Entrepreneurs often use webinars as a marketing tool to connect with a wider audience and promote their businesses. What if your sales pitch isn’t going for you and nobody’s showing up for these webinars? To dig into the problem, one should consider what’s called the traffic temperature – the type of traffic you’re getting, where it’s coming from, and why you’re getting it. In this episode, discover where webinar traffic is showing up and what role building relationships have in the process of getting cold, warm, or hot traffic.

—

Watch the episode here:

Listen to the podcast here:

Webinar Traffic: Why You’re Getting Cold, Warm, Or Hot Traffic

I want to talk a little bit about changes in the marketplace and why these changes are important for you to pay attention to in part of your marketing education. We’ve had a lot of people come to us and say, “Nobody’s showing up for my webinars.” I’m not shocked by this. Webinars are part of an old paradigm where we give out some free information. You show up to a webinar or a masterclass and then we throw a sales pitch at you. We have been working with a lot of entrepreneurs who that sales pitch isn’t going and a lot of it is because of traffic temperature. Let me talk a little bit about traffic temperature. I know that there are a lot of marketers out there who will talk about nurture sequences, but they don’t talk about the kind of traffic you’re getting, where it’s coming from and why you’re getting it. It’s important that you’re able to talk to those different levels.

Let’s start out first of all with where webinar traffic is showing up because there is one place where it is showing up. My good friend, Danielle Pettiford, has been sharing with me that her webinars are successful because she has warm traffic coming. By warm traffic, she means people who know who she and her husband are. They run the Couples Academy. People who are aware of who they are not through social media but more through word of mouth. They’re getting results in what they do and it’s word of mouth. They’re having these people show up in a warm audience situation and being able to build a relationship with these people.

In the marketing world, most of the time we call these warm relationships. Those are the people we need to nurture. Here’s the thing that’s not working in the nurture world. We had Randy Peyser on. She shared with all of you that when she’s out pushing or promoting and getting book deals, the traditional publishers are not only asking how big your list is, but they’re asking what the open rate is. Why is that important? It’s important because people aren’t opening their emails the way they used to. They’re exhausted and that has been the nurture sequence that people have used in the past. They will have you come into a lead magnet or a webinar. Then there’s a nurture sequence behind it where they will send you out six, seven, eight emails and then they’re selling you something. I can honestly tell you that I’ve never gone through a nurture sequence and said, “I have to buy this.” I’ve also never gone through a nurture sequence and felt nurtured. I haven’t gone to bed at night and goes, “That guru loves me. I can tell.” It doesn’t happen.

People are waking up to the false sense of what the internet has provided, to what these social media platforms have provided. The thing about we have 4,000 friends. We don’t really have 4,000 friends. We are friends with the people that we know personally that are along the lines of our value system, our integrity, things like that, however we categorize friends. That’s what’s going on out in the business world right now. We’re moving away from social proof and into pocketbook proof. Pocketbook proof requires real-life relationship, one-on-one, “I know you. I trust you. You’ve given me access to some of your clients so I can get real-life testimonials. I can find out if people got the results that you say you did or if you’re just a good self-promoter.”

That’s where I’m going to start with is working with hot, medium and cold traffic. I told you a little bit about that warm traffic, what we call medium traffic. Let’s address hot traffic. Hot traffic is something that I’m seeing a lot in JV partnerships but not the traditional JV partnerships. That old thing where I collect partners and we all send out an email about our best friend Juliet, people aren’t opening those anymore. They’re tired of them. They’re tired of hearing that everybody, every week is your best friend and they’re doing something amazing.

Where we are seeing hot traffic is when you’re promoting something, where you’re able to provide amazing results with what you’re doing. People engaged in your program. You’re helping them one-on-one. People are getting results and they’re sharing those results. That’s hot traffic. When somebody that’s a past client or a partner picks up the phone and says, “Juliet, I want to make a personal reference to you, a personal introduction to you for this person that I know.” Most of my business in the last few years has gone from those old JV partners where we did that old tired routine with it to my partners who number one, have been vetted and they’re the appropriate partners for me. They do something that’s very similar or there’s a next step process that needs to be done. They pick up the phone and make introductions or make email introductions.

