The Beauty of Pre-Selling Webinars

“Going into this, I knew that there were only two groups of people reading this—those who had a webinar and those that didn’t have a webinar. I wanted to make sure that I attracted both groups.”

This year, I’ve been promoting webinars every single month. I try different strategies for each of these promotions.

In this article I want to talk about a strategy that had remarkable results. This strategy was used to promote a webinar for my “Webinars On Demand” program.

I started promoting about seven days prior to the actual webinar. I sent everyone to an opt-in page that said:

Brand New For 2021: Learn The Secrets Of How To Make The Most Profitable Webinars Ever Created—Learn How To Create, Promote and Reap The Benefits Of Webinar Whether You Have a Product Or Not! Make 5 Figures In 90 Minutes—Starting With Your Very First Webinar!

I think this was very good text for the opt-in page. I also had a countdown timer and a video on the page. The video was just a short—3 minute, 45 second—video of me telling prospects about the product.

Let’s dissect the opt-in page here

We started out with nothing special—just an opt-in page that included the date and time of the webinar. It also had a countdown timer, a three-part headline, video, a place for them to enter their name and email address and a button to click. (Keep in mind that the date should be five to seven days in the future.)

I started the headline with “Brand New For 2021:” I think “Brand New is a good term to use (if it is brand new) but I did this for another reason. I did the original version of this training almost one year ago to the date of this year’s training. I used “brand new” so that those people who follow me would not confuse it with the training that was a year old.

I carefully chose the wording of the headline, “Learn The Secrets Of How To Make The Most Profitable Webinars Ever Created— Learn How To Create, Promote and Reap The Benefits Of Webinar Whether You Have a Product Or Not!”

Going into this, I knew that there were only two groups of people reading this—those who had a webinar and those that didn’t have a webinar. I wanted to make sure that I attracted both groups. I knew that people who didn’t have a webinar would leave if I didn’t grab them here.

adult 3086304 1280

I also knew that the majority of people reading this probably didn’t have a product, so I added, “…Whether You Have A Product Or Not!” I knew that this phrase would be a big draw.

In fact, the webinars I’ve been conducting over the past few months have been for other people’s products.

After a couple days of sending emails to my list promoting this, I added the next line, “Make 5 Figures In 90 Minutes – Starting With Your Very First Webinar!”. This makes it sound a lot bigger than it is. Okay. So, what does, what does that mean?

Let me explain.

You need to make a minimum $10,000, in sales for a 5-figure income. So, if you had a 10% closing rate and a thousand-dollar product, you need to get a hundred people onto the webinar. With your 10% closing rate you would then need ten sales to make $10,000.

If you had a $2,000 product, you’d only have to make five sales. You can figure out the numbers from there. By the way, this is only taking into consideration the sales from the webinar. Sales from follow up would just be extra gravy.

This is a very realistic number. With a good product, it’s not very hard for people to hit $10,000 in a single 90-minute presentation. While it’s very realistic…stating it this way makes it sexy!

There’s nothing much to add regarding the opt-in video. It’s just a talking head of me encouraging them to leave their name and email address and click the button. I’ve gone over the format for this video multiple times in multiple trainings in the Marketing University member’s area, so there is no need for me to do that here.

The final element is the countdown timer. That becomes very important as we get closer to the webinar date. It gives people a subconscious message that time is running out and thus creates urgency.

Side Note: There is one thing I would change if I were to do this over. I did the webinar at 3:00 pm. I’ve had a lot of people tell me that 3:00 pm is the best time. My results told me I disagree on this. This webinar had the lowest turnout of any webinar I’ve ever done. I will not do another webinar in the afternoon.

Over the years I’ve determined that the best time to do a webinar is 8:00 pm or 9:00 pm U.S. Eastern time. I prefer 9:00 pm.

Once the visitor entered their name and email address in the boxes, they were taken to a “Thank You” page.

Let’s dissect the “Thank You Page.

Congratulations We’ve Reserved Your Seat
Huge Announcement: Watch The Video Below To Hear All About It!
Hint… Make Sure You Watch Until The End

The first line says, “Congratulations We’ve Reserved Your Seat”. This is exactly what they expected to see. So, right off we’ve met their expectations.

Then I follow with “Huge Announcement: Watch The Video Below To Hear All About It!”

This gets their attention and directs them to click the video button, without actually saying it.

