# 371 WP-Tonic Show With Special Guest Joel Erway of The Webinar Agency.com

We discuss how to us the power of webinars to promote your course and membership website!

The goal of The Webinar Agency is to educate its visitors, users, and customers on how to leverage webinars, funnels, sales messaging, and marketing techniques in their business for growth and success. We specialize in sales messaging, funnels, and conversion. We have helped our clients achieve 7-figure growth exclusively with webinars. Let us help you expand your business with our dynamic marketing strategies, unique focus and techniques.

Jonathon: Welcome back folks to the WP Tonic Show. It`s episode 371. We have got a great guest here. Somebody I’ve been looking forward to coming on the show. And I persuaded his assistant and himself to do it. That’s Joel Erway from the webinaragency.com. And he does a great podcast as well called Sold with Webinar Podcast. So Joe, can you quickly introduce yourself to the listeners and viewers?

Joel: Yeah, for sure. Thanks for having me on Jonathan. So my name is Joel Erway and we run the Webinar Agency and we run two podcasts. First being sold with webinars where figure go I’d talk about all things marketing and all things webinars to grow your business. And so that’s been running for about two years now. Have, I don’t know, 60 or so episodes that are live. It’s a lot of fun and a knock on wood. I’ve gotten some pretty good feedback from that. So that’s my Sold With Webinar Podcast. But also run another podcast called Experts Unleashed where we interview very successful entrepreneurs talk about their journey and how they’ve been able to leverage their expertise and turn it into income. So it’s a much broader spectrum, but it’s been, that’s been fantastic as well. I think we have about 65 episodes live on that. And those are all joint interviews.

Joel:
And so that’s a very, very great podcast. So we run the agency where we build high converting sales webinars for anyone who’s running a course. Anyone who’s trying to enroll people into their coaching programs. And we’ve been doing this for about four and a half years now. So we’ve done hundreds and hundreds of webinars. I would like to think that we’ve built a pretty reputable brand in the space. So we stay an inch wide and go a mile deep. And so we’ve focused on webinars for quite a long time and that’s what we do.

Jonathon: That’s great. And I got my great cohost, Cindy. She’s a little bit unwell but she’s a trooper.

Cindy: Yeah. Sorry. Thanks Jonathan. Hi Joel. Thank you for joining us today. I do have a little bit of a cold today, but it is still me. And I am from the coursewhisperer.com.

Jonathon: That’s great. And what we’re going to be discussing during the show folks is how you can utilize the power webinars to build your online course or membership business online. How you can attract really people that are interested in your course and sign them up for the power webinar the power webinar. But before we go to the main part of the interview folks and like to talk about one of our great sponsors. And that’s Kinsta Hosting. We host the WP tonic website on Kinsta. I have been doing that for year. Kinsta decided to be one of my sponsors again for the whole 2019. Just a great company to deal with. The only host WordPress websites and they use it on Google cloud hosting platform. You got a great interface and the main thing is you get expert 24, seven supports from a small but dedicated team. I’ve never had support like it. They really know their business and you can communicate through live chat, email and they just respond straight away. If that’s interesting to you or your clients. Go to kinsta.com. So Joel, you know me and Cindy are doing our first Webinar at the end of this month. And I was moved to action by listening to your own podcast. So it’s your entire fault Joe, or we go down in flames. So we’re doing it. Why do you think people that got a membership eLearning business, why should you look at webinars?

Joel: First and foremost in the learning space there is nothing more congruent and then using information to sell information. So a Webinar in its own right is an event based model where people are signing up to learn from you. You’d have the ability to quickly warm up a brand new audience, a cold audience, teach them some relevant content, and give them some information that inspires them to take action. And at the end sell more information, sell your course, sell your coaching program. In the world of the expert based business, the information based business information based course business, using information to sell more information is extremely congruent. Webinars provide a great vehicle for you to do that whether you’re doing them live, whether you’re doing the automated. And it has just been fantastic way to build a bond with an audience in a virtual environment. Obviously every single day the world continues to go more virtual by the second. And so we need to figure out ways to build that community, build that engagement with those potential customers. And a webinar environment allows you to do that more so than any other online platform, sales letters, video sales letters, you name it.

