Webinar Blog

Webinars for Instruction

Webinar Editor — Thu, 14 Jan 2010 02:59:06 +0000

In my world things change fast; there is always some new information that comes along that I need to be able to share with my staff quickly - to get them up to speed so that they can, in turn, serve our clients. Because we deal in computer software it’s not enough to email someone information and let them fly with it. Instead, disseminating information in our company requires a certain amount of instruction. Complicating matters even further is the fact that we have offices all over the country; so communication does become something of a challenge when we need to move quickly and deliver information fast and accurately.

Helping us on this front has been our continued use of webinars. Through this online web conferencing platform we can accomplish a number of tasks most efficiently including:

Speaking to a multitude of people at once. With offices all over the country we need to be able to dial in our staff members simultaneously and webinars allow us to do that.

Save time. Obviously having to do separate conferences with each office would slow down our process considerably. A webinar allows us to do it all at once. We schedule dates and times which everyone is expected to attend and that way the process flows smoothly and is most effective.

Maintains consistency. Webinars give us the ability to maintain our consistency in our message. By delivering our information all at once - at one time - we can ensure that everyone is getting the same information delivered the correct way. We know that we are all on the same page.

Supports productivity. Most importantly delivering this information allows us to best serve our customers and clearly it’s in our best interest to make sure that every member of our staff has the proper tools that they need to get the job done right.

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Abandoning the Hard Sell Through Webinars

Webinar Editor — Wed, 13 Jan 2010 01:09:48 +0000

As someone who has been in sales for twenty years I have seen a lot of things change - especially with the growth of the Internet. What used to be contact made only through the telephone has, over the years, opened up to different methods of communication. We are just as likely to email new business prospects as we are to make a phone call and this has actually helped us to make our case and to present our products and services in a unique and creative way. What we have also discovered is the fact that many prospective clients respond in a more positive manner to email. They don’t feel as if they are being backed into a corner and email gives them the opportunity to read and consider the information. It also gives us the ability to familiarize them with our company before making our introduction on phone. It warms people up to us which can be much more effective than a cold call.

Further to this point, webinars have become a great way to introduce prospective clients to our products and services without putting undo pressure on them. The way in which we have worked webinars is by:

Scheduling several weekly webinar dates and times. We assign people to each webinar time who have a clear understanding of the topic at hand and an interesting way to deliver the information.

Identifying prospective clients that we have made previous contact with that we would like to invite to the webinars.

Sending invitations to those who we wish to include in our webinars.

Webinars have been enormously effective in getting the attention of prospective clients and giving them insight into what we have to offer them without pressuring them with a hard sale. We have found, as a result, that we get a very high return on our webinar conversions. Those who join us in our webinars often want to find out more and we have found many new clients this way.

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Make Home Offices Work Through Web Conferencing, Part II

Webinar Editor — Mon, 11 Jan 2010 17:14:54 +0000

In the last post we talked about the ever-expanding business community and how that community has grown to include virtual workers who maintain their offices at home. This is becoming more the norm each and every year as businesses look for ways to reduce their overhead and still respond to their clients effectively - clients who may be around the country or around the world. Web conferencing is one of the state-of -the-art technologies that utilize the Internet to give users the ability to navigate the changing business environment. Web conferencing gives people the ability to meet online from a multitude of locations - to interact and to access and discuss documents.

There are a variety of benefits that are offered through web conferencing. As we already discussed some of those benefits include the ability for attendees to put a face to their name. The Internet is a wonderful tool but it can also strip personal attention from an experience. Web conferencing allows people to meet as they would traditionally without having to be in the same physical location. Additionally, web conferencing allows at-home workers to be involved in day to day business dealings and gives companies the opportunity to service their client fast and effectively.

Some additional benefits that web conferencing offers for home offices includes:

The ability to manage projects day to day. Ongoing projects are clearly a part of business and they need to be managed appropriately. Web conferencing gives businesses the tools to manage projects effectively and professionally.

The opportunity to offer visual appeal. The great part about web conferencing is that it offers the tools of the Internet. Any meeting can be complemented with visual documents that can be seen by all attendees.

Responsiveness. Those who are working from their home offices are not physically connected to the businesses for which they work. Web conferencing gives them the ability to reach out to their co-workers and to company management so that they can stay in the loop and get the answers they need.

