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Getting paid for webinars: 25 ideas for creating differentiation in a world of free

So if “get rich quick” and “webinar” don’t belong in the same sentence, what now?

There are two realities. One, it’s possible to monetize any medium of communication. Two, it’s never easy, and it’s even harder as culture shifts…note the essence of the problem in the question that Simon (from London) asks:

“Thanks for the webinar – very informative. A tricky question but, how is it possible to price or charge for online training when so much good stuff out there is for free? We have both class and online courses for our product but I think that a major barrier for subscribers is cost, even though they may save lots on travel…etc.”

We only look to relatively recent history to see how news outlets struggled with monetizing their content online…but they have. The transformation is part art, part science, and there awesome new winners, some new losers. Research, however, proves people are willing to pay for content online.

So what does drive value when selling your live webinar?

The problem most often is one of differentiation…what is the basis of comparison which your market uses when making a decision?

What follows is not a recipe or theoretical taxonomy. It’s simply a list of ideas that might help you fuel finding the place you differentiate your webinars so people will pay your asking price. To be fair, many are similar, sometimes worded slightly differently. This is important…your marketing may find subtle shifts or changes in positioning or wording important to how they perceive value. And by the way, if you want to see a process for how to tackle this, join me here.

Flexibility of scheduling
Sometimes the problem isn’t the price, it’s the packaging. Moving online opens up how you might package your content because it better suits when your market wants to buy it.

Chunking
Related to flexibility, chunking is taking your content and turning it into smaller pieces. For instance, a (typical) one day seminar is six or six and a half hours of content. Might it be easier for someone to consume and apply if that was four separate sessions of 90 minutes each?

Frequency or “just in time” knowledge
In-person training takes up time to get from place to place. Might online training increase how frequently you can make your offering available?

Accessibility to the content
We’re increasingly a global economy, right? Reality: it’s still not “one world” in many ways. Maybe what you have is of value to part of the world that simply doesn’t otherwise have access.

Accessibility to an expert
I use an example when I do webinars about how to price live, online training (like this one coming up)…one site I found states, right in the promo, that you “get live access to Chuck.” Who’s Chuck? I don’t know, but apparently people in that industry find value knowing they get to ask Chuck questions.

Accessibility to peer or workgroup
One commonality of adult learners: they bring their own experiences to the table. This makes a facilitated discussion, even if you’re the “instructor,” a uniquely irreplaceable event.

Organization
Is there value in how you’ve organized the content? For some fields, it’s not just the content, it’s how it’s arranged that creates value (if not accessibility). Example: I have a hundreds of research reports on various aspects of communications (yes, a complete geek). Some, not all, have been arranged by my assistant into a bibliography. In a world drowning in options and four million hits when they Bing it, you create value by analyzing, organizing, and synthesizing.

Personality
I just returned home from National Speakers Association annual convention (I’m on the board of my local chapter), and as you can expect, many up-and-coming speakers struggle to differentiate themselves. One thing that came up is how to advertise your personality as differentiation. The reality for many who speak on sales or leadership, there are a LOT of others doing it. Sometimes the exact same content is much more palatable if not understandable simply by virtue of who is delivering it.

Indexability/searchability
This applies to the recordings or artifacts of your live sessions, but do you create value by making content easy to find? Some platforms now do this automagically, or like my friends at eventbuilder.com, you can go back to a 2-hr lecture and create your own metatags that become web-searchable.

Interactive visual explanation
Whether PowerPoint, a live software demonstration, or whatever, many times you create a lot of additional value over a blog post with the same “content” because the visual explanation aids understanding. By analogy, you can buy a book on Microsoft Excel for 30 bucks (and it might even have pictures), but that doesn’t put all seminar companies out of business who deliver less information in a seminar…but do so in a different way.

Supplemental connections to in-person training
As I’ve oft said, webinars don’t eliminate other forms of communication. Perhaps you create a program that blends them with your in-person offering.

Curation
Content curators collect, analyze, organize, and otherwise create value because they touch on many of the items above.

Trust in relationship
Do you have a trusted auto mechanic? Why do you buy his/her services relative to other mechanics who could technically deliver the same thing? When you have a new need or question, who do you call? With NOT distinction in “content,” you may be a trusted resource for you market.

