How To Screw Up Your Webinar – In 4 Simple Fails

 

 

 

Ever had this experience? You’re doing pretty well with one strategy, but then you notice that someone in your field is using a different strategy…and she’s getting unbelievable results.

You are intrigued.

You think to yourself, “I’m going to try it her way; because if she gets the crazy results that she says she does, then her way must be even better than what I’m doing!”

So, with the best of intentions you jump into it. You don’t give yourself time to think it through because it’s just so exciting to imagine the hundreds of thousands of dollars this new strategy will bring into your business.

You’ve been seduced.

Well, that’s what happened to me recently and I paid the price. I’m going to share with you the decisions I made and what I learned from my massive fail, because I don’t want this to happen to you, too!

This blog is about webinars, but it can apply to anything you do in your business. Especially when it comes to online marketing.

Here goes…

How To Screw Up Your Webinar – In 4 Simple Fails

 

#1: Assume That Because You’re Smart, You Can Do Everything Yourself

I had a webinar planned for last week. I love the webinar concept. It gives me great visibility, helps me build my mailing list, and many of my clients and students have found me that way.

I like the platform I have been using, too. It contains everything I need in one place: my registration pages, opt-in lists, email auto-responders, follow-up emails, and provides great analytics, too.

I have an assistant. A wonderful one. But she is new and she hasn’t prepped a webinar for me yet. So I made an executive decision: Since I always have been able to figure out how to do pretty much anything on the web, I’m going to set this one up myself. After all, it will be faster and easier than if I took the time to train her.

Yeah, I’m smart. But not this time. Read on…

#2 Make It Really, Really Complicated

This new strategy. It involves more landing pages, more emails, more follow-up, and a different set-up method. But if “so-and-so” uses it, by golly, I was going to use it, too.

It. Was. So. Much. More. Complex.

First, I had to set up the webinar on one platform. Next, I had to create all the emails on another (three times as many emails than I normally use). After that, the registration page had to be set-up (on yet another platform). Finally, I had to carefully integrate them all together and make no mistakes.

Yeah, right!

Instead of the 1-2 hours of set-up I was used to, it took a full day. Add to that 3-4 hours the next day to fix some mistakes and what I ended up with was a huge time suck that took me away from my other work. Not happy.

To make it worse…

#3: Pay Absolutely No Attention To What’s Worked In The Past

I usually get a few hundred opt-ins and a very high percentage of live attendees for my webinars (25%-40%). And it translates into more business each time I do them.

So, why wasn’t I happy? Because I wanted more!

If I had done just a little research I would have discovered that my results, compared to similar businesses, were stellar.

Duh. Then the last huge dumb mistake:

#4: Forget To Check Your Links

This one kills me. When I finally set-up the entire email workflow, I was running two days behind. I experienced that awful super-rushed feeling that’s kind of like a mental nausea.

And that’s when Internet-Induced ADD reared its ugly head. I copied the wrong link, pasted it into all the reminder emails, and happily pressed “send”.

If I had slowed myself down for two seconds, I would have remembered my own rule. Always test links. Always.

Webinar time arrived! I was all ready. My slides were beautiful. My message was compelling. My expectations were way up there.

But…

Nobody logged-on. Nobody. Nada. Nil. Zero. Because they all had the wrong link!

Imagine me at my desk, all dolled-up, and not one person to present to. I felt like a washed-up lounge singer.

OK, nobody died. As a matter of fact, this experience reinforced some valuable lessons and gave me a whole new perspective on webinars (which I’ll share in another post):

• Keep it simple, stupid – I hate this saying, but it certainly applies here.
• Haste makes waste – that’s my mother’s favorite saying (I never listened).
• If it’s not broke, don’t fix it – it applies here but…

You can’t make your business grow without trying new strategies. But the key is to slow down and think them through.

Do you have the time to implement? Do you have the staff to implement? Do you really, really need to change this?

Then, if you decide to go forward with a new strategy start the planning way in advance so the set-up will go smoothly.

And have your assistant do it.