Why webinars might be the best tool to grow your info product business

You have certainly noticed the rapid growth of an info product business lately. These days you might see multiple ads promoting free ebooks or webinars every day.

Creating a quality info product (video course or ebook) on a topic you truly understand, isn't the hard part of such a business. Like any online entrepreneur, you will mainly struggle with promoting and selling your products.

Old approaches recommend you to create a landing page to collect email addresses in exchange for a free ebook or other valuable content. Then you should continue providing value to the leads via email marketing. Occasionally, sending them an irresistible special offer. This whole process of an unaware visitor interacting with your content for the first time, going through some predefined steps, and finally converting is called a funnel.

In this article, we will focus on a webinar funnel, however. The most successful info product creators have switched partially or completely from the described funnel to using webinars. There are some good reasons for this switch. In the rest of this article, we will focus on exploring them.

Familiarity

Almost everyone, except maybe our grandparents, already knows what a webinar is. You may be surprised, but webinars and webinar platforms have only recently begun to experience explosive growth. The pandemic has helped a lot. It's good news, because people already know what to expect from them and they have no problem attending via their laptop or mobile phone.

To convince you that webinars are currently a must have, we don't have to look far at all.

Take a look at your competitors and look at all the online gurus that currently dominate this online market. You will find that everyone is trying to get their potential customers to sign up for a free webinar.

Yes, they use email marketing, landing pages, but webinars are the core piece of their marketing efforts.

These are the main reasons why attendees love webinars and why more and more people sign up for them:

• People prefer live conversations and videos to written text.
• People expect to get more detailed information on the webinar. They also set aside a longer time for the webinar.
• There might be a chance for them to ask a question and get a response.
• People know that they are not alone in the webinar room and take it as a social activity.

Let's explore the benefits in more detail.

Video vs text

People prefer video content to written text. It is easier to listen to a webinar than to read. Webinars are also more engaging. Using a combination of images and sound, or by sharing your screen, you can explain much more than just using text.

If you want to take it a step further, you can stream your webcam so people can see you. This way, you can create a more friendly atmosphere where it is much easier to build trust.

You as the authority

If you see a professional and successful person lecturing, you pay close attention. Most presenters provide information about themselves at the beginning of a webinar. This way, attendees are well aware of who the speaker is and why they should care.

More time for your presentation

People expect the webinar to give them a solution to a problem they experience. They know that a webinar doesn't last just 10 minutes. They are ready to remain connected for much longer. If they were not, they would not bother with signing up and showing up in the first place. You may be surprised, but webinars can take up to 5 hours in extreme cases, and people can stay focused if the topic and the presenter are interesting enough. By the way, this brings an enormous benefit to the presenter, who has more time for a detailed analysis of the problem and subsequent solutions.

Engagement

During the webinar, the presenter often asks attendees to write a comment about themselves or asks a question they should answer. It keeps the webinar alive, and the attendees engaged.

Such interactivity brings something to the table you will never achieve by other means. Attendees are actively involved, and they usually enjoy it. They may also receive an answer if something is not clear to them. If they get a satisfactory answer, it can motivate them to purchase your products, and that's what we want.

Social proof

Your webinars will attract attendees with similar struggles as attendees won't register for webinars on topics they do not find interesting. It further boosts your credibility as attendees see other people have the same struggles and choose your webinar to help them.

Sharing your story

Following the previous point, people are more likely to believe your product if you describe your part of the story. Your past self, your struggles, and how you overcome them.

To illustrate the point, let's say you are selling an ebook that teaches people how to lose weight. At first, people might be more inclined to listen to a fitness trainer, because, well it is his profession. After trying such coaching, they might realize that the most important thing is not to exercise correctly but to get themselves to exercise. And people realize they will learn more tricks from a guy who struggled to start exercising every day than from a guy whose whole life is about exercising. Also, you probably have some photos of yourself before the transformation, which will show your attendees that it really is possible to lose weight.

The small things

During the webinar, you can use subtle psychological tricks to keep attendees engaged. For example, at the start of your webinar, you can talk about giving away a free ebook to those who stay connected for some time. It will make attendees more focused, because who doesn't love free stuff. It is a double win. Your attendees will benefit from your content, and they will be more likely to purchase your premium products since your free content helped them.

You can also use polls to gather feedback, sale alerts to signalize product purchases and show that your product is selling well.

The offer

Once people know who you are and what you are good at, you can introduce them to your premium products.

Webinar hosts tend to create a special offer (e.g. discount the product or add gifts) for the attendees, but for a limited time. It boosts your sales since people who are interested in your product but are not sure they want to buy right now are more likely to take advantage of the discount. Also, everybody loves bargains.

Testimonials

Your webinar does not end with the display of a product offer. On the contrary, now you have to persuade the attendees your products are worth buying. And the best way to do so is to show positive reviews.

You can use text testimonials in your webinars, but try to ask your best customers to shoot a video testimonial. Seeing actual people praise your product is a great help in convincing your attendees to make the purchase.

Overcoming objections

Your customer should have the last word. It means that even if your customer had questions during the presentation, new questions will arise as soon as you publish your premium info product offer. Set aside enough time to go through all the common customer's questions. When you master this phase, your webinar funnel is almost over.

Chronological order

Written text and YouTube videos can be read or watched in any order. You can not force your attendees to follow the content from beginning to end. They might skip some vital parts if they do not find them interesting. With webinars, this is not a problem. People are "forced" to consume the content as you meant it. This way your attendees will hear what you think is important without missing some parts which might not be that interesting but are vital to be said.

Summary

We explained some of the key benefits of hosting webinars. By now, you probably understand how webinars can help your online business. Now, it is your turn to provide your attendees with great value and gaining raving fans in return. Remember, you can start with shorter webinars with few attendees if you do not feel confident speaking to large groups.

To learn how to create highly converting webinars, check our automated webinar guide.