be teaching in the workshop.
Teaching Section (25 mins): This is the bulk of your workshop! Your priority here is to deliver value and the solution to the problem you introduced earlier.
Pitch (10 mins): Yes, you are going to spend ten minutes selling your offer confidently. You made a thing that is awesome so spend time on pitching it!
Q&A (15 mins): Answer questions from the attendees on the workshop topic or your offer.
š” PRO TIP: Add subtle reminders and cues throughout the workshop to bring the audienceās attention back to the workshop. It can be something as simple as asking them a this-or-that question or gently telling them to go back to the workshop if their attention has veered off to social media.
Our process for creating your live workshop presentation:
Step 1: Outline:
Create a Google Doc and brain dump all of your ideas into it. Donāt worry about organizing anything, just get your thoughts written down (bullet points are great).
Step 2: Organize
Once your outline is done, go back through your brain dump and organize your thoughts into sections. Try to group thoughts together. Try to break things into three to four āactsā or parts.
Step 3: First Draft
Open up your presentation app of choice and roughly add your slides based on your sections and bullets. DONāT get caught up on the design or formatting yet. This process will go so much faster and smoother if you just take your organized first draft and get them into your slides.
Step 4: Design
Finally, add design and branding to your slides! Format all headings and add slide transitions (get those star wipe transitions!) You can add all the design, GIFs, and transitions but remember that the content should be the star of the show.
š” PRO TIP: If you are someone who tends to dive into design first, try putting together the content first and show it to a trusted friend before you do any design on it. Ask them if the content is helpful and if they give you the thumbs up, then you know itās time to move on to design.
Some live workshop teaching best practices:
- Think of the final result you want for your attendee and then reverse engineer your information and sequence based on that final result.
- Structure things in three or four āactsā so itās easier for people to follow along (think: Step #1, Step #2, Tip #1, Tip #2, etc).
- Studies show people retain information better when itās attached to a story so it might be worthwhile to think of a metaphor that you can use throughout the workshop.
This could be a separate article on its own but…
Letās talk about basic slide design for your live workshop presentations
Weāre not here to teach you how to move from MS Paint šØ to the modern era of design tools but we do have some helpful tips weāve learned from hosting 100+ workshops over the years.
Basic Slide Design 101
- Bring items in one by one. Do not display everything on a slide all at once, itās overwhelming. Less is more! Err on more slides with less info.
- Headings are your friend. Vary your font sizes to create headings and body fonts.
- Stick to 3 fonts at most. Just because 10,000+ fonts exist doesnāt mean you need to use āem.
- Use photos/illustrations. Services like Unsplash, Over, and Adobe Creative Cloud Express (formerly Adobe Spark) are great for adding visual interest.
- Do not be afraid to use impact slides. These are simple slides with only one sentence on them and a bold color that breaks up your content.
- Add some fun! GIFs are your friend! If youāre feeling saucy, you could even add video š± (but only if that doesnāt overwhelm you).
- Be careful with templates. Canva, Envato, Creative Market, etc offer great templates but donāt go overboard!
- Keep transitions SIMPLE and consistent. Star wipes are wonderful in theory but distracting.
š„ HOT DESIGN TIP: Keep in mind the design of the page youāre embedding the replay in. For example, if your website has a white background, you might want your presentation to have a different color background or border so when it’s played it doesnāt disappear on the page.
Letās Recap Part 1:
- Determine the goal of your workshop.
- Understand your customer’s pain points.
- Come up with a workshop topic based on your goal and audienceās pain points.
- Build out a teaching curriculum that helps bring your audience ārelief.ā
Part 2: Figuring Out Live Workshop Tech
It is soooooooo easy to get distracted by all the technical bells, whistles, and gear that can help you deliver a great live workshop.
ā Donāt get distracted! ā
Your content is the star of your live workshop show; the gear and the tech are the supporting cast.
We love gadgets and goodies as much as the next person, but weāve also used the bare minimum and still had great results. Be willing to upgrade AFTER you gain more experience (and revenue).
Weāve put together a couple of audio, video, and lighting recs whether youāre on a budget or looking to splurge and invest. Most of them are affiliate links and we make a small commission if you buy using these links.
