What is a Webinar?
Do you detest those excruciating seminars which you have to attend in order to sell your products?
Do you want to update yourself and try being technologically advanced, a techno-geek? We’ll tell you exactly what you could do to be one.
Ever heard of a webinar?
Well, many people haven’t so if you don’t know anything, it’s just fine! A webinar is basically a seminar which is presented over the internet, or Web. Web seminars, web conferences and internet meetings are all synonyms for this new technology and are used in sales and marketing applications, to influence potential customers.
Unlike webcasts, where the audience can only watch and listen, webinars are presentations where the members of the large audience can interact with the presenter via the internet. Hassle free and sleek!
Webinars are used for a variety of purposes – internet-based meetings, remote training and one-to-one meetings sharing details over their computer desktops. Hosting such webinars require knowledge about specific software that configures the presenter and the audience’s computers for easy communication. If you are keen on keeping yourself up-to-date with the world of technology, you might just want to know more about the various features of this web wonder!
We guess you might just want to present seminars using this software rather than having to present product via a webcast!
Well, we guess an integrated net telephone conferencing for audio seminars, the ability of the audience to view the presenter’s screen during live product demos, a continuous streaming video and scope for animated and interactive presentations, the unique features of recording and playback options, the option of segregating the audience into subgroups to help interact better, to be able to present questionnaires and polls to the audience and even manage question and answer sessions during the seminar, all seem to be a boon to you to boost your career options!
Isn’t the software just the thing you were looking for to cut down on the hassles of hosting a seminar?
Imagine a conference in another city while you are sitting at home sipping on coffee and using this software. It would mean cutting down on the travel expenses, a huge benefit, and it would also ensure that the webinar goes off without the slightest glitch.
All you need is systematically planned webinars, trained personnel to handle the software and a whole lot of practice! Webinars welcome you to the future.
Web Conferencing
Conferences over the World Wide Web, you must be kidding?
No, we aren’t joking any more, the future of conferencing is here and taking the world by storm. No more travel fare hassles for you, no more tiring sessions – web conferencing is just a click away! Want to know more about web conferencing and how it’s done? Just read on…
Web Conferencing is a meeting or seminar held over the internet. One can use almost anything – audio, video or even text-based interactions – which are conducted in real time! Cool huh?
In its simplest form, web conferencing can be via a medium of text based ‘chats’ using Yahoo Messenger or Microsoft NetMeeting or inviting others to converse and being able to communicate in real-time. Such ‘chats’ can be enhanced by the addition of a simple web camera, and bingo, you have your very own amateur web conferencing setup.
What can I do with Web Conferencing?
It all depends on the type of job you have! You could pitch sales or even train your staff through this medium. This sophisticated software allows seminars or presentations to be hosted for a large audience, without the slightest problem. Fully interactive meetings, sharing of files and important documents, slide shows and question-answer sessions are all made easier.
What is Online Collaboration?
Online Collaboration is helpful when your team members are located in different cities or countries. This medium helps you share files easily, manage documents and projects effectively and even edit documents online or in real-time!
What are the benefits of Web Conferencing?
This feature is for those who’ve got sick of traveling around for seminars! Web Conferencing not only saves money but time. No more traveling, air-tickets or accommodation hassles. It also means that employees would be at their desks for a prolonged period of time, raising the productivity. Enhanced communication and the ability to talk with people via the web whenever required is a great boon to any corporate firm.
How much does it cost?
The costs depend upon what type of application you are looking for. It’s always better to bring together a broad estimate of what web conferencing system would suit your needs, and then scout around for either low-grade or high-grade models that fit into your budget. The low-level, one-to-one systems are virtually free, that is, they’re dirt cheap. However, advanced level systems, as expected, can cost thousands of dollars.
Video Seminars
You are well aware of the importance of communication if you run a business. It is important when dealing with current clients and potential prospects you are trying to for business. You definitely know the different methods of communication even if you are not a business owner.
Communication is important if everyone wants to be successful at their job. Video seminars are one of the newest ways of communicating with others in the business world. They have a lot to offer, though they are not right for every industry.
While in the office, your communication with everybody you want like clients, home based employees, potential prospects and others is the primary simple benefit of a video seminar. Without leaving the office, you can thus you can use a video seminar for giving your viewpoint without heading out into traffic, or purchasing an expensive plane ticket.
Another obvious advantage of video seminars is that they can be set up on a dime. It can be often very difficult to book a flight or reach your destination by car in a reasonable period of time if you run into a disputable issue. You would be much better off depending on a video seminar instead of fighting this flow.
Likewise, the only thing that you have to do is get everything set up on your end and then, simply informing others of what is going on. To use whenever necessary, a lot of businesses keep their video seminar equipment set up at all times. If you know that you will be making presentations on a regular basis, then this is a great idea.
The money that can be saved on video seminars by businesses is one of the main reasons that of their growing popularity. You need to view this as a future investment as some money will be cost on the initial outlay to set up the technology. You will save more than the amount used to pay now in the form by not having to travel nearly as much. When people are deciding whether or not to get involved with video seminars, they often forget the long turn investment.
Video seminars may or may not right for you, your business and clientele as it is evident to you from above. Let this innovative technology work for your advantage if you think these can save you both time and money.
Pre Webinar Preparations
Are you stressed for the upcoming webinar for a new product launch?
Relax, there are some tricks that would save you from such a situation!
If you follow them you would find yourself go through the situation without much tension and headache. In case you’re a planning for a big event which is not your specialty, then you have to prepare for the big picture.
The picture will include certain minute details which might not consider as important but are essential for a successful seminar, webinar or any such event. When the product is on board it is for another team. It is important to map out your schedule as this would help you to prepare for the main event, starting from planning the advertising campaign to moments the webinar ends.
The preliminary schedule of the product is decided then that is followed by the advertisers taking over for them to work out various strategies. The training personnel are up to the task of designing training programs. The finance personnel are up to the task of allocating sums to determine the entire budget for the product launch.
Preparing for a product launch can be very demanding. But if you are aware of what to do and prioritize them according to their importance things would look easier. You may find that there is a great difference in planning an event virtually and really.
It’s important to get the right and responsible people signed up for the task. it would be wrong if you expect cent percent attendance. The task of getting about 70% attendances depends upon you and your advertising team.
You must have enticing strategies for people to sign up for the webinar. For this you should keep in mind that your team has to provide with maximum information. Without adequate information the audience may feel that it was a waste of time. Make sure that registration is accessible to all.
You may do two things either form a new website just before the seminar or just add a registration form on your company’s website. Make a point to see that there is all available information regarding the product for the audience.
While sending invitations you could send them e-books or other freebies that would be appreciated.
Get the best speaker and the best people to conduct the webinar. Brief them and make everything convenient for them. The best thing to do is to have an overall run through so that you can get rid of the pre webinar blues.
How to Profit From Webinars
Do you want to cut down on your corporate expenses?
The easiest way to do so is to cut down on conference costs by holding your conferences on the internet. Webinars or web-seminars are a fantastic method to hold an interactive session all over the world at very little cost. Gone are the days of flights, hotels and conference halls.