Reduced risk
I know one online seminar company who says, “You give us your credit card, but we won’t charge it until after the seminar…if you don’t fully agree that it was of value, you don’t pay.” Maybe you reduce risk because of trust in your brand. Maybe you reduce risk because you let them attend the first of four sessions for free to see if it’s of value.

Updates
Are you developing content over time? Might those updates be available in the future at no additional charge? Might the purchaser audit the same session in the future at no additional charge?

Made-to-order
In many small and medium businesses they often have the flexibility to tailor or personalize products or services to markets, segments, or even individual customers. Might your online training do the same? Example: a signifiant number of elements of what I do apply to sales people, marketers, HR/learning and development, etc. But when I speak to one of those audiences specifically (e.g., talking to a roomful of sales professionals at Ohio University), it’s a missed opportunity to connect and add value to use examples for trainers.

Payments
Micropayments are big. Might your training benefit from being subscription-based or available at $X per month instead of all at once?

Interoperability/alignment
In the world of software, we know that interoperability is important… maybe you teach one time management method and the prospect uses another. Not as good. Or then use the same one. Muy bien.

Testimonials
The exact same online session, marketed with killer testimonials, will bring you more money. Like “trust in relationship” above before you’ve got the relationship.

Time-to-value
Do people who attend your webinar get to a result more quickly than if they read the same info in a book?

Reduced costs or “TCO” (total cost of ownership)
To Simon’s point above, he could point out how much less the cost would be (he doesn’t say if that’s an explicit part of his marketing). If that’s not working, then (like the publishing industry often found), he might find there are other factors that work better for his market. But you very well may have a story about how to reduce costs that’s important and relevant for your market.

Making money
You may very well have a defensible position in telling someone they’ll make more money if attend your webinar. If you want a long-term, sustainable business, being able to articulate a defensible model of how you’ll help someone do this is a completely legitimate way of sharing why they should pay for your webinar. This is different, however, than playing the “fear and greed” card which hawkers are using when they’re telling you how you’re going to get crazy wealthy with webinars.

Brand recognition
Sales trainers, for example…can be had for hundreds or tens of thousands of dollars. Some very good ones aren’t that expensive, but then not all are Jeffrey Gitomer. Brand counts.

Networking, or not
One critical value of in-person events is networking and after hours activities, something online training doesn’t have. Or does it? Many virtual event platforms have networking built in. Many online trainers are connecting people in other forums or social media.

Other business model considerations
The classic “public speaker” business model is “paid for speaking, paid for back of room sales, paid for follow-on consulting/training.” So some people charge for speaking, others speak for free…on the same topic. It’s not a right or wrong, but it’s something you have to take into competitive consideration in your market.

Two final thoughts…

One, if you’re creating value, you have to communicate it.

Two, if you want to see the difference between a blog post full of ideas and a (free) webinar on the very same topic, please join me. And remember one critical thing: I’m not selling you the webinar, I’m suggesting you experience the difference between a blog post and live, interactive webinar. :-)

7 reasons why webinars won’t make you rich (and how to avoid my mistakes)

My heart breaks. Truly.

Don’t get me wrong: not only do I love webinars, but they’re a uniquely powerful way to connect with audiences. And make money if that’s your business model and you do it right.

Today’s editorial is a response to the growing number of hawkers who take advantage of people who chase shiny objects (like getting rich).  My heart breaks that crap like that creates noise pollution in the legitimate world of communications and content marketing.

Some cold, hard truths (and mistakes you can avoid)…

A webinar is a medium of communication, not a silver bullet
A web conferencing or web casting solution is a means of communication…like a telephone. Did people get rich by figuring out how to use the telephone as a mechanism for selling? Yes. What would you say if you say if the title of the DVD, workshop, or book was “get crazy wealthy with telephones?” My point exactly. Who’s rich today? The people who years ago sold programs like, “How to get rich with your own 900 number.”

Building “products” doesn’t solve your “need an audience or list” problem
“Build it and they will come” makes for cool movie lines, but it’s not so awesome for marketing. If you have an audience who likes your “voice,” you can sell them webinars. And DVDs, and books, and all kinds of stuff. But the world is full of great stuff that isn’t selling.