š¹ Best Webcam for Live Workshops
No Budget: Use whatever laptop camera or webcam you already have. Boom, done, congrats to you!
Low Budget: Anivia 1080p HD Webcam ($45). Highly rated and solid price point.
Higher End: Logitech Brio 4K Webcam ($199). This is our webcam of choice these days but we only recently upgraded to this.
š Best Microphone for Live Workshops
No Budget: Any headphones with a built-in microphone are better than nothing!
Low Budget: RODE SmartLav+ ($70). Great lavalier microphone thatās also unobtrusive. We used two of these for years!
Higher End: Sennheiser MKE600 mic with Manfrotto Boom Stand ($560). This is what we use but itās overkill unless you do a lot of video.
šÆ Best Lighting for Live Workshops
No Budget: Find natural light in your space and sit in front of it! This is what we do 99% of the time for our workshops šš.
Low Budget: Selvim 6-inch Selfie Ring Light ($33). Has a desk clip as well which is neat.
Higher End: Dazzne Desk Mount Key Light ($199). Lots of color range and a ton of light.
āØļø Misc Gear for Live Workshops
There are so many little items that make workshops easier to run but these are the 3 things that we use MOST often and wanted to recommend:
Wireless Trackpad: This is great for clicking through slides and not having to click keys on your keyboard. Weāre on Apple laptops so we use the Magic Trackpad.
Second Screen: Great for keeping up with comments, Q&As, or ensuring you stay live the entire time. We just use one of our iPhones or iPads for this!
Wire-In to the Internet: From years of experience, trust us, if you can hardwire in using an ethernet cable, DO IT. We didnāt know our Apple laptops just needed this USB-C ethernet dongle but now we do.
š¤ PRO GEAR TIP: Do a couple live workshops with no budget or low budget items and make sure you even like doing them. Thereās absolutely no point in buying a bunch of gear if you find out you donāt even like the experience of hosting live workshops.
āļø Best Software for Hosting Live Workshops
š©š»āš¦°šØš»āš¦²ā Our choice: Zoom Webinars ($79/mo). Zoom has the most stable connection, has all the features you need, and seems to have the least amount of outages and issues.
WebinarNinja ($49/mo): Full disclosure, we are friends with the creators of WebinarNinja but thatās not why they get our recommendation. This is a solid, all-in-one platform that is extremely robust and always being improved.
Crowdcast ($29/mo): We used to use Crowdcast a ton. They have fantastic customer service and a really nice user interface. The only problem? We would run into some sort of technical hiccup from time to time. They may have sorted this out over the years as we havenāt used them since 2019.
š» Best Program for making Live Workshop Slide Presentations
š©š»āš¦°šØš»āš¦²ā Our choice: Keynote (Mac). We absolutely love Keynote and how flexible and intuitive it is. PLUS, you can record your presentation directly in it for great replays!
Google Slides or Canva: If you canāt use Keynote, Google Slides or Canva are robust free slide presentation tools with many of the same features.
Microsoft Powerpoint: Maybe Powerpoint has gotten better since we last had to login to it almost two decades ago?? We have no idea š.
šŖ How to create a great recording space in your home
Letās talk about a few tips to create a visually interesting (read: not-distracting) backdrop for your live workshops…
Move things around: Your plants, furniture, pictures on the wall! Be okay with temporarily decorating a part of your home to ensure your workshop backdrop isnāt too distracting. We do this every month in a corner of our home for our live workshops!
Set a budget: If you are going to buy a few things for your workshop recording area, set a budget and donāt go nuts. You can always upgrade more later on down the road.
Avoid blank walls: Blank walls actually make video backdrops drab and boring. Find a spot where thereās some character behind you. Pro-tip: Do you have a larger painting on a wall somewhere else in your house? Take it down and lean it up against the wall behind you like we do!
Letās Recap Part 2!
- Choose your video, audio, and lighting options according to your budget/experience.
- Decide on the software youāll use to create your slides and to host your actual workshop itself.
- Construct a workshop backdrop thatās visually interesting!
Part 3: Preparing To Teach Live and Workshop Replay Tips
Letās talk about some best practices for delivering an awesome workshop! The biggest tip we can give you while youāre live and presentingā¦
š STICK. TO. THE. BULLETS. ON. YOUR. SLIDES. š
Youāre going to have bullets in a lot of your slides. Remember to stick to those core points and donāt veer off on a 5-minute tangent.
