14 Strategies for Paid Webinars that Bring Value
Webinars are online seminars that can be accessed by a seemingly unlimited amount of people from different locations of the world for one single event. Ever since the COVID-19 crisis, there has been an uptick in the number of webinars hosted by different organizations to maintain engagement since physical seminars can no longer be hosted.
In physical seminars, audience members often are required to purchase a ticket to attend. Webinars, in the past, have a hard time selling tickets for audience members due to link sharing. However, using the tips highlighted below, you will be able to run your own successful paid webinar.
Manage Ticket Sales
Managing your ticket sales over webinars will not be an easy task. Ensuring that there are no so-called ‘“Zoom Bombers” creating a ruckus during your webinars is an important consideration to make. While managing your ticket sales you need to verify that your pricing is correct so that potential audience members will be willing to pay for your webinars, and to shield your platform from non-paying audience members or “Zoom Bombers” joining your webinar to ruin your audience member’s experiences.
1. Charging for your Webinars
Charging for Webinars can seem like a highly intuitive process but it may not be as easy as you thought. Many web-based Webinar events may not have a front door like a physical venue may have. The sharing of links can hinder your implementation of tickets and exclusivity, and oftentimes, exclusivity alone is valuable enough to charge for tickets.
However, now there are platforms that require accounts for audience members to log into before they can get their exclusive link. Unlike previous problems with link sharing, each link in these platforms allows only the people registered, who paid for a ticket, to access their individual link. Each individual link will only allow one person to join the webinar at a time, which dissuades link sharing, and encourages everyone planning to attend the event pay for their own ticket.
2. Price Considerations
Pricing your webinar is a very important aspect of running a paid webinar. In order for potential audience members to purchase a ticket to your paid webinar, their perceived value of your webinar needs to be greater than the price that you are seeking for a ticket. A webinar that is too expensive can dissuade potential audience members from participating in the webinar, however, a webinar that is priced too cheap can lower the perceived value of your webinar. Ensure that your pricing point increases the perceived value of your webinar, while not so high as to dissuade people from joining.
Create Engaging Content
Increasing your perceived value by your audience members is an integral part of running a paid webinar. The higher the perceived value for your webinar, the more willing people will be willing to pay for a ticket. In addition to that, the higher the perceived value also equates to the possibility of you charging more for your webinar which can greatly increase revenue. In some instances, the host herself/himself can create can increase the perceived value by following these tips.
3. Having an Agenda
If the speaker has an Agenda, it can be posted and marketed before the event to increase the perceived value of your webinar. An agenda conveys to your potential audience members that the speaker is prepared and knows what he will talk about. This increases the perceived value by divulging to potential audience members that the webinar has been prepared and has a game plan.
Moreover, having a game plan allows the speaker to potentially display the agenda on the screen while he is presenting. This increases the perceived value of the webinar because people like to have a road map to see where they are going. Being kept in the blind can trigger thoughts of confusion and trepidation on what would come next. Having an agenda can people follow along easier and focus on the most important topics that they wanted to focus on during the webinar.
4. Stay on schedule
Always assume your audience members may have commitments before or after your webinars. Ensure that you start your webinars on time and also end them within the allotted time slot you have promoted. This ensures that audience members no longer need to leave your webinars early, in addition, it shows that you value your audience members’ time which will increase the perceived value of your webinar.
5. Timing
The timing of your webinar can impact the value that your webinar brings to your audience. If your webinar is hosted during a time that your audience members are able to attend without canceling anything else in their schedule, the perceived value of your webinar will increase. Audience members will not pay for a webinar that is during a time they cannot attend. However, statistically speaking, most people join webinars between the 11am to 2pm time slots in the middle of the workweek, which is where the peak of the perceived value for your webinar could be.
6. Trained Presenters
If audience members are paying for your webinar, they expect a high level of professionalism and presenters that are at a high caliber on not only presenting but also with the platform that they are presenting on. This ensures that they are familiar with the software and are apt at dealing with frequently encountered issues swiftly while still presenting. This ensures a smooth transition between technical issues and the webinar. Any technical problems that are not solved swiftly can decrease the perceived value of your webinar. This could lead to a decrease in recurring, paying customers.
Leverage an Engaging Platform
Not only can the host increase the perceived value of your webinar. There are also strategies that can be implemented on the platform you choose to run your webinars on that can increase your perceived value. Unlike the host created perceived value, the platform created perceived value can be implemented once and does not need to be disturbed aside from the occasional updates. This one-time implementation streamlines the process of implementing techniques to increase perceived value.
