How to Design a Highly Profitable Webinar Funnel

Before you start any ads you’ll need to have a Webinar Landing page. This is where prospects can learn all the details about the Webinar and sign up for it. 

Apart from all your basic information about the date, time, topic and speaker information – here are some other pieces of information you might want to consider including on the landing page:

1. A pre-headline to call out your audience

In the example above the pre-headline calls out ‘business owners and entrepreneurs’. The more specific your call out, the more you’re able to qualify the people who attend your webinar. 

For example, if instead of calling out ‘Business Owners and Entrepreneurs’ – we call out ‘business owners with at least $10 million revenue’ – we’re likely to get higher level business owners signing up for the training.

2. A benefit main headline

In the example above the big benefit is about getting clients and customers ‘on demand’. Because just about all business owners would like to get more new business.  

The promise that you put in this headline should be a big benefit – One that your prospects are looking for. 

You can also word your headline as a ‘pain elimination’ headline… This can work better for certain audiences. 

For example, we could re-word the main headline here as “Stop wasting hard-earned money on outdated social media marketing strategies that don’t get customers”.

3. A secondary headline that overcomes a challenge

The secondary headline here promises to overcome the pain of hiring more team members and save on the cost of hiring a marketing agency. 

This is because our research shows that many business owners had bad experiences with marketing agencies. 

Many others had also spent money hiring ‘social media managers’ who didn’t get them good results. 

That’s why we used these as the ‘challenges’ that the Webinar promises to overcome.

4. The 3 big takeaways

Most Webinars are structured in a way that they help attendees solve 3 major problems. We position these 3 things as ‘secrets’ that we reveal at the event. 

5. Benefit points

You may not be able to cover all the benefits in the 3 big takeaways section. 

Here’s where the additional bullet points come in.

Many people will read these bullet points on your page, so make sure you spend ample time identifying and crafting the benefits that are important to your prospects.

6. Introduction to the speaker

Most people who arrive on your landing page would not have heard about you before. 

It’s important to show why you’re qualified to talk about the subject matter. 

On this page, we show the speaker’s pictures and his background information… This adds credibility and trust.  

Another option is to tell a story about the speaker. If the speaker has an interesting life story to tell, this type of copy can both build credibility and rapport with prospects. 

7. Credibility signals  (testimonials/screenshots of results,  etc.)

Remember, most prospects that come to your page don’t know you. So it’s important to use the page to increase your credibility.  Here’s a few things that we did on this page: 

a) Endorsements

Endorsements from other famous speakers can be a powerful way of building authority, particularly if your prospects happen to be fans of the famous speaker. 

This speaker had Les Brown and Joel Bauer endorsing him – which enhances his credibility.

b) Student testimonials

Adam and Nicholas in the screenshot above are student testimonials. 

Because if you’re just using endorsements from famous people – the regular prospect might doubt that your stuff works for them. 

They need to self-identify with other people who may be at a similar stage of development as themselves.

c) Brands and media

If you’ve been featured in media before or have worked with big brands – having these displayed on the page can give you a further boost of credibility. 

We included the companies that the speaker had previously worked with, or had been mentioned by.

8. Future pace

In some markets, inserting a ‘future pace’ section can be useful to help overcome indecision. 

This section informs them that whether they choose to make a decision or not – there will be consequences. 

So we simply highlight the consequences of NOT taking action, versus the potential (better) future taking action to sign up. 

This often helps prospects get clarity and to take action.

9. Bonuses

Test out giving further incentives to sign up. 

These sign-up bonuses can be delivered digitally and automatically once they sign up. 

You’ll find that some people will sign up just to get the freebies, even though they may not be fully convinced about signing up for the Webinar. 

A simple way to do this is to make sure your bonuses actually provide value – to the situation that your prospects are in.  

When they consume your freebies they’ll start thinking to themselves “Wow if his free downloads are so good, I must attend his Webinar” 

In this example, there were 2 free downloadable bonuses that this client was giving away to entice visitors to sign up. 

You’ll find that some people will sign up just to get the freebies, even though they may not be fully convinced about signing up for the Webinar. 

A simple way to do this is to make sure your bonuses actually provide value – to the situation that your prospects are in.  

When they consume your freebies they’ll start thinking to themselves “Wow if his free downloads are so good, I must attend his Webinar” 

In this example, there were 2 free downloadable bonuses that this client was giving away to entice visitors to sign up.

The Thank You Page

The thank you page after signing up can be used for several purposes such as: 

• Building familiarity with the coach/speaker
• Elevating the level of excitement for the person who just signed up… Increasing the likelihood of attendance
• Getting the prospect who signed up to take certain actions (e.g. Adding to the email whitelist, adding the event to Google calendar, etc)  
• Using it as an opportunity to make an offer 

Below the thank you video, we remind prospects of the important things they need to do. 