Jonathon: So, got any tips about when you’re doing your first one, about getting some people to actually attend it?

Joel: Well, it all starts with making the topic something compelling and something exciting that they actually want to learn. Many times I see people who are putting on Webinars, they pick a topic that they think that their audience is going to be interested in and they haven’t tested that topic. And so you want people to show up, make it something that they actually want to learn. I spend a lot of time developing the topic of the Webinar and you’ll see your attendance rates come up, you’ll get people to register. But if it’s something that they really want to learn, if something that’s pressing and urgent and very important for them, that’s one of the most critical elements of getting them to actually show up. Cause otherwise they’re just going to register and they’ll say, oh well, you know, kind of sounds interesting but maybe I’ll just wait for the replay. Make the topic engaging, make the topic very interesting. And that’s really the first step.

Jonathon: We are also offering a good giveaway. Does that help at all?

Joel: It can, but you really just want to make sure, first and foremost that the topic is relevant. Obviously you can do tactics like giving.

Jonathon: I am getting nervous. Joel I am not sure. I am getting nervous now Joel. I never knew it was going to be like this Joel. Your question Cindy?

Cindy: The first step is kind of coming up with that compelling engaging topic that people are going to want to sign up. You’ve got that. What`s your next step you recommend?

Joel:
Yeah, you can always include some sort of giveaway to bribe them to show up. That definitely works. We’ve seen it work. I tend to use it sparingly. I use it. It depends on the audience really. If I have to bribe them, are they my ideal audience members? Is that my ideal, my ideal listeners? Maybe, maybe not. So I really take it on a case by case basis. If I’m really struggling to get people to show up live then we will probably include a bribe to show up. It definitely works. I am just a little bit more reluctant than some other people to just use it right away cause I want to attract the most quality people. But definitely include, it definitely increases your show up rate. 100%

Jonathon: I am just nervous because it’s our first one. Our first one. So I thought I would offer something extra.

Joel: Yeah, it helps. I mean it definitely helps and there are always a lot of nerves when you do your first Webinar. It’s like you’re giving your first talk, your first presentation. You have to make sure that you’re clear, crisp and concise. There are a lot of butterflies. There are a lot of nerves that go through when you are hosting your first live presentation.

Jonathon: We are almost in the middle of February. I don`t know what happened to January. But it has been a blast pass Joel. Any new things happening in the world of webinars that sparked some interest in you? Or where do you think webinars are going into 2019? Trends that kind of thing.

Joel: Oh man, they’re growing every single day. I mean, they’re becoming more and more popular. I think that the biggest trend that we’re seeing is figuring out ways that we can get more leverage. If you jump into the world of webinars very, very quickly, you’re going to be inundated with the world of automated webinars. Now there are pros and cons to each. I mean obviously, I think once you really start to grow your business, number one thing that you’re trying to get is leverage. And you’re trying to get back your time and you’re trying to make the best use of a successful sales webinar. You want to go automated. Some people want to go automated right away and we have seen them work. We’ve seen convert right away with automated webinars. But depending on what your goal is and what your objective is usually live is the right way to go initially.

Jonathon: I listened your advice on that. In your episode you strongly advised that you have to do it live initially then the automated one. Don`t you?

Joel: Yup. Yeah. So it’s good just to get your practice down and to get your delivery down. Because there’s a lot of different things that can affect your conversion rates on a Webinar. How you sound, your tonality, your excitement level. It’s all about getting your audience to be excited about your product and getting your audience to be excited to follow you. So there are lots of different things you can do to optimize your conversions of your webinar. And so I do recommend practicing a few times with a live audience. And the best part about being live is you can usually get higher conversion rates with live because you have that live engagement, you can talk to your customers on a one to many scale bases. And there are a lot of pros to doing them live before you turn it automated.

