Imagine this, your company has set up a big webinar and registration for the event has been filled with everyone from the company and many thought leaders from the industry.  You even have a well-known presenter scheduled to give the webinar, which has helped to boost registrations.  Everything is set and the webinar is in less than a week, so I have one last question.  Have you trained your guest webinar presenter?

Too often, we assume that the guest has practiced the presentation and everything will be fine with a quick rehearsal the day before, or a few hours before the webinar is scheduled to start.  While the guest may be well versed in giving the presentation, the guest may not be familiar with the technical aspects of giving a webinar using the chosen platform.

It is important for the presenter to get used to working with the webinar platform and know how to use the basic functions needed to give the presentation.  The guest should also become aware of how the presentation sounds and if any changes in speaking style may be necessary.  Ken Molay provides some great input on this subject in an article he posted recently on The Webinar Blog.

Remember, even if your guest presenter is well versed at giving webinars and the presentation, the presenter may not be familiar with the webinar platform being used.  A little practice in the days before the webinar will help ensure a perfect presentation.

So, you’ve just hired a new group of employees and you are looking for them to hit the ground running at the start of the new year.  They have some work experience, and some you can see will excel, but they will need to be trained in order to get started.  Additionally, the business has several offices and your new employees will be working at different locations.

How do you train all of the new employees at the same time and get them started quickly?  It’s simple, just start a webinar.  Webinars are a great way to train your staff while cutting costs and maintaining efficiency at the same time.  There’s no need for anyone to travel, just send them the link to the webinar.  This way, you will have everyone in the same virtual room and the training can begin.  You can even record training webinars for employees to view at a later time.

Webinars can also be useful for training employees on a specific skill set.  If you are an expert on a particular skill, and the skill set is needed throughout the industry, you may even be able to use the training as a source of revenue with an attendee-funded webinar.  Lee Salz provides more information on how to use webinars for training and revenue in an article that was published last year in Training Magazine.

Webinars can be a great way to get new employees up to speed quickly so they can start contributing to the growth of your business right away.  It’s also a great way to conduct on-going skill training with your current employees.  So, the next time you need to train new or even veteran employees, just start a webinar.

When planning a webinar, we all want to have one that will capture the attention of the right audience, keep them engaged and leave them with more knowledge on a particular topic.  With this in mind, here are three important stages for launching a webinar that will rock.

The first stage of the webinar, preparing the content, must be accomplished before it can even get off the ground.  So, the first step when preparing the content for your webinar is determining who your audience is.  Once you know who you will be presenting to, you can decide what objectives you would like to accomplish with your presentation.  This will make it easier to develop the outline, add visual support and finalize the perfect presentation, one that addresses the needs and interests of your audience.  Michael McCurry provides more great insight on the steps to developing webinar content in an article he posted in McCurry’s Corner.

So, now that you have your presentation ready, it’s time for stage two, getting the word out.  Write up a clear and concise invite telling people about your webinar, what valuable information they will receive and how to register.  Post announcements of your webinar on your blog and web site.  Social media sites like Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn can be very helpful in getting the word out about your webinar.  Also, be sure to send reminders to your audience in the weeks and days leading up to your webinar.  Blogger Michelle Shaeffer provides more help on her blog with an article, 27 Ways to Promote Your Webinar.

The final stage is the effective execution and delivery of your webinar.  Your audience is ready and attendance is full, so grab their attention with a killer introduction.  If you accomplish this, you will have the audience right where you want them for the rest of the webinar.  Be sure to speak clearly and slowly.  Remember, you are trying to educate your audience, so you want to make sure everything you present is informative and easy to understand.  At the end of your webinar, leave your audience with a call to action explaining exactly what steps they should take next.  Must-See-Webinars provides great input with nine tips for webinar presenters.

Planning a webinar can be a difficult task to accomplish.  However, if you take on one stage of the process at a time and execute it thoroughly, you will be in a better position to launch a truly rockin webinar.

