Live Online Learning

Webinar Tips #10: Follow Up After Webinars

Kyle Brown — Fri, 31 Jul 2009 23:05:21 +0000

I’d like to expand on the follow up discussed in Webinar Tips #9. Follow up emails should be carefully planned. First you need to decide what you want to achieve or what information you’d like to gather from these follow ups. Most webinar vendors, Citrix GoToWebinar and Webex, for example, have features to send emails to attendees and those who didn’t attend. You populate the text and information and on a predetermined day it will send the emails out. This is a good feature to use because the email will be in a format that visually reminds them of your webinar. Some things you might want to choose to include in your follow ups are: A thank you note, link to the webinar’s recording, a survey, information about upcoming webinars, or promotional information about your products or services.

Thank You Note
First and foremost you will want to thank the attendees for participating in your webinar. You can mention the presenter and give his contact info if you’d like. You should recap the high points or takeaways from the presentation. For example, if you deliver a webinar about creating a brand for companies you might include an excerpt saying, “Remember, when creating a brand…”

Webinar recording
Once you have thanked your audience give them a link to a recorded version of the webinar and/or any documents you might be willing to give i.e. PowerPoint slides. Providing this type of information will drastically increase the number of people who open and read your email.

Follow Up Survey
You may consider using a survey to gather some additional information about the event or about the attendees specifically. You may choose to use the survey as a pre-requisite to viewing the recording or downloading the slides. Keep the survey short and make sure the questions you ask provides you with relevant and useful information. Ask yourself, “what am I going to do with this information?” to make sure your questions will be useful and not a waste of everyone’s time. Asking for feedback about the event and requests for future event topics are both very common to include in a survey like this. Take the opportunity to learn more about your audience as well. Some webinar tools come with a survey option included but there are many other online survey tools out there, such as Survey Monkey.

Upcoming Webinars and Sales Information
Finally you will want to include information on upcoming events and/or promotional information about your products and services. Provide links to more information perhaps feature a popular product or service. Link to more information on your website rather than have a lengthy description in the email.

View additional Webinar Tips or please feel free to email me kylebrown@liveonlinelearning.com if you have any questions about our service offerings.

Webinar Tips #9: Using Auto Generated Emails as a Sales Tool

Kyle Brown — Mon, 27 Jul 2009 16:40:33 +0000

You don’t want to pass up the opportunity to profit from your event. This includes being clever with your email campaigns to those who register for your event. You should create a confirmation email, a reminder email, a post webinar email for those who attended and for those who didn’t.

Confirmation Email
According to Jeanniey Mullen, “74 percent of the general population will open and read a service or confirmation email within one hour of receipt.” This is the perfect time to throw in a small pitch for an upcoming event or market a product or service. Award winning creative director and copywriter Karen Gedney believes “it’s highly likely the recipient is still in a very receptive state of mind toward you and your company since the confirmation is usually sent within minutes of the transaction.” Since you are already in a good light with the client, take advantage of the glow and put yourself out there and sell. Do not give them a convoluted array of products and services; keep it simple so you don’t lose their focus.

Reminder Email
Second, you will want to send them a reminder email. I find these to be most helpful for companies who offer free webinars. You want them to attend your webinar but if they don’t pay for it they are less likely to feel any obligation to attend and the reminder email keeps it fresh in their mind. I would suggest leading them to your website with a tip or some type of intriguing article; it gives them incentive to visit your site but isn’t a direct sales pitch. You don’t want your prospective client to think the webinar you are giving is merely a sales pitch. They are attending your webinar to solve a problem or get some useful information and you might scare them off if you aren’t careful. If someone has purchased access to a webinar they are much more likely to attend your event as well as purchase additional products/ services. It’s safe to be a bit more direct.

