Promote U Guru Blog

5 Concerns About Webinars – And How to Get Over Them

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 Issues, BNET 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