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.

Popularity: 13% [?]

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.

Popularity: 13% [?]

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.

Popularity: 16% [?]

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…

Popularity: 16% [?]

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.

Popularity: 19% [?]

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…

Popularity: 24% [?]

In the last post I talked about our company’s plan for the coming year; how we are using this time when people are not making major decisions - which has subsequently caused a lull for us - to plan appropriately for the coming year. We were putting together strategies that would allow us to market our services to the widest cross-section of potential customers but do so in a way that would not destroy what little marketing budget we had. We had been using web technology for some time - we frequently use web conferencing to “meet” with clients who are far away - and we decided to look into the potential that was available to us in this sector. That’s when we determined that webinars would be the way in which we would expand our reputation and educate our customers at the same time.

Again, webinars are online seminars that are conducted with a host. Attendees sign up and then logon at the scheduled date and time during which the webinar host will speak about the topic at hand. We knew that webinars could benefit us on a number of fronts:

We are in a very technical business; one that our customers don’t even understand very well. We do our best to educate our customers so that we can build a level of trust with them. Ongoing webinars would be a great added value for our existing customers because they could attend to learn more about our business in a more detailed way than we may be able to give them in short conversations about specific projects.

We could reach a variety of audiences simultaneously. It was hard work to get one person on the phone to talk to us; being able to reach out to a larger audience at the same time would leverage the opportunities available to us.

Showcasing our expertise through webinars could give us the upper hand against competitors and would certainly go a long way towards building good press for our brand name.

Popularity: 19% [?]

Like most companies right now we are struggling to get by month after month. The economy set the stage for more careful spending by consumers and now, with the holidays upon us, spending has all but screeched to a halt in our industry. People are waiting for the New Year and their new budgets so they can start off in January with a clean slate. Now is not the time when anyone is making decisions. This does not stand true for us, however. We are using this lull in our industry to start putting together a plan for the year ahead; a plan that will allow us to come out of the gate in January with some aggressive marketing. Of course, this puts us in a bit of a predicament considering that we don’t have the budget to launch a comprehensive advertising or marketing campaign. We needed a way that we could get our name out there, reach our potential audience on a wide scale, and not spend a fortune in the process. After much research on web conferencing and a variety of technology that is currently available to us we decided to put together a plan that includes the use of webinars.

We are in a highly technical industry - one in which customers come to us to fill a very niche need. They may trust us to get the job done but they typically don’t actually understand the job - they don’t understand the ins and outs of what we do and sometimes that can work to our disadvantage. We try to educate our customers as we go but this only works when we already have a level of trust between us. We needed a way to be able to speak from a place of experience and expertise beyond the confines of the project at hand; and webinars could help us do that.

A webinar allows us to conduct an online seminar - one in which participants sign up and attend on a particular date and time just like they would any other seminar in a physical location. More in the next post…

Popularity: 19% [?]

There are many ways in which companies connect in the modern world and in the age of the Internet, things are much more technologically advanced - and certainly more convenient - than ever. There are benefits to this kind of communication to be sure; it has allowed us to operate in a global capacity and expand our business to include a variety of industries around the world. But, if you’re not careful, the digital age can all but replace the personal experience and this can backfire in terms of winning new business. The reason for this possibility? No matter what, business is about relationships and people build relationships. Successful companies manage to combine technology and a personal touch and webinars help to combine the two extremely well.

Webinars are online seminar platforms - replacing the conference room, banquet room, and training room with an online portal through which people can deliver information to attendees who no longer need to be in the same physical place.

More than just a showcasing of advanced technology, webinars offer a variety of benefits for those hosting them including:

The ability to promote expertise and build a brand name online. Those who host a webinar do so because they have information to share; they are knowledgeable about a topic and they want to educate their audience about that topic. Conducting ongoing webinars allow hosts to establish a reputation as experts in their field and this further allows them to grow their brand online.

Even though webinars are online they still put a face to a company and allow businesses to personalize their offerings. Remember, relationships build business and webinars still allow companies to build relationships even if it is in the midst of technology.

The end result of all this work is to earn trust so that you can, in turn, earn new business.

Popularity: 19% [?]

This year, one of the worst years of all times for this to happen, I lost my job. I was in a top level management position and was making good money - especially for this economy. I was completely shocked when I was let go and I was not financially prepared to continue living in the style in which I had previously. I had to make some decisions and I had to make them fast. So, believe it or not, I decided to start my own business doing what I had been doing at my previous company, what I loved to do, and what I knew that I was good at doing. This was a big leap of faith for me to be sure but I was willing to take on the risk in order to achieve the reward. I knew that what my intended audience and potential customers wanted more than anything was accurate information (I was working to build websites and had a much deeper understanding of the Internet than most of them did) and someone they could trust to lead the way. I decided to start conducting webinars on a weekly basis and promoting them through my website and through social media.

The use of webinars was something that really worked well for me. I was definitely knowledgeable on the subject that I was promoting and I knew that I could focus on different topics every week. I also knew that once people heard me speak and realized my level of knowledge they would be comfortable working with me and possibly even recommending me to their friends.

Each webinar was better than the last; I had many participants and word of mouth expanded about my webinars. Before long I not only had popular webinars but I had a lot of new business.

Popularity: 19% [?]