Free-Taste E-Class Ladder
Give one webinar free, then sell the next six-to-eight — they've tasted being your customer.
- Difficulty
- Moderate
- Time to result
- ~weeks to results
- Steps
- 4
- Confidence
- 88%
The E-Class is Fladlien's model of using one free webinar to sell a series of paid webinars delivered live over time. The free session lets prospects taste what it's like to be your customer; if they enjoy it, you've essentially given them the product before they pay, so there's no risk left and the sale is easy. You collect payment in advance and create the series live on a schedule. He originally ran twelve-week series but later learned six to eight is ideal. The insight came from front-end ebook buyers who kept asking for more depth and examples — so he turned his 12-step copywriting system into a webinar series sold back to those same buyers.
Origin
Buyers of Fladlien's $17 'Three Hour Ad' copywriting ebook kept asking for more depth, so he turned his 12 copywriting steps into a 12-webinar 'Copy E-Class' sold to those same buyers — a model he says he pioneered before masterminds were common.
Core principles
- 01A free webinar gives prospects a taste of being your customer before they have to pay.
- 02If they enjoy the taste, there's no risk left in paying — it's an easy sell.
- 03Sell the series in advance, then create it live over time.
- 04Six to eight webinars is the ideal series length, not twelve.
- 05Use one webinar, Inception-style, to sell a series of upcoming webinars.
How to run it
- 1
Deliver a free taste webinar
Run one genuinely valuable free webinar so prospects experience what it's like to be on your webinars.
Pro tip The free session is the product sample — they've already had the experience before paying.
- 2
Pitch the series
At the end, offer six to eight more webinars as a paid series, positioned as more of what they just enjoyed.
Pro tip Six to eight is ideal — twelve is more than needed.
- 3
Sell in advance
Take payment up front for the whole series before any of it is created.
- 4
Create it live over time
Build each webinar in real time on a schedule, delivering the series across weeks.
In the wild
Fladlien's $17 'Three Hour Ad' ebook taught 12 copywriting steps, and buyers wanted more depth and examples. He turned those 12 steps into 12 weekly webinars — the 'Copy E-Class' — and sold it back to the same front-end buyers.
→ Created a repeatable model of selling a paid webinar series in advance, later relaunched (Product E-Class) and run for 14 years.
Common mistakes
Overloading the series length
Fladlien defaulted to twelve webinars before learning six to eight is ideal; too many sessions dilutes the offer and overextends delivery.
Is it for you?
Best for
Webinar-comfortable experts who can teach live and want to sell a program before building it.
Not ideal for
Sellers who dislike live presenting or whose audience won't attend scheduled live sessions.
From the transcript
“if I can give you one webinar for free that gives you a taste of what it's like to be on my webinars and then…”
“you're selling a taste of what it's like to be your customer before somebody has to be your customer”
From the episode
Jason Fladlien: The Quarter-Billion-Dollar Webinar Man Reveals His Best Marketing and Sales Secrets
Jason Fladlien