Filed under: Best Practices Video
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9 Mar
10
8 Mar
10
There’s no question that most of today’s webcasts lack the visual impact of having the presenter “connect” with the audience. For me, while I love the experience of presenting live and virtually, presenting live is an order of magnitude easier than presenting virtually. They are as different experientially as from watching a play, movie or TV show as listening to the radio.
In a traditonal webcast, both the presenter and audience are at a disadvantage. Without being able to visualize critical non verbal cues such as eye contact, facial expressions and overall body posture make the use of ones voice even more critical to engage with the audience. So does creating slides with more visual content and white space help keep the audience to stay tuned in. I want to motivate them to determine if what I’m saying is of value to them, and is so, be open to taking some next steps. The last thing I want is for them to be bored by reading rows of bulleted text on each slide.
So when you add in the costs of the additional capabilities and technical expertise to produce and add a video compoenent, not to mention the logistics and overall project management, it can be both daunting financially and cost wise. For this reason, I think in the B2B world, and for non training webinars that need to be delivered in under an hour, the two dimensional use of today’s webcasts using slides and audio, will be around until the cost curve and time commitments to using video come down and the production quality improves for presenters, regardless of their physical location for using a webcam or some other video/audio solution.
I look forward to hearing what others have to say too.
Mike Agron
Co-Principal WebAttract
Filed under: Webinars
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7 Mar
10
Read more of our article on Bright Hub’s Sales & Marketing Channel @ http://www.brighthub.com/office/sales-marketing/articles/64856.aspx
Filed under: Live Case Stories, Webinars
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6 Mar
10
Read more of our article on Bright Hub’s Sales & Marketing Channel @ http://www.brighthub.com/office/sales-marketing/articles/64829.aspx#ixzz0hRuznEsl
Filed under: Live Case Stories, Webinars
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5 Mar
10
A question that is often asked is, “What is a realistic planning horizon for producing an engaging one hour informational webinar?”
To answer this, let’s start with the assumption that we’ve defined and quantified our desired outcomes, i.e., is it fresh new sales leads, raising brand awareness, or boosting thought leadership or all of the above?
We also have a clear idea of who our targeted demographic is along with a value proposition that we believe will align with this audience to get their eyeballs to our webinar.
If we then factor in and identify all of the logistics and deliverables, including developing analytics covering the entire webinar life-cycle, experience has shown that best results will occur if we budget between 6 – 8 weeks from developing our work plan to starting with audience recruitment, developing a compelling invitation, driving & tracking registration, shaping the message, coaching presenters, scheduling 2-3 dress rehearsals, through doing our final sound check and going live.
We find that 6-8 weeks creates the right amount of creative energy to stay focused and meet the many deliverables, yet also provides enough time to remain flexible to adapt new ideas or add a new panelist and still produce a great webinar.
Less than 6 weeks is problematic as the pressure mounts to get things done,and this rush adds unnecessary stress to the team and makes for more reactive decisions. This is when mistakes happen that can turn catastrophic, such as not having the right phone numbers or date on the registration landing page. Also good ideas aren’t considered as “we ran out of time”.
On the other hand, too much time, tends to have things drag out and decisions that need to get made, are put off or debated for too long a time period, where a sort of paralysis sets in that ultimately hurts the final product.
In a future post, I’ll start to drill down and identify the critical long lead items and how to manage them across the entire webinar life cycle.
What’s your experience on the optimal time frame for producing and delivering a webinar?
Thanks,
Mike
Filed under: Webinars
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4 Mar
10
The most important thing about the call is your attitude. Attitude is everything! You can be movie star handsome. You can have the best GQ wardrobe. You can have the finest Ivy League education. However, on the phone, image is nothing. Communication skills, project preparation, and attitude are everything.
Picking up the telephone and calling an unknown prospect cold, is not an easy thing to do for a lot of people. They suffer from the fear of the unknown. There is no body language to read. They can’t size the contact up by the cut of their clothes, the firmness of a handshake or the class ring they wear. You are totally at the mercy of your ears and your attitude.
In this medium, the key points are:
1. Maintaining a positive mental attitude at all times. Even if the last guy screamed, cursed and insulted your dog, the next call has to start back at square one. The last call is over with. Finished! Let it go.
