When the ability to schedule access to a recording of a promotional event first hit the market, there was an expectation that the event should appear to be live. In fact, you still see this tactic as part of the built in functionality in some of the older evergreen webinar system. You know the ones where you see a stream of obviously bogus names and/or a fluctuating number of attendees. Um… no. No one is buying that anymore!
The reason we USED to do fake-live is pretty obvious – events up to that point had always been delivered in real time, aka: live. Therefore, there was an assumption on the part of prospects that what they were listening to or watching was happening in real time, and marketers believed that they needed to exploit this assumption in order to convert prospects.
And that may have been true back in 2009. Today, the expectation that the webinar I signed up for is going to be delivered live is long gone.
So the question becomes: is it necessary or even recommended to present your evergreen webinar as live?
In most cases the answer is no. The the audience doesn’t magically get more value from the information you provide on a pretend-live event, nor will they won’t be compelled to action at a higher rate just because they think you are actually “there.”
In fact today, while there are exceptions, most markets are sophisticated enough with online marketing tactics to know that your webinar isn’t live, so presenting your webinar as happening live – when it’s not – could kill your credibility with your prospect long before you present your pitch.
But, you may be asking: what about creating authentic scarcity? If my prospects know the webinar is a recording, why would they take action based on a time-dependent fast-action bonus or similar compelling benefit?
Good question. Scarcity is an important driver for all humans to take action. And our recommendation is to use your basic Keap functionality to make your scarcity real. You know who’s registered for your webinar and when they registered. You can apply and remove tags based on delay timers. You can even push those who’ve registered previously into a different sequence than those who are first time registrants.
Can a prospect figure out how to get around your gates? Sure. But those prospects are definitely savvy enough to know you are not delivering your webinars live.
Bottom line: deliver high quality, compelling content, with an enthusiastic pitch to a well constructed offer – including a time-dependent bonus or three – and you can be both successful and authentic with your evergreen webinars.