Replacing conventional seminars and meetings with webinars can only work out if there is adequate preparation for it. It is technically not too difficult to arrange and almost any business which needs a long distance conference can afford it, but for the webinars to be successful you need to prepare well.
Expanding your business demands that not only should your customer base grow, but at the same time your portfolio of products and services should become more diversified in order to accommodate the differing needs, requirements and specifications of your clients.
Solutions which enable you to do these things, like solutions for effective lead generation and revenue stream maximization are dependent on technology and use it to its maximum benefit to help you cut costs and improve bottom lines.
A particular method, which has been gaining in popularity, is the use of the webinars or the web seminar which allows the participants to view and hear both the presentation as well as participate in a group video conference. Its major advantage is the fact that it can help you to reach out to people all over the world without the expenses and hassles of traveling and arranging for local accommodation.
Before you decide to setup a webinar, you need to consider five key factors to determine what platform you will be using to host the webinar:
· What technology do you want / need to implement the webinar?
· Will you be web-casting the webinar live?
· Will your clients be able to access the webinar through their corporate firewalls?
· What are its associated costs?
· Would you want to reuse the webinar content later?
To ensure your webinar is successful, you should consider the following things as well:
Pre-plan what you want to share with your client that would generate sales leads or generate profits. Then try to translate this information into content appropriate for a webinar before showing it.
Go over the five points before settling on a technological solution for your webinar.
Webinar for Better Communication
One of the most important skills in today’s corporate world is the art of communicating effectively. As an employer, it would pay rich dividends for you if you pay attention too the communication skills of your managers and employees, and take measures to hone them to perfection.
Improved customer services, smarter presentations, speaking abilities and strong writing skills are things that can put your company at the head of the pack.
While there are a number of formal methods to deliver communication to your employees, the use of webinars is becoming increasingly popular. Webinars can go a long way in improving your employees’ interpersonal communication skills.
What is a webinar, you might ask. A webinar, basically is a seminar that is transmitted live over the Internet. The webinar’s greatest advantage is the flexibility it offers in shaping your program modules, etc.
The webinar is a great idea especially if you have a large company with locations spread across a wide geographical area. With a webinar, you can reach all your employees without all of them having to come to a central location, at great personal or company cost. Given the convenience of the webinar, it is also possible to invite almost any speaker no matter how busy they are, as they can speak without having to take the trouble of attending the seminar.
Webinars can be developed to meet the need for almost any kind of communication skills. From ways to combat stress, to optimizing delivery performance, to developing language skills, webinars can be designed around any theme with excellent interactive features like visual aids and interactive Q&A sessions.
You can use webinars to enhance your contact with your managers, and to help them improve their skills. You can reach out to your customer service executives and help them with a webinar on, say, how to handle tough customers or how to increase calling success rates.
A webinar can also be conducted on something like writing skills, with special focus on one particular kind of writing that a worker might need in his work. Many companies also conduct webinars on improving listening skills, which gains importance particularly in sectors that involve a high degree of contact with the client. Improving listening skills helps streamline work both within the office and outside it.
The advantages of webinars are many, as we can see. So, it is only a matter of time before the largest companies shift to this format for good, utilizing the Internet to suit their business needs.
Webinars for Successful Training
Employee training is a job that generally comes under the supervision of managers. Every department, whether it is accounting, advertising, sales or customer service has needs specific to the service they render for the company.
One needs training seminars that teach the skills necessary for your employees to become more adept in their jobs, and that help foster cooperation and communication. One delivery option that provides flexibility in training are webinars. Webinars can be one’s key to successful training for one’s employees.
A training Webinar is an online seminar. One logs on at a particular time, and one can get to observe and participate in a seminar on the Internet. Several webinars are offered with a telephone number included, so that one may also call and have the scope of interacting with the trainer.
Webinars put up many advantages to in-person presentations. One is not bound to only regional speakers for instance. Geographical limitations are no longer imposed because with Internet access one can avail of nationally recognized trainers.
An Internet presentation can be cheaper, for example, when one wishes to have those trainers give a presentation, who live across the country from one’s own office and having them in the office would make the training too expensive. Anyone having Internet access can take part in a webinar.
Several managers are gratified by the pliability that comes with online management training. One can provide a specialized training for a specific chosen group of employees, or even individual trainees, or one can train a big group when one uses an online training. All one needs is a computer linked to a projector and an amplified speaker telephone.
This simplicity makes online seminars for large groups easy to facilitate. Training of many employees together also has the added advantage of facilitating greater cooperation and communication among employees, an excellent outcome when the trained teams use the leadership skills learned at the seminar to more effectively operate in a small-group dynamic.
Employees who undergo this training get much more out of a presentation that has been not only been shown live, but is also recorded. Many experts in the educational field feel that learning is best affected in a circular rather than a linear manner. Students have the need to take in one new idea more than once for it to become permanently implanted.
Webinar is different from a live presentation where one sees it only once; in a webinar material can be repeated several times according to the wish of the participants when it is recorded and available to one’s employees online. Employees can therefore learn at their own speed, an added advantage for increasing the efficacy of the delivery method for all employees.
Various learner types can be easily fitted through the webinar delivery method. Employees or trainees who learn by listening, watching or doing themselves will have sufficient scope for learning with webinar training.
Your Webinar Agenda
Set goals
Though it is apparent, you have to consider handling a webinar. Then you can figure out your achievement and have ROI to it. Check whether you want the following?
· Have cues and get fresh products for sale
· Teach present clients for a fresh piece of work
· Get material and responses on a present opportunity.
In case you want cues, a proper move will be to concentrate on intermediary alternative email catalog leasing. An allowed interior email program can be a very good idea if you want to create understanding about a fresh item or do a survey in present clientele
Make opportunities
When you have made aims, organize prospects, which are ignored often. If you want to meet expenses like endorsing colloquiums, artistic and progress expenses of organizing the listing micro-site, moving webinar software and distributing souvenirs then be practical, particularly when produce limits are there.
Sometimes gaining operations are farsighted, which make fresh cues. This may require 3-12 months to launch by email, telephone and private appointments prior to recovery expenses.
Calculate answers
Answer charges are affected by several factors, among which three are: your proposal (like the value of impartial webinar matter), the inventive (the way you reach out the advantages), and the objective (the work name objective in the emails).
Internet passage is temporary, and instances in the week are vital for email transitions – especially Tuesday to Thursday mornings are best for increased answers as people work at emails.
Decide the aim expense according to the listing
In endorsing equipment hardware or software and online colloquiums to have fresh clients by opt-in email catalog leasing entirely, cost per registration (CPR) for an endorsement, a trade name visitor lecturer and original listing procedure is about $50-$100. The expense is an approximate. If your profit is around $300 each sale and you are close to 1 in 3 pointers in a sale, then the expense in each item will have a cost per acquisition (CPA) of $150-$300.
Increase turnout
The real produce pace in the records is around 40-60%. Then you require a plan to track people who listed but didn't come. Send an email some days after the event, with required links and a duplicate of the program and talk. Attach to it a free item test.