Jonathon: Oh, that’s great. Any other trends you see in 2019?

Joel: A lot of trends that we’re seeing is just in the technology space with, I just had a couple of interviews with a couple software providers in the webinar space. And they’re seeing just user base grow on an unbelievable clip. In terms of like different tactics inside of the webinar space. I mean there are certain things that are happening with funnels, but I wouldn’t say like any groundbreaking things. It’s just really the trends that we’re seeing is there growing popularity in Webinars, which is great for us. But now we’re seeing a big need and figuring out, okay, what do we say on the webinars? What type of content do we provide? And that’s really what we specialize in is getting that converting message and getting relevant content. And getting them to lead them to the sale. And the offer is really the biggest trend is just overwhelmingly growing popularity.

Jonathon: One thing with some of your conversations in your podcast specifically aimed at webinars is that you’ve had some really deep dives in funnels. Haven`t you Joel? Can you give us maybe a couple quick, one click funnel that you would start off with. Because I am not new to this, but some of your discussions. I have got his name. He was a Facebook Trainer. You had a discussion with him.

Joel: Was it for Messenger bots, was it for Facebook ads?

Jonathon: It was Facebook ads. And he does training courses to train people to be Facebook, have Facebook agencies. I’ve got use name down.

Joel: Darren Henry?

Jonathon: Yes it was Darren Henry.

Joel: Yup. Yeah. So what was the question?

Jonathon: Yeah, what was the question? Like can you give an example of a funnel that might be somebody who is starting on their Webinar journey could utilize?

Joel: One hour funnels are very, very simple. I mean it’s simple as almost always better. I mean it starts basically just Webinar registration page, a confirmation page, replay page, and your checkout page. I mean, you can’t get any more bare bones and that. So really you can get Ninja, you can do all sorts of crazy optimization techniques, but we have seen million dollar funnels off the basis of just a standard event based funnel. This is registration, confirmation replay and your checkout page. And that’s it. And we’ve seen that work very, very well. So from a bare bones standpoint, I would recommend starting with that cause we’ve seen million dollar success webinars with just that funnel. Yup.

Jonathon: Oh that’s great. We’re going to go for our break folks. We are coming back. We’re going to continue the discussion with Joe, the King of Webinars trainer of all times. We will be back in a few moments’ folks.

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Jonathon: We’re coming back. And as I said I’m going to plug in with our own webinar me and Cindy`s. Before we go into the conversation. Sorry folks, we are doing a webinar about the seven things you need to know if you want to build a successful online course. And both me and Cindy know a little bit about the subject. Definitely Cindy and we are doing it on the 28th of February at 9:00 AM Pacific standard time. And if that’s interesting, you can go to WP tonic back strike Webinar and you can register for this free Webinar. And if you join us on our first webinar show, as I was saying to Joe. I’m offering a nice inducement, just to cover my nerves. Basically you get one year free support from one of WP tonic support packages for the whole year. We’ve a worth of almost over $900 for your learning management websites. LearnDash, Lifter LMS or anything else that you might need support when it comes to your WordPress website. Now Joel when it comes to the technology, what do you think some of the leading players in the Webinar area are for people looking to start their first webinar?

Joel: Oh, there are a handful of ones out there that have been making some big splashes. And if you’re going live and you’re doing a live webinar presentation. You want to make sure you go with a reliable platform. Just this past week, I was talking to one of my old clients who had couple of thousand people registered for one of her webinars. And I won’t throw the webinar platform under the bus, but they couldn’t handle it. It had all sorts of issues with getting people they couldn’t even log on. So that entire Webinar was a waste. I mean, thousands of people is right in the middle of their launch. Thousands of people couldn’t log on. So you want to go with somebody who is reliable and I’ll give you a couple reliable platforms, go to Webinar. Although they’re the most expensive, they’re the most reliable. And when you start getting the big numbers, like hundreds or thousands of people registering for your webinars.

