Webinars are a great tool to help you build your business. If you’ve never done one before, it can seem a little intimidating. But I promise you, it’s not. In fact, once you’ve done one, you’re going to be hooked!
Let’s look at why you want to do a webinar and how to do it well.
There’s lots of reasons you might want to do your own webinar. It’s a great way to build your list, and create deeper connections with people in your community. You can really enhance your expertise and authority by adding great value. And of course, webinars are a great way to promote a product or program.
Decide on your key reason for doing a webinar before you do anything else.
Then, choose a date and time you’re going to do it and commit to it! There’s nothing like public accountability to keep you on task, so if you really want to get it done, announce the webinar publicly.
In planning your webinar, you need to decide on the following:
- The big idea or key theme you want to convey
- What content you will teach
- What call to action you will include
Peter Mead says
This is great advice, I still feel it is a lot of work to run your own webinar. However, it can be worth it depending on your audience.
Cindy says
Thank you Peter. It is work but it is definitely worth it. One of the things that tends to stop people from doing a webinar is the belief that if you don’t have a list, then you can’t do a webinar because you have no one to promote it to. The reality is that a webinar is a great list builder! I had over 800 people sign up for my last webinar. Granted, some were from my existing list, but there were also new people who joined my list. They key is having a great opt-in page and of course, topic.
Susan Joy Schleef says
I like your expression: “create a gap between what you teach and your call to action”. I tell my clients this as while but hadn’t ever put it quite that way! While I understand the point of making it all sound easy to encourage people to get started, we both know there is quite a bit of work after the initial steps you’ve mentioned here. I think it would be kind to give your readers a mini-preview of the next steps and how they can get help to make the rest of the process easy too.
Cindy says
Thank you Susan! There is indeed a lot of work involved. I did a full training for my TALI members on how to do a successful webinar and I go much more in-depth on what was shared here.
I like your suggestion of giving more insights on next steps and would love to address this even more specifically to your needs so I can best support you. As you look at what I’ve outlined here, what is the biggest question in your mind? If you can share that, then I will expand on that and give more insight/tips to help you move forward.
Thanks and warm wishes,
Cindy
Liz says
Great getting started guide! Coming up with a great topic sounds like it’s probably the headest piece.
Cindy says
Thank you Liz! I completely agree. Coming up with the topic or “big idea” behind your webinar is definitely where a lot of people get stuck.
I like to work backwards. What is the call to action I want? It could be something I want people to do, or just something I want to help shift in them. Then I think about the big idea I want to communicate. What’s the one key idea I want people to take away from the webinar? Then I can plan out the content to help me achieve both these goals.
Virna says
Thanks for sharing these tips on hosting a webinar, great information.
Cindy says
You’re very welcome Virna. Thanks for stopping by!
Jacqueline House says
You have made this so easy and simple! Thank you!
Cindy says
Thank you Jacqueline!