The Power of Webinars and Online Presentations

For most of history, if you wanted to give a presentation, you had to physically go somewhere. Pack a bag, book a room, show up, speak. P.T. Barnum did it. Mark Twain did it. Business owners still do it every week at luncheons and hotel conference rooms.

It works. Kennedy and Mathews say so honestly. In-person presentations still outperform online ones by most measures.

But traveling costs money and time. And some people will never walk into a free seminar no matter how good your offer is.

Chapter 12 is written by Dustin Mathews, and it asks a simple question: what if the audience came to you instead?

Speaking While You Sleep

The answer is webinars. Take a presentation that works with live audiences and put it online. Record it once, set up the right system around it, and let it run on its own.

Someone can watch at 2 AM on a Tuesday. Or you schedule it for a specific date and time, creating that live event feeling. Either way, you are not on a plane. You might actually be sleeping.

This was a newer idea in 2017 when the book came out. Today, Zoom, Livestorm, Demio, and dozens of other platforms make the technical side easy. The harder part is building the right system around the presentation. That is where the six steps come in.

The Six Steps of the Webinar Formula

Mathews breaks down the process into six stages. Think of it as a funnel, but with a presentation at the center instead of a sales page.

1. Traffic

Someone has to actually show up. Email, social media ads, partnerships with other creators, affiliates, even direct mail. The channel matters less than having a plan for it.

Today you would add YouTube ads, podcast mentions, or a link in your newsletter. The point is the same. No audience, no results.

2. Registration

You almost always want a registration page. People are used to signing up for things online. But the page itself needs to sell the webinar. A headline that promises something specific. A photo of the presenter. A few lines about what the viewer will learn.

Mathews also recommends a countdown timer. If the webinar is available forever with no deadline, people will “watch it later.” And later usually means never.

3. Build Excitement

Here is something most people skip. Getting someone to register is not the finish line. It is the starting line. Between registration and the webinar, you need to keep people interested. Send reminder emails. Maybe a text. Share a teaser of what they will learn.

You register for something on Monday. The webinar is Thursday. By Wednesday you forgot why you signed up. A short email saying “Tomorrow we cover the three biggest mistakes in X” can make the difference between showing up and ignoring the notification.

All of this can be automated. Set it up once, it runs every time.

4. The Presentation

You deliver your presentation. If it works in person, it will very likely work online too, maybe with minor adjustments.

The big difference: you cannot send people rushing to a table at the back of the room. Instead, you direct them to what Mathews calls a “Hot List” page. A landing page where viewers enter their information and then move to a purchase or booking page.

The smart move is splitting this into two steps. First, contact info. Then, the purchase. Why? Because if someone drops off between step one and step two, you know they are a warm lead. That information is gold for follow-up.

5. Follow Up Like Crazy

The webinar creates multiple lists of people at different stages. Mathews breaks them into four groups:

• People who bought or took action
• People who clicked the Hot List page but did not complete the purchase
• People who watched the webinar but did not click through
• People who registered but never watched

Each group gets different follow-up. The person who watched but did not click needs a different message than the person who almost bought but abandoned the checkout. Today you would use email sequences, retargeting ads on Meta and Google, maybe even SMS. The tools have gotten better since 2017, but the principle is the same. Different behavior means different follow-up.

6. Stick and Overdeliver

After someone takes action, confirm it immediately. Send a receipt, a confirmation email, a summary of what they are getting. People want to know their purchase or booking went through.

Then give them something extra right away. Even if your main product ships in a week, give them something to consume now. A bonus video, a quick-start guide, access to a resource library. Instant gratification reduces buyer’s remorse and builds trust.

Mathews mentions his company also sends handwritten thank-you notes and physical packages. Getting a real package in the mail still feels special regardless of age. It stands out because nobody does it anymore.

Why This Still Matters

The webinar landscape has changed since 2017. Live streaming is normal now. Tools are better and cheaper. AI can help you build landing pages and write email sequences in minutes.

But the six-step framework is still solid. Most failed webinars fail not because the presentation was bad, but because one of the other five steps was missing. No traffic plan. No follow-up. No excitement building. No post-purchase experience.

If you already have a presentation that works, wrapping these six steps around it is one of the most practical ways to reach more people without burning yourself out traveling.

The next chapter, written by Kennedy himself, goes deeper into treating your online presentation like a TV production. Because once you are on camera, the rules change.

This is post 14 of 21 in my retelling of No B.S. Guide to Powerful Presentations by Dan Kennedy.

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