Using Webinars to Recruit Agents? Avoid these Key Mistakes

Today, companies must deliver great webinars that really stand out. Webinars have become a great tool for generating leads, accelerating the pipeline, and educating your clients and prospects.

As more and more brokers come to use webinars to engage with agents, sellers, and buyers, the competition for the time of these same people are intensifying.   In order to stand out, you have to do something special to engage your audience.

What makes a successful webinar?

Well, that depends on who you ask. For webinar audiences, success is defined by the value of the content and the quality of the experience. For webinar producers, success may be defined by the number of attendees and the quality of the leads. Unfortunately, even with clearly defined goals, many webinars fall short of success.

Key Mistakes to Avoid

(1)  Promotion Cycle Too Short
Many companies limit their webinar promotion to around one week; which is typically the week (7 days) prior to the webinar.  Research suggests that 42% of the people who registered for webinars sign-up more than eight days in advance.

Solution:  Have a longer promotion cycle.  It will give you more chances to attract an audience.

(2) Registration Form is Too Long
Studies show that only 48% of the people who click the “register now” button will actually complete the registration form.  Why are you losing more than half of your prospective audience members at the point of registration?

Solution:  Have a simple form that captures only the basic demographic information you need to determine whether a prospect is right for you.  E.G., name, email, phone, # year licensed as real estate agent, average number closing a year.

(3)  Not Being Interactive with Your Audience
Audience interactivity is one of the most important advantages of webinar technology.  So, do not ask your audience to stare at a screen for up to an hour without giving them a chance to engage.

Solution:  Open the lines of communication with your audience.  You can have live Q&A, polling, group chat, etc.

(4)  Too Many Lines of Text and Bullet Points
Do not bore your audience to death with slides crammed with line and line of text.  Once bored, your audience will be off checking their email, talking with their colleague, and then eventually exit the presentation.

Solution:  Use powerful images, then support those images with a few bullets that highlight points.  Also, don’t simply read your bullet points; instead, tell an engaging story.

(5)  Don’t Sell, Help
Don’t pitch your audience; they came to your webinar to get answers to their problems and issues.  If your goal is to get them to the sales pitch, then you are missing a valuable opportunity to establish credibility and earn their trust.

Solution:  Provide the answers that you offered to give in your promotion material.  Do not do the bait and switch; you know where you promised to address a specific problem, then give that problem only a surface level treatment. And, then you spend lots of time on the details about your produce or service.

When putting on your webinars, take time to do the proper planning as to make sure that both you and your audience get the most from every event.