Webinars: Growing Leads and Sales With Live Online Events

Do you use webinars in your marketing?

Are you looking for new ways to generate sales and leads?

To explore the art of using webinars to generate leads and ultimately sell, I interview Lewis Howes for this episode of the Social Media Marketing podcast.
More About This Show

The Social Media Marketing podcast is a show from Social Media Examiner.

It's designed to help busy marketers and business owners discover what works with social media marketing.

The show format is on-demand talk radio (also known as podcasting).

In this episode, I interview Lewis Howes, author of The Ultimate Webinar Marketing Guide and host of the School of Greatness Podcast, where he focuses on leadership and personal development. Lewis is also an athlete and he's on the USA Men's National Handball Team.

Lewis shares why webinars are the most effective way to connect with your audience.

You'll discover how to use webinars to generate leads and ultimately sell.

Share your feedback, read the show notes and get the links mentioned in this episode below!
Listen Now
You can also subscribe via iTunes, RSS, or Stitcher.

Here are some of the things you'll discover in this show:
Successful Webinars
Why marketers should take a closer look at webinars

Lewis believes that webinars are the ultimate way to convert your audience into customers. Companies of all sizes, as well as entrepreneurs, use them because they generate more sales than any other online marketing strategy.

Social media helps you get your information out there, connect with your audience, get feedback, build relationships and more. However, tweets and Facebook posts don't usually result in a huge number of instant sales.

A webinar, however, gets you in front of a captive audience that's interested in learning what you have to share for an extended period of time. It's more than just a quick message, post, article, picture or video. It's an interactive way to connect, build trust and make sales sooner rather than later.

Most webinars are free. Then at the end, you can refer them to your solution, product, coaching or live event. You can convert in a more effective way than by just using social.

Listen to the show to discover how webinar tools have changed.

What tech you need

Lewis recommends GoToWebinar, because he feels it's the most consistent. Plus, it's the standard format most marketers are used to.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MMbufbv1f2c

Other platforms to explore include Adobe Connect, Google Hangouts, Ustream, Livestream and WebinarJam.

Listen to the show to hear about the webinar tools we use at Social Media Examiner: GoToWebinar and WebEx.

How to get people to register for a webinar

Lewis suggests you start by promoting your webinar to your email list, and then encourage those who register to promote it for you. For example, on the post-registration thank-you page, put up a video or some text and ask registrants to share it on Facebook or Twitter.

To make this easier, there are tools you can use such as the WP Sharely plugin or create a pre-populated Tweet button through ClicktoTweet.com.

Another way to generate leads is to partner with others.

Lewis talks about how he does affiliate webinars where people in a similar marketing space promote his information to their audience. He'll do a webinar with free content, offer his product or service and then give a 50% commission to that affiliate. You're paying someone to generate leads for you.

Listen to the show to hear the results of a successful affiliate marketing webinar.

Optimizing the registration process

Lewis likes to use LeadPages templates for his webinar registrations.

He'll create three different registration templates: one with a simple image, a headline and opt-in; another that's more in-depth, including a compelling headline and a list of benefits; and a third that's a hybrid with a video and bullet points.