Joel: That’s when I would consider them. There are other great low cost platforms that you can do as you start to, grow up in and as you start up and start early on. Big marker is one that’s up and coming. I just had a chat with one of their executives two days ago. We chatted on the phone. They’ve got some really cool things coming up. Click meeting is another one that has tens of thousands of users. Demio is another webinar platform that has done very, very well. And those would be the ones that I would recommend for live. Now once you go automated, once you want to start hosting your funnels, click funnels is kind of the tried and true funnel builder that we’ve seen in this space. And they also have an automated Webinar funnel that you can do, but it’s really nothing more than just hosting a video.

Joel: But I will say I’ve seen a lot of successful automated webinar funnels hosted on click funnels just using that platform, not even using a more advanced marketing webinar platform. If you want to get more advanced and get more analytics for your automated webinars. Ever Webinar is kind of the big gorilla in the room for automated webinars and they give you a lot of great statistics. So I like using them for automated webinars. I would not use webinar jam for live webinars. I’ve just had a handful of issues that have cost my clients and our own projects, lots and lots of money. But for automated webinars that would definitely, recommended a lot of these platforms. I’ve mentioned for live webinars. They are also coming out with automated webinars. Big Marker is one I know click meeting there. They have, I think they’re about to release or they have released automated webinars, but those are the main tools in the space.

Jonathon: Oh right. So webinar jam in general, is it a platform that in general you would avoid?

Joel: I would just because we’ve had a lot of issues with it. I hope that they fix it. But once you get to large audiences, I’ve never heard of anyone having an issue with go to Webinar for large issues or large capacity webinars. And we’ve just runs in multiple, multiple issues with Webinar jam, especially when we get to increase in numbers and increased in size.

Jonathon: Well, we are staying for the present moment because this is our first one with Zoom.

Joel: Zoom is another great one. I forgot to even mention them. Yup.

Jonathon: We’ve used it for my podcasting. And we used a webinar add on to do our podcasting. And there’s a starter platform. One of the problems with Zoom was its registration page was ugly. But I’m using a page builder that had an add on that enabled you to integrate with Zoom. You can do your own custom landing registration page. And avoid the ugly Zoom registration page.

Joel: That`s great.

Jonathon: So that’s what we do. Got a question Cindy?

Cindy: I do. I’m assuming because you’re talking about building webinars for your clients, would you say you have kind of a standardize format or template or layouts of how you recommend webinars should be delivered?

Joel:
Yeah, so basically when we work on Webinars, we follow what we call the ARE webinars sales structure. I’ll give you the quick, dirty, condensed version of it right now. But essentially, ARE stands for the three different components of our webinars. Introduction, content, and your close. So when we’re in the introduction, what we would like to focus on are the three A’s, which are authority, awareness, and attention. So if I can hit those three things inside of the introduction of our Webinar that’s like my three check boxes. So let’s start with authority. How can we build ourselves up as the foremost expert on the topic that we are presenting? Now, the great news about a Webinar is that just because you are the host of a Webinar, you already viewed as that authority figures.

Joel: This isn’t too difficult to accomplish. You do want to include some additional elements to kind of solidify yourself as the authority. And give yourself, recognition on projects that you’ve worked on. Different accomplishments you’ve had related to this topic and really just brag about yourself. Some people have a hard time bragging about yourself, but it’s really important to do this in the beginning part of your webinar. Because it’s going to allow them to believe you in learning. It’s going to allow them to believe you about the content that you’re going to be teaching. So that’s authority. Awareness is all about the topic in which you are presenting. Like what are the problems that you’re solving? What are the trends in the industry that your audience needs to be aware about related to this topic that you’re teaching on the Webinar?