7. Document Sharing
Implementing document sharing on your platform creates a value that may not be seen on other platforms. Audience members may want to review the slides after the webinar to study the information that your webinar shared. A document sharing implementation for the audience would be a very beneficial application, especially if the document sharing implementation allows the audience member to pick the format they would like to download the slide deck in. This beneficial aspect of document sharing will raise the perceived value of your Webinar which increases the likelihood of a potential audience member paying for a ticket.
8. Networking
People who join a webinar tend to be working in the same industry or interested in similar topics. To create more value for your audience members when joining your webinar you should integrate a process for them to able to network with each other. If audience members were able to design and send virtual business cards to each other, they would be gaining a lot more value from your webinar. This can attract a new segment of audience members who join your webinar with people who have the same interests or work in the same industry as people who commonly join your webinar. This helps the audience member simultaneously learn about the topic of interest as well as network with people from the same industry. This increases the value of your webinar and creates an additional desire for potential audience members to join your webinar.
9. Q & A Session
Not every topic that is covered by your webinar will be fully understood by your audience members. In order to give them the greatest value for the webinar that they paid for, including a Q & A session at the end of your webinar for your audience members to ask questions. When audience members are permitted to clarify their questions, they would be leaving the webinar with a much more satisfying disposition and will further understand the value your webinar brings and pay for the next webinar you host.
Check Your Tech
In webinars, technology is the bridge between the gap between your audience members and you, without it you could not connect with your audience members from all around the world. The main technological concerns that should be established are a tested platform that has minimal bugs and the accessibility for all different devices to eliminate exclusivity from potential audience members using specific devices.
10. Extensively Tested Platform
When hosting a webinar, many technological factors are at play. With so many technological factors at play, it is important that none of them go wrong during your webinar. Sometimes technological issues that happen can be out of your control, but regardless it conveys a sense of unprofessionalism. Ensure the platform that you are utilizing has been tested and as many bugs as possible are eliminated prior to hosting your webinar.
11. Mobile Device Friendly
25% of people sign into webinars from a mobile device, and to include this population of audience members into your webinar audience, implement mobile device compatibility into your webinar. This does not exclude certain members of your audience who plan to sign in on a mobile device. Verifying that your platform can be used with a mobile device increases the number of potential audience members that can purchase tickets and join your webinar.
Target Your Audience
To host the paid webinar with audience members joining it, you must inform the target audience about your webinar. You can’t host a webinar with audience members without them knowing about your event. Good marketing and promotions inform the number of people who know about your webinar and convince them to pay and join your webinar.
12. Targeted Marketing
Marketing is an integral part of potential audience members learning about your webinar. For you to market it well, ensure you do market research on what platforms that your target audience members frequent. Marketing on those platforms will bring you a larger number of audience members willing to pay for your webinar compared to marketing on a platform where the users are disinterested or unwilling to pay for your webinar.
An important component of target marketing is the visual branding of the marketing materials you publish. The visual brand is the first touchpoint you will have with your potential audience members which could get them interested or ignore your event entirely. A strong visual brand that speaks to your target audience piques their interest and develops preliminary trust for you. Piquing their interest is the first step that ultimately converts them into audience members who will pay for your webinar.
13. Reminders
Reminders create value by spreading information to either previous audience members, in one of your previous webinars, about a future webinar you are hosting or reminding people about promotions that are limited by the number of tickets or date of purchase. Reminders can be sent to everyone in your network in an effort to spread the word regarding your webinar, and it could increase the number of registrations for your events. Reminders re-inform your potential audience members about your webinar to increase the amount of paying customers joining.
14. Promotions
Promotions are a beneficial way to have more people pay for your webinars. 64% of consumers tend to wait for things to go on sale before purchasing them, so when a promotion is present, potential audience members will be more easily convinced to purchase a ticket to your webinar.
Promotions can include a one-time payment of a certain number of your webinars at a lower price than if they purchase the tickets to the webinars individually. Another promotion could be a promotional code that can be given out to audience members who stay until the end of your webinars for a lower price on the tickets of the next webinar you are hosting.
Plan Your Paid Webinar!
Now it’s up to you to plan your next paid webinar! Our tips can guide you if you choose to follow them, but feel free to do what you think is best. Not every one of our tips would apply to you or work for you in the exact same ways but everyone must make their own path and learn from their experiences. We are sharing ours and hope our experience can improve yours!
Are you looking for a platform that makes your webinars engaging, fosters networking, and brings value so you can start charging for tickets? Book a demo with us today, and we’ll show you how EventBank is helping bring ROI back to your webinars.
