Something that’s been kind of bugging me for a while is the subject of webinars.
They’re promoted as one of the best ways to get sales.
But to my mind they’re a step back in time.
Back when I was young, we had a handful of TV channels here in the UK. Two, then three and now lots.
But at that time, if you missed a show, that was it for quite a long time.
Then when I was at school, video recorders started to appear. At school, they were clunky reel-to-reel affairs that broke down at least as often as they played what they were supposed to show us.
Then domestic video recorders came out and time shifting TV programs became possible.
Nowadays, we’ve got hard disk recorders, time shift channels (+1 hour, often +24 hour and even longer) plus catch-up TV. Not to mention resources like YouTube.
But webinars are stuck in the 1960’s.
It’s a case of watch it live or don’t watch it at all.
Even when the “live” webinar is pre-recorded and shown at a variety of pre-selected times.
With my marketing head on, I get the idea that there’s an exclusivity of an event being live.
And if it was a concert tour then that’s different – but even those are often recorded and made available (probably for sale) afterwards.
But an exclusive sales pitch?
Get real.
I know that webinars often promise exclusive information that you can use without any further purchase.
Once in a blue moon that might be true.
But the format is generally along the lines of:
- Waffle for 10 to 15 minutes because people are still arriving
- Give a few small insights into the process with lots of hints about deeper insights to come later
- After about 40 to 60 minutes, shift into the pitch for the main product
- Keep pitching, laying on the benefits thick and fast and reminding people that this is a truly limited offer without mentioning that the limited price is likely to be repeated every time the “exclusive” webinar runs or whenever a new version of it comes out
And people have to set aside a specific time to endure the webinar.
Never mind that there are time zones involved, so what’s kind-of convenient on the East coast of the States probably isn’t convenient in London or Sydney.
And conveniently forget that the whole thing could be more efficiently delivered in other ways because the webinar (amazingly) still allegedly gets better conversions.
That may or may not be true.
Sometimes I’ll use Screencast-o-matic to record the webinar and then fast forward to the bits I actually want to watch. But that means shifting everything around on my screen so I can record the webinar and still work on my computer.
It really is the dark ages in internet terms.
That’s probably why I prefer pre-recorded products.
I can create them in my own time, pausing the record if the phone rings or a delivery arrives or if I have a brain freeze or if I need to find something I’d like to show or any other reason.
Kept in bite size chunks, they can be given meaningful names and people who buy the product can easily skip to the stuff they actually bought it for. Because I’m not naive enough to think that the majority of people will watch everything, start to finish.
Buy any internet marketing product where the videos are on YouTube, unlisted, but the product creator has left the default option to show views and you’ll see the tail-off.
So if you’re thinking about buying a webinar product I’d strongly suggest that you think again.
Pros of webinars:
- Allegedly limited availability may mean higher sales
Cons of webinars:
- If you use pre-recorded webinars (maybe with a pre-written list of attendees plus the name the person viewing has just typed in, often with some kind of counter that tries to proclaim the event is full to capacity), you’re starting your business relationship on a lie
- People are becoming more aware that webinars are thinly disguised sales pitches
- Disrespect for people’s time, especially in the introductory session where it appears it’s the first time they’ve used the software and/or the presenters talk about the weather or how excited they are to be looking at their bank balance in an hour’s time (not the wording they use obviously)
- Forcing people to use the internet in the same way as television and radio were before recording devices became commonplace
I know this has been a bit of a rant – apologies if it’s been negative.
But hopefully it’s tipped you towards treating your customers with respect. Which in turn should make for a longer and more profitable business relationship.
Feel free to share this page and also to comment on it.
Whilst I think you’re right in lots of what you say, Trevor, I don’t think you’ve quite nailed the reason(s) why webinars sell well. It’s the ability to build trust and rapport and to interact with a live audience that makes them special to both participants and presenter.
Compared to a sales page, there’s just no contest.
Yes, they can be – and usually are – a sales pitch, (though not always), but I see them as a kind of “home demo” of a vacuum cleaner or something, where you can see the thing in action and find out in real time more about the vendor and/or the company. You can ask the questions you really need to ask, not the predetermined FAQ’s which are also just sales tools when written on a sales page.