You don’t have a systematic marketing funnel
Live webinars cost more money than it costs to drive traffic to than other lead-generating things. Why? Because they happen at a date and time. Solution: add someone to your list with something that’s waaaay easier to get a conversion on than a webinar (like a paper, ebook, or other on-demand ‘get it now’ content).

You don’t differentiate the “live” and “on-demand” experiences
Many people have legitimate expertise, but the power of live is that your audience can get questions answered. Most hawkers say, “do it, it’s easy to record, and put a $20 price tag on.” True, it is. But it misses the opportunity to add value by connecting with people. Just like it’s powerful to connect (human to human) in a face to face setting, connecting remotely (human to human) can happen live, but it doesn’t in a recording.

Create more value for your live by being interactive…make them “must be there” “events.” If they’re not, then I don’t need to attend live, and there’s nothing special. In person experiences are important (why are so many trade shows held in Las Vegas?), and online experiences can be just that… otherwise you might as well skip the live webinar and (more easily) create a recording for sale.  Which leads to the next point…

You produce long recordings that aren’t great for how we consume on-demand content
Want a little come-to-truth? Go Google the average view time of online video. True enough, that’s heavily influenced by people clicking video-to-video on YouTube, but here’s the reality: one long lecture is NOT ideal for the adult learning experience. The radically-motivated may sit through it, but even the most astute attention wanders.

Alternative: author content specifically for on-demand consumption, broken up into chunks or chapters. It might be the same 50 minutes of content, but 10 five-minute videos is easier to re-reference than one long recording.  Audio books (even shorter, abridged versions) have chapters. One long webinar recording is less than ideal for consumption. You might sell it once, but if you’re in the content publishing business, you probably want to produce a quality product.

You haven’t figured out an audience, a problem, and how much they’ll pay to fix it
I have presented many times on the business of online training, including how to determine how much your audience will pay. Inevitably a question comes in like, “So how much will people pay for a webinar?” (Politely) I ask, “How much will you pay for a training session?” I know full-day seminars that sell for $99 and other that sell for $2500. Some books sell for $10 and some for $100. So I then ask, “What are you currently charging for training? Let’s start there, then adapt.” They usually don’t know.

Here’s the cold-hard truth…if you know an audience and a problem they’re willing to pay to solve, then a webinar might be a fabulous addition to your revenue mix. It might even be the primary revenue generator for you. But if you’ve not figured that out, you’ve got a bigger problem than “what webinar platform is the best.”

You have an upside down business model
The allure of “see how simple it is to make a recording” is that it’s easy. True enough, it’s easier now than ever to use a webinar to author content. But developing really kick ass content is painfully expensive, if not in terms of your money, then it certainly is in terms of your time.

Here’s a lesson I learned from a software company long ago: let the customer pay to develop it.

Back then IBM was our largest client, and they’d come request a new feature or variation of what we had. Since we didn’t want to be in the “custom software development business,” the business-model question was “can we sell this feature or service to someone else? Is there a market for it?” If the answer was yes to both questions, then we’d take their money and do the development. Then we had something we could sell to someone else, we’d made a profit margin on the original development, and could package/price/position the offer for others. Note, however, this is diametrically opposite “build it and then go try to sell it.”

If you want to write a book, you could spend six months and many thousands of dollars to get it out the door, only to then try to make your money at $25 each. Sell someone the content, get them to pay for developing it, and now you’re making money on each additional $25. Same with webinars.

The bottom line

Please don’t get me wrong. I’m as excited about webinars as when I got into the business in 1999. It’s just that my heart’s breaking now that the industry has gotten big enough to attract the hawkers.

The good news (I hope)? I’ve made every one of the mistakes above. Painfully. You really can make good money as a speaker, trainer, consultant using webinars as your communication medium. You really can create on-demand content that sells in your sleep and leverages your time. And if a few of you avoid the trap, save some heartache and money, and then pay it forward to someone else who needs the message, I’m a happy dude.

Now go get rich.