If youāre nervous about hosting a live workshop, weāve got your back!
This is especially for all you Nervous Nellies! To fend off nervousness during your live workshop:
- Just read your bullets. Donāt go off track.
- Have some emphasis slides to create impact and break up the bullets.
- Practice, practice, practice, so you know your slides really well.
- Show your personality but donāt try to deliver a comedy routine if thatās not something that comes naturally to you (be yourself but bring some energy!)
- Did we mention sticking to reading the bullets on your slides??
This is where all the work in Part 1, where you wrote and organized your workshop content, comes into play. Make sure you craft your slide bullets in a conversational tone so that when you read them during the live workshop, you wonāt sound stiff or like a robot.
š” PRO-TIP: If youāre hosting your first-ever live workshop, ask a friend to watch a practice version. Tell them you want their honest feedback and wear your feedback-armor when they tell you what needs improving. Additionally, you can do a dry-run of your workshop, record it, and watch it back⦠what did YOU think needed improvement?
Create a GO LIVE Checklist you can refer to before every workshop
ā šAre all your devices charged, in Do Not Disturb mode, and ready to go?
ā š¹ Are your kids, dogs, cats, okapis, all wrangled-up and away from distracting you?
ā āļø Make sure to have ample fluids available.
ā šµ Queue up your favorite pump-up jam and dance around a bit 10-15 minutes beforehand! (This sounds silly but itās actually very useful for getting your adrenaline going so you can dive into the workshop pumped up and energetic!)
- š©š»āš¦° listens to Taylor Swift or Whitney Houston
- šØš»āš¦² listens to Outkast, Lil Dicky, or Daft Punk
ā š Have your GOING LIVE Checklist written next to you (what buttons do you need to push, what things need to be recorded and how, is your second screen setup, etc).
Donāt forget to set expectations for your viewers – youāre their guide!
How should people interact during the live workshop? Tell them how to use the chat and really guide them on how they should behave during the workshop. We like to do this in the Hellos & Welcome portion of our workshops. We tell people exactly where the chat is, how they can interact with one another, and that we like to answer questions at the end using the Q&A box.
Tell people when they should get ready to pay attention. When youāre getting into the meat of the teaching portion, tell your viewers to get ready to take notes or get ready to answer live questions from you. Remind them multiple times throughout when youāre making an important point.
If thereās a sales pitch, make sure you give people a headās up! We donāt like to bait and switch our live workshop viewers so we always tell them, in the beginning, thereās a pitch at the end. We also give a headās up when the pitch is about to start so people can leave if they donāt want to be sold to.
Reminder: Something WILL go wrong during your live workshop š©. Prepare for this. Youāre probably not a pro at live workshops so give yourself permission to mess up!
Weāve hosted enough live workshops over the years (100+) that we can unequivocally tell you unfortunate things WILL happen. Your workshop software craps out. Your dog barks wildly. Your slide presentation wonāt load. Just do your best to explain to your viewers whatās going on and theyāll appreciate the honesty and realness.
What about live workshop replays??
š„ Hot take on live workshop replays: We donāt believe in expiring or limited-time replays.
Someone may have taught you otherwise or youāve seen this practice in action time and time again. However, we simply donāt believe in expiring replays (āThe webinar replay is only available for 48 hours!ā)
We get it, people need urgency and scarcity to make a purchase but use the countdown timer to take advantage of a limited-time offer not watching the replay.
š There are two main live workshop replay options to choose from:
Option #1: Live Platform Hosting
Let your live workshop software (Zoom, WebinarNinja, Crowdcast, etc) host the recording for you and simply link to it.
- Pros š Almost zero effort on your end and the replay is probably immediately available.
- Cons š Harder to add a limited-time offer to the replay āpage.ā Watching environment usually isnāt great or branded.
This option is HIGHLY recommended if you are A) a beginner at live workshops and/or B) not very technically savvy. Itās not the lesser of the two options, itās just less customizable.
Option #2: Self-Hosted (this is our choice)
Download the recording from the workshop software, upload it to your video host of choice, and put it on a page on your site you can customize to your liking.
