104. Dustin Mathews: Choreograph Your Webinars and Online Presentations

Dustin Mathews is the founder of Speaking Empire, which teaches entrepreneurs how to scale up their business using selling from presentations and stages. He authored a book with Dan Kennedy that teaches how to do it called NO B.S. Guide To Powerful Presentations: How To Sell ANYTHING With Webinars & Online Media, Speeches & Seminars.

Why to run a webinar?

The ultimate reason of running a webinar is to establish a relationship. Think of this: in a webinar you can engage with people an average of 45 to 60 minutes. Where else you get an hour of someone’s attention?

Choreograph your webinars and online presentations

Dustin has discovered that there are a lot of  things you can do before your presentation and there are a lot of  things you can do after your presentation. This consistent effort is what he calls “choreography.” In an entertainment show (e.g. opera, circus) the performers practice ad practice, and try every single element beforehand. And as some salespeople say: “the fortune is in the follow up.”

Similarly what you can do ahead of time is: engage in social media, ask people’s opinion’s, offer some gift, etc. Before the webinar, release a video so people are excited. And after the event, do the followup.

Best practices for webinars and online presentations

On a webinar, people are busy and you don’t see them. It’s harder to get their attention. Some of the best practices are:

* Sell them why they should join, attend the webinar. If people sign up but don’t attend is because the organizer didn’t sell people on showing up. Do send a video ahead on time, give them a gift, start building a relationship.

* Slideshows are the norm in webinars, but try the following performance trick. At the start of the webinar, pop up briefly at the camera to engage: encourage them to type in the chat box, ask questions, do polls, etc.

* Educate, bring value, give actionable things. Give them tools and resources, not only quotes or inspiration. Ask yourself: “How can I build value in this situation for my audience?”

Related: Speaking Internationally with Success