Present the particulars of the program; interrupted with 5-10 minute augmentation, and tell every presenter to guarantee people as to why they should come. Give motivations to register by a date, and data on abiding those reasons when people come to the webinar.
Hosting a Webinar
You need to choose a webinar hosting vendor that is compatible with several operating systems, is reliable and scalable. Consider vendors experienced in the most up-to-date techniques of polling, chat, application-sharing and recording. Opt-in email lists are provided along with webinar hosting by some vendors.
Some Webinar hosting vendors offer the chance to meet consultants as part of the package. The consultant can train you to conduct successful conferences and attend the webinar to deal with problems if and when they arise. So choose a meeting moderator to assist the speaker(s). Intercall is a vendor which provides trained moderators.
Host the webinar at least twice. That way you can accommodate all the time zones. Try to avoid Mondays and Fridays, as these are peak days and, as there are many conferences being held, attendance is likely to be low. Also try to start a quarter past the hour. Meeting usually end on the hour, so this allows your participants to relax a little. Try times like 10:00 a.m. or 2:00 p.m. as most participants are likely to be available at these times.
Invite industry experts to participate. Having a big brand partner will stimulate interest and may double or even triple attendance. You can also use sponsorships to expand your audience or defray promotional costs.
Join the conference early and ensure that everything is working. Set up a welcome slide to announce your meeting is about to start. Before it does, provide some information about the technical details. When each speaker begins, have him/her introduce themselves and add a picture and bio.
Don’t stuff too much information on your PowerPoint slides. And try to use other media as well. Include web-demos, flash, animation, etc. to capture your audience’s interest. Make it interactive by including polls at key points.
During registration, ask qualifying questions which allows you to gain insight about your audience. Tailor your presentation to suit the needs of the particular audience. Afterwards, ask them follow-up questions. The answers to these can provide necessary information to your sales people.
Record the webinar and post it for future consultation.
Create a library of your past conferences for your existing and potential customers. Recorded webinars and Q/A sessions can help you train new recruits and review customer input before launching a new product or before strategy sessions.
Send follow-up emails to the participants and review all feed back gathered from them.
The Best Servers
Since several users are gradually coming to terms with the capacity of employing web casting and online discussions for satisfying their requirements, be sure that these areas are developing fast.
Webcasting
Two methods are there for Webcasting. In active webcasts, torrent acoustics and videotapes are communicated by the newscaster’s video apparatus, into the PC of the spectators who are paying attention. It is well liked by media, and corporations who have to communicate with the clientele and users. A soundtrack webcast is generally accumulated on a server that is used by the consumers, when they want to see the series.
Several of those who create Internet conversation agenda and media procedures utilize a mixture of the two kinds of webcasts to get closer to users with their individual labors. Since both need a big quantity of bandwidth, the employment of a devoted server is compulsory if webcasting happens to be an integral part of the site.
Web Meetings
Web meetings function in the same way as an active webcast, technically, but it itself but has a totally dissimilar role. At a web meeting, several consumers meet and the consumers are simultaneously present, networking on the Web, very similar to what would have been done on a real meeting. Web meetings quite frequently happen at actual time, torrent video, with a web camera that works in everyone’s PC.
Then all users could share thoughts, employ images effects and observes the responses of people who they converse with at the meeting. This kind of online contact needs a very rich quantity of bandwidth, to transmit to all the consumers. This is only completed efficiently by employing the services of a devoted server.
Several of the globe's top worldwide corporations are today employing web networking for their trade reasons. This also lowers journey time and costs for both their own selves and their customers.
You have several kinds of functions for both web meetings and webcasts. It is influenced by the needs and wants of the web program and the target customers who have to appreciate it.
Starting from chat programs to videos giving directions, customer conferences to inspiration meetings, corporations who have an online presence could definitely have an appropriate utilization for all. You only need to have some amount of scientific knowledge, some grand thoughts and a devoted server to manage the work burden.
How Can Webinar Software Help You?
The times are changing, and changing fast. The days when a big company would hold a seminar in the conference room of a plush hotel, where attendance was by invitation only are long gone. This is the age of the webinar. Now, with the aid of the Internet, you can reach virtually anyone, anywhere in the world.
So, if you are based out of New York, and some of your potential invitees are in Washington, you ca actually reach out to them without their having to be physically present, through the webinar. The Internet, and consequently webinar software, have shrunk the world to the size of your office desktop.
Simple and cost effective, webinars offer multiple advantages. Firstly, you save on the cost of organizing a traditional seminar with invitees whose travel and stay is borne by the company. Secondly, webinar software is very easy to use and almost anyone can take full advantage of the many special features available. And finally, webinar software requires minimal initial investment, which again helps cut down costs.
Most webinar programs are quite comprehensive in the services they provide, and almost manage to mirror a traditional seminar. A webinar software can provide features like registration plans, delivering the webinar, recording it, toll-free conferencing calls, email services practice sessions and a comprehensive branding initiative to back everything up.
And the list goes on. So, as you can see, webinars are an excellent, feature-rich option that can make things convenient and cost-effective.
Now, compare this with all the preparation that goes into organizing a normal seminar. You will need to think about providing accommodation for attendees, arranging for their travel to the city and within it, booking space, making arrangements for the speakers, preparing handouts, and having all guests register manually.
Now, in all of this, imagine the amount of time and money that has been simply wasted—your employees’ time, your own time, and the time and cost of arranging everything.
With a webinar software, you can relegate such hassles to a bygone era, and move on to more efficient and convenient means like the webinar. You can broadcast right from your office, and no one else needs to leave his or her seat either!! Simply put, the advantages are many and the hassles few.
So, are you still planning to go with a traditional, expensive, time-consuming seminar in a hotel conference room, or will you do things the simpler, more wired way? The choice is yours, though the decision is probably already made.
How to Run a Successful Webinar
A webinar is basically a web conference with audio only, and is a good method of conducting meetings and training sessions, as well as introducing new products. A webinar is a good solution in any situation where people who are scattered all over the country, or world, need to share data. Some tips for running you r webinar smoothly follow.
When selecting a webinar service, you need to obtain one which supports the software you will use to share data. While most support PowerPoint or Word, if you’re using more sophisticated, ascertain that the webinar service is compatible.
A web conferencing provider can make sure your webinar goes without any hitches, and help you choose the requisite software. BuyerZone is a site where you can get connected to the best vendors, free of cost.
Technical problems that pop up at the very moment your presentation starts are extremely annoying, So you should try a practice webinar, preferably with a couple of colleagues, a day or so before the actual seminar. Though this will mean you pay rather a lot more, it’ll solve technical issues and give you some familiarity with the software.
If you’re the moderator, arrive early. This is as practical as it is polite. You should greet participants as they arrive, and being early also lets you ensure that the webinar is set up properly. On that note, ask first-time participants to arrive ahead of time as well.
Whether the people participating in your webinar are customers, employees or colleagues, you should respect their time. So create a schedule and stick to it. And if the discussion digresses, veer it back on track.
Webinar technology is great, but it’s still not like speaking face-to-face. Include less in your planned talk than you would if speaking in person, especially if you’re inexperienced.