Webinar Traffic: Make sure that the platform that you’re on is the right platform.

We’re no longer giving you an affiliate page and saying, “Here, go have your people click,” because they don’t. The second part of that with the hot leads is we’re getting more because all of our sales pages, you can’t just click and buy. We have to have a conversation. We have to build a relationship and that benefits everybody here because now people know, like and trust me. You’re probably sitting there going, “That’s great but I’m trying to garner a worldwide audience.” That’s where your content strategy comes in. Your content strategy is no longer drive people off to a webinar. It’s a real content strategy. A real strategy with blogs, podcasts, listeners and YouTube channels. That’s why we are so high on Tracy and Tom Hazzard and Podetize here because their platform gives you the opportunity to go out and podcast and show off what you know. People know when you’re the real deal. To bring in experts that you can showcase and tap into their audience as well.

I know this seems like, “I got done with my webinar and now you’re telling me I need something else.” Welcome to the world of internet marketing. Internet marketing sees a shift about every nine months now because our consumers get not only savvy, but they’re exhausted. Everybody is plain exhausted. There are people out there writing books about people getting off of Facebook because they’re Facebook tired. They don’t want to be on there anymore. That brings me to another point. Make sure that the platform that you’re on is the right platform. I see so many people who are over on Facebook building free groups. You are not going to get hot leads from free groups. You may nurture a few people into working with you but at the end of the day, those are broke people in your groups looking for tips. Most of them will never pull the trigger.

Where you want to have yourself is in those paid groups where you have paid to be there and other people have paid to be there. I have a whole group over on Facebook and people pay. They are my clients who’ve all paid and they do business with each other, joint partnerships, they build relationships. That’s what you want to be a part of. You want to be a part of masterminds with people who are paying to be there, who don’t have an aversion to spending money, where you’re not the smartest person in the room. You’re learning from people who have sustainable companies. This is why this is so important, sustainable companies. There are companies for people who have a skill set. It doesn’t change with the next new thing that comes out on the internet. It is a sustainable company that is built on a skill that those people have. They’re not great self-promoters. They’re getting people in. You want to be a part of groups like those. Those are where the people that don’t have that aversion to spending money.

I mentioned several times to my own group that there are groups out there that they should be a part of. One of them is Shannon Gronich‘s group. She has a group that’s a mastermind every week. They’re called the Founding Members. It does cost to be a part of it every month but they’re all people who are learning and growing and have spent money and are JV partnering with each other because they are truly people with sustainable businesses. I belong to Aaron Young‘s Inner Circle. That mastermind is very good. We go in on weekends and we have circles where we talk about our obstacles. People with big sustainable companies give us their phone number, their email address, “Give me a call, let’s get this funded. Let’s figure this out how we can help you get past this.” Those are the things you need to be a part of where you’re going to find good clients. I’m part of a mastermind out of Denver, six and seven-figure income women where we all help each other get to the next level. I encourage you to think about in that realm of how marketing is changing and that you need that personal touch. Where is it that you can spend your money besides going out and hiring your next expensive coach that isn’t going to get you where you want to be?

You need a sustainable business. That’s one of my biggest pet peeves about the coaching industry is we decide we’re going to be a coach. Most of the time, we don’t treat it as a business in the way that if we had to go out and get venture capital, if we had to get any funding that anyone would fund us. It’s because we haven’t validated our products. We haven’t validated our ideas. We haven’t validated our audiences and it’s crazy. We go to a business conference for coaches and then we find out there that in order to do this, we need a speaking coach, a book coach, a publishing coach, an event coach, a program coach. All of a sudden, we still don’t have a business and we’re $200,000 in debt. I’m here to tell you that’s ass-backwards about how the world of business worlds works. We need to start being more intentional about that.

