How to Create a Profitable Webinar in 14 Days

I don’t know about you but I get invited to at least a dozen webinars every week. I can’t spare the time to jump on all of them otherwise I’d get no work done, but I always glean at least one nugget of great information from the ones I choose to attend.

How to Create a Profitable Webinar in 14 Days

Day 1: Choose your platform and topic.

Here are the things you need to do today:

• Choose your platform.
• Choose your topic and format.

Let’s start with the platform. The bottom line here is that you want to choose one of the large, established, and reputable platforms like GoToWebinar.com. Don’t choose a “no name” platform, as your webinar will be a nightmare if you run into technical issues.

Now, that’s the easy part.

The next decision you need to make today is what you’re going to talk about. To help you decide, ask yourself these questions:

• What product do you intend to promote on the backend?
• What topics are popular in your niche right now?
• What format will suit your needs the best for delivering your content and promoting the product?

NOTE: If you intend to have one or more guests join you, then today you’ll also need to get in touch with them to see if they’ll accept your invitation.

Day 2: Inform marketing partners.

If you already have a list of joint venture partners who’ll help you promote, then you need to alert them right away so that they can start planning when and how they’ll promote.

Secondly, you’ll want to prepare some marketing materials, which both you and your partners can use. At a minimum, these materials include:

• A set of three to five emails to send out to your mailing lists. These should also work to post on a blog.
• Email “blurbs” that your partners can copy and paste into their regular newsletters.
• Social media blurbs.

Day 3: Create your lead page.

If you don’t already have a domain name and hosting, you’ll of course need to secure those first. Specifically:

• You can get a domain using a registrar like NameCheap.com.
• You can get hosting through a company like HostGator.com.
• You may consider setting up the site using a free content management system such as WordPress.org.
• If you don’t yet have an autoresponder, then secure an account through a reputable provider such as GetResponse, Aweber, MailChimp, iContact or any number of other established providers.

Once that’s all set up, then you need to create a lead page.

Day 4: Prepare and send promotional emails to your list.

Today you should put the final polish on the promotional emails that you and your marketing partners will send to your list. Once that’s done, send off the first one today, and encourage your partners to do the same.

Day 5: Begin other promotional methods.

This may include:

• Posting on your social media platforms.
• Blogging about your webinar.
• Purchasing paid advertising on platforms like Facebook.
• Doing guest blogging, with a byline that points to your webinar opt-in page.
• Asking your webinar guests (where applicable) to help promote.

Day 6: Prepare your webinar content.

Now you need to start creating your content. Depending on what you’re doing, this may include:

• Drafting an outline for the points you want to cover during the webinar.
• Creating questions you’d like to ask your guests.
• Creating the text and graphics for slides (if you’re doing a slide presentation video).
• Planning how to best demonstrate a product (where applicable).

In short: by the end of the day, you should have an outline of what you want to cover, along with preparing any supplemental content such as slides.

Day 7: Build anticipation.

Your webinar is just one week away, so today you’ll want to do another round of promotions, including blogging, sending emails, posting on social media and so on.

In addition, you want to build anticipation and excitement with the people who’ve already registered for the webinar. So, send out an email reminding them of the date, time, and login information, along with the benefits of attending.

Day 8: Create bonus handouts.

This is optional, depending on what type of webinar you’re creating. However, this is the day to create bonus materials that you’ll hand out during or after the webinar.

Here are examples of the types of items you might offer as handouts:

• Outline of what topics you’ll cover so that viewers can follow along. (And once the webinar is over, you may opt to transcribe it and send the transcriptions to attendees.)

• Supplemental bonus materials. For example, if your webinar is about driving traffic to and monetizing a blog, you may offer a handout that covers the prerequisite basics, such as the technical aspects of installing and customizing a blog.

• Resource/gear lists. This is a list of links and descriptions of any resources you mention during the webinar.

• Tools to help people take action on what the just learned. This includes worksheets, checklists, templates, swipes, planners and more.

Day 9: Remind marketing partners.

There are only five days left until your webinar, so you want to send your marketing partners a reminder to continue their promotional push. In addition, you’ll want to give them additional content to help them promote. This might include anything from short promotional videos to graphic ads to social media blurbs. As always, you’ll use these same materials to help promote the event to your own contacts.

TIP: Ask your marketing partners what they want and need to help them promote – and then create these materials and distribute them to all marketing partners.

Day 10: Continue with promotions.

Today you continue with your own promotions. This includes the same list of promotions you did a few days ago, such as more blogging, posting on social media, purchasing ads and so on.

