Promoting Your Virtual Events – PTC 528

Virtual events are a great way to promote your business. And your podcast is a great way to promote your virtual events. You just need the right strategy.

CREATING POWERFUL VIRTUAL EVENTS

Free Gift: Simple, Profitable Virtual Events Checklist

www.PodcastTalentCoach.com/eventschecklist

Virtual Events Bootcamp

www.PodcastTalentCoach.com/virtualevents

When I first started with virtual events, I went the webinar route. I tried it over and over again.

In October of 2021, my strategy changed.

I had launched a webinar that month to promote my Podcast Launch Accelerator program where I help people launch their podcast in 30 days.

I was promoting the webinar myself with no JV partners. The registration page had 72 visits. Of the 72, 41 registered. That was a conversion rate of 57%. It should have been much higher than that.

Of the 41 that registered, 10 people attended live. That was a 25% conversion. For a new webinar, that was decent. It should be closer to 50%.

Unfortunately, of the 10 that attended, nobody purchased. This is when I started second guessing my strategy. Webinars just weren't working for me.

Then one day I discovered workshops. Instead of doing 90-minute webinars, I pivoted to 3-hour workshops. I was helping people implement what I was teaching.

On my first workshop, I had nine people attend live. Of the nine people in the workshop, four purchased my program.

I was going deeper and delivering more value. That was converting into sales.

Creating virtual events is all about developing the right strategy.

MARKETING VEHICLE

My goal is to help you use your podcast as a marketing vehicle for your business. And in order for it to be an effective marketing vehicle for the business, we need to understand what our year looks like in the business.

To begin, define what you're trying to accomplish, and how you're trying to accomplish it.

We talk so much about our podcast being a powerful marketing tool, because it can create those powerful relationships with your listeners. Your content can bring listeners into the top of your funnel.

As you tell stories on your podcast, you walk listeners through the process of getting to know, like, and trust you. You get them started with your content through your lead magnet, and then get them to a sales call with you.

So, how do we create content with a purpose that leads toward landing more clients?

When people begin to create their podcasts, they just say, "Oh, I need record an episode this week... What am I gonna talk about??

They create the episode. Then at the end, they're say, "Hey, if you wanna have a call with me, sign up. Here's where you can find my calendar link."

The content and the call to action really don't connect well together.

Let me show you how to create a plan that will help you build a cohesive marketing plan using your podcast.

VIRTUAL EVENTS TO ENROLL

With your cohesive marketing plan, the first thing we need to understand is what we're trying to market.

If we are creating content that helps us market what we sell, when do we sell it? When are your enrollment events and sales conversations?

Now a lot of times when you're selling your coaching program, you will do it through one-on-one calls. If you're just randomly bringing those calls in, you can't plan.

This week, you might have 3 calls. Next week, you might not have any. And the next week, you might have 4, and then you might have 1.

What I'd like to see you do is figure out how we can create more of those sales conversations at one time. So as you look at the year, plan out where your sales and enrollment events happen.

That could be maybe through a webinar. You might create a workshop. Your enrollment event might be a variety of other virtual events.

So you're inviting everybody to an event. And at the event, you invite attendees to book a call with you so you can help them explore what it is that you help them do.

When you're booking calls with prospective clients every day throughout the year, it's tough to get in a rhythm. But if you batch those calls through virtual events, you can do your sales calls in a week and begin to get a rhythm going.

MORE EFFECTIVE

Rather than trying to get a call here and a call there, let's see if we can get a batch of calls in at one time so that we're creating a master plan for your content throughout the entire year doing a few virtual events.

So maybe you're doing a few big, virtual events once a quarter or 3 times a year, where you're inviting an entire group to come and have a conversation with you. You don't necessarily need to do webinars.

I found it difficult in the 10 years that I was doing a lot of one-on-one strategy calls with podcasters. They would trickle in here and there because I would create the content on the podcast, and then I would invite people to a call.

