Robert Plank provides us with some reasons why live webinars might be better than recorded ones…
Live webinars are far better than recorded or “replay” webinars that you might see marketers use for many reasons…for starters, a live webinar shows your personality better (and gets you more trust). You can adjust for technical issues going wrong on a live webinar, and you can demonstrate genuine urgency when pushing people to join your site or buy something from you.
Personality is more important than ever on the internet these days because everyone is making videos, gathering a massive social following on networking sites, and so on. If you have a sales presentation and there is a common objection, or even a few jokers and skeptics, you can adjust for this. By running live webinars, I have noticed many holes in my marketing and sales letters that I could fill up. For example, justifying the price or explaining a particular bonus that didn’t make sense previously.
Next, technical things can and do wrong when computers are involved. I have tried running a recorded webinar and the recording did not play. Another time, the audio didn’t replay correctly and I had to run the webinar live anyway. Even if you trust someone to hit that play button, or you outsource it… it’s in your best interest to be present at the webinar so you can adjust if something goes wrong. Your screen might not show correctly, the audio might not look right, and you usually need to be there to fix it.
Finally, live webinars are excellent to get some real urgency going with your offer. I have lost trust with many marketers pretending to run a live webinar, when in fact it was recorded. At the end of that webinar, the marketer told me, “This offer closes this Thursday.” But the next week, I saw a link to the exact same recorded webinar with the exact same scarcity… that the offer closed on Thursday. Avoid this by running a live webinar. It will do you some good, it will give you more speaking practice and it will get you more confident in pitching your offer.
You need to run your own live webinars instead of recorded ones because they are easier, show your personality, and show real urgency which will go a long way towards building trust with your subscribers and customers.
I’d like to add that a key advantage of live webinars is interactivity. Q&A is a critical component of most webinar programs while polls and surveys not only increase engagement but offer marketers additional audience insight for post-event qualification.
Matt Raymond
Thomson Reuters
Thomson Reuters Corporate Solutions Blog > Multimedia Communications