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Make Home Offices Work Through Web Conferencing, Part I

Webinar Editor — Thu, 07 Jan 2010 03:27:17 +0000

The current business climate is one that supports versatility. We are operating in a global marketplace where business professionals are not necessarily working in a traditional office environment during traditional business hours. With differing time zones a part of the mix and many companies employing staff who work from their home offices, it is important to have the appropriate mode of communication for all parties involved. Web conferencing is not just a part of the modern technology available to us today but it’s an important way for making the virtual work environment successful. Web conferencing brings multiple parties together online - creating a virtual meeting space where attendees can meet even if they are across the country - or across the world - from each other. Over the Internet, web conferencing attendees have the ability to interact with each other in the next best way to a traditional meeting. Attendees can talk to each other, hear each other, share information, and access and discuss documents. Web conferencing has opened a new door for virtual workers who want to communicate in the most effective manner possible.

Web conferencing offers these benefits to home office workers:

The ability to put a face to a name. Phone conferencing and email have its place but when important business is on the line it’s often important to have a personal touch. Web conferencing gives everyone the floor to interact personally with each other just as they would in a traditional meeting.

The opportunity to bridge distance. Those working from a home office have the advantage of no commute and the convenience of working flexibility but it’s also easy to feel cut off from day to day business. Web conferencing allows for workers to get involved from their location - no matter where that is.

The ability to work quickly and effectively. We all need to be able to respond to our clients most effectively and as quickly as possible. Web conferencing can make that happen.

Web Conferencing Opens Doors

Webinar Editor — Sat, 02 Jan 2010 02:10:06 +0000

In our line of work the relationship between client and vendor is paramount to success. We don’t just provide a service, we work with our clients hand in hand, as partners to complete very specific projects that have a clearly defined beginning and a clearly defined end. We need to work within the parameters of this arrangement in the most effective way possible, following a carefully created strategy. So it stands to reason that we need to have a good relationship with our clients; and more specifically than that we need to have a communicative relationship with our clients. Those clients that are in the same city as we are have proximity on their side and they will likely see members of our team on a weekly, if not a daily basis. Those clients that are in other states or countries have the power of web conferencing on their side.

Web conferencing is something that we have long used in our industry to help us stay on top of all the components of a project at hand. It’s perfect for being able to meet with clients without having to actually meet with them physically. It’s the perfect complement to our business and the next best thing to our weekly meetings that we have with our local clients. Through web conferencing we can have a back and forth conversation with attendees, share information, ask questions, and, most importantly, access and share the documents that we have to go over to keep the project on track.

In our business, web conferencing has opened many doors for us; we are able to meet just as comfortably with our out of town clients as we are our local clients - giving us the ability to remain effective across the board and confident in leading the projects at hand.

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Planning My First Webinar, Part II

Webinar Editor — Thu, 31 Dec 2009 15:26:52 +0000

In the last post I talked about starting my new job with a new company - after ten years in my old job (a position that was eliminated due to the economy). Now, in my new job I was challenged with bringing fresh marketing ideas to the table - ways in which we could promote the company in the coming year. I thought that webinars - something I had been researching in my last job - were the perfect way to establish us as experts on particular industry topics and reach our audience in the meantime.

The first thing I needed to do was to determine the topics we were going to present and the order in which we were going to present them. I wanted these webinars to be presented in a series so that the audience would be enticed to logon for the next one if they enjoyed the first and got the information they wanted. I worked with my team to define the topics and to put together the information in a way that would not only be helpful and informative for the audience but also entertaining and interesting.

Once we had our format I worked with a company to set up the webinar itself - to determine the dates and times and to put together a list of invitees as well as a way that we were going to promote the webinars to attract more attendees. We did a test run of the webinar in the office to make sure we had all our information settled and to get some fresh perspective on things we could add to make it more fun or informative; and then we were ready to go.

I did a lot of promotion on social networking sites and got a lot of feedback from people who wanted to attend our first webinar. All in all, it was a great success and we look forward to hosting webinars for many months to come.

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Planning My First Webinar, Part I

Webinar Editor — Wed, 30 Dec 2009 20:23:36 +0000

Coming to this company from my last job was a big move; one that I’m not sure I would have taken solely on my own. But like many other people in this economy I lost my last job - from a company that I had been with for over a decade. It was a sad time in my life but a little perspective on the situation showed me that I had become entrenched in a situation that was very comfortable and who knows if I would have made the leap to find something else without this kind of fire lit under me.

The transition to the new job was challenging to say the least and I had to come to the table right away with some ideas on how to propel the company forward in the New Year. This was a position in their marketing department and the team that was assembled around me were all looking to me for some fresh ideas on how to approach the coming months

One thing that I could boast in terms of my past experience was my comfort with technology. In my previous role I had helped to integrate some of the latest technology into different areas within the company. We were using web conferencing, for example, as a way to meet with clients who were far away from us and we had begun to explore the potential of using webinars.