Roger

P.S. Are you speaker who wants to dive into it for real? Read this

Three commitments of a communicator

Peter Drucker once noted, “As soon as you move one step up from the bottom, your effectiveness depends on your ability to reach others through the spoken and written word.” Today’s note isn’t about “webinars,” per se. It’s about the foundations that help you succeed at them.

Perspective: professionalism if not profession
If Edward G. Wertheim, Ph.D. is correct when he asserts that people in organizations spend over 75% of their time in an interpersonal situation, then the question for anyone in any role is, “Are you a professional?” There’s a difference between your profession (your job) being that of a communicator and committing to growing professionally. If you’re committed to being professional, you should include being committed to growing as a communicator.

Perseverance: life skills, not “six quick tips”
Don’t get me wrong, sometimes “six quick tips” can be useful. But serious skill takes time to develop, and there’s value in sustained, spaced learning. You can’t “cram” for playing piano or golf, and you can’t cram for professional skills, either. “Get leads fast,” “five easy steps to…,” and “here’s how simple it is to…” will always get attention with some segment of the population (the same ones who make get-rich-quick hawkers rich). Don’t go there.

Pan-disciplined: balance of breadth and depth
Communication is a multi-headed beast, and it’s likely you’ll be better at some things than others (presenting, facilitating, verbal, non-verbal, written, etc.). To continue the analogies above, if you’re a golfer, just because you’re best off the tee doesn’t mean you can avoid working on how well you putt if you want to “have game.” Just because I specialize in teaching virtual presentation skills doesn’t mean I don’t write, hold meetings, produce videos. I’ll confess a bit of bias, but I really do think that if you’re not growing your presentation skills (webinar or otherwise), you’re missing an opportunity to be as successful as you could be.

And here’s a final (promotional) confession: I’m particularly excited about the upcoming course I’ve put together with the American Management Association because of the very opportunity it provides to go beyond the simplistic blog post or “webinar about webinars.” Many of you are, in fact, committed to growing the skills that will serve you well for a lifetime. Whether you join us for this class or not, you are the ones who get me excited to do what I do, and if it sounds like a “I have the best fans in the world” Grammy speech, I guess it is. Thank you.

Find the pause button and…

You’re using virtual presentations or classrooms, you’re more productive than ever, and we know you’re a real professional.  (we know because commitment to personal growth in a discipline is a hallmark of a real pro, and you’re not likely reading this blog if you’re not)

But can you find the pause button?

I’m the Vice President of PR for my local Toastmasters chapter, and this morning I showed up to our local meeting to find that one of our long time members wasn’t there.

And Bob’s not coming back. He logged out this week, if you know what I mean.

Today’s lesson…or reminder, as the case may be…is that life is short and that there are infinitely more important things than work. True, work is honorable, it’s necessary, it’s part of how we’re made.

And it’s time, right now, to push the pause button. To give you time to spend a moment reflecting on truth. Reveling in love and relationship. Recapturing a sense of wonder.

Go ahead. Hit the pause button on whatever virtual time sucking vortex right in front of you and go tell somebody you love them.

We’ll both get back to learning about killer virtual presentations later.  I promise.

Leading Change Virtually – Interview and Webinar with Mike Henry

Teddy Roosevelt once quipped, “People ask the difference between a leader and a boss. The leader leads, and the boss drives.”

And if you ask Mike Henry Sr., founder of Lead Change Group, he might also point out that leading today means taking advantage of every means possible to direct, coach, encourage, and support your future leaders.

In advance of co-presenting with Mike on Virtual Leadership Development, I asked him a couple questions to share with our readers. We look forward to seeing you at the webinar.

Roger:  What’s the biggest challenge facing leaders today?

Mike:  Fear and selfishness.  The more we have, the easier we scare.  There are constant pressures to protect ourselves – economic downturns, oil crises, safety issues – or our comfort, wealth, etc.  We are tempted to hunker-down, mind our own business, or just get so busy we’re not open to anything else.  We get tempted to simply live for our selves.

People-focused, values-based leadership is the opposite of fear and selfishness.  Leaders want to expand their impact, not for personal benefit, but to make a difference.  It takes courage to serve others and help them succeed.

Roger:  Why your interest in virtual leadership development?