Here’s what it looked like: 

The bottom line is this… 

Once people have signed up, they are on an ‘emotional high’.

This makes them more likely to pay attention to what you have to say on your thank you page.  

And there is a higher chance they are going to say ‘yes’ to an offer you make. 
So don’t waste this opportunity to further build trust and credibility… or even make a sale.

You can also you take a moment to check out our latest blog post, where we share the story of how we managed to achieve a 244% increase in landing page conversion rates.

The Email ‘Indoctrination’ Sequence

The first few emails that you send once people sign up are crucial. 

Why? 

Firstly, because your open rates will be the highest. 

This is your opportunity to provide value and further enhance credibility…. While getting them pumped about the event. 

Your first email should include some background information and even fun stuff about you. 

For example if you have a hobby of collecting Coca-Cola memorabilia, you might want to share a photo of you and your whole collection. 

Photos of you with your pets and/or young children are great for rapport building.  

This serves to bring down the walls of unfamiliarity and makes you human. 

Tell stories about yourself – even slightly embarrassing but funny ones. 

Better still, tie those stories into a revelation or ‘aha’ moment that leads to the importance of the topic you’re going to talk about at the Webinar. 

Apart from your personal stories and photos, your indoctrination email sequence might also contain short training videos. 

For instance, if you are a sales coach, you could have: 

• A video on how to overcome common sales objections 
• A video on how to prevent ghosting 
• A video on how to ask for the sale without feeling weird

An alternative to short training videos is to show case studies, testimonials and examples of students who have had wins with your system or method. 

This can all be part of your welcome, or indoctrination sequence, that’s 3 or 4 emails long. 

Remember, the goal here is to build more credibility and excitement as to what’s going to come in the main event. 

The Confirmation SMS

You may also choose to get them to take action on the SMS – such as providing them the link to set a Google calendar reminder.

The Email + SMS Reminder Sequence

As the name suggests, the purpose of this email and SMS sequence is to remind people to show up. 

Remind them why they signed up in the first place, and what they need to prepare ahead of time (e.g. download a pdf workbook).  

Discuss what other people got from attending past events – show screenshots of testimonials. 

The reminder sequence can start 24 hours before the event or on the morning of the event itself. 

It can be a series of 7 to 12 emails and SMS.

It might sound like a lot, but even sending an email out 15 to 20 minutes after your webinar starts (to tell people it’s still not too late to join) – can get you more attendees. 

The Pre-Event Phone Call

 We have found that calling everyone who has registered for the Webinar can increase show-up rates by up to 100%.

It’s a time-consuming effort when you have hundreds of sign-ups.  

 But the effort is well worth it considering the cost of getting someone to sign up. 

 So what do you say when you’re calling people who’ve signed up for your webinar? 

 Here are a few tips: 

•  Call to confirm that they did sign up for the Webinar
• Confirm their email address is correct 
• Leave an SMS or WhatsApp message to introduce who you are… and inform them that you tried reaching out. 
• Confirm they know the time of the Webinar 
• Confirm that they will be coming for the Webinar
• Ask them what is the #1 thing they hope to get from the Webinar
• Tell them you’ll be looking forward to see them on the Webinar

Each call should only take around 2 minutes. 

Considering the potential uplift in attendance, this is definitely an investment worth making. 

Train and pay freelancers to do it if you don’t have the time. 

Alternatively, you can consider a recorded voice calling service like Slybroadcast – which sends a voice recording directly to their voicemail without ringing.  

Potential Post-Webinar Events

Truth is, they are leaving a ton of money on the table. 

We have done quite a few tests to ‘extend’ our Webinar funnels to win additional sales. 

Here’s the idea behind it…

After your Webinar happens, there are 3 groups of people:  

1. Those who attended and bought

2. Those who attended but didn’t buy

3. Those who didn’t attend

The post-webinar follow-up sequence is focused on group 2 and 3 – to move them to a buying decision. 

Your buyers should enter a different email sequence. 

Please remember that each niche is different… so you might want to test one idea at a time and see what works best for you. 

At a minimum, start with a 7-day post-event sequence and eventually build it up to a 21-day sequence. 

Let’s take a look at some ways to ‘extend’ your webinar funnel.  

The Encore Webinar

Why do a Second Webinar?

Thirdly, a second live event creates buzz and gives you an excuse to send more communication leading up to the event.

You might want to add a bonus topic to your second Webinar – as this will serve to attract more people to attend.

The Webinar Replay

People think that Webinar replays will help to convert group 3… but in reality it helps convert more of group 2. 