Here are a variety of short ads you can use to promote on social media, in signature lines and similar platforms and places:

Example 1

What if you could [get some amazing benefit] WITHOUT [dealing with bad consequences/side effects]? You’d be very interested, right?

Good news – now it’s possible! Find out how here: [link to webinar opt-in page].

Example 2

On [day of the week] [time of the day, such as “evening”] you’ll get the very rare opportunity to attend a webinar with guest expert [Name]. You’ll [learn about some topic], plus [you’ll get some other good benefit].

The best part is that it’s all FREE! But there are only [number] seats left and they’re going to go fast, so register now at [link to opt-in page].

Example 3

If you’re like most [type of people], you’re sick and tired of [trying to accomplish some goal but experiencing some undesired result instead].

Know this – it’s not your fault! That’s because [explain why it’s not the reader’s fault].

Now here’s the good news…

You can [avoid this bad thing that is causing the unwanted results]. That’s right, you can kiss [some bad result or other unwanted thing] goodbye for good! And best of all, you can learn exactly how to do it for FREE on [date and time] during the [name of webinar] webinar!

All you must do is reserve your virtual seat now, and then prepare to [learn about some topic]. Click here to get started: [link] – and do it now before all the seats are gone!

Day 11: Proof and polish webinar content.

There are only three days left before your webinar, so you want to make sure all your materials are ready to go. Check the following:

• Proof everything for accuracy.

• Check for spelling and grammatical errors on slides, handouts, and anything else your viewers will see.

• Be sure the content is useful and valuable all on its own.

• Check that your overall content naturally leads to the paid promotion at the end.

• Review your promotion to check that it identifies the problem, introduces your offer as the solution, gives your viewers solid reasons why they should buy this product, and provides a call to action.

• Ensure the content is engaging with novel information, relevant stories to emotionally engage people, a fast-pace, and a conversational tone.

Day 12: Do a hard promotional push.

There are just two days left until your webinar, so now you need to do one last (hard) promotional push and encourage your marketing partners to do the same. You can naturally invoke urgency since the webinar is almost here and/or seats are filling up fast.

Here’s an example blurb for social media or your blog…

The webinar you’ve been waiting for all year starts in just two days from now… and it’s FREE! But hurry and reserve your seat now before they’re all gone!

If you’ve ever wanted to [get some benefit] and [get some other benefit], then you’re going to want to join this free event on [date and time]!

During this jam-packed hour you’ll discover [main benefit], plus you’ll even [learn some other little-known but valuable thing].

This webinar is 100% free, but it’s only open to the next [number] people who reserve a seat now. So, get yours by clicking here, because these last few seats are going to fill up fast!

NOTE: Be sure to send those who’ve already registered for your webinar a reminder that it’s coming up in two days. As always, let them know the date and time, information about how to login, and remind them of the benefits to build excitement and boost attendance.

Day 13: Practice your delivery.

Today you’ll continue with your final promotional push and remind your partners to do the same. You can also send out a reminder to your attendee list to continue to build anticipation.

Today you’ll also want to be sure you’re ready to run your webinar. This includes:

• Being sure that you’re thoroughly familiar and comfortable with your chosen platform and all its features and functions.

• Practicing the delivery of your webinar. You may want to have a trusted friend critique you.

• Checking that all your supplemental materials are ready to go.

Day 14: Send out final reminders.

Today is the day! Here’s what you need to do:

• Do one last promotional push to your contacts (if you have any seats left for the webinar).

• Send out a reminder to those who’ve registered to provide all the essential information once again (such as time of the event and how to log in), as well as to build anticipation by sharing the benefits of the webinar.

• Get yourself psychologically ready for the webinar. You want to sound enthusiastic about your presentation, so do what you need to do to get “pumped up.” Take a walk, listen to some upbeat music, talk to a friend, etc.

• Enjoy! You may feel nervous if this is your first webinar. Be prepared with a “Plan B” if something goes wrong, and don’t stress about any perceived mistakes. Just go out, have fun, teach your participants something, and generate some revenue.

Once the webinar is over, you’ll also want to send out an email thanking people for attending, reminding them about the product you are promoting, and letting them know when the replay will be ready.

TIP: You’ll also be sending out emails for the next several days after the webinar ends with the goal of generating post-webinar sales.

So go ahead and get started, because the sooner you do, the sooner you can reap the rewards of hosting a profitable webinar!

Want some more help with setting up a profitable webinar? Then be sure to take a look at Webinar Kick Starter.

To Your Success!