What is a Webinar?

A Webinar is web based presentation, lecture, or workshop transmitted via the internet. It is the next generation of information delivery. The salient characteristic of the webinar is its interactive elements.

Webinars are different from Webcasts, in that the latter is one way communication between presenter and audience, where the former is a two way exchange between presenter and audience.

Webinars are also known as online workshops and provide a suitable alternative to traditional conferences. Webinars typically involve three methods of communication – Phone, online presentation and a chat window.

Why Should You Care?

• Building awareness of your products, service and expertise.
• Developing NEW sales leads
• Advancing the sales cycle for existing prospects.

Hosting successful Webinars

Content:
Like in conventional presentations, content is everything.  Content is the determining factor for a webinars success. You should pick a topic that really addresses peoples needs.  Don’t make it yet another informercial.  Choose a topic that addresses their immediate needs or is educational.  The bottom line is useful information with a good learning experience.

Experts:
It pays to have a reputable person come and present the webinar.  Having someone from outside the organization lends credit and value to the presentation itself.  It is however almost always a matter of budget limitations.  Of course, the expert need not give the entire presentation, but just the keep points or main address. 

This does not mean that you can not have a successful webinar without a recognized name.  Infact, with a recognized name, you may build a larger audience for your one seminar.  However, that seminar may not be suitably timed for all those that wish to attend.  Moreover, sometimes, you may wish to have multiple sessions.  In such a case a recognized name may prove uneconomical. 

Time:
The above point really highlights the fact that you need to carefully choose the date and time that is suitable for your intended audience to attend.  You must bare in mind different time zone differences.  Remember, this is not the same old auditorium presentation, where the audience is in a single hall.  Webinars have the potential of attracting participants from all over the globe and hence it is important to choose an appropriate time to deliver it.

Trying to host one big seminar in a mega-style with keynote speakers from outside your own organization, is often not the best strategy. You will meet with much more success if you give your audience a choice of two days, so that those that are busy on one day may attend the other. 

You should also give your audience sufficient time to register for the webinar.  Generally around one month is a good time for this.  Therefore your promotional efforts should schedule around one month before the hosting of the event.

Registration:
A key to ensure maximum attendees to your seminar is to make the registration short and easy. All promotions should have the same registration process linked to it. Also it is imperative to follow up with the registration, first with a “Thank you “ message.

Then you should also constantly follow up with them so that they are constantly reminded of the even, and are subconsciously reminded of your brand. Without reminders, as many as a third of the people registered would not show up.

Advantages of Webinars

Webinars have may advantages over conventional traditional seminars.

Unlike in traditional seminars, participants to webinars do not have to travel long distances to attend.  This saves cost and time for the attendee.  This increases the audience and in fact the audience can be from all over the world. Participants can now attend at times that are convenient to them.

Unlike in traditional seminars, participants have to congregate in a board room or executive suite where one speaker addresses many hundreds in the audience.  In webinars, the audience can be in the comfort of their own home.  Since the computer-user is a one to one relationship there is a feeling of greater focus and attention from presenter and audience.

Reference materials are very easily downloaded from a website in the form of word documents, PDF files or even PowerPoint presentations.  Also, when new material is uploaded to the webinar site, the old material  remains there.  This means that the audience can review the old material as well, at their own time.  This is a unique advantage over traditional seminars. 

The links that are presented to the audience can take them to dynamic, real world examples.  This is also very effective in the learning experience, where the audience gets a chance to be a part of the presentation.

Finally since webinars are across the web in digital format they are (technically) downloadable and can be archived for review at a later date.

From the presenter’s perspective there are tremendous advantages, too.

The presenter now has a far greater reach than ever before.  Infact, now his audience can potentially span the globe!  The neat thing about webinars, is that each additional participant does not so significantly increase the cost.  Where as in a board room, there are expenses like room rent, lighting, electricity, helpers etc., the webinar eliminates all the above costs, so what the registrant ends up paying for is the value of the course, itself. 

Choosing the right Webinar Vendor

The First Meeting.
If this is your first meeting or you have only done one or two in the past, then it is very imperative for a successful Webinar, that you choose one that provides consultation during initial stages of development. You need to share your visions and your desired outcome and objectives from this undertaking. With the help of this initial discussion they can suggest a budget and the technologies that would be required to support your needs. There are more than 30 technologies available. It is important that you figure out with the vendor which technology best suits your need and one that provides the performance that you are looking for.

Price is not all, but price matters!
Webinar providers differ in their services offered, the technologies utilized and the support they can provide. Likewise their prices also differ. It may be helpful to search for a vendor that meets your business requirement, but is also able to produce a competitive analysis, to help you make a qualified decision on what works best for you.

Managing the Show
Again if this is your first few Webinars, then it is critical that you choose a vendor that is going to support your event. It may be quite surprising to note that some vendor’s don’t. Webinars involve many components and they all need to integrate perfectly. Event Management normally handles this integration. Training, rehearsals, synchronization of Audio/ IP Stream and Web, love event support, and post production analysis are some of the services that Event Managers perform. Some times, an event manager can “Save the day”. Once you have sufficient experience with this, the need for event support will gradually and naturally diminish.

Customization of the event.
Some vendors have the one-size-to-fit-all approach, where the business is expected to blend into the delivery medium. Choose a vendor that is able to customize this event to meet your business needs. (For eg. With your logo, registration, etc.)

Do you know your audience?
Incase the turnout to your webinar is not what you expect, is there any way you can move it to an altrernative date? Are there any cancellation charges.  These issues are best discussed “before the event”.

List of vendors:

• Webex
• Infinite Conferencing

Additional Reading