A number of webinar providers allow you to archive at your presentation. So, if you’re a beginner, hunt up the file and watch it. It’ll help you self-assess the areas that require improvement, and judge where what the viewers received differed from what you thought you were providing.
Be prepared to answer some questions that aren’t about the topic of the webinar, but the technicalities involved—about installing plug-and-play devices, downloading the requisite software, etc.
However, stay focused on the topic; your service provider will give you a number to call if you face major technical issues.
How to Have a Winning Webinar?
An ingenuously designed Webinar can work wonders for you. As a profitable stratagem for marketing a product, a webinar increases sales leads to a massive extent. Let us give you some for an exceptional Webinar:
1. Devise a through plan. – Accommodating an agenda and timetable, a prospective mouthpiece and a means of registration in your plan is a must. You should also have a definite budget, endorsements and allow for workable metrics and carry the plan out.
2. Time it right – Choose a time when the maximum number of people will be able to attend for your own Webinar.
• Two weekdays just right for a Webinar is a Tuesday and a Wednesday. Neither is very close to the beginning or end of a week.
• For a Webinar on a nationwide scale select a time when people from various different time zones can view it together. The middle of an afternoon is best for this.
3. Endorsement – Don’t expect audiences to throng to your project in hordes. Chances are most don’t even know about it. You need to create awareness and interest through endorsements.
• Innovation is appreciated. Try out different types of advertisements and agencies to see what makes people tick.
• Networking is important. Authorize prospective audience members to invite others when you converse with them.
4. Carefully examine how your target audience-members’ minds’ work and devise a plan that will best market your product accordingly.
5. Your Webinar cannot be the result of nothing – Your plans to promote and sell must accommodate the Webinar.
6. Grab the viewers’ attention – Your spokesperson will have to combat the combined evils of the Internet, Emails, telephones, and etc.
• Consult your entire staff from the Marketing department.
• The content must be educational and your spokesperson should be able to put it across well.
• Carefully consider any information or help the sales department has to offer.
7. Carry out opinion polls – This makes you understand the preferences of your viewers. To know more about the character, whims and fancies of your audience, you only need to utilize the Webinar properly.
8. Rehearse well and prepare for the worst case scenario – Make sure your spokesperson is well-trained since speaking in real life and speaking at a Webinar are different from each other.
9. Remember – The spokesperson should have a copy of the contents in their speech with him. Only landlines should be used along with headsets.
Do a final run-through before the presentation to make sure there aren’t any technical glitches or equipment malfunctions. In the final rehearsal you must consider:
• What to do if you lose access to the net or if the audio device malfunctions
• The timing and arrangement of the Webinar
• Q & A
• Technical devices for a web conference
10. Use the Registration process to your advantage – You can discover more about a user when they register themselves. Thus you can discover their likes and dislikes through this. Emails sent for this purpose must contain options to download blank paper and demos.
Keep in mind - the registration should be more mechanized and automatic. Your metrics should be able to recover each frame of the process and retain these.
11. Pick a reliable dealer for your web conference – Though you may be spoilt for choice regarding these make sure to pick one which will be able to fix glitches easily and swiftly and regulate heavy volumes.
12. Always regard and respect the viewers – Aggressive marketing policies don’t have any takers. Your viewers come to you hoping you may solve their problems. A more muted yet efficient policy is best.
Webinar Mistakes
Webinar basically refers to a web based seminar. A webinar is mostly a one-way conference where a presenter puts forward his/her point to a limited audience. The people involved in this virtual meeting can access it by using a URL or even through a downloaded program.
Judging by the concept of a webinar, it is quite evident that its foundation is the World Wide Web. Some of the important applications used in webinars are Adobe Acrobat Connect, Microsoft Office Live Meeting, IBM Lotus Sametime and WebEx.
There are quite a number of hitches of a webinar.
Since the medium is virtual, interaction between the different members of the meeting is restricted to webcams and/or television screens. Each individual needs to have access to the electronic media to participate in such a meeting.
This can be inconvenient in some cases, where someone is not equipped adequately with the latest technological advancements. Also an excellent and dependable internet connection is probably the primary requisite.
Taking on from the previous point, one has to remember the cost borne by every participant in a webinar. Internet connection, laptops or personal computer, webcams, T.V. screens and particular software applications are some of the requisites of a successful webinar.
Also, if everyone has to remain fixed in front of some sort of screen or camera to interact with each other, it becomes cumbersome, and also hampers presentation of matter. Social interaction involves body language, voice module and other subtle human behavior which is compromised with, since most participants will not be physically present in the same place.
Sometimes superficiality takes over, and participants of the meeting are more concerned about their appearance on camera than the matter under concern.
Since the entire activity is dependent on gadgets and technology, the chances of a complete system crash has a good probability. And once that happens, not only is there a chance of data being lost (say, during transfer of data essential to the meeting in progress), the webinar itself has to be called off until the problem is fixed.
Lastly, if any of the participating members want to “walk out” of the meeting, all they need to do is switch their camera off! That can be quite annoying, and there is little the others can do about it.
Marketing Your Virtual Event
A significant portion of the marketing and publicity budget for any company is taken up by the hosting of trade shows, seminars and other such events. While such events are undoubtedly an important component of any advertising plan, they are very expensive proposition. But small business owners need not be deterred by this as technology comes to their rescue.
Often, you can get the same exposure and market penetration by hosting online events, known as webinars. While webinars will often take as much thought and planning as a conventional event, it does help cut down costs significantly. A little extra effort will help you reap the rich rewards of virtual conferences, while taking you out to an audience that you could never hope to reach before.
Virtual events have a number of advantages, primarily in the form of reduced costs and more effective use of the time of both, the guests as well as the speakers, and possible options for replaying the seminar for those who could not attend the live presentation. Here are a few tips to ensure the success of your virtual event:
Design a clear-cut event plan with precise strategies to meet your primary objectives.
Try and rope in some partners and sponsors who will not only help with funding but also draw higher participation for the event.
Choose a good webinar service provider. A good organizer will help you schedule dates and take care of other nitty-gritty’s.
Choose a date carefully so that it does not clash with holidays or major events. Find out about other industry events that might be going on close to your event date and don’t organize your event when most employees and potential attendees would be busy with their annual budgeting and planning cycles.
Develop a strong working plan to draw traffic for your event. It is advisable to start some amount of up-front marketing to pull audiences up to 60 days before the event. You should design an email newsletter that you can mail to all potential guests. Also, start contacting your potential speakers early and stay in touch, so that you get a date and the person keeps it.
Design a program that will be interesting and can hold attention. Don’t waste the employees’ time with mundane content. They have a number of distractions like the phone and email when they are watching a webinar, and their attention is likely to wander during a boring presentation.
Develop a strategy to ensure live participation and interaction during the event.
Use the event to generate marketing data and then use it in future analysis.
Finally, conduct a thorough returns-on-investment analysis to gauge the efficacy of your event.
Once you are able to nail these few basics, you can be sure of hosting a successful event that will hold audience interest and make them appreciate your efforts to utilize their time well.
