One of the key tactics when it comes to selling evergreen courses and programs is using a just-in-time webinar.
The premise, as you may already know, is that a prospective customer signs up for a webinar. While most webinars make you sign up to attend or watch at some point in the future (e.g., “join us Thursday, May 4, for How To Scale Your Business to 15 Figures!”), a just-in-time webinar says something to the effect of “wow, you’re so lucky—you can watch this webinar in 10 minutes!”
But there are three key problems with “just-in-time” webinars that make them ineffective and, frankly, off-putting.
1. Just-in-Time Webinars Are Disingenuous
Look: Most prospective customers are going to see right through the charade. “I’m so lucky…I just happened to sign up for this 10 minutes before it was starting!”
No one is buying that.
And we all know it’s clearly a pre-recorded webinar—which isn’t necessarily a bad thing in and of itself. What makes it feel disingenuous is that just-in-time webinars behave like live webinars.
Some options allow for interactions like polls, quizzes, questions, and more, that can make it feel live. There are even options that automate the chat function so that your customer service team can reply to respondents later (e.g., “we get so many attendees, it’s hard to reply live, but here’s an answer to your question!”).
All of that is well and good…except customers can see right through it.
2. People Aren’t Going to Stop to Watch
When attendees register for a just-in-time webinar, it’s going to be rare that people are available to watch it in that exact moment. I like to think of people in line at the grocery store or scrolling online before bed—are those people really taking a break on social media to watch a webinar?
No, they’re scrolling social media and, if they’re clicking, they’re clearly interested in the content you have to offer. But it may not be right that second.
Making people attend right. that. second. is just as inconvenient as making them show up for a later schedule webinar. We’re making them show up at times that are inconvenient for them. We’re not taking our prospective customers’ needs into account.
And, of course, refer back to point number one: it’s disingenuous on top of being inconvenient.
3. Initial Interest Dissipates
Just-in-time webinars often give users the option to select an immediate option (say, starting in five or 10 minutes), as well as options for later times that same day.
But what happens if none of these times work for the user?
Sure, they may keep the tab open to possibly sign up later. That’s a big maybe. And, more importantly, their initial interest dissipates more and more the longer they wait to sign up.
Clearly, the urgency is fake if they go back to sign up and realize they can, in fact, sign up for the webinar at any time. (Again, if they don’t catch on immediately that this is disingenuous, they will eventually.)
We’re still requiring people to consume our content on schedules that work for US, not for them.
So, what’s the alternative?
If you’re looking for an evergreen solution, you know that live launching is exhausting (not to mention a complete revenue gamble).
Your Turn!
Have you used just-in-time webinars and what success have you seen? Share your experience in the comments below!