Writing Your First Webinar 2017

The idea of writing a webinar all by yourself can seem very overwhelming.  There are three main elements to a webinar – the script, the visuals, and the technology.  In this post we are just going to talk about the script.  This is the part where most people get stuck.  If you can put together a great script, the other two pieces actually become quite simple.

Watch the Clock

There is nothing more valuable than time.  I have been on some webinars where the presenters have zero respect for their audience.  They have long drawn out introductions with dozens of pictures of their family and possessions.  They drone on and on to fill time without actually giving any information.

This is a great way to drive your audience nuts.

When you are teaching something amazing and people get really engaged sometimes they will stay with you for two hours.  If you are sharing something that they really need to know they will stay as long as it takes.  But you need to focus on value rather than time filling.

Everything you say should have a purpose and you always want to keep that in mind.  When I structures my webinars the first few minutes are for introductions and to get everyone warmed up.  I need this buffer time because many people log in late.  When you log into a webinar, sometimes the software can take up to five or even ten minutes to connect you.  So you think you are right on time when you start the login, but you spend several minutes waiting to get to the actual session.

After the buffer I go straight into content.  You want to spend about twenty to twenty-five minutes teaching your best stuff.  This is the attention span of most people thanks to the abundance of television programs people watch.  Your average “thirty minute” show actually only has 23 minutes of content.  That’s right in the center of my sweet spot.

Then it’s time to make your offer.  What are you selling and why is it awesome? This should only be about five minutes as well.  You don’t want to spend ages on this part.  The people who are with you will be ready to buy .

You then want to switch to a question and answer session.  This is the part that can last as long as needed because people are getting a ton of value.  This is where you really connect with your audience.

I want my total webinar to be under an hour in length.  Any longer than that and a part of our audience will start to drift away.  Many people have busy lives and can’t spend more than an hour, even when they want to.

Teach Your Best Material

You will be tempted to keep your best secrets hidden behind a paywall.  We feel like our best material should cost the most money.  But your audience won’t react well to that.  You have to give them gold to really show them how much you have to share.  The more impressed they are with your teaching session, the better everything else will go.

You only have twenty minutes to teach and surely you can’t teach ALL of your best stuff that quickly!  Your customers are so much more than little dollar signs.  They are people that you want to build a relationship of trust and connection with.

When I was developing my bestseller webinar I made an early mistake of trying to deliver too much value.  It’s tempting to go down a technical rabbit hole.  I spent way too long showing exactly how I do keyword research and study categories.  The entire audience started drifting away.

Balance your desire to inform with the fact that people are seeking entertainment.  They don’t want a dry college lecture. Teachers at university only get away with being so boring because they have tenure.  There is a reason that colleges collect the money upfront.

The Offer

Once you have shared your great wisdom, you want to transition from the offer.  It can feel jarring to make this transition as a teacher.  The easiest way to transition it to be honest.  You don’t have enough time to teach everything you want on a single webinar so you have put together a course that covers everything.

Within the offer you want to focus on the benefits to your potential customer.  How is your product going to improve their life?  Don’t get caught up in features – my product is this long, this tall, this amazing, etc.  Your customer cares more about how they will feel when they have consumed your entire product.  That’s what you want to focus on.

To write your close, add in a lot of value, throw in a ton of bonuses and then show a really high price.  Say that you could sell it for a ton of money, but that wouldn’t be fair.  So you drop the price to something they can manage.  You see this price drop technique on every single infomercial for a reason.  It works.

Answer Their Questions

The scariest moment in a webinar is when there are no questions.  There are two ways to deal with this situation.

First, you want to have a series of questions prepared.   They should be questions designed to overcome common sales objections.  A couple of these help move the sale along, they are questions in some people’s minds and they get the ball rolling.

Once you have answered two or three prepared questions, you will notice the chat box starting to fill up.  Nobody wants to ask the first question, even in a webinar where no one else can see them.

You should also provide an incentive to stick around.  Offer a bonus with your product that you only guarantee until the end of the webinar.  This will encourage people to keep asking questions just so they have more time to make a buying decision.

A Simple Plan

This is a pretty simple webinar structure but it should really help you as you create your first webinar script.  You really don’t want a complicated or memorized webinar structure at first.  A simple plan allows you to react to the audience and that is very important.

In our next lesson, I will show you how to add audience interaction into your webinar script.

What is your secret webinar tip?  Please share in the comments below!

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