Post Webinar Emails
Sending a post webinar email is a must. You should generate one email for those who attended your webinar and one for those who registered but missed the event. In the email to those who attended you may want to give a summary of the event, a link to download slides or a link to a survey. You should also mention upcoming webinars or products and services. Like the confirmation email you will want to keep it simple; the longer the email the less likely it will be read completely. With the email to those who missed the event you’ll want to provide links to a recording of the event and/or any materials from the event. They are not a lost cause - give them another chance.

Click the link for more Webinar Tips. Send me an email at kylebrown@liveonlinelearning.com if you have any questions about our service offerings.

Webinar Tips #8: Webinar Welcome Slides for Early Arrivals

Kyle Brown — Mon, 20 Jul 2009 22:36:34 +0000

When delivering successful webinars you have to remember the webinar doesn’t start when the Presenter introduces him or herself it starts when the first participant logs on. You’ll want to capitalize on the participant’s attention when they first arrive. I have seen people sign into webinars up to 20 minutes early; rather than having them stare at 1 screen with the presenter’s bio, you should have a rotation of slides that offers information and prepares your audience for the webinar. There are many things you can present here but I would focus on providing general information about the webinar, sound check, questions, and ads.

General Information Slide(s)
General information slides would include the presenter’s bio with a photograph, webinar start and finish times, and a description of the webinar. Previously we discussed keeping the attention of your audience. Having a bio with a picture gives the audience an opportunity to relate to the speaker much more so than without. Include a small description that will peak their interest and prevent them from keeping your webinar in the background.

Sound and Question Slide(s)
These slides are designed to give the participant some preparatory information regarding the technical aspects of the webinar software. These slides will decrease the odds of participants needing help with the audio. Whether it is a phone number and access code or streaming audio on a VoIP system, having the call instructions and waiting room music will allow the participant to verify if they are on the call. If you plan on having the participants using the chat feature of your software during the webinar this is where you would post instructions for it. An informed audience is more likely to interact during the webinar, keeping them engaged and having a more successful webinar.

Ad Slide(s)
Ads consist of a couple different things in this arena. You might be looking to promote future webinars, your product or service, or a sponsors product or service. I wouldn’t over do it here but 1 or 2 soft selling slides and or promotional slides would be ok. You don’t want to lead the audience to believe you are going to be selling them the entire webinar so keep it subtle and you won’t project the wrong image.

You see how having introductory slides like these are more likely to keep your early arrivals focused on the presentation they have ahead of them over the stale generic waiting room. The rotation slides are a great tool for keeping the audience engaged, ensuring they are prepared, and floating some ads by them. Use these tactics when preparing your next webinar!

If you would like to read more webinar tips click here.

Webinar Tips #7: Use a Script for your Webinar

RyanBrown — Tue, 02 Jun 2009 21:17:27 +0000

This tip is especially important if you have multiple people involved with your webinar broadcasts. The use of a script helps everyone to understand when they are expected to be involved (and when they are not involved) as well as helping to avoid mis-communications about the flow of your event. How many webinars have you attended when it feels like the organizers did not plan very well?

I think scripts are especially helpful for non-presenters involved in the audio broadcast or when multiple presenters are used. It helps to define the various elements of the event and who will be speaking to those points. It definitely helps those participants who were not involved in creating the event to understand the flow you have designed.

Your script can be as simple or complex as you like, but I recommend trying to keep it as simple as possible.

You can create your script and break it down into sections. Your webinar content, participants and strategy for the event will determine how you break these out but here is an example:

Before Main Presentation
During Presentation
After Main Presentation

Webinar Tips #6: Keep Your Audience Focused on the Presentation

Kyle Brown — Fri, 24 Apr 2009 14:39:31 +0000

One of the most important tasks for delivering a webinar is to keep your audience focused on your presentation. There are many office distractions that can take away from the effectiveness of your webinar if you aren’t keeping the audience’s attention on your message. In order to keep participants focused on your webinar and not their email, the daily news, or colleagues you will need to: identify with the audience, engage your participants, and articulate your message.

