âWorking remotely was always the future. All of a sudden, itâs the present.
Thereâs an opportunity in every crisis â not to take advantage of anyone, but to finally try new ways of doing things as the old ways cease to be viable.
âWho adapts quickest?â is now the most important question for entrepreneurs.
Digital marketing is no longer enough. Now, itâs digital marketing, sales, everything. Thatâs where webinars come in.
This is a guide to doing business from home as an entrepreneur, through all stages of the Buyerâs Journey, with webinars. At each phase of the sales and marketing funnel, you can use webinars to keep your small business going growing.
Remotely Building Awareness With Webinars

Conferences arenât an option. And the usual digital awareness campaigns arenât enough to stand out.
If youâre trying to get the word out on your product or service, you have to give. For most people, that means content marketing: blogs, social media posts, YouTube videos, all the ways we share our expertise and passion without charging for it.
But you can stand out by offering more than just âcontent.â
Webinars â especially the live kind â are more than a resource. They offer a personal, directly valuable experience. Itâs the heart of our âTeach, Donât Sell' philosophy: show up, teach people how to do something, and youâll earn their trust.
That's what makes webinars such a valuable lead magnet.
As we explained in a recent post, you can offer free webinars simply as a way to grow your email list and spread awareness. These workshops can include a sales offer, but itâs not about that. Itâs about establishing yourself as a credible authority onâŠwhatever.
This is also a smarter way to spend your advertising budget; donât pay for ads that go right to your sales page. Pay for ads that promote a valuable workshop youâre giving away. The contacts you get by doing that are warmer, more interested, and more nurturable than casual site visitors.
Put the word out about what youâre giving away, before you start talking about what youâre selling. That will engage people. Then, give them a win with an effective â and totally remote â lesson.
Youâll make a name for yourself.
Consideration Stage Webinars
Youâve built an audience, by giving them value whether they buy anything or not. Youâve earned their trust and earned credibility in their eyes. Theyâre starting to think your product/service is the best solution for their pleasure and pain points.
Maybe.
Go deeper. Keep running helpful educational webinars with sales offers, but build on the trust you created with previous attendees. Email segmenting is handy here (our platform automatically segments all registrant contact info for this reason).
Create a targeted campaign just for previous attendees, perhaps even limited to people whoâve attended multiple webinars of yours, if applicable. This is the group of people to whom you can offer free trials, or âstarterâ versions of your product.
Theyâve taken your free advice, now ask them to invest a little something into a more complete solution. Maybe itâs a single coaching or training session. Maybe itâs a paid course.
Whatever it is, itâs proof of concept â the concept being that youâre a good investment.
Selling From Wherever With Webinars
Webinars can have incredible sales conversion rates, especially if both the platform and the presentation are conversion optimized.
We explain how to do that in depth with this post, but here are the basic rules:
- Host a live sales webinar. Live consistently nets more sales than automated or âevergreenâ webinars, which are better for the awareness and consideration stages.
â - Your âsalesâ webinar is still a lesson. No one wants to sign up for a pitch, so itâs crucial to include that educational âhow toâ element, even if itâs âHow To Use [Your product].â
For example, we host regular walk-through workshops just to show people exactly how WebinarNinja works â but only because we know theyâre interested in learning that.
Never, ever ambush people with a sales offer or bait them into a webinar with a false premise. If your webinar is called âHow to Catch More Fish,â you better give actual instruction on how to catch more fish â even if itâs with your companyâs patented super-lures.
â - Engage. Don't simply lecture and present. An optimized webinar platform has smooth chat, question, polling, and other functions designed to make the webinar a multi-way conversation.
Bored people donât learn â and they donât buy.
â - Have an exclusive offer, a special price or bonus package that isnât available for non-registrants. This creates a little extra incentive so attendees pull the trigger then and there.
Onboard Remotely With Webinars
You didn't think sales was the final phase, right? Churn kills!
Think of the time, money, and resources you poured into acquiring your customers. If your business is losing customers at or above the rate itâs gaining them, youâre not surviving. So many entrepreneurs forget this, because our focus tends to be on getting, not keeping customers.
Webinars are your follow-through.
Regular customer-only webinars that show people how to get the most out of your product or service are essential. Depending on your product, you may have to hold peopleâs hands as they become proficient in using it.
Nothing breaks trust like forgetting about a contact after the sale. And nothing builds great word-of-mouth like being there for people after you already have their money.
Check out this episode of our podcast, âHow to Turn Your Clients Into Your Greatest Sales Team," to see more about the growth potential of happy existing customers.
But above all, donât lose existing customers just because they needed a little more support than you were offering.
We host regular âNinjas Onlyâ webinars where we invite all our users to discuss updates to the software, learn how best to use it, and just field questions from our customers.
They use our product more because we show them how, and they stick with us longer because we...y'know, give a shit about them.
Remote Work Strategies for Your Business Type
The cold reality is that some businesses are more remote-friendly than others. But all businesses have to function remotely now, on whatever level they can.
Try the webinar-based strategy that fits your business type:
Coaching/Consulting
This is your moment.
Millions of people are stuck at home looking for ways to take advantage of the extra time and space to learn, grow, and develop professionally and personally. This is an absolute no-brainer for coaches, trainers, and consultants of every stripe to start helping people wherever they are.

This is especially true for business coaches and consultants: entire teams are looking for ways to effectively work from home.
Best move: Contact relevant businesses in your space and offer webinar-based workshops for their employees.
SaaS (Software as a Service)
This is also your (our) moment. Use the webinar-based funneling strategy outlined in this post, and pay special attention to the âOnboard Remotelyâ part.
Whatever your software makes easier, thereâs probably a ton of people who could use it right now. And theyâve got the time to try, learn, and apply it with your help.
Best move: Host free live demonstrations/walkthroughs of your software, targeted at the newly self- quarantined.
Ecommerce
Just because the product is physical doesnât mean you canât engage your passion and expertise to gin up business by showing people how to use it.
Sell sporting goods? Host a little online clinic. Sell workout gear? Time for a webinar workout. Sell haute couture? Youâre their next style coach.
Whatever you sell, thereâs a right way to use it, and you can show people.
Best move: See above. Teach people how to use what you sell in a results-based lesson.
Brick & Mortars
You have it worst during this crisis, and we get that.
But all is not lost.
To make some lemonade out of this one, you have to get way more creative. In fact, you might have to literally make lemonade; restaurants and bars can host cooking and cocktail lessons. Gyms are already using social media to run workouts; why not use webinars with built-in lead nurturing and sales offer tools to leverage those workouts into ecommerce sales and membership upsells?
Dance studios, yoga studios, boxing gymsâŠanything you can teach IRL you can teach online, even if itâs not as effective as in-person training.
Remember, whatever you sell, your knowledge is always the heart of the product.
Best move: Host a fun workshop that shows people how to do some version of whatever they normally do at your location -- in the comfort of their own homes. Include a sales offer featuring online gift certificates people can redeem after life returns to normal.
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No matter what kind of business you run, the best hope for everyone to keep moving forward is in the technology that connects us personally while separating us physically.
Itâs time to get on this webinar thing, people.
For a free live walk-through of how our platform makes it easiest, join us at our next live webinar demonstration.
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