When it comes to online marketing, you must remember that it’s the marketing that matters most. I recently had an experience as an affiliate that made me once again realize that it truly is the marketing part of what we do that is the most important activity we do in our business each day. Someone who has been working online much longer than I have asked me if I would promote his course to my list. Because of his reputation, as well as the information he would be providing in his course, I was excited to share this with my people. It never even crossed my mind to ask him what his marketing plan was for this. I knew that he had promoted the same course to many people through a webinar, so I just assumed it would be done in a manner very similar to what I do in my own business.
On a Monday I emailed my list about the webinar on Tuesday evening. I always opt in at the same time so I can see how the marketing is handled. When I opted in I was immediately sent to the thank you page. This page contained all of the information I needed in order to attend the following evening. It was then I realized that it wasn’t a webinar at all; he was using Instant Teleseminar and would be showing a PowerPoint presentation in this way. Now, this may not seem like a big deal, but it is. There is a perceived value that goes along with using a service such as GoTo Webinar, and using a teleseminar service is just not the same.
The next morning, Tuesday, I sent out another email to my list. On both days I was sending what is referred to as a ‘solo’ email, meaning that no other information is included within the content of the email. This also means that I am expecting many people to sign up and many of those to purchase the program I am giving such a high recommendation to. During this time I do not recommend or promote anything else to my community.
About an hour before our webinar the marketer for this sent me an email. He said that very few people had signed up, but that we would do the webinar anyway. That’s when I decided to check the email account where I had signed up for the event the day before – Monday. No email had been sent out since the initial one right after I had signed up. This meant that few people had received the reminder message with the information they needed. The result was that only a handful of people showed up for the live webinar, very few watched the replay, and even fewer actually purchased the course, which was an excellent one.
What Did I Learn From This?
I like to turn every experience into a learning opportunity, and this is what I learned from the situation I have just described:
- I must always do my due diligence before working with someone else
- Always find out the specifics of what someone else will be offering your people
- Other people have different priorities that may conflict with mine
- I put marketing first, so it’s best if I handle that part all the time
I hope you have learned something from this post. What questions do you have for me?
I’ve done the same thing…and turned down opportunities to promote something when the copy was lame or the product seemed to overpromise. I got burned by not checking a couple of times, too.
Re the distinction between teleseminar and webinar: I promote as teleseminars but a lot of people think they are attending a webinar. A lot of “live webinars” don’t use the full capability of that medium so there can be a an overlap. Good points though!
I found your comment about the perceived value of a webinar as being higher than that of a teleseminar very insightful. I had not thought of them as being very different.
Your bigger point about marketing, however is the key to a successful business either on-line or off-line. My mantra is “Whatever business I am in, I am in the marketing business also”. Thank you for spreading the word about the importance of marketing!
Thanks so much for your comment!
Connie