2. Maintain a friendly, inviting tone in your voice at all times. People size you up by how you sound on the phone. If you are not confident and friendly, why should they stop what they are doing, to give you five or ten minutes of their valuable time, especially when they are busy? You have to make them WANT to talk to you.
3. I try to sound like the person’s next door neighbor. I strip the professional air and corporate style points out of my arsenal. Remember, they could have fear of the phone too. So, put them at ease and be as non-threatening as possible. Strive to NOT sound like you are a sales person, even if you are one. Many people have a major fear of being sold something they don’t want, over the telephone. I am not a sales person. I am a communicator. The product or service sells itself or I find a new one.
4. Keep opening introductions to a minimum, and don’t over talk out of nervousness. “Hi, Jim, this is Gerry Nason, with Web Attract. I’m calling because we wanted to get your feed back about the Webinar you attended a few weeks ago. What did you think, Jim?” End your opening with a question, and shut up, allowing them a chance to speak.
5. Be a good listener. Under NO circumstances should you be thinking about what you want to say next. If you do this, you might as well put on your coat and head for the exit, because you are wasting your time. Listening is EVERYTHING! Just in case you missed that, listening is everything!
Pay attention to not only WHAT the person is saying, but HOW they are saying it. Voice inflection can tell you a lot. If they are nervous, you can try to calm them. If they talk quickly, try to match their pace, as they are impatient. (Ever call into New York City?) If they have a slow southern or Texas drawl, the last thing you want to do is speak like a New Yorker. Emulate what you hear in order to put them at ease.
6. Try not be nervous or anxious. A very wise former boss of mine taught me when I was just starting out, that I could defeat my nerves by making myself as comfortable as possible.
Instead of sitting hunched over my desk, sitting on the edge of my chair, he had me lean back in my executive chair and put my feet up on the desk. I brought in an ice chest and a big jug of homemade lemonade to sip while talking to prospects. You know what? It not only worked, but it worked crazy good!
7. Finally, throw away the scripts. You CANNOT sound like you are reading. Instead, make a list of talking points. Itemize the value props, the points you wish to make, and the information you need to come away with.
Learn the material, and speak from the heart. Know what you want to say and say it. If you have brain freeze, grab your talking points. If you sound like you are reading a script, even for a moment, you instantly lose your credibility.
I hope that you have enjoyed this series. If you have any questions or comments, please contact me at gerry@webattract.com .
Filed under: Voice Prospecting
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3 Mar
10
When you are planning your webinar registration page, think of developing a few questions that will help you gain some better insights into your audience’s interest and goals. The answers your registrants provide can help you understand and set expectations with them regarding the webinar content.
Read more of WebAttract’s article on Bright Hub’s Sales & Marketing Channel @ http://www.brighthub.com/office/sales-marketing/articles/64240.aspx
Filed under: Webinars
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2 Mar
10
I had to follow up my last post about “webinar” as useful vs. unuseful terminology when I saw a story in today’s New York Times by Bryan A. Garner. Part of the Times’ “On Language” category, the article is simply titled “Webinar.”
Mr. Garner starts his article with this paragraph:
Webinar (Web + seminar) seems like a fine neologism for a seminar
offered online. A blend of two common terms, it’s immediately understood
by most people. I’ve been taking Webinars lately; I like them and
appreciate having a handy word for them — even though I’m often inclined
to object to linguistic “innovations.”
The battle over the use of the word has spurred various parties to fits of vitriol over the past few years. I have received both blog comments and private emails from people convinced that the term offers concrete evidence of the decline and fall of the English language, as if our language is a static, unchangeable absolute. I direct these people to the following sentence from Mr. Garner:
Once a word acquires general currency, only a hopelessly out-of-touch
pedant would take up quixotic arms against it.
Nifty.
So I think I will continue to use the term, secure in the knowledge that the New York Times, that bastion of linguistic style and propriety, has given its blessing.
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/28/magazine/28FOB-onlanguage-t.html
By Ken Molay, president of Webinar Success
Originally posted on The Webinar Blog
Filed under: Webinars
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1 Mar
10
28 Feb
10
Perhaps no other issue presents as much opportunity or challenge to the modern brand marketer, public relations executive or similar professional charged with designing corporate communication strategy than how to best adopt and integrate online communication platforms into the traditional integrated marketing mix.
Download this 12-page report at http://www.webattract.com/docs/2010VirtualMarketOutlookReport.pdf .
Filed under: White Papers
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