We covered hot traffic. Where are we going to get that hot traffic? Where are we going to get that medium traffic? Where are we getting cold traffic? Those of you who are advertising on places like Facebook, you’re bringing in cold traffic and you’re expecting that to convert. At the end of the day, it doesn’t matter how many clicks you’re getting, it matters how many sales you’re getting. For many of you, you’re out hiring marketing companies that are telling you, “It’s working. You’re getting 1,000 clicks a month.” If you’re not getting sales from that, something’s wrong. You need to take a deep dive into what is wrong, “Is it my product? Is it the audience? What is it?” This is where we can get back into old-fashioned focus groups that we used to use back in my advertising days. I don’t even know if they still do them. I would assume that they don’t go to a mall and approach you and ask you to go in a back room because these days that would be creepy. I’m sure they do it in other ways these days. That’s where you need to get intentional with that provider, that marketer about, “If I’m not getting sales, this isn’t working.” I can’t call Lexus and make my car payment with clicks. If one of you have figured out how to do it, that’s a coaching program because I’m sure there are a lot of people out there who would love to be able to do that.

Webinar Traffic: The more you run your business like a business, the better off you’re going to have with success.

Looking at that cold traffic, will they convert? Are these people who are in it are there for the free stuff and they’re never going to buy? That’s part of the internet marketing that we’ve had an epic fail with, it’s creating lead magnets that lead to a list. We have where we’re giving away our genius and we’re saying, “We’re going to give that gift to you in exchange for an email address.” Nobody’s opening emails, now what? That’s where we need to get into how are we testing our audiences? How are we testing our programs? If I had to go out and get funding now, could I get it based on the statistics that I have? Do I even have a viable idea? Is it my mother and my sister telling me, “I would buy that?”

I want to share with you one of our clients who put together her quiz to a qualified program for her corporate group. She put it together and she had her family and her family was like, “This is amazing but we still wouldn’t hire you.” She came back and she’s like, “That’s my family.” Luckily, Corporate America didn’t feel the same way, but that’s what happens when you test your family. Either they will tell you they’re not going to hire you or they’re going to tell you that, “It’s wonderful, sweetie.” Your mom loves everything you do.

I want to implore you about being very intentional about who you’re hiring and what you’re doing. Is that product the right product? Are you testing it? Are you focus grouping it? Are you testing it with audiences? Are you bringing in or are you in front of audiences with money? If you have to go out and pay to be on somebody’s stage, no. Have a sustainable cutting-edge product that will get you on people’s stage because they want you to be the next best thing. Get out there and get those paid speaking gigs if you must be a speaker. Personally, I don’t think it’s necessary but that’s just me because I have a sustainable business. I have something that makes money month in and month out and keeps us where we want to be.

I want to put that out there to you. Look for those changes in the marketplace. Look for those content strategies that are going to build trust with an audience. It’s going to take work. That’s another myth with this coaching industry, “Six figures in six months. I’m going to get you up to seven figures.” Those are not sustainable business models. There’s a lot that goes into a business and the more you run your business like a business, the better off you’re going to have with success. I invite you to go over to www.PromoteProfitPublishQuiz.com. Check out our quiz. That’s how we generate our income and how our clients generate their income as well. It’s bringing people off of the internet and out of email into conversations that start building relationships. Nobody’s going to buy a $2,000 to $20,000 program without a lot of conversing these days. People have been burned and they want the real deal. Get out there and prove you’re the real deal.

Important Links:

• Couples Academy
• Randy Peyser – previous episode
• Podetize
• Shannon Gronich
• Aaron Young
• www.PromoteProfitPublishQuiz.com

Love the show? Subscribe, rate, review, and share!

• Here’s How »

• superbrandpublishing.com
• Promote, Profit, Publish on YouTube
• Follow Juliet on LinkedIn
• Take the Quiz!