So I picked up right where I had left off and decided to investigate the ways that we could use webinars to promote our business. I knew that if we could create topics for webinars - topics that an audience would be interested in logging in for - we had won half the battle and we could use each webinar to solidify ourselves as experts in our field. More in the next post…

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Use Social Networking to Promote Your Webinar, Part II

Webinar Editor — Wed, 30 Dec 2009 02:01:36 +0000

In the last post we talked about the enormous growth of the Internet and how it has all completely changed the way in which we conduct business. The online environment has opened up doors to us that were previously closed and allowed us to reach out to companies and people the world over; giving us a whole new playing field on which to promote our companies. Webinars and the variety of web conferencing options available to us now have given us amazing tools for getting our company names out there and promoting ourselves in a completely new and different way. Webinars especially are enormously versatile and are used in a variety of ways in business - from conducting training sessions to offering the chance to “meet” with employees and vendors around the world.

Webinars are also often used to offer information about a particular topic and the hosting person - or company - is able to promote themselves through the offering of this information. Webinars are online seminars to which people are invited and through which they are offered information on topics in which they are interested. For example, you may attend a webinar about web design and all of the things that go into making an effective, and ultimately successful web design. The webinar itself is interesting and helpful but, ultimately, the company offering it (experts in web design, naturally) want you to come to them for your web design.

The promotion of webinars can happen in a variety of ways and social networking is one of the ways in which webinars can be promoted easily and conveniently. In fact, those who are missing the boat on social networking are missing the chance to reach a huge audience. Promotion can be complemented through the use of LinkedIn, Facebook, and even Twitter. Think of social media as your billboard and create your message accordingly.

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Use Social Networking to Promote Your Webinar, Part I

Webinar Editor — Tue, 22 Dec 2009 17:39:07 +0000

In this day and age there are so many things available to us in terms of effective marketing. Internet technology has really changed everything; it has opened a door to the world and given us the ability to reach a wide audience if we utilize the tools that are now standard in the industry. Webinars are one of the great tools of this technological age - a way in which to impart information, seminar style to an audience that “attends” online. In the typical webinar format a host presents information to the audience - just as if they were standing at the front of a room in a traditional seminar format. Yet, while this is the typical format there is room for flexibility when it comes to webinars - including the ability for questions and answers and more interaction than the typical seminar or what one might picture when they think of a webinar.

The purpose of webinars differs according to industry and needs; a webinar is just as likely used to conduct nationwide training to virtual employees as it is to conduct a meeting between clients and vendors. In many cases, companies actually use webinars to promote their products and services as well as expand their brand name - by offering information in which their audience may be interested; information that is industry-related and through the dissemination of which the hosting company can establish their expertise and hopefully intrigue and inspire enough of their audience members to do business with them.

Promoting webinars is a big part of the marketing process, of course, You need to be able to get an audience to attend your webinar before you can knock their socks off! There are a variety of ways to promote webinars including sending out emails to potential new business prospects that have agreed to receive emails from your company, word of mouth, traditional mailings, postings on your website, and more. Of course, any company embarking on a marketing campaign without considering the use of social media, is missing a huge opportunity to reach a massive audience. More in the next post…

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Sales Presentations with Web Conferencing

Webinar Editor — Sun, 20 Dec 2009 18:43:44 +0000

The world has shrunk in many ways; shrunk because of our ability to communicate with each other so effectively and travel to each other so easily. Internet technology has been a huge part of this process; giving us the tools to be able to reach out to people thousands of miles away and talk to them as if they were very much in the same room with us. In business, this kind of technology has expanded what we are able to do and where we are able to go; the world is open to us in every conceivable way - if we are able to use the resources available to us in the most effective manner possible. Web conferencing is just one example of how Internet technology has changed everything for business. It would have once been inconceivable to imagine being able to present information to a potential client in a manner so closely resembling a traditional meeting if that potential client was in California and we were in New York. Today it’s commonplace for web conferencing and webinars to stand in for travel and traditional meetings. Why go to the time and expense when we can jump online and have essentially the same experience?

One of the ways in which web conferencing has become a part of the modern business world is by allowing those in sales to make their presentations virtually instead of calling upon potential customers to take the time to meet with them in person - especially if there is expensive travel associated with that proposition. Through web conferencing, sales presentations can be done easily and conveniently - allowing sales professionals to:

Save time and money. Not every sales presentation results in a sale. Presenting with the help of web conferencing allows you avoid travel expenses and certainly allows you to make a number of sales presentations back to back - increasing your opportunities for success.

Respecting your audience’s time. Not everyone you approach for business is going to be willing to take the time to sit down with you. However, they may agree to take the time to simply logon to a web conference. This minimizes their initial commitment but still gives you the opportunity to shine.

Demonstrate your skills. If you do win business from a potential client they are going to want - as everyone does - to be assured that you can provide them with comprehensive service regardless of the physical distance between you. Web conferencing demonstrates your commitment to technology and your ability to jump right in with both feet.

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