In short, I think there’s no substitute for the personal touch and live presence of being there, and whilst they’re generally not of the magnitude of a concert, they can be very educational and informative. I’ve learned a lot from them over the years and enjoy presenting them too. (Although I hate all the prep!)
Just my 2p’s worth!
Have a good weekend!
A truly live webinar – maybe – but over half the ones I get invites to are pre-recorded, select from the time drop downs so there is no interaction. And I remember a suggestion from Dan Kennedy to allow some questions the first time it was recorded but to say that there are lots of questions & there may not be time to get to everyone. So maybe that makes me more cynical!
Most of the others I’ve watched have little or no interaction until the “ask questions about what I’ve just pitched you” session – there’s a property one here in the UK that follows that format but it’s sometimes worth recording to get to the 10 to 15 minutes worth of reasonably real info.
Maybe I’m on the wrong lists but life’s not long enough to endure 60 – 90 minutes of “this is probably the best thing since slice bread but you’ll have to pay to find out what I’m talking about” webinars 🙂
I gave up watching webinars some time ago, as per the standard format, the amateurishness of the production and presentation – and the time, oh, G*d the time, the total and utter waste of time.
No, I don’t want to hear how poor you were before you made your first million on the internet. I really do not care if you couldn’t afford to put gas in your car, had a dead end job flipping burgers or whatever.
If I heard this tosh once, I heard variations of it a hundred times – and no, it did not help me connect to the speaker, or start to make me believe that through winning through adversity, they were just like me!
After 15 minutes of this guff, there is usually another 40 minutes of babble, of how I will be about to do all kind of wondrous things, be a James Bond with lots of beautiful ladies wanting to make mad passionate love to me all night, or a Harry Potter who by waving a wand would be able to do magic..
Then lastly the sales pitch, you’ve seen what it can do, and we were going to offer it for $x, but as your getting in on the ground floor we will be selling it to you for $y, but even better for the next hour, you can get it for $z.
The only thing you can mostly guarantee is that not only will you be able to get the goodie for free in about 3 months time, but that the program that is supposed to be black hatted hacked (Google, Facebook or any of the others) will have changed to block the system and that there will never be any updates.
I guess some of it is the price we pay for expecting everything for free (partly because it often is free after a short search)
The limited time price drops have worked as long as I’ve been alive – market stall pitchers who figured they’d earn more at live events in hotels pitching multi-thousand pound weekend seminars; infomercials and now webinars.
There’s very little “secret” information except with the broadest definition of something that’s out there but that I don’t know yet (or have forgotten to remember).
I agree that the price drop gag has been going on since time began, problem is, when either people expect it and are unhappy when it isn’t offered or that they become so inured to the spiel that they either ignore it or go and do something else because they are not excited.
What a lot of these webinars are supposed to be is entertainment, and if they don’t entertain, why bother.
As to the price drop spiel, I’ve watched the professionals do it in street markets, and are they good at it or what – selling whole china dinner services by spreading the plates along both arms, engaging with the punters, last 1/2 dozen sets, when they’ve gone, they’ve gone (even if you can see in the back of the truck, another 60 or so boxes). Do they tell you how poor they were, nope, it’s – These sell in your Harrods for £1000, in the high street fo £750, but today, we are not going to sell them for £100, or £50, but because you have a nice face, darling, you’re gonna get them for £20 – you smiled, ok £10 cos I need the quick sale to get the money for food for my poor starving kids, who else wants one while I’m in such a generous mood, let’s see your money, Ok don’t rush me… Kev! get another 10 boxes out…
Market traders, infomercial presenters, real-world free seminars are almost always good places to learn so long as your wallet is safely tucked away.
Same goes for webinars to an extent – the better ones are really good at hitting all the right NLP buttons and giving a few tasty morsels (a bit like those food samplers at the supermarket) to whet the appetite. So if you’re watching to find out how to pitch then they’re really useful.