Identify with the audience
The first thing you will need to do to keep your participants attention focused on you is identify with them. What this means is develop a presentation aimed at their area of understanding and interest. For example you wouldn’t create a complicated technical presentation designed for engineers to deliver to a sales team; you would keep it in layman’s terms so their mind doesn’t wonder from lack of interest or understanding of your technical jargon. Identify with your potential audience when designing your presentation.

Engage your participants
Another tip for keeping their attention is to make them an active part of the webinar. Interact with them in any way possible: conduct audience polls, call on individuals to speak, ask for text input, etc. Keep them on their feet and they will be forced to pay attention. Another effort to engage is to create a presentation that is not limited to one media. Make sure your presentation isn’t text only. You need to have pictures, videos, etc. Make your presentation diverse and interactive and you will have a better chance of keeping their attention.

Articulate your message
Practice, practice, practice! You want to be articulate in the delivery of your presentation or you will lose control of your audience. You need to be in control and that means you need to speak clearly and effectively. You need to sound as if you know what you are talking about and “um, um, uh” is not a good segue into your talking points. If you sound clear and confident you are more likely to keep everyone listening.

So remember when you are creating your presentation keep your audience in mind before you write it or make changes to fit your participants if necessary. During your delivery engage them steadily throughout the presentation and express your thoughts and ideas clearly and effectively. Do this and you will have a greater impact on your audience.

If you would like to read more webinar tips click here.

Webinar Presentation Tips

RyanBrown — Fri, 06 Mar 2009 19:55:34 +0000

I found an excellent blog with some great posts on presentation skills. One post I thought you would find particularly helpful provides some tips on giving better webinar presentations. You can read the post on the High Stakes Presentations blog here: http://www.simswyeth.com/blog/presentations/how-to-give-good-webinars/

Webinar Tips #5: Selecting a Webinar Delivery Style

Kyle Brown — Tue, 03 Mar 2009 22:42:18 +0000

Select a Webinar Delivery Style
Your webinar can be delivered using several common techniques. Depending upon what type of content you plan to deliver and your audience, you may decide to choose one format over another. You may even choose to use portions of these techniques and create a hybrid model to best suit your needs.

Typical Delivery
We consider a typical delivery one in which you have one main presenter giving the presentation. Variations include having a moderator introduce the presenter and/ or deliver questions from the audience to the presenter.

Interview Style Delivery
The interview style delivery is a nice alternative to the typical webinar delivery model. The interview style consists of a moderator interviewing the presenter on a set of pre-determined questions. Variations on the theme include having participants submit questions in advance of the presentation or using a hybrid approach with the typical delivery.

Panel of Experts Delivery
The ‘Panel of Experts’ style of delivery works very well when you have several key presenters. Typically a moderator will facilitate questions/ topics and the presenters will discuss these topics, each giving their opinion, often resulting in very engaging content.

Interactive Delivery
The interactive delivery typically works best for smaller groups, but provides a very engaging and meaningful experience for the participants. Voice participation allows for the highest level of interactivity and participants can walk away with a higher level of understanding on the topic.

Webcast Delivery
A ‘webcast’ style delivery is a pre-recorded presentation that your audience can view at any time. Different from a recorded session of the above styles it is produced in a fashion that allows for “do overs.” This style also allows for produced video demonstrations or segments to be included in the webcast. This is very beneficial if you are looking to resell a professionally produced error free video presentation for an indefinite amount of time.

If you would like to read more webinar tips click here.

‘Increase Your Green’

RyanBrown — Sat, 14 Feb 2009 02:04:52 +0000

Have you been thinking of ways to make your company more “green”? I think most of us these days are making an effort to be more conservative, whether we’re recycling the paper waste in the office, or using a recycle bin next to the trash can for plastic bottles and cans. Implementing webinars into your training/ presentation regimen is an excellent way to ‘increase your green’

I never really thought about webinars as a green technology when we first began using them to train our clients to use business management software, I was just looking for a way to stay off the road so much! (My other business is a consulting firm providing training and implementation support for business management software.) Using webinars afforded us a way to reach out to more customers, more frequently, as well as provide an ongoing training solution. So our customers were happy, we were happy, then we realized a couple years ago (right in the middle of Prius mania) that we had significantly reduced our company’s carbon footprint! Sweet!