You’ll find that group 2 who attended the webinar may have missed out on parts of it – may want to go back and review it. 

They are probably still considering whether to take the next step with your business. 

So make sure you send your Webinar replay to both groups. 

It’s also good to have a deadline to watch the replay – a 24 to 48 hour deadline is a good timeframe to generate urgency to take action. 

The Executive Summary

The ‘executive summary’ is a summarized version of your Webinar.  This will cater to the busy people in group 3.

This video can be structured much like a VSL.

The call to action can be timed to appear when the offer is made in the video. 

A 15-25 minute video works best. 

The executive summary can be sent out after the replay is no longer available. 

The Re-Launch Sequence

The re-launch sequence works by splitting your Webinar content into 3 main points, along with a call to action. 

In summary here’s what happens: 

Day 1: Introduce the problem – talk about how point 1 helps solve part of the problem. 

Day 2: Introduce point 2 and how it solves part of the problem. 

Day 3: Introduce point 3 and how it solves the next part of the problem.

Day 4: Summary + action points + make offer 

You can choose to make a video for each of these days – OR you can simply have the content summarized in your emails. 

Each video or email should give valuable content to your prospects… This is not supposed to be 4 sales-pitching videos. 

Aim to have each video to be around 8-15 minutes long. 

The Close Cart Sequence

The purpose of the close cart sequence is to create urgency to action. 

 This sequence should be placed at the end of the funnel – so there is a deadline and final chance for people to act on your offer. 

 For this sequence to work effectively, you’ll need a hard deadline. 

 48 or 72 hours works well.

 There needs to be a consequence for not taking action. Eg. The product will no longer be offered; there will be a price increase or reduced bonuses. 

 You can add previously unannounced bonuses or discounts to push them across the line during the close cart sequence. 

 Have a sequence of 4-6 emails and SMS for this. 

 Here’s an example of how you might want to structure it: 

• Email 1: Offer closing in 48 hours
• Email 2: Are you still interested in getting <benefit>?
• Email 3: Warning: 24 hours left
• Email 4: Here’s what you’ll be missing out on tonight
• Email 5: Prices go up at midnight
• Email 6: Final Call – last hour to act

Some Final Tips on Webinar Funnels (and mistakes to avoid)

If there’s one thing you got from this chapter, make sure you plan your Webinar funnel so that the Webinar itself is not ‘the end of the line’. 

Treat the live Webinar as part of a sequence of marketing activities… that’s designed to move your prospects closer to make a purchasing decision. 

It’s important to remove your customer from the follow-up sequence once they take the next step. 

And don’t be afraid to be creative with your Webinar funnels – there are no set rules about when your funnel ends. 

You could even extend it to 45 or 60 days. 

You can even change the order of the funnel extensions that we’ve outlined in this blog post. 

Bottom line is, Webinar leads are pricey… so the smart move is to extend your Webinar funnel to get as many purchases as possible. 

This will get you the best return on ad spend. 

Keep experimenting and over time, you’ll be able to create a highly optimized Webinar funnel that helps your coaching business scale profitably. 

That said, here are some common mistakes to avoid when building your Webinar Funnel: 

1. Don’t forget your promotion plan

The best-constructed funnels are useless if there is not a good promotional plan to get people signing up and attending. 

Consider using ads or partners with email lists to get your webinar filled up. 

2. Not doing your financials

 Before we start running ads we will come up with financial projections for the Webinar funnel. 

 This way we are able to have some confidence in terms of how profitable our ad spend will be. 

3. Not testing your funnel

It’s important to stress-test your entire funnel before you launch. Nothing worse than discovering there is a problem with your payment processor, or that your email is directing people to the wrong page. Do this before launching and you could save yourself a bundle of unwanted stress and drama. 

4. Not following up

Probably enough has been said about this topic. But most coaches fall into the mistake of letting everything be ‘automated’. The most successful coaches not only have great follow-up automations… but also highly-trained and motivated sales teams that make appointments and close sales.

5. Forgetting to optimize

A Webinar funnel is not something that you can set and forget. 

Spending the time to observe, evaluate and optimize your Webinar funnel will help you to reap more profits and is well worth your time. 

Russell Brunson says that he spent over a year reviewing and refining his Webinar. 

If you want your Webinar and Webinar funnel to be a success – make sure you are constantly looking at ways to improve it. 

In conclusion, a Webinar funnel can be a highly profitable and scalable strategy for coaches… but it needs to be built the right way. 

I hope this article has given you new insights and ideas on how to construct a highly profitable Webinar funnel. 

If you’d like to find out more about how we can help you, check out Webinar Marketing Services.