Also published on LinkedIn!
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Webinars are one of the best lead magnets you can run. They build trust faster than a PDF ever will. You get 45 minutes of someone's attention, with your face, your voice, your thinking.
But most people doing webinars are leaving 80% of the value on the table.
Here's what I keep seeing go wrong:
→ No email collection. Just a LinkedIn event with a "register" button that doesn't actually capture anything usable outside LinkedIn.
→ No reminder emails. People register, forget, don't show up.
→ No pre-webinar email. No context, no prep, no excitement built.
→ No post-webinar email. The replay doesn't go out. The offer doesn't get sent. The conversation stops.
The registration is the easy part. The funnel around it is where the money is.
How the best ones do it
Tony Robbins ran one of the most-discussed webinar funnels in the last few years. The offer was simple: a product for $1, with all proceeds going to donation. One dollar. No friction. But the whole machine around it, reminder emails, pre-event emails, post-event follow-ups, replay sequences, was where the actual business happened. The webinar wasn't the product. The funnel was.
Dickie Bush 🚢 and Nicolas Cole 🚢👻 (from Start Writing Online and Ship 30 for 30&Premium Ghost Writing Academy) do another version of this really well. They've run a few of these, and their latest one was yesterday (link). The registration page asks for one thing: your email. Nothing else. No phone number, no company size, no "what's your biggest challenge" dropdown. Just an email.
That's the right balance. They get exactly what they need to nurture, sell, and follow up. You give up almost nothing to attend. The friction is zero.
From that single email, they can run the full sequence: reminder, live event, replay, pitch, nurture. All of it automated.
The rule: ask for less, deliver the full sequence
Most people overthink the registration form and underthink everything that comes after it. Flip that.
Ask for an email. Maybe a first name. Nothing else.
Then build the actual funnel:
→ Confirmation email (instant)
→ Day-before reminder
→ One-hour-before reminder
→ Post-webinar email with replay or next step
→ Follow-up sequence for people who didn't buy
That's the part most people skip. That's why their webinars don't make money.
Where the tools are going
Until now, running a proper webinar funnel meant stitching together a bunch of tools:
→ A form builder like Jotform, Tally, or Typeform
→ A landing page on Carrd or similar
→ A dedicated webinar tool (Luma, getcontrast.io, Zoom)
→ Your email platform for the sequences → Zapier or Make to connect it all
It worked, but it was a mess. Every integration was a place something could break.
Beehiiv just changed that. They launched native webinars this week: live events for up to 10,000 attendees, with native video, screen sharing, and chat. You can sell tickets in 10 currencies, send automated reminders, and record sessions to resell as products later. All without leaving your newsletter platform.
Founder Tyler Denk broke down the launch here, and team member Steven shared a video walkthrough of the feature in action. You can also check the product update page here.
If you're already on Beehiiv, the stack just collapsed from five tools to one. If you've been putting off webinars because the setup felt too complicated, that excuse is gone.
The takeaway
A webinar is not a lead magnet. A webinar funnel is.
If you're only doing the live event, you're doing 20% of the work and getting 20% of the result. The emails before, during, and after are where it actually pays off.
Start simple. One email field. Four emails around the event. Watch what happens.
Full ESP comparison table with pricing at different list sizes, free at leadletters.digital
See you tomorrow.