Webinars

One of the best ways to present your business is by the use of an online Webinar.  Now I’m sure you’ve seen them, maybe even participated in them, but if you want to use them for your business there is a right and wrong way to produce them.  Every business is a little different in that regard.  Some businesses are very visual and into graphical presentations.  If you have ever used a PowerPoint presentation, you have a head start on most in producing webinars.  There are many similarities, but you need to know the differences since these will be important in making your webinar standout and be noticed.  Remember, your main goal is to show off you expertise in your field/profession.  This means the more information you can give during these webinars, the better.

This might be a good time to mention the option of audience participation.  This can be a good thing, or a bad thing, it depends on how many different ways your audience can take you away from you presentation.  Going off on tangents that are interesting to a small percentage of your audience can hurt you more than you even realize.  It is easier to turn off and disconnect from the webinar than it is to join…and it’s really easy to join.  You have to keep your audience online so don’t give them a reason to leave.  Stay on topic.  This doesn’t mean you can’t take questions or comments to your questions, but make sure you are in control at all times.

So, treat this media as another sales tool, but not just any sales tool.  You can archive this tool, make it available to your current followers as well as future followers.  Take advantage of this.  It also means that since this recorded presentation can be viewed, and re-viewed, by many over any length of time, the people that advertise or sponsor this will be presenting themselves over and over again too.  Think about the value to them as well as the advertising sales value to you.

One of the more popular ways to use this tool is as an educational tool.  If your site is strictly educational, or has educational value (and it better if you want visitors coming back), you have a means to sell almost anything.  Many educational sites are subscription/membership sites that educate their members all about their products and services…as well as how to use some of the affiliate programs that are a part of your marketing and service system.  If your program depends on the use of an auto-responder, then you can have a webinar that describes hoe your client can signup, setup, and use it.

If your site is purely educational, by that I mean a training site, you can use it as part of a mandatory training  program.  Archive it, and it is available for review and as a refresher for employees whenever needed.  Hold once a week training webinars, then archive them for later review.

There are a number of free and pay webinar sites.  Most of the free ones are great for those that are familiar with the process and they only need a site to put the webinar on.  However, if you aren’t sure or have no idea of how to do this, you will need one of the pay sites since as part of the fees they have regular, and archived training.  Guess what media they use for this training?  If this is where you are, then I recommend a site that has really good training that teaches you not only the mechanics of how to run a webinar, but also how to design. produce, market, and more.  The cost isn’t cheap, but the value is something you can’t put a price on.  If you are going to use webinars for your business, and I highly recommend you do, then don’t skimp here.  The return on your investment can be more than you imagined.