Another Note: Videos can no longer do “auto play”. You need to click a button to start playing. So, I just put up a placeholder with a button that says, “Click Here To Watch” (You can use or some similar wording). It appears to, to them, like they need to click on the button to play. But in reality, if they click anywhere on the placeholder, the video will play. Seeing an actual button makes them more likely to click.

Then I added a “cliffhanger” in order to get them to watch the video to the end: “Hint…Make Sure You Watch Until The End”. This makes them curious; they wonder what’s at the end. Of course, at the end will be the discount offer I make them if they order today.

So, the text on this page only has two purposes,

  1. To fulfill their expectations [because their seat is now reserved].
  2. To get them to watch the video to the end.

Now we get to the “Thank You” page video.

Once again, I have a talking head video of me telling them all about the “Webinars On Demand” program.

I’ll paraphrase and explain the important parts of the video.

I start right into the video congratulating them for reserving their seat and then tell them I have something I want to share with them.

“Congratulationsyour seat. Now I have something very special that I want to share with you right now.”

I then tell them what’s going to happen.

“First of all, we are going to send you a few emails to remind you of the date and time of the webinar.”

I make a big deal about what I’m going to say.

“But while you’re here, right now, I want to do something that’s entirely different. This is something you are going to love. So, really pay attention to what I’m about to say.”

I then tell them what they already know but don’t acknowledge.

“For transparency purposes, it’s no secret, at the end of the webinar I am going to make an offer to you. Let me just share the offer with you right now.”

“During the webinar I am going to teach you everything I promised on the previous page. You can take that knowledge home and start applying it immediately. But some of you are going to want to know more details about how I did it.”

“I have a very special program that I created in the past, and I am updating it right now. It’s called “Webinar On Demand.” It includes all new strategies I’ve recently developed to enable you to do webinars much more effectively than anything else on the market.”

I then go into the details of what I will cover in the webinar.

Remember. This is on the “Thank You” page they are sent to after they have reserved their seat. I then tell them that, at the end of the actual training webinar, I will sell that entire program for $997.

Right here, on the “Thank You” page, I’m telling them what the cost of the program will be. Let me, once again, paraphrase from the video.

“As I’m sure you know, at the end of the webinar I well make an offer. I will be selling the program for $997. But, if you purchase today before the webinar actually starts,

you’re going to receive a 25% discount and you’re going to receive an extra special bonus.” (The bonus was another program we have.)

So, if they order today, I give them a 25% discount (they pay $747) and they get two programs for the discounted price of one. But they only get the discount and bonus if they act today and purchase from the offer on the “Thank You” page.

I gave them one more incentive to purchase directly off the Thank You page.

I said something to the order of…

“…some of you already know you want to work with me, so why wait for the webinar. Purchase now and take advantage of the discount and bonus…”

This just took away a roadblock from some of those who were procrastinating and ensured a sale. After all, even if they were intending to purchase from the webinar something could get in the way and prevent them from doing so because people get busy.

I’m not going to go line by line over the entire video. In the balance of the video, I just went through the benefits of the program. I didn’t even use a PowerPoint. I just talked through it. I probably even missed some points. But I made sure I told them it was a three-day, live training program where I would teach them all the webinar strategies.

What was the end result from this strategy? 70%!

About 70 percent of the sales were made directly from the opt-in “Thank You” page BEFORE I did the actual webinar. Think about this. I made tens of thousands of dollars before I even started the free webinar that was supposed to sell this program!

By the way, when I did the actual webinar close, I told them that I can’t give them the same offer I gave on the thank you page because that would make me a liar. But I told them, “Here’s what I will do…” I then gave them a 25% discount, but I did not give them the bonus program. One thing that is key here is that you cannot make the exact same offer that you gave those early purchasers.

Looking back on this, I realize that in addition to the webinar time slot (3:00pm), another explanation for the low attendance could have been the fact that I made the offer on the Thank you page and the most interested people purchased there. But…with all said and done, I’m very happy with the results and plan on using this technique in the future.

I’d love to hear what happens when you try this technique!

Get Free Updates

Get free updates to everything that's happening with Marketing University. Fill in the form below.

Armand Morin

Armand Morin is an Internet marketing industry expert who has built a multimillion-dollar international business. In 1996, he started with $1.83 in his pocket and no experience and has grown it into a multi-million dollar international business, which has done business in over 100 countries around the world.

Get Our Updates

Get free updates to everything that's happening with Marketing University. Fill in the form below.