Do you detest those excruciating seminars which you have to attend in order to sell your products?
Do you want to update yourself and try being technologically advanced, a techno-geek? We’ll tell you exactly what you could do to be one.
Ever heard of a webinar?
Well, many people haven’t so if you don’t know anything, it’s just fine! A webinar is basically a seminar which is presented over the internet, or Web. Web seminars, web conferences and internet meetings are all synonyms for this new technology and are used in sales and marketing applications, to influence potential customers.
Unlike webcasts, where the audience can only watch and listen, webinars are presentations where the members of the large audience can interact with the presenter via the internet. Hassle free and sleek!
Webinars are used for a variety of purposes – internet-based meetings, remote training and one-to-one meetings sharing details over their computer desktops. Hosting such webinars require knowledge about specific software that configures the presenter and the audience’s computers for easy communication. If you are keen on keeping yourself up-to-date with the world of technology, you might just want to know more about the various features of this web wonder!
We guess you might just want to present seminars using this software rather than having to present product via a webcast!
Well, we guess an integrated net telephone conferencing for audio seminars, the ability of the audience to view the presenter’s screen during live product demos, a continuous streaming video and scope for animated and interactive presentations, the unique features of recording and playback options, the option of segregating the audience into subgroups to help interact better, to be able to present questionnaires and polls to the audience and even manage question and answer sessions during the seminar, all seem to be a boon to you to boost your career options!
Isn’t the software just the thing you were looking for to cut down on the hassles of hosting a seminar?
Imagine a conference in another city while you are sitting at home sipping on coffee and using this software. It would mean cutting down on the travel expenses, a huge benefit, and it would also ensure that the webinar goes off without the slightest glitch.
All you need is systematically planned webinars, trained personnel to handle the software and a whole lot of practice! Webinars welcome you to the future.
Web Conferencing
Conferences over the World Wide Web, you must be kidding?
No, we aren’t joking any more, the future of conferencing is here and taking the world by storm. No more travel fare hassles for you, no more tiring sessions – web conferencing is just a click away! Want to know more about web conferencing and how it’s done? Just read on…
Web Conferencing is a meeting or seminar held over the internet. One can use almost anything – audio, video or even text-based interactions – which are conducted in real time! Cool huh?
In its simplest form, web conferencing can be via a medium of text based ‘chats’ using Yahoo Messenger or Microsoft NetMeeting or inviting others to converse and being able to communicate in real-time. Such ‘chats’ can be enhanced by the addition of a simple web camera, and bingo, you have your very own amateur web conferencing setup.
What can I do with Web Conferencing?
It all depends on the type of job you have! You could pitch sales or even train your staff through this medium. This sophisticated software allows seminars or presentations to be hosted for a large audience, without the slightest problem. Fully interactive meetings, sharing of files and important documents, slide shows and question-answer sessions are all made easier.
What is Online Collaboration?
Online Collaboration is helpful when your team members are located in different cities or countries. This medium helps you share files easily, manage documents and projects effectively and even edit documents online or in real-time!
What are the benefits of Web Conferencing?
This feature is for those who’ve got sick of traveling around for seminars! Web Conferencing not only saves money but time. No more traveling, air-tickets or accommodation hassles. It also means that employees would be at their desks for a prolonged period of time, raising the productivity. Enhanced communication and the ability to talk with people via the web whenever required is a great boon to any corporate firm.
How much does it cost?
The costs depend upon what type of application you are looking for. It’s always better to bring together a broad estimate of what web conferencing system would suit your needs, and then scout around for either low-grade or high-grade models that fit into your budget. The low-level, one-to-one systems are virtually free, that is, they’re dirt cheap. However, advanced level systems, as expected, can cost thousands of dollars.
Video Seminars
You are well aware of the importance of communication if you run a business. It is important when dealing with current clients and potential prospects you are trying to for business. You definitely know the different methods of communication even if you are not a business owner.
Communication is important if everyone wants to be successful at their job. Video seminars are one of the newest ways of communicating with others in the business world. They have a lot to offer, though they are not right for every industry.
While in the office, your communication with everybody you want like clients, home based employees, potential prospects and others is the primary simple benefit of a video seminar. Without leaving the office, you can thus you can use a video seminar for giving your viewpoint without heading out into traffic, or purchasing an expensive plane ticket.
Another obvious advantage of video seminars is that they can be set up on a dime. It can be often very difficult to book a flight or reach your destination by car in a reasonable period of time if you run into a disputable issue. You would be much better off depending on a video seminar instead of fighting this flow.
Likewise, the only thing that you have to do is get everything set up on your end and then, simply informing others of what is going on. To use whenever necessary, a lot of businesses keep their video seminar equipment set up at all times. If you know that you will be making presentations on a regular basis, then this is a great idea.
The money that can be saved on video seminars by businesses is one of the main reasons that of their growing popularity. You need to view this as a future investment as some money will be cost on the initial outlay to set up the technology. You will save more than the amount used to pay now in the form by not having to travel nearly as much. When people are deciding whether or not to get involved with video seminars, they often forget the long turn investment.
Video seminars may or may not right for you, your business and clientele as it is evident to you from above. Let this innovative technology work for your advantage if you think these can save you both time and money.
Pre Webinar Preparations
Are you stressed for the upcoming webinar for a new product launch?
Relax, there are some tricks that would save you from such a situation!
If you follow them you would find yourself go through the situation without much tension and headache. In case you’re a planning for a big event which is not your specialty, then you have to prepare for the big picture.
The picture will include certain minute details which might not consider as important but are essential for a successful seminar, webinar or any such event. When the product is on board it is for another team. It is important to map out your schedule as this would help you to prepare for the main event, starting from planning the advertising campaign to moments the webinar ends.
The preliminary schedule of the product is decided then that is followed by the advertisers taking over for them to work out various strategies. The training personnel are up to the task of designing training programs. The finance personnel are up to the task of allocating sums to determine the entire budget for the product launch.
Preparing for a product launch can be very demanding. But if you are aware of what to do and prioritize them according to their importance things would look easier. You may find that there is a great difference in planning an event virtually and really.
It’s important to get the right and responsible people signed up for the task. it would be wrong if you expect cent percent attendance. The task of getting about 70% attendances depends upon you and your advertising team.
You must have enticing strategies for people to sign up for the webinar. For this you should keep in mind that your team has to provide with maximum information. Without adequate information the audience may feel that it was a waste of time. Make sure that registration is accessible to all.
You may do two things either form a new website just before the seminar or just add a registration form on your company’s website. Make a point to see that there is all available information regarding the product for the audience.
While sending invitations you could send them e-books or other freebies that would be appreciated.
Get the best speaker and the best people to conduct the webinar. Brief them and make everything convenient for them. The best thing to do is to have an overall run through so that you can get rid of the pre webinar blues.
How to Profit From Webinars
Do you want to cut down on your corporate expenses?
The easiest way to do so is to cut down on conference costs by holding your conferences on the internet. Webinars or web-seminars are a fantastic method to hold an interactive session all over the world at very little cost. Gone are the days of flights, hotels and conference halls.