Webinars allow specialists within your company to broadcast what they are good at. They allow you to draw in audiences that you may not otherwise reach by providing specialized training that is directly linked to your service or product.  By broadcasting webinars, you show yourself to be an expert in your niche, which can make your product or service more compelling to the end user.  Not only that, but you have full control over what your consumer learns about your product and what they do with it – you call the shots.

Webinars are also convenient. Attendees tend to gravitate toward webinars due to the ease of attendance. Registrants can attend a webinar from the comfort of their own home or office, as long as they have a reliable internet connection or phone line.

While one of the main purposes of webinars is generating new customers and increasing sales from current customers, you can also generate income by charging for tickets to your webinar.  This may be something to consider if your webinar provides content valuable to your target audience.  Before deciding on the price for your webinar, be sure to spend some time researching what other people are charging for similar webinars in your industry.

Additionally, webinars help you to stay connected with large groups of people.  Surveys and follow up emails after the webinar can help build your list of leads and industry contacts that can help grow your business down the road.  It can also provide insight into what issues concern your target market, and how you might want to address future improvements to your product or service.

For more information on how to start your own webinars and increase the growth of  your business, visit InstantPresenter.com.

When hosting large-scale webinars where you expect to have 500 or even over 1500 attendees, it’s important to keep a few things in mind.  Having such a large amount of people, your webinar essentially becomes a venue for one-to-many communication.  Like speaking at a large stadium, it can be difficult to have much interaction with your audience and keep them engaged.  With this in mind, here are five tips that can help keep your attendees interested and focused on your presentation.

1. Expert Presenter – Whatever the subject, there are always professionals who work or have worked in that industry for a long time and can be considered experts on a particular topic.  Having an expert presenter assures the attendees that the person speaking can speak to the topic on a professional level and provide the pertinent information they are looking for.
2. Expert Panel – It’s great to have an expert present during your webinar, but it’s even better to have several.  A panel of experts can provide different points of view on a topic, giving attendees valuable information on the subject from all angles.
3. Polls – Another way to keep your attendees at a large webinar engaged is with a poll.  It’s a great way to get thoughts and opinions from your audience on a particular topic and it lets them know you care about what they think.
4. Q&A – As with a webinar of any size, it’s always good to have a question and answer period at the end of the webinar.  A great way to handle this is to have attendees submit their questions through text chat, and the presenter or panel can address them as they come in.  Usually 10 to 15 minutes of Q&A helps insure that the majority of questions your audience is interested in getting answers to are addressed.
5. Follow up – Like any webinar, it’s always a good idea to send a follow up thank you note to your attendees.  The note can also contain a link to the recording of your webinar, and perhaps information about a free offer or give away the presenter is providing to everyone who attended.

Pulling off a successful large-scale webinar can seem like an impossible task, and the size of your audience can be a little overwhelming.  However, don’t forget that you have the attention of a lot of people and if you can keep them engaged and interested in your presentation, you are on your way to a great webinar that could end up being a big boost for you and your business.

8th Anniversary Special

That’s right, InstantPresenter is celebrating its 8^th anniversary and we want you to join in the fun.  Through August 31^st, new users who sign up for an account can get a 10% discount on a monthly subscription, or a 40% discount on InstantPresenter’s annual plan.

Don’t worry current users, you are included in the celebration as well.  If you are looking to upgrade your account, now is the time.  Current users upgrading their accounts are also eligible for the discount.

Additionally, everyone who participates will be entered into a drawing for an InstantPresenter Professional Presenter Tool Kit.  The kit includes an HD Logitech webcam, a headset, a book on presenting webinars and a free training session with the InstantPresenter support staff.  For more information, please visit www.instantpresenter.com.

We at InstantPresenter would like to thank you for your support.  We will continue to improve our service, developing the premium, cutting-edge web conferencing features no one else provides at a price that is budget-friendly to the business community.

Sales

Webinars can be a great marketing tool and can add value to your business. They can be used to conduct live or recorded presentations to generate leads, close sales faster and increase revenue.

