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Posts Tagged ‘webinars’

The Ten P’s for How to Produce a Successful Webinar

June 03rd, 2010

Hi All!

I came across this helpful info written by the HUGELY popular Web Strategist, Jeremiah Owyang. The guy travels all over the world consulting with corporations on their web and social media strategies, plus he’s also an in-demand speaker globally and frequent media guest.

He recently wrote an article outlining the Ten P’s that he recommends following to produce a successful webinar.

Here’s 5 of the 10 tips:

1) Philosophy: Most approach webinars realizing they are different than all other mediums.  Despite being primarily one-way they have a social element as attendees will interact with each other in the provided chat features, or on tools like Twitter.  Secondly, many webinar producers don’t offer helpful content to the audience, and instead treat it like a sales pitch.  Lastly, speakers that are great on stage in the real world, may fall short and appear lackluster in an online faceless webinar.

2) Purpose: Many webinar producers fail to pick a succinct goal, in fact this is key as it will define how you measure success. Some objectives can include: Thought leadership, association, customer references, lead generation, sales material, accelerating the customer life cycle, or education.

3) Planning: There are many decisions and steps that need to happen in this crucial phase. From deciding if the event should be recorded in advance, or done live, when to schedule the event (taking into account a global audience and conference and travel sesaons) and then selecting the right platforms between Adobe, Microsoft, WebEx, and Go To Meeting. One biggest fail point is not having the right hardware and software (including compatible browsers) and waiting to the last-minute-scramble to get this done. The truly savvy producers will integrate the webinar with existing community and tie with direct marketing systems and then funnel leads to the CRM system.

4) Professionals: There are many talent considerations to make during this performance. Just as you would bring forth the best speakers at your customer conference, you should apply the same thinking here. Your internal team will include the following duties, but keep in mind, often one person will conduct multiple duties such as: Internal Stakeholder, Webinar Producer, Coordinator, Marketer, Community Manager, and Technical Support of both the platform, hardware, and software. The performance team will include any of the following: Speaker, panelists, emcees, and should have a backup speaker.

5) Programming of Content: Once a kickoff meeting has been set in place, the internal and performance team should discuss content. The producer should offer details about the event, goal, audience, and suggest topics. Decisions around this being a one-off event, or an ongoing series needs to occur, as well as the presentation style (keynote vs panel, or some type of hybird). The hosting company needs to clearly think through the risks of ‘pitching’ wares as it will have both negative and positive impacts.

BUT, don’t stop here! CLICK HERE to read his entire article and read the last 5 P’s!!

Cheers & Happy Marketing!

Lisa

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5 Concerns About Webinars – And How to Get Over Them

January 27th, 2010

Hi All!

The following guest post was written by Wayne Turmel – Speaker, writer and president of www.greatwebmeetings.com, a company dedicated to helping people use web technology to sell, manage, train and communicate using today’s communication technology. He’s a regular contributor to Management IssuesBNET and host of The Cranky Middle Manager Show podcast.

If you’re looking how to improve your webinars, or learn more about how to even do an effective webinar to build your brand and/or generate revenue, you’ll find this article helpful!

“5 Concerns About Webinars – And How to Get Over Them”, by Wayne Turmel

Webinars and webcasts are a great way to promote your brand- but there are some common misconceptions that get in the way of using them effectively. Here are some facts and tips from my book, “6 Weeks to a Great Webinar”

  • They are expensive- yes, they take time to plan and promote, but the prices have dropped considerably. Good webinar platforms are available for as little as $99 or less per month for unlimited use and most include promotion and registration tools. Most offer month to month contracts. Social media and your contact list make a great start for marketing effectively. Also, consider partnering with an association or strategic partner to be a guest on their webinar and agree to share the registration lists.
  • If I don’t get a big audience it’s a waste of effort- sure, Oprah got 500,000 attendees on her webcast. You ain’t Oprah, don’t worry about it. If you choose a robust platform with good recording capabilities the webinar has a life long after the event itself. Post it to your website. Statistics show that the recorded event will get 4-10X more viewings than ever attended the actual event
  • Free webinars have a 50% no show rate and that’s a problem-well, only to your ego. Why are you holding the webinar?  You want to increase awareness of what you do and add people to your prospect list, mostly by enlarging your database. When they register for your event they’ve told you they are at least a Level 1 prospect (interested in your topic or area of expertise). Make sure that to register they give you at least a real name and email address. Then when the webinar is completed, you can send the no-shows a letter pointing them to the recorded event and follow up in other ways. It was important enough for them to register, they are probably still interested even though something came up that prevented them from attending. Don’t let that lead die. If they’ve registered, it’s a victory. Heck if you at least know that the email address is good it goes a long way to cleaning up your database
  • The technology is complicated and I’m not really a tech person- There are so many platforms that even the most technophobic of us can present effectively. From the very simple (BrightTalk and Netbriefings )to  more robust platforms that require some multitasking (GoToWebinar, Dimdim , Telenect and over 100 others) the key is to practice until you can talk and punch buttons at the same time. This requires practice, not any particular brilliance. Practice means real practice, not thumbing through your PowerPoint muttering to yourself. The first time you use a platform should not be when you’ve got customers or prospects on the line.
  • They are impersonal and not as much fun as a live presentation- True, it’s a different dynamic from a live presentation. You can’t see their smiling faces, hear the laughs or get instant ego gratification that way. Part of that is reality, some of it is the presenter’s fault. Most presenters don’t use the tools the platform provide for making presentations interactive. Learn to use chat, polling and other tools that come with the platform. Take questions throughout the presentation rather than holding them all to the end. The problem is that many of us have not been on a good, interactive, engaging webinar so we’re lacking for models. Sit in on a few… find out what you like and do that….find out what bored you and swear to me you’ll never do that to an audience of your own.

If you’d like guidance on doing marketing/lead generating webinars and webcasts, you can do worse than “6 Weeks to a Great Webinar- Generate Leads and Tell Your Story Your Way”. This workbook contains templates, samples and easy-to-follow checklists for wrangling all the little details you need to tend to for a successful webinar event.

Thanks for the great info, Wayne! And thanks for contributing to my new blog!

Cheers!

Lisa

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