Free webinar as a lead magnet for a podcast host. Is it worth it?

Hi IHers,

You might be considering a webinar as tool to attract customers to your business.

If so, this should be interesting for you...

These are the results of an experiment I did using a webinar as a lead magnet.

Hopefully you can learn a bit from my experience.

Also, you can share your own experiences with others in the community.

Background

I'm building a podcast host, Caproni.fm.

I already have one real user, but that user is not paying yet (will send him soon a proposal for a milestone when he will start paying) .

To differentiate myself from other hosting solutions, I provide one on one podcasting help to each customer. I help each user along every step of the way and will even build custom integrations into their websites.

To attract customers, I decided to experiment with offering a free webinar on how to start a podacast.

The podcast hosting market is pretty crowded, so I decided to attempt marketing the webinar to the Spanish speaking world, where there is less competition.

Spanish is my native language.

Webinar

The goal was to reach out to people who are interested in starting a podcast and have them participate on a webinar about how to start a podcast. Then, convert at least one of them into a trial user for my platform.

I created two events, one on Eventbrite and one on Facebook.

Stats

Eventbrite

• 19 signups
• 371 page views
  Facebook
• 47 singups
• 188 "I'm interested"
• 10 page likes

Paid promotion

I experimented with Facebook ads.

Firstly, I tried to promote my Eventbrite event using Facebook ads, but barely anybody who clicked and went to the event page signed up so I decided to try promoting a Facebook event instead.

The Facebook event, as it had a lot less friction worked out much better.

In total I spent $13.02 in ads to promote the Facebook event. The ad reached 17,300 people and 200 of those replied to my event, most of them clicking "I'm interested".

I also considered LinkedIn ads, but after a friend recommended me this Julian Shapiro guide, I decided against it.

Results

Yesterday night I held the event.

Out of the 66 signups, around 19 showed up.

This is inline with my previous experience with online events. About a third of the people who signup up actually show up.

Overall, the reception from the audience was very positive. They got a great value from my presentation.

However, I think only one of the participants might actually become a trial user and that person most likely came from organic channels.

The ads were probably not worth it.

Lessons learned

Before the event, somebody emailed me saying they couldn't come.

I replied saying that I was willing to offer the same webinar, one on one. However, the participant said that they were only curious about starting a podcast so they didn't want to waste my time.

In the end, I think this kind of webinar attracts people who are curious about a topic. These leads might eventually be nurtured into real users, but it will probably take a long time for them to convert.

Next steps

My next experiment will be to double down on "do things that don't scale" and instead of offering a webinar I will offer one hour of free podcasting help/consulting.

Hopefully this will filter out those who are merely curious in podcasting.

I want to get directly those who are very serious about starting a podcast for professional/business purposes. Since I'm just starting out, I want to focus on getting my first 3-5 customers. These people who are serious are probably way more likely to convert quickly.

If by any chance you are interested in my free podcast consulting, you can email me a gabriel@caproni.fm.

What do you guys think about my strategy? What suggestions do you have?