If you’re thinking about offering paid webinars as part of your business, you may be wondering how to create a great webinar quickly. Fear not. In this article, I’m going to show you a simple webinar template that you can use for your next webinar.
Paid webinars can be a great passive income stream for consultants and freelancers. They’re much easier to create than online classes, people enjoy them, and customers are willing to pay if you’ve chosen a compelling topic.
In my experience, most paid webinars are one-hour events, thus the webinar template below is for a 60-minute webinar. Remember, this template is only for webinars that people pay to attend. I don’t believe in asking people to pay for a webinar and then spending half of the time trying to sell them something else, thus this webinar template is all teaching content.
If you’d like to offer free webinars to help sell consulting services or more expensive online classes or programs, you should use the “Perfect Webinar” Template in Russel Brunson’s book Dotcom Secrets. (Affiliate link)
Ok, here’s the simple webinar template I use for my paid webinars:
Introduction & Housekeeping: 3 Minutes
At the beginning of the webinar, spend three minutes welcoming your attendees and going over housekeeping items. This is where you tell your attendees about the bonus items they are going to receive, and if you are sending them a recording or a copy of the slides you can remind them of that too.
You should also do a short introduction of yourself during this portion of the webinar. Some of the attendees might not really know you – a colleague may have recommended that they take your webinar, or perhaps they saw an ad or a post on your website and made a quick decision to buy. Tell them your background and why you’re an expert they can trust.
The Problem You’re Going to Solve: 5 Minutes
In this section of my webinar template, I describe the problem I am going to solve for the attendees. For example, if your webinar is called “How to Get More People to Sign-Up for Your E-Mail List,” you should use this section to remind them why their e-mail list is so important and why it’s crucial that they build it quickly.
You should also tell your attendees what problems they will face if they don’t get more subscribers for their e-mail list… and reassure them that by the end of the webinar, their problem will be solved… they’ll have a step-by-step system for growing their e-mail list bigger than ever before. (Remember: people love “step-by-step” solutions… they’ll by more webinars if you can teach them the exact steps they need to take in order to succeed).
The Fundamentals: 10 Minutes
After telling people about the problem you’re going to solve, you should spend about ten minutes going over the fundamental concepts that relate to your issue. These are the basics that people need to understand if they are going to succeed. This is a crucial part of my webinar template… I want to make sure to go over anything people need to know in order to understand the meat of the webinar, which is coming up next.
I generally try to relate 5-7 basic concepts in this section of the webinar, spending just 1-2 minutes on each idea. For example, if I’m giving a webinar for non-profits on how to ask people for money, some of the fundamentals I might go over are:
- People Want to Say “Yes” Because it Makes Them Feel Good
- People Won’t Give Unless You Ask
- People Won’t Give Unless You’ve Built a Relationship with Them
- People Need to Trust Your Non-Profit
As you can see, none of these fundamentals are the actual how-to portion of the webinar template… they don’t solve people’s problem for them… but they are the basic ideas people need to know in order to implement the concepts that are coming up.
The 3 Main Concepts: 15 Minutes
This is the most important portion of the webinar template. This is the reason why your customers bought your webinar. This is the section where you teach them how to solve their problem. Normally, I try to break down the solution into about 3 main concepts, though you may do more or less. Beware of trying to cover too many concepts though. If solving the problem requires more than 4-5 main concepts, you’ll likely need to offer a class on the topic, or at least a multi-webinar series.
The concepts you should focus on here should be action oriented. You’re telling your attendees exactly what they need to do to solve their problem. You should spend about 15 minutes on this section, divided among concepts you are covering.
Using our earlier example of a webinar called “How to Get More People to Sign-Up for Your E-Mail List,” your 3 concepts might be:
#1: How to Create an Effective Lead Magnet to Encourage People to Sign-Up
#2: How to Design Your Website So that More People Sign-Up
#3: How to Use Online Advertising to Drive People to Your Sign-Up Forms
The Step-by-Step Solution: 10 Minutes
After you explain your three main concepts, give your attendees a step-by-step solution to solve their problem. This is another important portion of the webinar template, and one that will set you apart from your competition. Remember what I said above: people are willing to pay for step-by-step instructions on how to implement the solution you are promising.
What you want to do is take a look at the three main concepts you explained in the previous section and break them down into action steps that people can implement. For example, concept #1 was: How to Create an Effective Lead Magnet to Encourage People to Sign-Up. Under that concept, your action steps might be:
- Determine Your Lead Magnet Type, Title, and Theme
- Design a Cover or Template for Your Lead Magnet
- Create Your Lead Magnet
- Set Up a Landing Page for Your Lead Magnet
- Set Up an E-Mail Follow Up Sequence for Your Lead Magnet
The number of action steps for each concept will vary. Your goal here is just to quickly run through the step-by-step solution, based on your three concepts, so that people feel confident in implementing what you taught them. Most webinar creators don’t include this section in their webinar template, so this will be part of the secret sauce that keeps your customers coming back for more.
The Pep Talk: 2 Minutes
Near the end of my webinar template, I like to spend two minutes giving my audience a pep talk… reassuring them that they can get the same results I have when they implement what I just taught them. Remind your audience that they are capable and are working on important things, and that you know they can do it. This will help your attendees not feel overwhelmed with the amount of information you presented.
Questions & Answers: 10 Minutes
I usually try to leave about ten minutes at the end of my webinar template for questions and answers. This gives the audience time to digest what they learned and ask questions about portions they don’t understand.
Depending on the number of people who attend your webinars, you may also decide to give an e-mail address where people can follow-up with addition questions if you don’t get to answer all of the questions during the ten minute Q&A.
Wrap Up, Thank You, and Pitch: 5 Minutes
Once the Q&A is done, it’s time to wrap up your webinar and thank your attendees for coming. This is also the only part of the webinar template where you can make a pitch for another product or service if you want.
Your attendees have learned the solution that you promised them. You can pitch them on another webinar or class, on an affiliate offer, or on a service you offer. But don’t spend too much time or pitch too hard… remember, this was a paid webinar, and your attendees aren’t going to stick around if they feel like you are spending too much of the hour they paid for pitching your other products.
Make This Webinar Template Your Own!
Remember that this webinar template isn’t set in stone. In other words, your mileage may vary. Feel free to take this template and make it your own. Change the amount of time spent on each item, add an additional section, or even take one out. It’s up to you. But if you do change it, be sure to test it. I developed this webinar template over the course of giving hundreds of webinars across multiple industries, and have found this layout to be the most effective and profitable for my businesses.
Photo Credit: Austin Distel on Unsplash
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