Sep 4, 2017
There are endless methods, tools, and tactics to grow your email list. John Corcoran was able to double his from 6,000 to 12,000 during the first quarter of 2015 with partner webinars. With numbers like that, it makes you wonder why you don’t hear about using webinars as a list-building strategy more often.
Just days before recording this episode, John Corcoran from Rise25 and Smart Business Revolution, had his largest partner webinar to date — to the tune of a few thousand registrants. In this episode, he shares strategies you can use to build a large database of interested buyers using other people’s audiences (without hard pitches!)
Episode Discussions:
- Why you should stick to one title for your webinar
- How to get around the “non-pitching” policy during joint venture webinars
- How to follow-up with a company who promised you an email list but hasn’t delivered
- A process to test your new webinar and title
- Elements of a webinar title that gets people excited
- What titles worked best for John
- A breakdown of John’s perfect webinar timeline and what to include where
- Why it’s important to be clear on your webinar’s length
- How to lose your audience in the first 6-8 min of your webinar
- Why you need to be specific about the benefits of your webinar
- Providing proof to validate your claims
- What to include in a good case study
- How to naturally transition from educating to selling during your webinar
- How to end a lead-gen style webinar
- What to look for when researching companies to partner with
- Why you should have a follow-up sequence in place for everything
[2:27] John's story:
- Former writer in the Clinton Whitehouse & CA governor speechwriter
- A "recovering attorney" (stepped back from law in 2015)
- Started Smart Business Revolution (blog and podcast)
- Teamed up with Dr. Jeremy Weisz to create Rise25 – Helps professional entrepreneurs who want to move away from “one on one” client work trading hours for dollars to a “one to many” offering.
[5:33] In 2014, guest posted on small blogs and progressed to Forbes, Huffington Post, and Entrepreneur. Went from 1,000 email subscribers to 5,800 end of 2014.
[6:21] Learned about external webinars and doubled his list from 6,000 to 12,000 during the first quarter of 2015.
[6:45] Abandoned guest posting to double down on webinars. "I did 83 webinars during 2015, grew my list to 25,000...and haven't looked back since then. [I'm] completely focused on webinars as a list growth strategy."
[8:41] “One of the best things you can do is immerse yourself with other people who are doing webinars for different audiences. Get to know them, become friends with them, and recommend each other back and forth to different organizations or individuals."-JC
[9:30] Once you find a title that resonates well with your audience, use it again and again.
[9:52] John’s last webinar (with Score Association):
- Was required to use a different webinar title but ended up with 4,500 registrants (the company’s 2nd largest number ever)
- Was not allowed to pitch at the end
- Received email list of people who opted to receive information from John (net 3000 out of 4500 emails)
[10:34] How to collect email addresses from “No-Pitch” webinars:
Workbook method:
- Ask permission from the company to distribute a workbook to registrants
- Create a free workbook people can download from an opt-in page and use during the presentation.
- The company may send their own email list to your workbook opt-in page.
- At the beginning of the webinar, urge attendees to download the workbook.
Teaser method:
- Incentivize audience with a bonus given at the end of the webinar.
- Give the same link as the workbook opt-in.
- Email additional bonus later that day.
[17:35] John’s New Webinar Testing Process:
- Share webinar internally (LinkedIn, email list)
- Do the same or similar versions of the webinar but with different titles over a number of weeks.
- Test different titles and keep track of how many people register to see what the best webinar was.
[18:30] Webinar titles:
- Influence how many register for the webinar, how many show up, how many buy what you're selling.
- When titling, find out what your audience wants.
- Use specific and odd numbers
- Include time parameters
[21:08] What timeline works best for you with partner webinars?
John’s method:
- Length: 50-60 min
- Intro (6-8 min): Establish who you are, why they should listen to you and exactly how they’ll benefit from the content.
- “The meat” (8-30min): “You actually need to teach people something or they're going to be really really angry at you.” Use facts, figures, numbers, and data at some point.
- Case studies (30-40min): (educational and edifying you)
Naturally transitioning from educating to selling:
"We've covered a lot but there's a lot more to cover. If you would like to do it a lot faster than it took me, here's a solution that can help you to get there."
[25:32] "You have to have that substantial proof to validate your claims otherwise people are just going to call BS on you."-JE
[32:28] When researching companies to partner with, make sure they’re doing regular free webinars and have external presenters. Watch a webinar to make sure they're promoting themselves in some way.
[33:55] "You should have a follow-up sequence in place, period. For everything."-JC
“I’m a sure advocate of webinars and I say go for it. Don't be intimidated by the amount of work it requires on the front end. It's pieces you put in place and will benefit from for years to come.”-JC
Connect with John:
Follow and watch a behind-the-scenes look at how I’m personally launching a brand new 6 & 7 figure product from scratch at SoldWithWebinars.com/TV
Join our Facebook group at SoldWithWebinars.com/Experts