Replacing conventional seminars and meetings with webinars can only work out if there is adequate preparation for it. It is technically not too difficult to arrange and almost any business which needs a long distance conference can afford it, but for the webinars to be successful you need to prepare well.
Expanding your business demands that not only should your customer base grow, but at the same time your portfolio of products and services should become more diversified in order to accommodate the differing needs, requirements and specifications of your clients.
Solutions which enable you to do these things, like solutions for effective lead generation and revenue stream maximization are dependent on technology and use it to its maximum benefit to help you cut costs and improve bottom lines.
A particular method, which has been gaining in popularity, is the use of the webinars or the web seminar which allows the participants to view and hear both the presentation as well as participate in a group video conference. Its major advantage is the fact that it can help you to reach out to people all over the world without the expenses and hassles of traveling and arranging for local accommodation.
Before you decide to setup a webinar, you need to consider five key factors to determine what platform you will be using to host the webinar:
· What technology do you want / need to implement the webinar?
· Will you be web-casting the webinar live?
· Will your clients be able to access the webinar through their corporate firewalls?
· What are its associated costs?
· Would you want to reuse the webinar content later?
To ensure your webinar is successful, you should consider the following things as well:
Pre-plan what you want to share with your client that would generate sales leads or generate profits. Then try to translate this information into content appropriate for a webinar before showing it.
Go over the five points before settling on a technological solution for your webinar.
Webinar for Better Communication
One of the most important skills in today’s corporate world is the art of communicating effectively. As an employer, it would pay rich dividends for you if you pay attention too the communication skills of your managers and employees, and take measures to hone them to perfection.
Improved customer services, smarter presentations, speaking abilities and strong writing skills are things that can put your company at the head of the pack.
While there are a number of formal methods to deliver communication to your employees, the use of webinars is becoming increasingly popular. Webinars can go a long way in improving your employees’ interpersonal communication skills.
What is a webinar, you might ask. A webinar, basically is a seminar that is transmitted live over the Internet. The webinar’s greatest advantage is the flexibility it offers in shaping your program modules, etc.
The webinar is a great idea especially if you have a large company with locations spread across a wide geographical area. With a webinar, you can reach all your employees without all of them having to come to a central location, at great personal or company cost. Given the convenience of the webinar, it is also possible to invite almost any speaker no matter how busy they are, as they can speak without having to take the trouble of attending the seminar.
Webinars can be developed to meet the need for almost any kind of communication skills. From ways to combat stress, to optimizing delivery performance, to developing language skills, webinars can be designed around any theme with excellent interactive features like visual aids and interactive Q&A sessions.
You can use webinars to enhance your contact with your managers, and to help them improve their skills. You can reach out to your customer service executives and help them with a webinar on, say, how to handle tough customers or how to increase calling success rates.
A webinar can also be conducted on something like writing skills, with special focus on one particular kind of writing that a worker might need in his work. Many companies also conduct webinars on improving listening skills, which gains importance particularly in sectors that involve a high degree of contact with the client. Improving listening skills helps streamline work both within the office and outside it.
The advantages of webinars are many, as we can see. So, it is only a matter of time before the largest companies shift to this format for good, utilizing the Internet to suit their business needs.
Webinars for Successful Training
Employee training is a job that generally comes under the supervision of managers. Every department, whether it is accounting, advertising, sales or customer service has needs specific to the service they render for the company.
One needs training seminars that teach the skills necessary for your employees to become more adept in their jobs, and that help foster cooperation and communication. One delivery option that provides flexibility in training are webinars. Webinars can be one’s key to successful training for one’s employees.
A training Webinar is an online seminar. One logs on at a particular time, and one can get to observe and participate in a seminar on the Internet. Several webinars are offered with a telephone number included, so that one may also call and have the scope of interacting with the trainer.
Webinars put up many advantages to in-person presentations. One is not bound to only regional speakers for instance. Geographical limitations are no longer imposed because with Internet access one can avail of nationally recognized trainers.
An Internet presentation can be cheaper, for example, when one wishes to have those trainers give a presentation, who live across the country from one’s own office and having them in the office would make the training too expensive. Anyone having Internet access can take part in a webinar.
Several managers are gratified by the pliability that comes with online management training. One can provide a specialized training for a specific chosen group of employees, or even individual trainees, or one can train a big group when one uses an online training. All one needs is a computer linked to a projector and an amplified speaker telephone.
This simplicity makes online seminars for large groups easy to facilitate. Training of many employees together also has the added advantage of facilitating greater cooperation and communication among employees, an excellent outcome when the trained teams use the leadership skills learned at the seminar to more effectively operate in a small-group dynamic.
Employees who undergo this training get much more out of a presentation that has been not only been shown live, but is also recorded. Many experts in the educational field feel that learning is best affected in a circular rather than a linear manner. Students have the need to take in one new idea more than once for it to become permanently implanted.
Webinar is different from a live presentation where one sees it only once; in a webinar material can be repeated several times according to the wish of the participants when it is recorded and available to one’s employees online. Employees can therefore learn at their own speed, an added advantage for increasing the efficacy of the delivery method for all employees.
Various learner types can be easily fitted through the webinar delivery method. Employees or trainees who learn by listening, watching or doing themselves will have sufficient scope for learning with webinar training.
Your Webinar Agenda
Set goals
Though it is apparent, you have to consider handling a webinar. Then you can figure out your achievement and have ROI to it. Check whether you want the following?
· Have cues and get fresh products for sale
· Teach present clients for a fresh piece of work
· Get material and responses on a present opportunity.
In case you want cues, a proper move will be to concentrate on intermediary alternative email catalog leasing. An allowed interior email program can be a very good idea if you want to create understanding about a fresh item or do a survey in present clientele
Make opportunities
When you have made aims, organize prospects, which are ignored often. If you want to meet expenses like endorsing colloquiums, artistic and progress expenses of organizing the listing micro-site, moving webinar software and distributing souvenirs then be practical, particularly when produce limits are there.
Sometimes gaining operations are farsighted, which make fresh cues. This may require 3-12 months to launch by email, telephone and private appointments prior to recovery expenses.
Calculate answers
Answer charges are affected by several factors, among which three are: your proposal (like the value of impartial webinar matter), the inventive (the way you reach out the advantages), and the objective (the work name objective in the emails).
Internet passage is temporary, and instances in the week are vital for email transitions – especially Tuesday to Thursday mornings are best for increased answers as people work at emails.
Decide the aim expense according to the listing
In endorsing equipment hardware or software and online colloquiums to have fresh clients by opt-in email catalog leasing entirely, cost per registration (CPR) for an endorsement, a trade name visitor lecturer and original listing procedure is about $50-$100. The expense is an approximate. If your profit is around $300 each sale and you are close to 1 in 3 pointers in a sale, then the expense in each item will have a cost per acquisition (CPA) of $150-$300.
Increase turnout
The real produce pace in the records is around 40-60%. Then you require a plan to track people who listed but didn't come. Send an email some days after the event, with required links and a duplicate of the program and talk. Attach to it a free item test.
