Webinars prove to be a very effective marketing tool in today’s commercial world. Different ways of promotion and advertising can now easily be feed to the public with the employment of a webinar. In addition, a webinar can also be used as a training tool for your marketing team.

If you’re planning to do a webinar to market your product or service, try these simple webinar marketing ideas to effectively conduct a successful webinar for your business:

• Plan in advance. Make sure to gather all the information and resources you would need for your webinar. To ensure a smooth flow of the process, draw out a schedule for the whole webinar preparation. If you plan to hire a speaker for your webinar, contact several potential speakers and clearly discuss your marketing plan.
• Pick the best time when you can reach the highest possible viewers. Normally, weekdays starting from Tuesday to Thursday at around 2 to 3 in the afternoon would be peak for national viewers’ attendance.
• Prepare for the webinar. Ensure that you or your speakers (if you’ve hired someone to speak in behalf of you) create a concrete process of the webinar. Equip yourself with very important technical information that would enlighten your audience about your product or service. For possible technical mishaps, always make sure to have a contingency plan. Run through the slideshows as well as the visuals that you incorporate in your webinar and thoroughly check for errors as well as irrelevant information.
• Study your niche. Take time to learn about your chosen target market and analyze patterns on how they respond to different marketing approaches. Understand the ways on how to reach them. Stitch possible different marketing strategies that may apply in the promotion of your product or service through your webinar. Your audience should easily respond and build connection to you through your webinar.
• Since webinars are naturally one-way, which has a limited interaction with viewers, it’s also important to keep your webinar engaging and dynamic. Make sure your viewers are captivated and focused on what you try to convey to them. An interesting webinar and an exciting talk would definitely help keep your viewers eyes on your presentation.
• Encourage registration and invite your audience to your surveys. If one of your audiences registers then it’s an avenue to really get to know him or her. Tailor your registration according to what particular information you need to capture while also including questions that would be relevant to the webinar. In addition, surveys and polls make your audience engage with you. This is another avenue for you to obtain feedback about you and your presentation. Take this chance to learn what you need to improve or know what your audience liked in the webinar.

When the meeting participants are spread around the country (or the world) and are required to share data, documents or screen, a webinar is an satisfactory and cut-cost solution.

Table of Contents

• Choosing a Video Conferencing Service
• Set Up a Practice Webinar
• Don’t Simply Reuse Classroom Material
• Moderators – Arrive Early
• Stick to Your Timetable
• Review Your Webinar
• Take Advantage of GoToMeeting Free Trial Offer

Choosing a Video Conferencing Service

When determining on a webinar service, it’s extremely important to ensure that the software you use to share documents is secure. Your web conferencing provider can help you select the right plan for you and will ensure that your webinar runs as smooth as possible.

Other options that will help make your webinar a success include:

» Early registration;
» Online room setup;
» Audience survey;
» Participation meter;
» Webinar follow-up;

GoToMeeting offers all the services above and also includes an Editor that can be used to cut out distracting noises or pauses in the virtual presentation, add in bookmarks to specific areas, or slice the presentation into a few smaller presentations.

Set Up a Practice Webinar

Nothing is more irritating than finding out technical issues during an online presentation The best way to avoid it is to set up a practice webinar with some colleagues in different locations prior to your primary event.

Besides working out any glitches, you’ll be more comfortable with the use of the software when the actual event happens.

When an error occurs during the test, write it down the issue to discuss with technical support later if necessary.

Don’t Simply Reuse Classroom Material

Even though webinar technology is great in many ways, never expect to cover the corresponding amount of material in an one-hour webinar training session as you would in an one-hour classroom session.

Plan a different approach to incorporate less content than in a classroom, particularly if you don’t have much experience with online conferencing.

Moderators – Arrive Early

Webinar moderators have to make sure to enter the online meeting room earlier than the rest of the participants. It is respectful to welcome participants as they arrive.

Doing that you will be ready to start the online meeting on time. It will also give you a final opportunity to make sure the webinar is setup correctly.

Even though you know how to use the software, you should anticipate a few questions from the participants about how to access the webinar.

If the participants have to install software plugins to gain access, make sure you direct them to the right place where they can download it. And if there are specific browser requirements, make sure to familiar with them.

Stick to Your Timetable

Whether your webinar participants are customers, employees, partners, or another group of people, make an effort to respect their time. Create a timetable and stick to it as much as possible.

As the moderator, it is your responsibility to keep the discussion on the topic specified earlier if the meeting go to another direction.

Review Your Webinar

Many webinar softwares, including GoToMeeting, offer the option to archive your presentation to be viewed later. If you are not familiar with webinars, be sure to watch your own event afterward.

You must know what the audience experienced, that might have been different than what you thought you were presenting. This strategy will be a big deal in learning what you need to improve on in the future webinars.

Take Advantage of GoToMeeting Free Trial Offer

GoToMeeting Web Conferencing offers a 30 days risk-free trial, as well as demos to help you get started.

Hold online meetings, webinars, and conferences with GoToMeeting and try all its features,  plus learn how smoothly and professionally your online presentations can be done.