I cling pretty strongly to my introvert status. Even with my nearest and dearest friends, if I’m going to spend several days in constant social interaction, I allot a few more hours for sleep and allow myself a few extra minutes putting on makeup so that at the end of the day, I don’t wind up crying in the floor for no reason. (It has happened… many times.)
When I scrolled through Facebook the day I decided to research self-help ads, I froze at one titled “How Smart Introverts Are Succeeding in Network Marketing” by Tyson Zahner. What a thought! There was hope beyond the infernal it’s all in who you know concept that plagued me!
Or, so I thought. I hopped on my first webinar with a composition notebook and my colored pens. I laid everything out like it was my first day of college again. I logged in to the webinar, and the wait screen flashed “3 Simple Steps to Attract High Quality Leads in 30 Days.” Well, that wasn’t exactly about introverts, but it would all come together, right?
The Pros
- The first 40 minutes of the webinar had some really good information. After the initial round of testimonials and self-promotion, Mr. Zahner defined some common marketing terms and explained a three step sales strategy. The strategy felt pretty textbook, but he did do a great job of breaking down concepts and making definitions accessible.
- Mr. Zahner had an interesting take on using Facebook messenger to drive engagement. As I saw it crop up on other coach’s websites, I started to understand this concept as “automation,” which could allow an entrepreneur to be more productive by reducing the amount of tasks he or she had.
The Cons
- Since this was my first webinar, Mr. Zahner introduced me to the purpose of all of these free webinars and ads. After consuming the coach’s content, you could sign up for continued training! By the way, the offer would only be good for the next two days or two weeks, so, “don’t ask yourself, ‘Can I afford it?’ Ask yourself, ‘How can I afford it?’” Some coaches do this sales pitch in a really natural way. If I hadn’t had a firm freebies only rule, there were a few coaches who almost convinced me to purchase their courses. Mr. Zahner was not one of those coaches.
- I was feeling rather snarky as the one hour webinar turned into a two hour sales pitch. In fact, after so much selling and promotion, I forgot all the good information he gave in the beginning. Had I not taken notes, I would have left the webinar very angry with how I had spent two hours of my life. Reviewing my notes now, I can see the value he did provide in the first forty minutes.
- One of my greatest frustrations with Mr. Zahner was that he promoted the concept of 80% marketing and 20% selling, but he didn’t abide by his advice. By the end of the webinar, I calculated that he accomplished at best 50/50 marketing and selling, and I was not adding in the time that he spent on promotion at the beginning of the webinar. He may have had good information on creating successful Facebook ads and automating your processes for productivity, but I left the webinar with the feeling that I had just tried to buy a used car from a dingy lot built in the ’80s and never remodeled.
- Lastly, Mr. Zahner sent a vast amount of follow-up emails in the 3 days after the webinar. I received an email about every 6 hours until the offer expired, and when my watch was buzzing in the middle of teaching preschoolers at church, my patience left me. Thankfully, after the offer ended, I have not received any more emails from his company, so the buzzing on my watch while trying to herd 3 year olds comes from 15 other businesses and not his.
What I Tried
- Mr. Zahner’s theories required a great deal of up front cost to pay for Facebook ads and the Facebook messenger bot automation, so I haven’t used any of his suggestions yet. If I post an ad on social media for future ventures, I most likely will follow his free Facebook ad lead generation template since the concepts seem to work consistently for other entrepreneurs.
Initial Conclusion
As the first webinar I researched, I was pretty disappointed. I didn’t realize at the time that the common purpose for all these free webinars was to push the sale of a very expensive online course. Once I started watching other webinars and researching other email courses, I realized that there were several other coaches covering the same topics in much less pushy ways. If you are looking for someone to help you with your Facebook Ads, I would recommend trying the Marketing Academy for Small Businesses. Her information seemed to be more up-to-date for Facebook’s current policies, and she was much less pushy about selling her services.