Joel: You have to be the chief advocate for showing them the problems and relating the problems to what they are experiencing today. The rising cost of Facebook ads are, for anyone who’s in the online marketing space. Facebook ads are just going up every single year, every single month. So these are big problems I think we’d be aware of. So bring some statistics that back your proof up. That back your claims up and show them that this is a big problem and I’m going to show you how to solve it. So bringing that awareness level to a heightened state of heightened state so they know that the topic that you’re here to talk about is important and relevant to them. So that’s authority, awareness, and then attraction. So attraction is what brings them closer to you. What makes you? It kind of goes hand in hand with authority, but what’s happening in the industry right now that is going to get them to pay attention.

Joel: So once we accomplish all of this bringing statistics, bringing problems and making sure that your content is relevant. It clearly is outlining who this presentation is for and calling out your ideal customers because once they see that, they are going to realize okay, cool. I’m in the right place. And if you’ve watched webinars, you’ll see a lot of people doing this over and over and over again that we can become numb to it. But it’s extremely important. It’s extremely important. Your audience may or may not have been on tons of webinars and you just have to make sure that you’re speaking directly to them. So that’s the introduction, authority, awareness and attraction. Any questions so far?

Cindy: No that’s good. Because again, I’m putting together the webinars. So it’s good to have those elements there to kind of make sure that you give them a reason to listen to you and a reason to listen to you specifically because of the authority that you bring. So no, that’s good. So the next one is the content part, right?

Joel: Yup. So content we are looking at here the two R’s. So we had the three A’s for the introduction and the two r’s for the content. That’s all about rapport and relationship building. The content that we choose for our Webinar is strategically placed on. There was a couple of ways that we can do it. We can do three or four or five core points that we want to talk about. And this is my favorite way to do it. And my entire goal is to let them know that, I’ve been where you are and this is how I overcame the situation. I know exactly how you feel. I’ve been in your situation before. This piece of content is going to explain how I got over that hurdle. So if I’ve got three or four or five pieces of content that I am going to be teaching them, my goal with every single one of those pieces of content is to make them one step closer to being on the same level as where I am.

Joel: Because when I’m starting out in the webinars or they’re going to view me as this authority, they’re going to be, so they view me a pie, they’re going to be down low at some place where they’ve got a problem. And that gap is a big, big gap. And in my introduction, I set that gap as wide as possible to let them know that there’s room for improvement. Like there’s a better way. My rapport and relationship building, my entire goal is to build them a staircase. Is to build them step by step by step, how to get up to my level. Like I want it by the end of the presentation. By the end of the content, I want them to realize what it feels like to be at my level for just a brief moment in time. So every single piece of my content is another step.

Joel: It’s another staircase into bringing them closer to where I am. So by the time we get to the end of the content and they’re now standing at the top of the staircase with myself. So the way that I do that is inside of all my elements that I teach, I will say, listen, I know exactly how you feel. I’ve been there before. I’ll tell a story about what got me over this, how I experienced this one problem. What got me over this problem, and I’ll bring them one step closer. So it’s all about building that rapport and that relationship. And so we do that with strategically placed content that introduces our vehicle, introduces our system, and shows them the major objections that they would have to having success with that. So by the end of it, they’re standing at that top staircase with me.

Cindy: That’s great. I don’t have any. Jonathon do you have a question about that specifically?

Jonathon: I don`t. Just to.

Cindy: Sorry, he still has to do the close part.

Jonathon: Alright do the close part.

Cindy: I want to hear it.

Joel: So close. A lot of people really get tripped up with this and I think they overthink it. So the close is now section E that stands for the exchange. We have three A’s, the introduction, two r’s for the content, and then we’ve got the exchange for the close. With your offer, obviously you want to make sure that you have a strong and compelling offer, but you’ve basically given them an outline inside of your content. You’d given them some great valuable content inside of your webinar. Hopefully you’re blowing them away with what they’ve learned. Now it’s time to ask them to take the next step. I mean, obviously, with a 60 minute webinar you can’t cover everything possible, but you give them an overview. You give them, the new vehicle, new system that they can have success with.