When I pivoted and I started to do virtual events, I would create a workshop or a a training that would happen maybe once a quarter. I would get a lot of people to that, and invite those people to have calls with me.

Now they've kind of experienced what coaching with me is like, and they're more apt to sign up for a call to have that conversation with me and have that strategy call with me.

VIRTUAL EVENTS GIVE A SAMPLE

I found it much more effective to get people on the phone that way, because they've already experienced what I have to offer.

When you take people straight from your podcast to a strategy call, it gets a little scary because they're going into the deep end one-on-one with you.

In their gut, they feel like it's gonna be a big hard sales pitch, and they're not gonna be able to figure out how to get out of it. And they're gonna get roped into a $1,000 program that they didn't really want. And so they just don't sign up for the call.

When you offer them to come to virtual events, they come to the events with other people. there's safety in numbers.

So they don't feel as apprehensive to come to virtual events as they would straight to a one-on-one call.

When they get to the event and they see how you operate and they see how you flow and what you're all about, then they're more likely to sign up for that one-on-one call with you so you can see how you can help them. You both can see how the two of you get along in your coaching.

ENROLLMENT VIRTUAL EVENTS

So first, determine where your sales and enrollments events are going to happen.

It doesn't matter to me how many you do. But what I'd like you to do is be intentional about when you're doing them and what you're trying to accomplish.

So if we remember that most podcast episodes get the bulk of their downloads and listens in the first 30 days after they're released, we can now start to work backwards as we're creating your content calendar and marketing plan.

Once we set the event date, and we know that the podcast gets most of its downloads in the first 30 days, we can start to figure out when to promote the event using our podcast. This will help us use our podcast in the most effective way.

Work backward from your event date to figure out when to promote it on the podcast.

You want to start teasing the event roughly eight weeks in advance. If my event is happening on April 1, I want to start teasing it on February 1st.

Create some anticipation.

And then about six weeks in advance, announce the event with full details. Have the registration page up and running. Begin enrolling people in the event.

Six weeks gives people enough notice that the event is coming and let's them get registered for it.

YOUR REGISTRATION PAGE

One thing that I do is always use the same URL for my event. So if you want to register for any of my events, I always put the event at the same URL. So if you go to podcasttalentcoach.com/workshop, you'll find my Audience Explosion Blueprint workshop. I will update that page with the new dates and details for each new workshop.

I always do is use that same URL. If I'm promoting it on February 15th for my April 1st workshop, somebody listening to the podcast on May 1st can visit that URL with the new dates on it. So even if they're listening past the date of the event, it will have the current event up there.

Then four weeks out from the event, set the deadline and create some urgency to get people registered. Create that deadline and start creating some urgency four weeks out.

During these last four weeks, focus on the outcome of your virtual events and create urgency. Get people registering to be part of the event. And then at the event, you can invite people to have call with you.

So over these 8 weeks, we're teasing, we're announcing, and we're creating that urgency. Then, repurpose your your podcast content and be visible.

YOUR VIRTUAL EVENTS

So, how do you create your virtual events? That's what our guest is helping us with today.

Janelle Anderson is known as the Virtual Events Visionary helping coaches and experts create and host simple, profitable virtual events to massively scale their business.

She is a Certified Professional Coach, 7-time bestselling author, and renowned speaker who is on a mission to empower her clients to thrive and prosper so they can transform the lives of their clients.

Janelle has had the honor of helping hundreds of clients transform their lives and now is on a mission to help hundreds of coaches prosper in their businesses so they can transform thousands of lives.

Today, she is going to help us use the virtual events strategy grow our businesses.

Free Gift: Simple, Profitable Virtual Events Checklist

www.PodcastTalentCoach.com/eventschecklist

Virtual Events Bootcamp

www.PodcastTalentCoach.com/virtualevents

If you don't have a mentor who can take your hand and walk you every step of the way, go to www.PodcastTalentCoach.com/apply, click the button and apply to have a chat with me. We will develop your plan and see how I can help and support you to achieve your podcast goals.