From the participants’ viewpoint all that’s needed is access to a phone and a dedicated internet connection. You participate in the webinar using your Web browser (Internet Explorer or Netscape, for example) and there’s no other software needed. Just call a toll-free telephone number and use a PIN to participate in the presentation.
Webinars can be telephone conferences with voice-only content or they can include both video and audio elements. They can be “live” or pre-packaged and can be on any topic you’d like to present. Some of the more popular uses are for education, training, corporate communications and employee communications.
Think of the many advantages. You can link people in different cities and even different countries in a meeting without travel and accommodation costs. You can present the same program to any size audience and only have to do it once. News can be released to all media at the same time without concerns over leaks and misunderstandings.
Webinars are usually arranged through a specialist service provider. They coordinate the communications and assist with registration of participants, for a fee of course. The charge can be based on the complexity and duration of the event as well as the number of participants, but it’s going to be less expensive than trying to get people together in the same place at the same time.
The first step in creating a webinar to help in your marketing is to identify the members of your audience. This can be your existing clients, your prospects, or perhaps both groups. Now you have to think of what will get them interested in attending.
The content of your webinar is critical to its success. Make the content something that your audience will be really interested in knowing — something that will help them in their businesses and be of such value that they’ll appreciate you for providing it. Give them an informative and useful experience.
You might want to do it all by yourself, or perhaps invite a guest or guests to assist. You can even prepare your own PowerPoint materials or use video footage from other sources. It’s a highly flexible medium.
Choosing the date and time for the webinar has to be done with care. Stay away from holidays. It’s also best to avoid Mondays and Fridays. Check the calendar for such things as major industry events like trade shows or conferences and try to find a day that’s all yours.
The time of day is equally important. Most of those attending will be sitting at their desks or somewhere else in their offices so early mornings and late afternoons can be difficult for many who might get stuck in traffic or have to leave early for some reason. The middle of the day is generally best, and lunchtime webinars have proven popular as a good use of management time (and the reason to enjoy some sandwiches courtesy of petty cash).
Give your guests plenty of time to register for the event. About a month before your webinar is a good time to start promoting it, usually via email or fax so it’s easy to return their “reservation”. Don’t leave the invitation too late or your could have trouble getting back to attendees with participation details.
Some webinar organizing experts recommend scheduling more than one event to be sure of getting the maximum number of participants. This is a decision you’ll have to make for yourself, although it’s natural that regardless of how much notice you give there will always be some invitees that will be unable to attend on a given date.
There are several things you can do to encourage participation in your event. Publicize it through your industry association or chamber of commerce. Put a big splash on the front page of your website. Tell your suppliers about it, and invite all your former clients as well as your current clients and prospects.
And very important — send out a reminder to your attendees a couple of days before the date and, if possible, an email alert an hour before the scheduled starting time. It’s a fact of life that unless you send out “reminders” you’ll lose a big percentage of your audience even if they’ve already confirmed their interest.
So that’s webinars in a nutshell. They’re a great way to market your abilities and demonstrate your firm’s competence in its field of expertise. You’ll have enjoyed an interaction with your existing clients and the information you gather from other attendees will be valuable for future use in your own marketing.
Copyright 2005, RAN ONE Inc. All rights reserved. Reprinted with permission from www.ranone.com.