Amy Porterfield: Sticking To One Thing, Profitable Webinars & How She Got Here
For this episode of the Summer Series, I’m revisiting one of my personal favorites!
If you follow the online marketing world, you definitely know about Amy Porterfield. She’s a successful podcast host, course creator and master of profitable webinars. My favorite part of interviewing one of my biz heroes? She’s just as warm, authentic and amazing in person as her “online persona”!
In our conversation, you’ll hear three key topics.
Amy’s backstory and path to the million-dollar business owner she is today, why she recommends doubling down on one idea, and exactly how to host profitable webinars.
There’s so much goodness packed into our conversation, let’s get right into it!
Amy’s Early Days
You know that feeling when you want to share your gifts with the world, but a nasty little voice in your head whispers “what right do you have to be doing this?!” Ugh. It’s tough, and even business rockstars like Amy Porterfield battle these feelings. It even held her back from starting to act on her entrepreneurial dreams for over a year.
Amy’s backstory reminds us that we all have fears we must face in this journey. She also shares some really smart choices she made along the way.
Instead of leaping out of her corporate job with the Tony Robbins organization, she did so in small increments. She put herself in roles that were outside of her comfort zone, where she could learn and apprentice while still making a steady income. She took proactive steps to gather as much knowledge as she could before she struck out on her own.
She also learned the hard lesson of building a business of her own that she actually hated, and stayed in it for two whole years!
Now, you would think that once Amy started selling her own courses, they were a big hit right away, right?
Not quite.
Her first few launches were flops, but she kept at it.
How did she find her success?
Stick To One Thing
Even though Amy’s first launches weren’t home runs, she continued to listen to what her audience wanted. Once she had some mild success, she launched the same program multiple times.
Instead of chasing the next great idea, or giving up on a course after its first launch, she stuck to one thing.
The result?
Her revenue climbed from 30,000k to 900,000k by improving marketing and content on the same program.
It’s simple advice, but so incredibly powerful. Take your good idea and stick with it.
If you’re working on a project right now and plan on moving to something new next, maybe you can:
Tweak the marketing copy for better results
Survey your audience members for crucial feedback
Show your project (course, group program, coaching package) to trusted business builders from your inner circle for feedback
Amy’s story is an inspiring example of what you can achieve when you stick with one idea. When you improve a business offering rather than starting all over again from scratch, you optimize your time, energy and effort.
Most importantly, you have the opportunity to maximize your profits!
Now, let’s get into Amy’s favorite technique to sell your products.
Amy’s Top Tips for Effective & Profitable Webinars
Webinars, when done correctly, really are a thing of beauty. You can build an engaged audience, sell out group programs and sky rocket your course sales.
If your webinar is an hour long, the ratio should be 45 minutes of teaching and 15 minutes of selling. When the bulk of your content is focused on providing value and teaching something useful to your views, you earn the right to sell to them at the end.
Whether attendees buy your product or not, they must walk away feeling excited, inspired & driven to take action. ~ Amy Porterfield
How does Amy organize herself before a webinar? She recommends you give yourself a week to plan out your webinar, and have it ready far in advance of your dates. When you start planning, remember her helpful tips.
Use a slide deck – you don’t have to be on camera.
Take them on a journey – tell a story (about you or student) that the person watching will say “holy cow it’s me”. Give them an aha moment!
Figure out - where are your potential students? What are they struggling with? What do they need?
Amy’s Slide Framework:
Get them excited about the opportunity
Share a personal story
Get to the point and teach your content!
Flow through a step by step process and formula. Allow them to see the big picture.
Give attendees the “what” during your sides and explain that the product is the “how”
Before Your Webinar: How to Increase Signups & Engagement
Send a pre-webinar email series 7-5 days ahead of webinar.
Don’t invite too early and don’t assume people will see one invite and definitely come. They must be reminded!
Fast action bonuses are effective. What can you offer to those who sign up live on the call?
On video for beginning and ending Q+A can improve engagement and sales. Video is powerful and builds trust.
After Your Webinar: How to Convert & Increase Purchases
When the webinar’s finished, there’s still work to do! Make sure you have a post webinar email sequence complete and ready to go. Here’s an example of what to include in four followup emails:
Replay link (limited time 48-hour access)
Promote program – outline modules tell them exactly what they’ll learn
Case study, testimonial that proves your products value.
Time is running out! Encourage action and imply scarcity.
Interviewing Amy for Courage & Clarity’s 100th episode was an absolute dream come true. She’s a powerhouse business woman and someone I’ve looked up to as I build my own biz!
I’ve also personally used her webinar techniques and have seen incredible results with them.
Are you ready to host your own webinar? Head over to the Courage & Clarity Community and tell me all about it!