Webinars are great lead magnets. And they can be instrumental in growing your business faster than any other lead magnet. In the last 2 years I’ve done 80 webinars and built a multiple six-figure business, mainly through my webinars. In this article I’ll share what you can do to monetize your webinars and grow your business.
I did my very first webinar six months after I created my first lead magnet (freebie). I had created several different lead magnets, mainly free video series, but there was nothing that felt as easy and was as effective as webinars. It felt so easy because there is just one take, no gruelling editing and no uploading. Everything is just done when your webinar is over. It was much more effective because people watch and listen, are engaged through asking questions and more likely to take action, whether it is signing up for more free content or to buy your program. Overall webinars are one of the best ways to teach a subject, show your personality and sell your program in one take.
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Subject
In my first webinars I picked all the technical topics that I had seen people ask about in various Facebook groups. Topics like “How to create beautiful graphics with Canva“, “How to create effective Facebook ads” and “How to get more leads with LeadPages”. Since then I have added webinars on strategy and planning with topics like “Your Best Year Yet”, “Win the World with Webinars” and “How to turn your passion into profits”. Today my webinar focus is on these key themes – business strategy, mindset and technical tools.
What I learned from doing a wide variety of webinars is that the subject is absolute key. On the one hand it needs to be a subject that attracts enough people and on the other hand it needs to fit your business purpose. Don’t do a webinar on Facebook ads unless you consider yourself very good in Facebook ads. Do a webinar on a topic that you are passionate about and that you already know well. Your audience will feel your passion and appreciate your knowledge on the topic.
Warm Up
It used to be very easy to get cold traffic (new people) to sign up to a webinar. By using Facebook ads I added thousands of people to my list in my first year of doing webinars. As people got more used to webinars and more people started doing webinars, it became more expensive to advertise to cold traffic. This means it’s better to first warm up your audience with free content (blog post, live videos) or through an engaged community (Facebook groups). Basically you give your audience free content without asking for their email address before you ask them to a sign up for your webinar. Once people are exposed to your free content they are more likely to sign up.
Monetizing
There are many ways to monetize webinars and what is best for you really depends on your business strategy and revenue model. Pick the ways that seem most effective for you but don’t try to do all ways just because it is possible. In most cases it is better to have a few but effective revenue models in a business. Let me know in the comments below which of the following revenue models you have tried or want to try.
1) Free live webinar -> sell access to single replays
When I started doing webinars people were constantly asking me for access to webinars after the replay was over. So I started selling access to single webinars. I did this first through Vimeo on Demand but later through my website to have full control. If you don’t have a membership or course site already set up then external video hosting sites like Vimeo might be an easier option for you. On the other hand, if you already have a membership or course site or plan to set up one soon, then I highly recommend you sell single webinars through your own website. This ensures that you have everybody’s email address, purchasing history etc. although most video hosting sites will allow you to download this from their sites as well.
2) Free live webinar -> sell a bundle of replays
At Christmas I offer free access to my best webinars, called 12 Days of Webinars. There is only 24 hr access to each webinar and if people want to view the webinars later they can purchase lifetime access to all 12 webinars for a low fee. This is also a revenue model that most online summits use very successfully where you pay a lower fee during the summit and after the summit the access fee goes up. The webinars can build upon each other or be standalone topics. You can offer a single signup for all live webinars (like virtual summits do) and/or signup for each webinar.
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3) Paid live webinar and replay
My planning workshop “Your Best Year Yet” is an example of a paid webinar which I then call an online workshop to distinguish it from my free webinars. This is a 2-3 hr workshop including preparation assignments, a 40 page worksheet and a one year budget sheet. This workshop is different from webinars in the sense that I teach “vision, strategy and planning” and at the same time the participants plan their business and fill out all the worksheets. I sell access to the live workshop about twice a year but also sell lifetime access at anytime. First I sold this workshop for $27, then $37 and now $47 and the price will go up in the future. I suggest you play with price and start lower before you increase it, it is always better to have more people on a webinar for a lower price than very few for a higher price.
4) Free live webinar -> sell access to a webinar membership
I had only done 3 webinars when I realised that I was onto something. I loved doing webinars and had so many ideas for future webinars that I was ready to commit to doing at least 20 webinars in about six months. “Master Online Business” was born and I sold lifetime access to my first 5 webinars and a promise of 15 additional webinars. Once I had done 20 webinars in six months as promised, I started to offer annual subscription to my webinars for $97, then $197 and finally $297. Now the webinar membership site has been relaunched as the Lifestyle Business Academy and includes 80 webinars, courses, workshops and a community for only $497 a year.
5) Free live webinar -> add as a bonus material in your course
When you do webinars that are a summary of your course or a good example of the course material, then you may want to add the webinar(s) to your course. When I offered a course on MailChimp I had already done three webinars on MailChimp so I decided to add those three webinars as a bonus to the course. This made the course more valuable and people appreciated having access to the webinars as well.
6) Live webinar as as bonus to your course
From time to time I’ve added a live Q&A webinar to my courses. This can be a fast-action bonus which gives people an incentive to sign up before a certain time or as a surprise add-on later after people have signed up. You can have the live webinar before your course but often it may make more sense to have it during or after your course so people can bring their questions about the course to you and get them answered on the live webinar.
7) Free live webinar -> sell your program in the webinar
Last but not least you can sell your program through your webinar. A program can be anything from a low to high priced online course, group program and 1-1 mentoring or even a physical product. The actual sales can take place during the live webinar and the replay but most often they happen after the webinar through email reminders. Be prepared to follow up with several emails after your live webinar and have an incentive to sign up now instead of later.
Webinars are not a standalone strategy. You need to integrate them into your overall business and marketing strategy for them to be effective for you and your business. Comment below and tell me what monetizing strategy you are using or want to use and how it has worked for you. I wish you best of luck with monetizing your webinars and growing your business to multiple six figures.