Choosing The Right Web Conferencing For Your Small Business

With Web Conferencing industry growing at a 19% per year and over 55 different providers out there, the search for the right Web Conferencing to fit your small to medium business (SMB) needs could be a daunting task.

Before choosing a Web Conferencing provider, it is important to understand your small business needs. The top five common uses of online meetings for small to medium businesses are:

1. Employee meetings
2. Business meetings with clients and vendors
3. Sales and product training
4. Webinars
5. Lead generation

By understanding your Web Conference needs, owners can then find the right Web Conferencing service for their companies. Below are 7 best practices that will help new users choose the best Web Meeting provider:

1. Know what you need (video, application sharing, marketing tools, et al.)
2. Determine the maximum number of attendees you will need to accommodate
3. Know the number of presenters
4. Research the different providers (at least 5)
5. Don’t purchase merely from brand recognition
6. Attend live demos and sign up for free-trials
7. Choose the best service that meets all your feature and pricing needs.

In addition, SMBs should choose a Web Conferencing service that offers All-In-One features – particularly with marketing tools and social media functions. Large corporations such as Microsoft and Amazon already have the marketing power and brand recognition to generate demand for their webinars – small and medium enterprises do not. For this reason, SMBs would greatly benefit from choosing a Web Conference provider that has social media marketing tools embedded to maximize your webinar attendance.

Remember, research research research!