In this series of posts, we’re breaking down how to create a sales funnel, the decisions to make along the way, how to track what happens, and how to interpret the results. We’re doing all this so that we can better answer the question “Where should I focus my energy the next time I launch this offer?”

You put on your masterclass, and people signed up, and some of them either came or watched the replay! Hooray! Well done!

In this entry, we’ll look closely at the number of attendees you had, how to count them, and what it means.

Sales funnel broken apart showing our steps in this example (in text to left).

Layer 2c: How many people attended your masterclass?

a woman sitting at a computer, writing notes on paperHere, we’re trying to answer the question:

  • How well did my post-registration copy entice people to come to the masterclass (or watch the replay)?

Once they’ve registered, you need to entice them to show up.

You can overcome some practical barriers, such as forgetting to come, with reminders (via email, SMS, messenger bots, and more) and adding it to their calendar for them.

You’ll also need to overcome the more emotional barriers (“Why did I sign up for this? I can’t remember what’s in it for me.”) by writing good copy that gets them excited about what you’ll be sharing with them in your masterclass.

This layer’s conversion rate is a measure of how well you did both.

Some statistics for you

The average webinar has an attendance rate of 40%, with only 40% of those who attend staying for the entire webinar.

That means that if 100 people sign up for your masterclass, on average, you could expect 40 to show up, and 16 to stay til the end.

(You’ll want to encourage people to stay to the end – offer a bonus they’ll only get if they stay. Lead magnets are great for this. Make sure what you offer fits in well with the needs of the audience of that particular masterclass.)

Here are some great stats about how long to make your webinar, what day of week and time of day work best, and more, so do check it out.

How many stayed until the end?

A runner crossing a finish line, running into the loose tape there.When we set up our funnel, we decided to simply count how many attended the webinar, rather than how many stayed until the end. If you want to count how many stayed until the end, here are a couple of easy options:

  1. Get an assistant to screenshot the Participant list at a certain point close to the end. Tag those people in your email system manually.
  2. Your webinar provider (Zoom, for example) may provide logs of attendees along with how long they attended for. You could use this to manually tag people.
    • Be aware that if the email address they use for Zoom is different from the one they’ve signed up for your emails with, you may not be able to tag them.
  3. Offer something they can get for staying til the end – a pdf, video, etc – that you give them a link to a signup page for, where they enter their email address. Set up the signup form to tag them appropriately in your system so that you know they came from the end of the masterclass.
    • Be aware that if they choose not to take up your offer, you won’t be able to tag them.

How to track

But back to our example at hand: How many people attended your masterclass?

Set this up so you know that answer by emailing the link to them (generally several times) from your email system. Tag people who click on that link so you know they attended your masterclass.

You’ll also want to send out a replay. Tag those people, too. I’d suggest using a different tag. This does two things: you’ll be able to see the live attendees vs replay watchers, and you’ll be able to see how many people both attended live and watched the replay. If you have too many people doing both, you might re-think what you’re presenting, or how you’re presenting it: maybe it’s too difficult, and you should start at a lower level.

What were your results?

Once your launch is done, you’ll add up all the people who attended live and watched the replay to see how many saw your masterclass.

pile of 3d social media iconsLet’s say that after your launch finishes, you check your numbers and you find that of the people who attended and/or watched the replay:

  • 15 came from Instagram
  • 300 came from Facebook
  • 40 came from LinkedIn

What were your conversion rates?

To get your conversion rate for this step, take the number of people who attended your masterclass and divide by the number of people who signed up for it.

  • Instagram: 15 / 30 = 50.0%
  • Facebook: 300 / 600 = 50.0%
  • LinkedIn: 40 / 80 = 50.0%
  • Total: 355 / 710 = 50.0%
Pie chart showing half and half with an Instagram logo over one half
Pie chart showing half and half with a Facebook logo over one half
Pie chart showing half and half with a LinkedIn logo over one half
Pie chart showing half and half with three logos over one half: Instagram, Facebook, and LinkedIn

What does that mean?

smaller stones balancing on a larger one, representing balanceThis is rather higher than the benchmark average of 40%, so you know you’re doing really well with your copy encouraging people to come to the masterclass. Well done!

Interestingly, it’s also the same across all 3 of these audiences, which is unusual for us so far in this funnel. Worth noticing. After they signed up, they would have all received the same emails from you, so that would explain a leveling out. However, any reminders you put on social media would have only been seen by those on that network, so it would be surprising if they were all the same.

What next?

The next thing we want them to do after the masterclass is click on the link to our sales page. We’ll look at that in our next entry!

Read the whole series here.

Hi, I’m Sara-Jayne Slocombe of Amethyst Raccoon. I help your small business thrive using the power of your numbers, empowering you so that you have the confidence and knowledge to run your business profitably and achieve the goals you’re after.

I am a UK-based  Business Insights Consultant, which means I look at your data and turn it into information and insights. I separate the noise from the signal and translate it all into actions that you can actually take in your business.

I also facilitate the Power Pod Roundtable, which is a business discussion group, and the AIM HIGH Mastermind, which is a small group of business owners who want to move their businesses forward.

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Sara-Jayne Slocombe