Generate Leads

To generate leads, you should create a good marketing campaign to drive attendees to your webinar. First, start out with posting your event on social networks such as Facebook and Twitter. Make sure to include a link that will take visitors to your registration form where they can sign up. When prospects register for your webinar, you have the option to ask them to provide personal information such as name, email address and phone number. Be careful to not ask too many questions as this can become invasive and your prospects will be turned off.

Another way to draw in potential customers is by writing a press release. The press release should give an overview of the content to be expected during your webinar and details regarding when and where your live event will take place. The purpose of the press release should be to gain readers’ interests and to entice them to join your live presentation. More importantly, include keywords in the release to optimize visibility of your webinar in search engines. Also embed links in the writing to take readers to your registration form. Good keywords and links will increase the chance of your webinars being found on the web; ultimately, increasing traffic to your event.

However, be aware that not all leads are good leads. The good news is: visitors who registered for your webinar are potentially qualified leads because they have shown initial interests in your offering.

Close Sales Faster
There are five steps to move prospects along the marketing funnel, ultimately leading to sales:

1. Awareness
2. Consideration
3. Preference
4. Action
5. Loyalty

Having an effective webinar that educates potential customers about your product or service will give your business an opportunity to bring customers to the first stage of awareness. An even more effective webinar that presents your brand as the superior choice in the minds of the viewers will move prospects further along the funnel to make them consider your brand as one of the top choices. However, to successfully complete the lead conversion process requires a good post-webinar follow-up plan to turn your hot leads into actual buying customers.

Generate Future Revenue

Webinars with high-demand topics have the potential to continue producing revenue for as long as the topic remains relevant and valuable to viewers. Be sure to choose a web conferencing provider that has an integrated payment system, which enables you to charge a preset price when viewers access your live events or recorded webinars.

Call to Action

5 Main Purposes of Webinars:

 Generate Leads
 Increase Sales
 Demo Products
 Hold Client Meetings
 Train Employees

Whatever the initial reason may be to conduct the webinar; ultimately, a presenter’s goal is simple: to get his or her attendees to take a desired action.

Strategically incorporating a prominent call to action into a webinar is a great way to get attendees to take a specific action. Both the presenter and attendees come to a meeting with a purpose in mind. People who signed up for the webinar are looking to gain valuable knowledge to benefit them and their businesses. However, a presenter’s goal may be to generate leads or close a sale for his or her company. By understanding that both parties are looking to gain something from the meeting, presenters must be strategic in their delivery methods – jumping right into selling mode or over selling can turn the audience off. Instead, use the majority of the presentation to deliver the topic that was promised, interact with participants, engage viewers and build interest in the topic. Finally, introduce the call to action when energy level and interest in the topic is highest because the audience is most receptive at this point.

For optimal results, make sure to design a powerful call to action to maximize persuasiveness. Use simple language to communicate a clear message of what specific action should be taken. Below are 3 types of call to action that are most effective in webinars:

Exit URL which will take the attendees to a pre-determined landing page when the presenter clicks on the end broadcast button to end the meeting. The content of the landing page should include a brief “Thank you for attending” note and a call to action. Remember to keep the landing page clean and simple. Below are 5 call to action buttons commonly used in landing pages:

    Free Trial Sign Up
    Buy Now
    Take a Survey
    Newsletter Sign Up
    Visit Company Website

Contact Info, this should be a phone number or email address that the presenter provides to attendees at the end of the webinar and encourages them to contact and make a purchase.

Promo Code, can be provided as an exclusive offer to those who attended the webinar, which attendees could use to redeem at a later time.

Presenters should limit to one or two call to action methods per webinar – having too many within one event could be distracting and can dilute its importance.

Consumer Psychology

Ever wonder if you should charge for your webinars? If so, how much can you charge and how much are attendees willing to pay? This is all valuable knowledge that can help you, the presenter, to charge the right price and maximize revenue.

The truth of the matter is there are hundreds of webinars uploaded to the web everyday, with the majority of them offered for free. Thus, if you want to charge for your webinar, it is important to understand 3 key factors
What topic and/or guest speaker viewers consider valuable
How to package that value
How much is that value worth to viewers

Fee-based webinars typically range from $20 to $150 with length approximately 60 or 90 minutes. What price should you charge for your webinar?

