TSE 983: I Reinvented The Webinar Model

n today's episode of The Sales Evangelist, I talk to Todd Earwood about the adage that we need not reinvent the wheel, but Todd is doing just that.

Todd famously cold-called the CEO of a billion dollar company for 43 straight days until he finally got the interview, and then the job.

He began his career in software. It wasn’t until he was making the rounds to thank investors for the success of his latest software endeavor that he realized that marketing was his real niche.

As Todd explains it, one of the investors simply asked Todd what his future plans were, which seemed like such a silly question at the question. Software was all he had ever done. But the investor went on to say that marketing and sales were really the special skills he saw in Todd.

Todd reluctantly agreed and MoneyPath began. [00:54]

Clear the path to purchases through quality marketing

AtMoneyPath, Todd and his group of marketers ‘clear the path to purchases.’ It is their tagline because they are dedicated to helping sales. In the marketing world of pretty pictures and shiny objects, the reality is that without the lifeblood of qualified leads coming into the sales team, good things are not going to happen. Budgets will be cut and people will lose their jobs.

But if you can master the marketing side of things, then the company grows. Everybody is happy and everybody wins. In the software environment, Todd was willing to experiment and fail. He looked beyond the traditional social channels, the paid media and the heavy use of emails.

To begin, Todd and his team did an email research project where they opted into the funnels of the top 300 SAS software companies to see what those companies would do with a cold lead. The number one email topic returned to Todd’s team was about content. The second topic was webinars and that is when things really began to change.

Now instead of writing six blog posts a week, Todd and his team create one great webinar every 15 days. Before long, they had created a massive educational series with more and more content.

Reinventing the webinar to keep listeners engaged

The old model is clearly broken because nobody really gets excited about ‘this week’s webinar’. People sign up but they don’t attend. Todd and his team wanted to change that. [03:38]

There is a poor functionality with the current webinar system. It fails to keep the listeners engaged. Even when the topic sounds interesting, we never get around to actually listening to it, or to listening to it wholeheartedly. Todd realized that the engagement model needed to change. It needed to become interesting and engaging.

There is just too much information and too many ways to deliver it. As a marketer, you are vying for the attention of the clients so you have to do something different.

As Todd explains, unless you hire Kevin Hart or Adele, it is too hard for one person to carry 30-60-90 minutes of content. So at Webinar Works, they always have at least two speakers: a host and a thought leader.

Bringing in leads

The host facilitates all the basics and keeps it moving. The host will almost immediately facilitate a poll to grab people’s attention and get them actively participating with the webinar.

Todd has seen up to 60% of the attendees join in because their webinars break the expectation of ‘another crappy webinar’ from the very start.

The thought leader for each webinar is the expert on the subject. They aren’t there to read their own bio or tell the listeners how great they are. The thought leaders are there to educate and to share their wisdom. [06:44]

The ultimate purpose of the webinar, aside from providing information to the listeners, is to obtain information from those listeners at the end in the form of a segmentation poll which generates qualified, high intent leads. This could be something as simple as asking the listeners to select the one issue addressed in the webinar that best fits their organization.

With that information, the sales rep now has a tracking mechanism that tells him which listeners actually listened to the entire webinar, as well as which listeners requested assistance.

That is way better than cold calling 2,000 people. [10:21]

Leads delivered by the webinar

The Webinar was interesting but I want to do more research.

This is not a hot lead. It is a cool lead that needs some nurturing before it goes to the sales team.

I really enjoyed the webinar but I need to refer any decision to my colleague.

With this response, the sales rep knows the problem is there and the interest is there but that more research is needed to move into the right part of the organization.

I want to learn more!

This is the hot lead button that should be flagged as a real person with interest. [11:11]

Beginning of the sales process

The live webinar event may be over but the sales work is not done. As a marketer, Todd can help you divide that 42-minute webinar into three or five smaller clips so when a listener has a problem or a question, you will be able to easily find and deliver the information they need. [14:43]

There is certainly a lot of preparation that goes into creating a webinar. Decide where you want to insert the polls. If you are creating content that educates the prospects and making statements that they haven’t heard before, you should expect and plan for questions. Your content should drive the questions, and those questions will increase engagement. [17:10]

People will register for a webinar with a good hook.

• • Choose three to five points and dedicate 10-12 minutes to present each point.
  
  

• • Know what problem you want to solve and walk the listener through that scenario.
  
  

• Present listeners with the options they need to solve that problem.

If you do it right, the listener will naturally determine, for themselves, that you have the answer he needs. [18:54]

Webinar trends and tactics

As far as the words people use - webinar vs masterclass, Todd has seen a trend in that most blog posts titles tie directly to a webinar. For example, ‘Top Five Ways to Do X’ or ‘Old Method vs New Method’.

Todd believes that the content should appeal to a narrow persona so that it draws only those people that will benefit from the content of your webinar. Webinars can break through all the noise and the clutter that other marketing is trying to do. Speak to your listeners as individuals and tailor your tactics to their needs.

"Webinar Model" episode resources

Check out WebinarWorks.io/salesevangelist for free resources, to grade yourself against great webinars and to find out if Webinar Works is a good fit for you.

This episode is brought to you in part by prospect.io, a powerful sales automation platform that allows you to build highly personalized, cold email campaigns. To learn more, go to prospect.io/tse. It will help you with your outbound to expand your outreach and it allows you to set it and forget it. Your prospecting will never ever be the same.

We'll use prospect.io in the upcoming semester of TSE Hustler's League to focus on prospecting. We'll give you insights and tools that will help you gain new customers. In addition, we'll provide training and strategies that you can implement today to ensure constant flow in your pipeline.

TSE Hustler's League

Check out our new semester of The Sales Evangelist Hustler's League. We're taking applications for the semester beginning in January, and we can only take a limited number of people.

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