Stop the Webinar Insanity :: You’re Undermining Your Persuasiveness
I'm a webinar junkie. I love learning. I'm curious about everything. Write some compelling copy, and I'll give you my email address – no problem.
I'll put your webinar on my calendar. I'll even attend the webinar LIVE.
That's how I roll. If I believe in your cause, I'll show up.
Then I'll hang up as soon as you start with that trite webinar formula. You know the formula:
- Start with witty banter about your day
- “You know you're in the right place if” diatribe
- Turning point story time – give me your rags to riches tale
- Content – finally – what I came here for!!
- The offer
- A final piece of content (or a contest) that keeps your listeners hanging on to the end
I don't know who is selling that template, but it's time to stop the webinar insanity.
This formula is squandering the most persuasive trigger that you have going for you. Ironically, you don't even know you've got it going on.
Embrace your communication rebel. It's time to kick this webinar template to the curb because it's killing your persuasiveness and your business.
Listen and find out the exact moment I bailed from a webinar that I was psyched about attending, how this formula undermines your persuasiveness, and most importantly what to do instead./]
“Get to your content as soon as possible!” OMG – yes!
I hadn’t ever thought that attendees have already made the decision to be there, so you don’t have to resell them. Excellent point!
Now I’m just wondering which webinar this was (and if I was in the same one!).
I’ve been on some webinars where you’re 45-minutes in and still no content. That just wasting peoples time. The other thing that I’m not enjoying is when they rush through their content and under develop it so they can get to what’s important to them – SELLING!!!
There’s a better way to do it, but people seem afraid to break the formula.
When I join a webinar I’m ready to listen and learn! And then when the chit chat and background drones on I start to get distracted, make coffee, check Twitter, email… If I’m on the line when the content starts they have to win me back when they could have had me at hello.
Love your style, Michelle!
I do the same thing too, Alli. I jump on the phone, pay a bill and sometimes get so distracted that I sometimes forget to listen to the webinar! The price of wasting people’s time!
I can’t WAIT to join you for your next webinar! My personal favorite is when the marketing experts tell us to find our niche, but their webinar looks like everyone else’s. Thank you SO MUCH for your insight! AMEN, AMEN, & AMEN!
Traci – you are so right! Find a niche but my niche is everyone! Walking the talk is as important as giving a webinar on it!
You are so right. I have almost given up on webinars. But then I find ones I love. It’s the ones that do not follow this tired format. I will listen for about 30 minutes. If nothing has been valueable up to the point I log out.
The webinars I love are the ones that don’t follow the formula too! It’s so much better to get to the content than to waste SO much time with the template. Plus, no one wants to be on a 90-minute webinar. Too long!
[…] Webinars formulas are killing your persuasiveness and your business. It's time to STOP the webinar insanity and kick the templates and formulas to the curb. […]
Preach it, sister!
One comment, one exhortation:
What you describe is, in fact, being pitched over and over (insert puking into the back of my mouth here). I think it’s important to distinguish the medium (web conferencing/casting) from crappy presentation content. You’d have the same valid complaint if people did were doing this in face-to-face seminars, too.
We don’t blame Word for crappy reports. Let’s not blame webinars for crappy presenters and presentations.
Keep up the good work!
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