- Pros š Gives you total control of the replay watching experience and is especially great if you have a limited-time offer to add to the replay page.
- Cons š Takes longer and requires extra effort and technical know-how.
Letās Recap Part 3!
- Stick to your bullets and keep your slides moving.
- Make sure you write out a checklist ahead of time for exactly what you need to do when you go live.
- Check-in with your audience periodically during the workshop.
- Donāt sweat it if something goes wrong!
- Make sure you have a plan to deliver your replay.
Part 4: How To Use Live Workshops To Sell Your Product or Service
As a friendly reminder, we use āworkshopā and āwebinarā fairly interchangeably around our household. Weāre going to refer to your live workshop as a webinar for this section.
Your webinar: This is the temporary relief you offer your viewer for their pain point. Itās the tip of your iceberg.
Your product or service: This is the CURE to the problem! Itās not just a band-aid/quick fix, itās the solution and the entire glacier sitting below the water.
Your quick, 3-bullet summation of using a webinar to sell a product or service is as follows:
- Create a webinar registration page and drive traffic to it.
- Teach a few helpful things on your live webinar, then sell your product or service that fully solves the problem.
- Have a limited-time offer and sales page + sales email sequence.
Pretty straightforward, however, there are many steps that go into those three bullet points. Donāt worry, wegotchu!
A simple step-by-step process for creating a webinar that actually sells
Step 1: Create your webinar sign-up page.
The purpose of this page is to get people to sign up for the webinar and get excited to learn something from you.
Hereās a very simple registration page layout we mocked up to show you the main components you need:
Keep it simple: The page needs to be incredibly straightforward (no distractions, no social icons, nothing but the register button!)
Donāt hide the time/date: The time and date of the webinar need to be crystal clear. Bonus points if you want to use a timezone converter to help your registrants.
Post-signup thank you page: There should be a thank you page after registering that tells them to add the date of the webinar to their calendar. If you want to add social sharing icons for the webinar, put them on THIS page.
Reminder emails: Your registration system should send reminder emails about the webinar (most platforms offer this as a built-in feature).
Step 2: Promote sign-ups by driving traffic to your sign-up page.
Use your existing email list and social media accounts to get people to sign-up for the webinar!
Send multiple signup emails: We recommend sending multiple emails, at least 2-3 weeks ahead of time, getting people to sign-up.
Create your social promo content: Create multiple social media posts that promote the webinar, but also give people actionable tips to intrigue them to want to learn more (link in bio!)
Be descriptive and entice people: Whether itās email or social, donāt just say āsign up for my webinarā ā address the pain point youāll solve and tease people with helpful info.
Hereās an example webinar promotion schedule:
Step 3: Create your curriculum/presentation.
Bust out your presentation tool of choice and create an awesome and helpful webinar!
Webinar structure and timing: Follow the structure we outlined in Part 1. Hereās that image again for ya…
Practice your little buns off: Run through the presentation LIVE with a friend and watch the recording back. Make notes on how you can improve. Practice, practice, practice!
Be proud to sell your product or service: Do NOT skimp on the sales pitch part of the webinar. You did all this work, donāt shortchange yourself and undersell your offering.
Hereās an example of webinar slides weāve used in the past during the sales portion (these all have bullet by bullet or sentence by sentence slide-builds so it isnāt just one giant slide with too much info on it):
Step 4: Create your Replay Page.
If youāre going with Replay Option #1 (hosted by the webinar software), make sure to grab that URL and add it to your post-webinar sales email sequence.
š” PRO-TIP: Youāll get traffic to your webinar registration page well after your live webinar has already happened. Think about updating this page to deliver the replay to someone if they still want to āsign up.ā
If youāre going with Replay Option #2 (self-hosted on your website), make sure you:
- Have your replay page designed and ready to go
- Have your process in place to download the replay from the webinar software and then upload it to your video host
- Have your sales section on your replay page with your limited-time offer
- Have double-checked all links, buy buttons, etc!
And, some additional tips for you if youāre creating a self-hosted replay page:
- Remind people of the outcomes they will learn by watching the webinar replay (30-40% of replay watchers donāt attend live).
- Include the slide presentation as a PDF they can download. Use smallpdf.com to compress PDFs.
- Make your call to action (your limited-time offer) VERY CLEAR to get someone to the full sales page for your product or service.
