A profitable sales funnel is one that consistently converts leads into sales. There are several different types of funnel, each with its strengths and level of adaptability to your offer. Here at Litchfield Media, we love a good webinar funnel, both live and evergreen. It’s one of the strongest strategies we use in our agency to increase conversions and sales for our clients.

Hubspot also reported that webinars are one of the trending ROI boosters for 2023. Their survey revealed that 95% of respondents confirm webinars are a key element of marketing channels, and 53% of marketers say webinars are the best top-of-the-funnel entry point for the highest quality leads.

It’s clear the numbers are tempting, but with all the new tools being advertised and “frameworks” you can Google, it’s just too easy to create a bad webinar funnel. So what makes a webinar funnel strong and healthy? Churning out sales at a high conversion rate? Here are the top six key ingredients for consistent webinar funnel conversions. 

One: Qualified Leads

We all love leads. But bad leads are a waste of time, money, and energy. A qualified lead is an eager, money-in-hand lead. This is someone who is genuinely interested in what you have to share. They’re in the target niche with the money and willingness to pay for your goods or services. 

If you’re hearing “no” too often or seeing poor-quality leads come through your funnel, this could be due to your messaging. If your ad copy, registration page, or webinar title are out of alignment with your target audience, you could be attracting the wrong crowd. 

Zero in on your ideal customer and realign your messaging to truly resonate with their pain points, goals, and objections.

Two: High Email Open Rates

Email traffic is one of the strongest – and most cost-effective – digital marketing channels available. With a healthy list, you can direct highly targeted traffic of already tuned-in leads straight to your webinar funnel. 

I like to see an open rate of at least 30%. Whether you’re sending the offer to your whole list or only a segment, at least 30 out of 100 recipients should open a live webinar email sequence. On average, only 40% of registrants attend a webinar, so the more inboxes you can hit, the better. 

Three: Webinar Engagement

Disengaged people do not buy; they only consume. We’re not trying to sell to those folks. We want to see a high show up rate (which we covered previously), people staying well past your hook and questions all pouring in from your ideal customer. 

These statistics are all proof that your messaging is on point, your audience is made of the right people, and your offer is aligned with your target market. If your engagement is low, go back to the drawing board and reevaluate your messaging. 

Rework subject lines, previews, email content, and the webinar registration page. Track the results and compare.

Four: High Webinar Show Up Rate

A warm audience should generate an average of 20% attendance compared to the number of registrants. But we aren’t average up in here! More than 40% attendance indicates higher engagement and a stronger connection to the audience. 

Shoot for higher attendance with additional email reminders, SMS reminders, VIP passes, live attendance incentives, etc. 

BONUS: Live Webinar Vs. Evergreen Webinar

While evergreen webinars are appealing to passive leads and sales, not every offer is a good fit, and not every business is ready for them. 

For brand-new offers and program launches, a live webinar can help you generate more buzz and get real-time engagement with a cold or warm audience. Live webinars are also the proving ground for new offers or products that aren’t built out yet.

An evergreen funnel is better for a proven and converting live offer that you’re ready to scale. The assets are already in place, and you can flip the automated switch and let it run continuously with little-to-no active involvement from you. To learn more about my take on webinar funnels, see Live Or Evergreen Webinars – Which Is Better.

Five: Webinar Pitch Engagement

Now that you have a live audience, you need to convert as many as possible to the next stage of your sales funnel. At least 50% of those who showed up to your webinar should stay for the sales pitch. If attendees start dropping like flies in the first 5 minutes, your hook may not be strong enough to keep them interested. Too many people leaving right when you get to your hook? There could be a variety of reasons but most likely it’s the price point or they don’t see it as a valuable offer.

Rework the early segment of your webinar to increase engagement and pique their interest enough to stick around for the big reveal at the end.

Six: Traffic

If you’re thinking right now, “Melissa, I have all these things dialed in already. I still only got two sales for my last webinar. What am I doing wrong?” Then you sound just like a previous client of mine. 

She was getting qualified leads, strong open rates, decent engagement, and niche eyeballs on her webinar but only a handful of conversions. Everything she needed was in place, but her 40% attendance rate only equated to a handful of people. 

The issue was the traffic. There simply weren’t enough registrants and live attendees.

Targeted traffic is the key nutrient that will strengthen and boost the other nutrients in your webinar funnel. The more qualified leads you have, the more likely you’ll be to convert a higher number. A higher number of opened emails leads to a higher number of registrations than you can expect. 

The more engagement you can generate, the more excited your audience gets about your offer. More people in attendance means more people to connect with and pitch to. 

If every other nutrient is healthy and strong, more traffic equals MORE SALES. Period. 

If you’re not getting enough traffic now, why not? How does your current audience find your offers? Do you need to ramp up ad spend or content marketing efforts on existing channels or explore new ones? 

If you’re interested in expanding your top-of-funnel efforts to turn more eyeballs into more sales, work with Litchfield Media! Let’s put your goals into action with results-driven and concierge-style Done-For-You Ad Management services that bring in those leads on repeat. Book a call with me here, and let’s chat!