Fallen victim to any salesy webinars of late?

I have vowed to stop doing one thing.

For the rest of 2024, I have vowed to stop doing one thing.

Signing up for free webinars from people I’m not an active follower of.

Is that a weird thing to commit to? I’m not sure. It’s just that I’ve been burned by so many bad webinars (some of which I paid for) and summits this year that I feel the need to shout it from the mountains.

Although, I’ll settle for stating my commitment to it in this newsletter.

Here’s the truth.

1. Some people are very good at spouting nonsense on the internet. And it’s stupid-easy to make the internet believe in anything.

2. Which means they’re make most of their revenue trying to sell a course and you don’t realize that the ‘free’ webinar is essentially one giant scam (because hey, if someone feels the urge to use the webinar as a big lead-up to their pitch, I’m sorry but that ‘strategy’ is a predatory ‘scheme’).

3. Additionally, the actual experts? They might be good at their work but not necessarily good presenters.

It makes up for a Venn diagram consisting of a big group of people who make a 100% of their income selling courses and a group of people who are very good but also very bad at presenting.

Which means there’s only a tiny portion of people who are actual experts and also good at presenting.

How to spot a webinar that’s really a sales pitch.

1. They’ll introduce themselves and drone on for ten minutes about the ‘amazing expert they are’ - but not actually provide any real proof.

2. A big portion of their webinar needs to be dedicated through the bazillion clients they’ve helped - but when you reverse google image search these ‘clients’, nothing will pop up.

3. Tips & advice will fill up the main portion of the webinar - but it’s all generic and sounds like a soulless LinkedIn post that was rewritten with the help of AI, with one or two pieces of advice that are actually good.

   

4. A few ‘clever’ sounding tips that are good. But did you really have to spend 30-60 minutes of your time to hear it?

5. You’ll keep hearing, “Wait till the end for this amazing thing I have to solve your problem,” throughout the presentation and then you do reach the end and think, damn, it’s something we’ll find only in their $4K course that they’ll spend at least 10 more minutes selling you on.

I wrote a different version of this on LinkedIn.

Don’t get me wrong - these people are good (maybe).

But I can’t help but wonder if they’re following a template someone sold them (through another webinar) that makes them sound like everyone else.

I’m not saying you shouldn’t pitch.

You are allowed to talk about your work. You are allowed to talk about how good you are. You should certainly give these ‘leads’ reasons why they could hire you.

And if you do it right, they will certainly follow your CTA.

But you forget that people aren’t attending your webinar just because it’s ‘free’.

They’re taking time out of their schedule, sometimes in a different timezone and you’re spending it pitching? I’m sorry, but no, no, no.

Because forcing us through your version of a timeshare is the worst.

Be generous with your advice.

The best webinars have been ones where people actually gave good advice for free.

To these ‘gurus’ - if you think people are going to fall for this rubbish, you're a snake-oil salesy sales person and not an expert.

I still remember this one webinar where this agency owner gave the BEST advice, advice I still use and barely talked about herself and her business. I stalked the heck out of her after the webinar - because I wanted to know more. I signed on her email list and ended up buying a few of her products.

This would not have happened if she'd followed the same format most webinars fall on. (And I’m sure this is one you can attest to.)

My final statement to the ‘gurus’:

The people who do fall prey to your schemes? They're not going to endorse you and you'll have to resort to using stock photos in your testimonials. Again.

On the more personal side…

I’m bringing these back? I thought this was getting boring to read but I subscribed to marketing examples by Harry Dry and he always starts his with a note on where he is and what he’s up-to - and I think it’s a fun little addition.

These last few newsletters have been written on my travels. The previous one, Don’t listen to the Bozos was edited in a rush in an airport lounge in Doha. I’m now in the second city of my travels and writing this from a hotel restaurant overlooking the backwaters (in beautiful Kerala) and yes, you are allowed to be jealous.

I’ll be off to three(?) more cities in the upcoming quarter so I’m excited to see where I’ll be writing these next few newsletters from. If anyone’s going to be in San Francisco, Phoenix and (maybe) New York in October/November, hit me up :)

And yes, I’m still trying to read 52 books this year - I was five books behind. The great thing about traveling though is that there’s a lot of waiting, especially on airplanes, and when you have a kindle, you can read a ton of books in a short time.
I’m currently on Book 35.

As you can tell, this is all a work-in-progress and as I write more editions of Room for Marketing, I get to understand what you - the reader is interested in - and what I want from writing this.

End Notes

Perhaps this will serve as a warning to the future version of me who does end up doing these regularly.

Because you know what’s funny after writing an entire newsletter talking about all the terrible webinars I’ve attended?

I’m in talks to present a webinar in November for this business community. I think it’ll go good - I’m still trying to figure out the exact content for it.

Do you have any ideas for what you might be interested in (or are willing to hear me talk about this in next week’s newsletter?)

Happy marketing,
Maria

Ps: If you don’t remember, hi - I’m a website copywriter who positions creatives as go-to experts.

You’ve subscribed to my weekly newsletter, ‘Room for Marketing’ where I help creative entrepreneurs learn how to make room for marketing in their business through easy, actionable steps.

These usually run for 1k words+ (this one’s 1k words and written in a restaurant), so please excuse the grammatical errors.

If you’d like to connect, here’s my Website & LinkedIn.