- Add a countdown timer for the limited-time offer (not the replay). Just remember to remove the limited-time offer buy button on the replay page when the countdown expires.
Step 5: Create your Limited-Time Offer sales page.
If you want to sell using a webinar effectively, you want to create some sort of urgency in your limited-time offer for your product or service.
š Launch offer: If your sales webinar is part of an open/closed launch, cool ā thereās your urgency (although you might want to throw in a bonus to sweeten the deal!)
š± Evergreen offer: If your sales webinar is for a product or service thatās normally evergreen (available all the time to purchase), think about a bonus you can throw in to really make the offer feel time-sensitive. This does NOT have to be a discount and could be something like a 1-on-1 call, group Q&A, or another product you throw in the mix.
Step 6: Host your webinar.
Use what we already discussed to prepare for your webinar, interact with your audience and nail your sales pitch!
- Keep in mind the pain point of your attendee ā what problem are they seeking solutions to?
- What is the āband-aidā solution youāre offering in your webinar? Make sure your teaching content delivers on that promise.
- And what is the ācureā solution your product or service promises? Make sure your pitch communicates that clearly.
Step 7: Send your post-webinar sales emails.
For every one that registered for your webinar (attended or not), you want to queue up and send a series of sales emails. You gotta pay your bills!
For example: Letās say you want to leave the cart open for one week after the webinarā¦
- Youāll send 4-6 sales emails starting the day after the webinar.
- Each email should be helpful in some way and not just a pitch to buy. You want to always be delivering value.
- Each email should have a very clever call to action to go to the sales page AND mention the deadline to buy.
- If you can avoid it, donāt send any ānormalā email newsletters to this group during your sales sequence.
This is what your post-webinar email schedule could look like:
Step 8: Wrap it up and shut it down!
Shut everything down and make sure any pages that have countdown timers are no longer available for purchase.
- We like to turn any sales pages into email capture pages after the limited-time offer expires.
- When doing email capture, make sure to have a Welcome Email that lets them know theyāll get your normal email newsletter moving forward.
- Take time to decompress, relax, and reflect on how everything went.
- Think about using your webinar replay as an evergreen marketing bridge in the future!
Letās Recap Part 4!
- Make sure your sales workshop topic is the band-aid to your offerās cure.
- Know your sales strategy before, during, and after your webinar.
- Donāt shortchange yourself on the pitch!
Live Workshop Wrap-Up: Letās Not Forget About Mindset! š§
All the tactics and strategies in the world wonāt help you if you donāt have the right mindset! Running a live workshop is A LOT of work (as youāve read) and itās important to get your head in the game ahead of time š.
š§ Ā Mindset Tip #1: Increase live workshop confidence with practice.
You are going to be nervous if you donāt host live workshops often. Thatās normal! We even get nervous and weāve done 749 live workshops at this point. The more practice you have, the easier it will be to āgo live.ā
š§ Ā Mindset Tip #2: Have realistic goals based on YOUR audience size.
Depending on the size of your email list and social media following, you should expect 3-5% of your total audience to sign up for a webinar.
Example: If you have 500 email subscribers and 500 followers on social media, 5% of your audience would be 50 webinar registrants.
š§ Ā Mindset Tip #3: Something will go wrong.
Weāve done this enough times and almost every single live workshop we do has some sort of hiccup. Mentally prepare yourself for this. Itās not the end of the world. Just roll with the punches and do the best you can.
š§ Ā Mindset Tip #4: You can always host another live workshop in the future.
If you have a live workshop that flops, especially one where you tried to sell a product or service and didnāt get any sales, donāt give up! Weāve had complete flops and then six months later had a super-successful workshop.
š§ Ā Mindset Tip #5: Remember your marketing bridges.
Live workshops are just ONE marketing bridge on your journey of getting strangers on the Internet to buy from you. Live workshops may be a bridge to another guidepost on a customerās journey to find your castle!
Phew, that was a lot to throw at you! We know that live workshops can be intimidating if youāre not used to being on video but trust us, once youāve gone live again and again, it DOES get easier.
We enjoy incorporating live workshops into our business because itās an incredibly effective way to grow our audience, deliver amazing value to them, and convert them into happy, paying customers.