Present the particulars of the program; interrupted with 5-10 minute augmentation, and tell every presenter to guarantee people as to why they should come. Give motivations to register by a date, and data on abiding those reasons when people come to the webinar.
Hosting a Webinar
You need to choose a webinar hosting vendor that is compatible with several operating systems, is reliable and scalable. Consider vendors experienced in the most up-to-date techniques of polling, chat, application-sharing and recording. Opt-in email lists are provided along with webinar hosting by some vendors.
Some Webinar hosting vendors offer the chance to meet consultants as part of the package. The consultant can train you to conduct successful conferences and attend the webinar to deal with problems if and when they arise. So choose a meeting moderator to assist the speaker(s). Intercall is a vendor which provides trained moderators.
Host the webinar at least twice. That way you can accommodate all the time zones. Try to avoid Mondays and Fridays, as these are peak days and, as there are many conferences being held, attendance is likely to be low. Also try to start a quarter past the hour. Meeting usually end on the hour, so this allows your participants to relax a little. Try times like 10:00 a.m. or 2:00 p.m. as most participants are likely to be available at these times.
Invite industry experts to participate. Having a big brand partner will stimulate interest and may double or even triple attendance. You can also use sponsorships to expand your audience or defray promotional costs.
Join the conference early and ensure that everything is working. Set up a welcome slide to announce your meeting is about to start. Before it does, provide some information about the technical details. When each speaker begins, have him/her introduce themselves and add a picture and bio.
Don’t stuff too much information on your PowerPoint slides. And try to use other media as well. Include web-demos, flash, animation, etc. to capture your audience’s interest. Make it interactive by including polls at key points.
During registration, ask qualifying questions which allows you to gain insight about your audience. Tailor your presentation to suit the needs of the particular audience. Afterwards, ask them follow-up questions. The answers to these can provide necessary information to your sales people.
Record the webinar and post it for future consultation.
Create a library of your past conferences for your existing and potential customers. Recorded webinars and Q/A sessions can help you train new recruits and review customer input before launching a new product or before strategy sessions.
Send follow-up emails to the participants and review all feed back gathered from them.
The Best Servers
Since several users are gradually coming to terms with the capacity of employing web casting and online discussions for satisfying their requirements, be sure that these areas are developing fast.
Webcasting
Two methods are there for Webcasting. In active webcasts, torrent acoustics and videotapes are communicated by the newscaster’s video apparatus, into the PC of the spectators who are paying attention. It is well liked by media, and corporations who have to communicate with the clientele and users. A soundtrack webcast is generally accumulated on a server that is used by the consumers, when they want to see the series.
Several of those who create Internet conversation agenda and media procedures utilize a mixture of the two kinds of webcasts to get closer to users with their individual labors. Since both need a big quantity of bandwidth, the employment of a devoted server is compulsory if webcasting happens to be an integral part of the site.
Web Meetings
Web meetings function in the same way as an active webcast, technically, but it itself but has a totally dissimilar role. At a web meeting, several consumers meet and the consumers are simultaneously present, networking on the Web, very similar to what would have been done on a real meeting. Web meetings quite frequently happen at actual time, torrent video, with a web camera that works in everyone’s PC.
Then all users could share thoughts, employ images effects and observes the responses of people who they converse with at the meeting. This kind of online contact needs a very rich quantity of bandwidth, to transmit to all the consumers. This is only completed efficiently by employing the services of a devoted server.
Several of the globe's top worldwide corporations are today employing web networking for their trade reasons. This also lowers journey time and costs for both their own selves and their customers.
You have several kinds of functions for both web meetings and webcasts. It is influenced by the needs and wants of the web program and the target customers who have to appreciate it.
Starting from chat programs to videos giving directions, customer conferences to inspiration meetings, corporations who have an online presence could definitely have an appropriate utilization for all. You only need to have some amount of scientific knowledge, some grand thoughts and a devoted server to manage the work burden.
How Can Webinar Software Help You?
The times are changing, and changing fast. The days when a big company would hold a seminar in the conference room of a plush hotel, where attendance was by invitation only are long gone. This is the age of the webinar. Now, with the aid of the Internet, you can reach virtually anyone, anywhere in the world.
So, if you are based out of New York, and some of your potential invitees are in Washington, you ca actually reach out to them without their having to be physically present, through the webinar. The Internet, and consequently webinar software, have shrunk the world to the size of your office desktop.
Simple and cost effective, webinars offer multiple advantages. Firstly, you save on the cost of organizing a traditional seminar with invitees whose travel and stay is borne by the company. Secondly, webinar software is very easy to use and almost anyone can take full advantage of the many special features available. And finally, webinar software requires minimal initial investment, which again helps cut down costs.
Most webinar programs are quite comprehensive in the services they provide, and almost manage to mirror a traditional seminar. A webinar software can provide features like registration plans, delivering the webinar, recording it, toll-free conferencing calls, email services practice sessions and a comprehensive branding initiative to back everything up.
And the list goes on. So, as you can see, webinars are an excellent, feature-rich option that can make things convenient and cost-effective.
Now, compare this with all the preparation that goes into organizing a normal seminar. You will need to think about providing accommodation for attendees, arranging for their travel to the city and within it, booking space, making arrangements for the speakers, preparing handouts, and having all guests register manually.
Now, in all of this, imagine the amount of time and money that has been simply wasted—your employees’ time, your own time, and the time and cost of arranging everything.
With a webinar software, you can relegate such hassles to a bygone era, and move on to more efficient and convenient means like the webinar. You can broadcast right from your office, and no one else needs to leave his or her seat either!! Simply put, the advantages are many and the hassles few.
So, are you still planning to go with a traditional, expensive, time-consuming seminar in a hotel conference room, or will you do things the simpler, more wired way? The choice is yours, though the decision is probably already made.
How to Run a Successful Webinar
A webinar is basically a web conference with audio only, and is a good method of conducting meetings and training sessions, as well as introducing new products. A webinar is a good solution in any situation where people who are scattered all over the country, or world, need to share data. Some tips for running you r webinar smoothly follow.
When selecting a webinar service, you need to obtain one which supports the software you will use to share data. While most support PowerPoint or Word, if you’re using more sophisticated, ascertain that the webinar service is compatible.
A web conferencing provider can make sure your webinar goes without any hitches, and help you choose the requisite software. BuyerZone is a site where you can get connected to the best vendors, free of cost.
Technical problems that pop up at the very moment your presentation starts are extremely annoying, So you should try a practice webinar, preferably with a couple of colleagues, a day or so before the actual seminar. Though this will mean you pay rather a lot more, it’ll solve technical issues and give you some familiarity with the software.
If you’re the moderator, arrive early. This is as practical as it is polite. You should greet participants as they arrive, and being early also lets you ensure that the webinar is set up properly. On that note, ask first-time participants to arrive ahead of time as well.
Whether the people participating in your webinar are customers, employees or colleagues, you should respect their time. So create a schedule and stick to it. And if the discussion digresses, veer it back on track.
Webinar technology is great, but it’s still not like speaking face-to-face. Include less in your planned talk than you would if speaking in person, especially if you’re inexperienced.