Joel: And at the end you say, listen, let’s take this to the next level. I’ve got an offer for you and if you want it. If this sounds good to you, then I want you to get it. If it doesn’t sound good for you then I don’t want you to get it plain and simple. You make it very, very giving them the decision to move forward or not. Now it eliminates the most important thing that it does is it eliminates your anxiety as a presenter to present the offer. You’re giving them a way out and they’re also going to respect you for it. This is the simplest way to present your close as an exchange. I have something that is worth far more than the money that I’m charging you for. And if this is a problem that is important for you to solve, then I want you to seriously consider what we’re going to be offering you on this presentation today. And so we go through and we just, all, we just set it up as an exchange. Now we’re not hard pitching them or saying this is what it’ll do for you.

Joel: I’m really encouraging you if it makes sense to jump in and grab this offer. So that’s how I always like to frame it so my audience has in their mind, I’m not asking them to buy. I’m asking for an exchange because you’re giving them value in exchange for an exchange for something that is of value to you. And so that’s how I positioned all of my webinars and that’s like the top level overview of what I can give you.

Cindy: Yeah, that’s awesome. And I like how you position it as an exchange. If you say it’s a 60 minute Webinar do you have like kind of how much time you should spend on each or the person?

Joel: Usually 10 to 15 minutes for the introduction, 40 to 45 minutes for the content and then your close. I would say 10 to 15 minutes before you reveal the call to action. And then at that point you can go as long as you want with like Q and A. Bonuses, the whole nine yards. But you want to make sure that you at least give them the opportunity to buy no later than like 70 to 80 minutes. Just because people don’t have all that much time so that’s like the bear-matrix you want to go. In terms of giving them the offer, your webinar might be three hours, it might be two hours. Cause you can have Q and A. You can have bonuses that you give them at the end. But you want to make sure you get to the meat and potatoes and the call to action within 70 to 80 minutes of your webinar.

Cindy: Got It. Cool. Well thank you for walking me through that Joel. I appreciate it. Jonathon?

Jonathon: Oh it has been a blast. We are going to finish off the podcast part of the show. Hopefully Joe will agree to stay on for 10, 12 minutes to give some bonus content, which should be able to see on the WP tonic website. And YouTube channel with the whole interview with show notes, a full set of the show notes. So Joel, how can people? And thank you so much for sharing your experience. It has been a joy Joel. How can people find out more about you and what you’re up to Joel?

Joel: Yeah, there’s lots of ways that they can find us. So if you go to the webinaragency.com that’ll give you link to our podcasts, sold with Webinars. And there’s more information there. If you’d like to consider our company for writing your Webinar, you can reach out to us there and, and uh, and there’s more information there. I have a free a $466,000 Webinar case study over@soldwithwebinars.com. You can download that there. It’s completely free. And the other thing is we have what we call the webinar vault, which is a collection of high converting webinars in the industry. So basically every month I’m studying 10 to 15 webinars just with sharpening our own acts for the team. And I want to see what else is working now. So I decided to put the best of the best inside of what I call the Webinar vault.

Joel: And so it’s a paid membership site. So basically, I upload one every month or so, a full blown webinar breakdown. You can see exactly what’s working now, get a lot of inspiration and see how you can apply those same tactics to yourself. I provide my critiques with those webinars and what I liked, what I didn’t like. Go through the funnels, go through their emails, go through the actual webinar and it’s all uploaded inside of that site. And that’s called the webinar vault. And you can check that out. It’s soldwithwebinars.com/register. And I think that’s about it.

Jonathon: Fantastic Joel. Cindy how can people find out more about you and what you are up to Cindy?

Cindy: Well, if you want any help in terms of creating the content for your online course, that’s definitely something I can help you with. And you can find me at thecoursewhisperer.com

Jonathon: That’s great. And thanks for joining us folks. Next week we will have a guest as great as Joel. Giving you the tools and insights to make your online educational business the success that you want for yourself and for your family in 2019. We will see you next week, folks. Bye

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