Responses gathered from webinar consumers reveal important factors when deciding on buying a webinar:
How can I benefit from the webinar?
 Reputable/Famous guest speaker(s)
How relevant and timely is the information to me?
Is the benefit worth the price?

Obviously, viewers preferred free webinars over paid ones and have openly expressed their aversion regarding having to pay to attend web conferences or webinars. However, attendees will pay as long as the perceived benefits outweigh the price. Thus, it is not surprising that price is number four on the deciding factor list. In an article Bob Bly, an expert copywriter, stated, “Topic doesn’t seem to be critical, as two different promoters charge widely different pricing ($29 vs. $149) for the same topic.”

From this, one can deduce that as long as the perceived value of the webinar is high, consumers will pay the price. In this case, it might be the reputable guest speaker that is the deciding factor. When asked the pertinent question, a consumer expressed his view about paying for webinars, “I am willing to pay based on 1. Who’s giving the presentation, 2. What it is about, and 3) Can it make me more money. Hit all three and I am willing to pay more. I would, of course, love free webinars.”

So there you go, answers right from the horse’s mouth. Make sure to look for the integrated payment system features such as PayPal when purchasing your web conferencing service so you can charge for your webinars – not every web conferencing and webinar services offer this feature. Finally, remember to package your webinar well to amplify its perceived value – market the heck out of your webinars using your web conferencing social media tools!

Effective and Engaging Webinar

By Angela Stringfellow

Webinars are effective delivery formats for small businesses. They are cost-effective and can be used for many purposes, including training employees, marketing services and establishing thought-leadership. Fee-based webinars can also provide an additional income stream. But delivering engaging material via webinar isn’t easy. Here’s how you can ensure your next webinar is both effective and engaging:

1. Provide visual stimulation. Main bullet points can be presented in PowerPoint or PDF format. In addition to text, infographics, charts and graphs are an excellent way to make complex information easier to process.
2. Allow attendees to ask questions. Webinars are usually designed to solve a problem; therefore, be sure to address attendee questions and concerns. If attendees leave confused or without a firm grasp on the material presented, the information you’ve conveyed won’t have much of an impact.
3. Don’t duplicate your speech and text on the visuals. There are few things less engaging than a presenter reading what’s written on a PowerPoint presentation. Slim down the text on your slides to a few highly relevant bullet points. For the rest, shoot from the hip.
4. Don’t read your presentation from a sheet of paper. A supplement to point number three. It comes across very clearly, even in webinar format, when a presenter is reading straight from a piece of paper. Your presentation should sound natural. It’s fine to use an outline, but avoid utilizing a full-text printout of what you’d like to say. It’s too easy to read word-for-word if the full text is in front of you.
5. Use headphones. Laptop or PC microphones tend to incorporate a lot of background noise and produce an echo sound. Invest in a quality set of headphones with a noise-cancelling microphone. (And be sure to test them out before your presentation!)
6. Enlist a helper. It’s more effective to have a partner or colleague introduce the speaker and lead questions and answers. The flow is more streamlined, and attendees know they need to pay attention when the organizer speaks.
7. Allow multiple opportunities for questions. If your presentation is longer, provide multiple breaks for brief question and answer sessions. This allows attendees to address pertinent questions prior to moving on to more complex material, and they won’t have to hold all their questions until the end when you’ve moved on to unrelated material.
8. Keep a glass of water handy. Webinars require more constant speech than in-person presentations, so you’ll likely need a few sips of water.
9. Avoid awkward pauses. As mentioned in bullet number eight, webinars are reliant on constant speech. In an in-person presentation, a dramatic pause can help emphasize an important point. Because webinar attendees can’t see you, a long silence can seem like you’re at a loss for words.

Webinars can be an incredibly effective way to deliver information. Avoiding common mishaps, planning in advance, and enlisting the help of an assistant or even back-up presenter can ensure your presentation is delivered smoothly and without a hitch.