A number of webinar providers allow you to archive at your presentation. So, if you’re a beginner, hunt up the file and watch it. It’ll help you self-assess the areas that require improvement, and judge where what the viewers received differed from what you thought you were providing.
Be prepared to answer some questions that aren’t about the topic of the webinar, but the technicalities involved—about installing plug-and-play devices, downloading the requisite software, etc.
However, stay focused on the topic; your service provider will give you a number to call if you face major technical issues.
How to Have a Winning Webinar?
An ingenuously designed Webinar can work wonders for you. As a profitable stratagem for marketing a product, a webinar increases sales leads to a massive extent. Let us give you some for an exceptional Webinar:
1. Devise a through plan. – Accommodating an agenda and timetable, a prospective mouthpiece and a means of registration in your plan is a must. You should also have a definite budget, endorsements and allow for workable metrics and carry the plan out.
2. Time it right – Choose a time when the maximum number of people will be able to attend for your own Webinar.
• Two weekdays just right for a Webinar is a Tuesday and a Wednesday. Neither is very close to the beginning or end of a week.
• For a Webinar on a nationwide scale select a time when people from various different time zones can view it together. The middle of an afternoon is best for this.
3. Endorsement – Don’t expect audiences to throng to your project in hordes. Chances are most don’t even know about it. You need to create awareness and interest through endorsements.
• Innovation is appreciated. Try out different types of advertisements and agencies to see what makes people tick.
• Networking is important. Authorize prospective audience members to invite others when you converse with them.
4. Carefully examine how your target audience-members’ minds’ work and devise a plan that will best market your product accordingly.
5. Your Webinar cannot be the result of nothing – Your plans to promote and sell must accommodate the Webinar.
6. Grab the viewers’ attention – Your spokesperson will have to combat the combined evils of the Internet, Emails, telephones, and etc.
• Consult your entire staff from the Marketing department.
• The content must be educational and your spokesperson should be able to put it across well.
• Carefully consider any information or help the sales department has to offer.
7. Carry out opinion polls – This makes you understand the preferences of your viewers. To know more about the character, whims and fancies of your audience, you only need to utilize the Webinar properly.
8. Rehearse well and prepare for the worst case scenario – Make sure your spokesperson is well-trained since speaking in real life and speaking at a Webinar are different from each other.
9. Remember – The spokesperson should have a copy of the contents in their speech with him. Only landlines should be used along with headsets.
Do a final run-through before the presentation to make sure there aren’t any technical glitches or equipment malfunctions. In the final rehearsal you must consider:
• What to do if you lose access to the net or if the audio device malfunctions
• The timing and arrangement of the Webinar
• Q & A
• Technical devices for a web conference
10. Use the Registration process to your advantage – You can discover more about a user when they register themselves. Thus you can discover their likes and dislikes through this. Emails sent for this purpose must contain options to download blank paper and demos.
Keep in mind - the registration should be more mechanized and automatic. Your metrics should be able to recover each frame of the process and retain these.
11. Pick a reliable dealer for your web conference – Though you may be spoilt for choice regarding these make sure to pick one which will be able to fix glitches easily and swiftly and regulate heavy volumes.
12. Always regard and respect the viewers – Aggressive marketing policies don’t have any takers. Your viewers come to you hoping you may solve their problems. A more muted yet efficient policy is best.
Webinar Mistakes
Webinar basically refers to a web based seminar. A webinar is mostly a one-way conference where a presenter puts forward his/her point to a limited audience. The people involved in this virtual meeting can access it by using a URL or even through a downloaded program.
Judging by the concept of a webinar, it is quite evident that its foundation is the World Wide Web. Some of the important applications used in webinars are Adobe Acrobat Connect, Microsoft Office Live Meeting, IBM Lotus Sametime and WebEx.
There are quite a number of hitches of a webinar.
Since the medium is virtual, interaction between the different members of the meeting is restricted to webcams and/or television screens. Each individual needs to have access to the electronic media to participate in such a meeting.
This can be inconvenient in some cases, where someone is not equipped adequately with the latest technological advancements. Also an excellent and dependable internet connection is probably the primary requisite.
Taking on from the previous point, one has to remember the cost borne by every participant in a webinar. Internet connection, laptops or personal computer, webcams, T.V. screens and particular software applications are some of the requisites of a successful webinar.
Also, if everyone has to remain fixed in front of some sort of screen or camera to interact with each other, it becomes cumbersome, and also hampers presentation of matter. Social interaction involves body language, voice module and other subtle human behavior which is compromised with, since most participants will not be physically present in the same place.
Sometimes superficiality takes over, and participants of the meeting are more concerned about their appearance on camera than the matter under concern.
Since the entire activity is dependent on gadgets and technology, the chances of a complete system crash has a good probability. And once that happens, not only is there a chance of data being lost (say, during transfer of data essential to the meeting in progress), the webinar itself has to be called off until the problem is fixed.
Lastly, if any of the participating members want to “walk out” of the meeting, all they need to do is switch their camera off! That can be quite annoying, and there is little the others can do about it.
Marketing Your Virtual Event
A significant portion of the marketing and publicity budget for any company is taken up by the hosting of trade shows, seminars and other such events. While such events are undoubtedly an important component of any advertising plan, they are very expensive proposition. But small business owners need not be deterred by this as technology comes to their rescue.
Often, you can get the same exposure and market penetration by hosting online events, known as webinars. While webinars will often take as much thought and planning as a conventional event, it does help cut down costs significantly. A little extra effort will help you reap the rich rewards of virtual conferences, while taking you out to an audience that you could never hope to reach before.
Virtual events have a number of advantages, primarily in the form of reduced costs and more effective use of the time of both, the guests as well as the speakers, and possible options for replaying the seminar for those who could not attend the live presentation. Here are a few tips to ensure the success of your virtual event:
Design a clear-cut event plan with precise strategies to meet your primary objectives.
Try and rope in some partners and sponsors who will not only help with funding but also draw higher participation for the event.
Choose a good webinar service provider. A good organizer will help you schedule dates and take care of other nitty-gritty’s.
Choose a date carefully so that it does not clash with holidays or major events. Find out about other industry events that might be going on close to your event date and don’t organize your event when most employees and potential attendees would be busy with their annual budgeting and planning cycles.
Develop a strong working plan to draw traffic for your event. It is advisable to start some amount of up-front marketing to pull audiences up to 60 days before the event. You should design an email newsletter that you can mail to all potential guests. Also, start contacting your potential speakers early and stay in touch, so that you get a date and the person keeps it.
Design a program that will be interesting and can hold attention. Don’t waste the employees’ time with mundane content. They have a number of distractions like the phone and email when they are watching a webinar, and their attention is likely to wander during a boring presentation.
Develop a strategy to ensure live participation and interaction during the event.
Use the event to generate marketing data and then use it in future analysis.
Finally, conduct a thorough returns-on-investment analysis to gauge the efficacy of your event.
Once you are able to nail these few basics, you can be sure of hosting a successful event that will hold audience interest and make them appreciate your efforts to utilize their time well.
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