Live Webinar or Record and Upload for Later Use?

Webinars are fast becoming the trend in marketing due to various reasons. For one, webinars have greater reach than the usual on-site seminars. A company wanting to promote its products and services can use these web-based seminars to spread the news to potential customers anywhere where there is internet. Another reason is that webinars are definitely cheaper than other traditional methods of marketing giving companies huge savings that can utilized for operational costs for example. 

Webinars can either be live or prerecorded with each type having its advantages and disadvantages. The choice of which type of webinar does not necessarily have an effect on the results of the marketing campaign. With proper study of the targeted audience, a company would realize that each type would work in certain cases. As such, a combination of both types in the marketing strategy would do well for the campaign.

A live webinar boasts of spontaneity and interactivity. In this type, a speaker can easily capture and maintain the interest of the audience. Its spontaneous nature allows for some necessary adjustments as the need arises. Plus, the speaker can easily insert some humor or an interactive exercise when he notices that he is losing the attention of his audience. Furthermore, this type gives more opportunities for interaction among the participants and the speaker unlike recorded webinars. Questions and concerns can immediately be addressed even during the middle of the webinar. 

There are a couple of disadvantages of live webinars one of which is that there is more room for errors and glitches. An important detail might be missed like a set of visuals or a technical problem might occur while the webinar is going on. Furthermore, there are times when people who register for the event are not available at the last minute which could make you miss your targeted number of audience. 

A prerecorded webinars advantage, on the other hand, lies in the opportunity that it gives to the company to give a perfectly designed and delivered webinar. Unfortunately, this where the waterloo of prerecorded webinars also lie because an audience have high expectations for this type, thus, errors would not be easily forgiven by the audience. One other benefit of this type of webinar is that unlike its live counterpart where the audience has to convene in the virtual conference room in a specific schedule set by the company regardless of their time zone, the audience could view the webinar at a time convenient to them. 















Avoiding Nerves when Presenting your Webinar

Even expert speakers get the nerves whenever they have a speaking engagement so imagine how nervous a novice can get in his first public speaking engagement. Although webinars do not entail a speaker to be physically in the same place as the audience, the feeling could still be the same. But as they say getting butterflies in your stomach prior to your presentation would pump up adrenaline into your system making you more alert and ready for action. By realizing this and accepting that it is normal, you could begin to arm yourself with the best weapon and that is preparation. 

Apparently, preparation could be more important than the actual delivery of the webinar since everything stems from the latter stage. Smooth delivery of the webinar depends upon the preparations you make. So, aside from mastering your material you should make sure that all other aspects are running perfectly such as the web conferencing software, audio, visuals and other tools. Without worrying about these things, you can focus on making a blast of your presentation.

Do not show up in the seminar with some remaining loose ends in your material. Days before the webinar, you should already have put the presentation together. Knowing that you have mastered your material would give you the confidence boost that you need in order to give the presentation of your life. It would also help if you conduct a dry run so that you will be able to assess if there are still aspects that needs improvement not only in the material but also in the other parts of the webinar.

If you are not the only speaker in the seminar and the others are already experienced webinar speakers, request for the initial slot. Watching these speakers deliver their presentation might increase your nerves and you might end up not able to present well if at all. Or if there are other novices in the group just like you, choose a slot next to them so that you would at least have the comfort of not being the sole newbie.

Finally, face the things that are making you nervous. For example, if you fear that you are going to make mistakes then make fun of yourself when you do. Make the mistake appear like its nothing major or it has been done intentionally so that your audience would be able to join in the fun instead of raise their eyebrows. With this, you will appear relaxed and make your audience feel the same and be less critical.

















How to Monetize your Webinar

Apparently, there is money in webinars that is why it has become one of the top marketing tools today. More than starting or increasing a companys client base, webinars can also be a business opportunity. There are free webinars being advertised on the internet but at the same time there are those that require fees. To come up with webinars that are worth somebodys hard-earned money, there are certain tips that could help you do it.

A webinars top selling point is content. People buy tickets to webinars because they know that they could get something out of the presentation or lecture. The basic question they would ask themselves is, whats in it for me? Thus, if you are conceptualizing a webinar which focuses mainly on selling something, then you are in for disappointment. If you want your webinar tickets to sell like hotcakes, you should stop thinking about what you can get from your audience but what you can offer them. This way, you can give something of value to your audience which could be additional skills, a solution to a problem or personal development.

Once you have laid out the content of your webinar, the next thing to do is to set your ticket price. It is best to study the prices of similar webinars you are offering. When you are a beginner in the field of webinar hosting, you should set a price lower than the prevailing price in the market. You can raise your price once you already established yourself in the field. 

To further get attention to your webinar, it is best to offer incentives to those who buy your tickets. One suggestion is to offer two webinars for the price of one especially when you are promoting your first webinar. You can also give out free tickets to those who register early or cash to those who refer a friend. Or you can start a raffle and give out the prices on the day of the webinar. 

To maximize the potential of your webinar to give you extra income, you should schedule your webinar properly. Webinar developers have found webinars are less attended during vacations and holidays because people are busy having fun. It is also not wise to schedule it over dinnertime for obvious reasons. Webinars are best scheduled during the middle of the week because this is when most people have time to spare. Mondays and Fridays, on the other hand, are usually the busiest days of the week so inserting a webinar into their working schedule could be close to impossible. 

















Best Ways to get Maximum Attendance to your Webinar

The secret to getting the maximum attendance for your webinar is promotion. To get people to attend your webinar, you must first make sure that they learn about it. The best medium that you can use to promote your webinar is the internet as the same has better reach and is less costly than other medium. The internet also provides you with more options in designing your marketing campaign. 

1. Articles and blogs. The web is a virtual marketplace and everywhere you look there are products and services being advertised. Articles and blogs are the most prominent marketing tools in the internet and it is best to take full advantages of their benefits. Prior to the scheduled webinar, you should make sure that write ups are scattered over relevant channels on the web about the subject of the webinar providing a link back to your sales page or your url where more information can be found.

2. Website. If you have your own website, make sure that the sales page for the webinar is designed to attract attention. Weeks before the event, most roads on the web should lead to your website. If at all possible, a link to your website should proliferate in the internet. If you do not have one yet, you should consider coming up with one as this serves as your window to more clients.

3. Social networking sites. If you want free advertisement, then social networking sites can provide you this and more. These sites are the most visited sites in the internet, thus, making your presence felt in these would do your webinar a lot of good. You can promote your articles, blogs, website and the webinar itself. If you have allocated some budget for the advertisements, consider pay per click advertisements as these come definitely cheaper.

4. Joint Marketing. Having other people promote your webinar for you would multiply your promotional efforts. If you can partner with people who are offering the same product or service that you are offering, then you can present the concept of the webinar with him and split the income in half later on. You can share contacts for a bigger client base, thus, doubling the marketing efforts. You can also offer incentives to your affiliates who get people to sign up for the webinar. Giving a dollar for every referral or giving ten or twenty percent of the signup fee would surely pick their interest.