I’m not sure exactly how to calculate the positive benefit of our webinar use, but I figure we’ve managed over a thousand webinars. If you calculated all the people who didn’t have to drive a car or fly in a plane to a live seminar that’s got to be some pretty serious fuel savings alone! If anyone has a good calculator or tool for this please let me know.

Webinar Tips #4: Using a Webinar Moderator and Technical Support Agent

Kyle Brown — Mon, 09 Feb 2009 17:16:32 +0000

Each webinar has four human elements: Organizer, Moderator, Presenter, and Technical Support. Though it is possible for 1 person to run the show I strongly suggest using more than one staff member for these varied tasks. You always want to appear professional in the eyes of your participants so they will attend future webinars or be more likely to purchase from you.

We have found it to be less stressful when the responsibilities are divided up to multiple people, especially in large webinars. The more participants there are the larger the potential is for difficulties to arise and sharing the duties of the webinar will have you better prepared for any problems that might occur.

Organizer
The Organizer is responsible for all of the pre-webinar responsibilities in addition to recording the webinar. It is feasible to say that the Organizer could perform two duties since 99% of their requirements take place before the webinar starts.

Moderator
The moderator is the Captain of the ship, responsibilities include: Introducing the Webinar and the presenter, running the polls, presenting questions from the participants to the presenter, make sure everything is on track, closing remarks.

Presenter
The Presenters role is to present the material for the webinar and keep attendees engaged with their presentation. Whether it is a web based training or a sales/ marketing presentation, you want the Presenter focused on his/her presentation and not distracted from it. (The Moderator helps the Presenter focus on this specific task.)

Technical Support
This person will be involved in the webinar to ensure technical difficulties don’t damage your webinar. They are responsible for handling technical issues participants might have or technical issues on the admin side. Your technical support agent will engage attendees directly to help them get into the webinar successfully and get past any technical difficulties they are having!

Having separate people perform these webinar duties gives you the highest likelihood of hosting a successful event. By spreading the tasks out it helps each member of the webinar team focus on a specific element of the presentation’s delivery and delivers a seamless final product to your audience.

If you would like to read more webinar tips click here.

Webinar Tips #3: Be Prepared, Make a Checklist

Kyle Brown — Mon, 02 Feb 2009 22:41:39 +0000

When delivering a presentation in a classroom or office you want to appear cool, confident, and collected, right? Well a webinar is no different and if you start your webinar unprepared you might appear unprofessional to your audience. By making a checklist or a “to do list” you can ensure your webinar will start smoothly. You may even want to create several checklists for your event. Here are some examples:

Day before delivery - Make sure presentation fits allotted time:

Practice session - Run through your presentation to make sure it is deliverable in the right amount of time.
Make any necessary changes - make any changes to your presentation to make it fit the time frame for delivery. Don’t forget to leave time for Q & A.
Double check any polls for mistakes

30 min before delivery - Ensure that your office space is ready for your presentation:

Close windows
Turn ringer on cell phone to vibrate or off
Put a webinar in progress sign on your door
Close all applications you don’t need open on your computer i.e. Instant Messenger, Outlook, etc
Glass of water

15 min before delivery - Final preparations:

Open your web conferencing software
Load presentation
Check audio
Check recording
Start webinar

Obviously these are very basic checklists; you should carefully think about everything that needs to be done prior to the start of your webinar when creating your checklist(s). With any technology you are bound to encounter a problem every once in a while, so you will want to be prepared for any surprises. Using checklists will allow you the necessary time to fix any issues that may arise before you start the webinar.

If you would like to read more webinar tips click here.