Mike: The world is becoming global and virtual.   Up until recently, I could only expand my reach through extensive travel or print, audio and video broadcast technologies.  Either option is expensive and time consuming.  The Internet gives us a quick and inexpensive ability to connect globally.  We are no longer limited to once-a-year seminars or waiting for traditional media products to hit the stores.  Now, we can interact with each other and experience quality leadership development quickly and in real-time.  Developing as a leader requires an iterative process of trial, result, evaluation and try again.  Newer virtual tools enable quicker trial, feedback and correction loops.  Using virtual tools, we can iterate through the trial-and-error growth process much quicker than ever before.

Roger:  If someone is just getting started with leading virtually, where might they start?

Mike: If you want to grow as a leader and develop other leaders, begin to search the Internet for people who are doing the same thing and see what they are doing.  One community of people who fit that category is the Lead Change Group.  You can interact with us on the web at http://leadchangegroup.com or on LinkedIn at http://bit.ly/leadchange.

Many people are already using virtual tools and engaging with people around the world.  Look for people talking about specific tools and topics on the Internet.  You can find great advice on the tools by connecting with people like you at 1080 Group or by simply searching for different web technologies online.  And you can connect with others by searching LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter.  Most leadership development people using Twitter are open to contact.  Follow them and ask them a question.  You’ll be amazed at how easy it is to interact with someone using these newer tools.

And, if you don’t have time for all of that effort right now, just reach out to friends who you haven’t interacted with in a long time.  Try to connect or re-connect on Facebook or LinkedIn.  Then, find out what they’re up to and how you can help. Most of us can use a little help.  As you interact, you will begin to find ways to try new tools. Tony Robbins has said, “If you do what you’ve always done, you will get what you’ve always gotten.“  Change your routine and look for new ways to connect and share.  The information and the opportunities are there if you look for them.

Be afraid. Be very afraid. At least a little afraid.

Do you know who often delivers the most lackluster webinar presentations?

Senior management.  Especially sales management.

Why?

They’re comfortable in their shoes.  They’re used to speaking in front of people.  They’re confident they can ‘pull off the room.’

So they don’t prepare, don’t rehearse, and don’t stop to think that the medium affects how the communication will be sent and received.

Conversely, real professionals – regardless of their place in an organization – have an attitude of improvement and an attitude of making an investment in their audience.

Remember, even Tiger Woods has a coach.

Assume you and your presentation can improve. It can’t hurt, and it’ll force you to grow.

Virtual meeting IQ: Q&A

The great news is that Effective Virtual Meetings:  Seven Ways to Boost Your Virtual Meeting IQ is that it was interactive and there were a ton of questions.  The bad news is that when there’s 500 people in the audience, you can’t get to them all.Q&A

Following is one that came in that I didn’t get to during the presentation:

Margaret M asks a VFAQ (VERY frequently asked question): “Any tips to get your “set in their way presenters” to change their methods of just reading the slides?”

Oh Margaret, Margaret, Margaret.  I feel your pain.  I really do.

My quasi-rhetorical question is “Can you change anybody in any way if they don’t want to change?”

Here’re are a few thoughts:

One, give yourself some peace.  I think, “work with the willing.”  YOU know that’s awful, their AUDIENCES know that’s awful, but for many – if they aren’t coachable – you might have to let natural selection breed them out of the gene pool.

Two, give them some research.  This paper is from a study I just completed where respondents overwhelmingly said “DON’T READ YOUR DAMN SLIDES.”  You might consider making copies and passing them out to the whole team so you don’t seem like you’re singling them out.

Three, (this is a looong shot) have them listen to a recording of themselves.  It’s doubtful anyone who won’t change is seeking to improve their presentation skills, but someone listening to themselves present will learn a LOT.  Most of us hate listening to the sound of our own voices, but listening to a recording of yourself will often cure you of speaking too quickly, using too many “uhms,” etc.  Like I said in the seminar,unless you’re a professional newscaster or voice talent, reading doesn’t sound natural.

Learning from each other

You’re a presenter, trainer, marketer, sales person.  You know stuff.  And it’s likely that you from time to time you need to remind yourself how much you know that is of value to others.

I’m inspired today by a nice note I got from a training manager at Nationwide (we should all take a reminder in the power of reaching out and making someone’s day).  Today Ms. M made my day:

“Great information and delivery! I have been designing and facilitating online training for the last 5 years and I’m always looking for information to help build my skills in this area. Although much of what you addressed in this webinar are things I practice now I did pick up a few ideas I hadn’t thought of. Not only do I train soft skills using this environment but I also provide train the trainer for those in my organization new to training in this environment. I loved the idea of using the registration information to better know your audience before they attend your sessions.”

This means a lot coming from another pro, and I have no doubt that if I sat in one of Ms. M’s classes, the tables would turn.

Many ‘little’ things you know are new to someone else…and no matter how experienced you are, there’s more to learn from that same someone else.

“Meet now” – the legacy and the lesson

This post is at once a history lesson, a cultural observation, and a practical.  (Of course, if you hate stories as part of learning, you’ll hate me as a teacher and can save some time by changing the channel now :-)   Let me help with something random.)

First, the history lesson.

Many web conferencing tools have a “meet now” function that will take you directly into a meeting, bypassing the need to schedule and log in.  The very first function of that type was invented at PlaceWare (later acquired by Microsoft and becoming LiveMeeting), and the product manager who invented it was an industry old timer named Scott Driscoll.  Oh, and he happens to be my partner at 1080 Group.  Nice.

Second, the cultural observation.

Early adopters of web conferencing were marketing, sales, and training departments for reasons I’ll spare you here.  Therefore conferencing marketers placed ads in marketing pubs, rented lists from training sites, tried to influence-the-influencer in various thought leaders of those fields, all that.  Years ago when PlaceWare put ads on the radio and CNN, the sales team complained the leads were unqualified (and I imagine Webex‘s crew did too).  But the broad, SMB market isn’t affordably reached when you’re selling a solution for hundreds of dollars instead of thousands or tens of thousands…

So the application story is a continuation of the previous thought…

My dad calls me.  Computer problem.  Never mind that I’m not a hardcore geek, but I “work in the computer industry.”  While on the phone, I fire up GoToMeeting (instantly) and ‘look over his shoulder’ while he shows me the problem (and we fix it).

He quips, “Hey, I’ve heard of them on the radio!”

Now his nutrition business doesn’t need conferencing, but thousands of others do, and they’re not on a list from Web Digest for Marketers or Chief Learning Officer.  Those radio ads are reaching a whole new group of businesses.

More importantly, the use-case envisioned by Scott comes full circle.  Adoption will occur when we reduce clicks to make using this stuff happen at the speed of thought.  An inbound sales call becomes a presentation.  An outbound call goes from telephone chat to full collaboration.  Ad hoc conversations, part of our every day life in the terrestrial world, now can have that visual component just as easily, even when we’re virtual.

Explode your productivity.  Get hip to “meet now.”

But it worked last time…

Yesterday eve my beloved and I took the three kids to The Children’s Course, a short par-3 golf course that is little people friendly.  Midway through the round my middle little one, who’s seven, got frustrated and gave up.

After walking a hole without playing, on the following hole she walked up to the tee, teed up a ball, and announced, “I’m going to hit it, but I’m not playing.” 

She then proceeded to get one of her best shots of the day.

Excited by that, she then proceeded to tee up the shot she had in the fairway.  Clearly the tactic of putting the ball up on the tee made it easier to hit, and so she did for the next shot, then the next, and the next, until she finally put the ball on the green.

Imagine our amusement when, after everyone had put their ball on the green, that we turned around to notice she’d teed up the putt she was about to hit, too!

How long do each of us keep doing the same thing, the thing that worked like a charm last time, before we notice that it’s not the right tactic anymore?

 If life stood still, we’d figure it out, get our recipe dialed in, and not have to worry about it any more.  We spend our youth fighting to change things to the way we want them, to our vision of how things should be.  If we manage to get somewhere near accomplishing that, then we fight to keep things the same, to keep them from changing away from us.  And if the first is a difficult, if not futile activity, the second is most certainly an impossibility.

We grow, we get profitable, we create value when we managed to build faster than entropy acts against us.  Sitting still is an illusion.  It is the first step toward death.

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