A webinar could be an effective training and marketing tool today as is manifested by the proliferation of advertisements for webinars all over the web. This term actually refers to web-based seminars which use the internet to broadcast to an audience who are in various geographical locations. This alternative method is a cheaper way to get the message across distance to the target market as compared to the usual methods.
Despite being less costly than on-site seminars, webinars also require lots of work. The top things you have to avoid in designing a seminar are summarized as follows:
1. Product or service preaching. If you plan to endorse a product or service in the webinar, do it subtly. There is nothing worse than turning the entire webinar into an infomercial. Remember that the audience attended the webinar to get information they can use in their lives and not hours of preaching about your product or service. There are overt ways of doing it like pitching in a bit of information here and there during the course of the webinar and then providing them with electronic brochures or email invitations afterwards.
2. Choosing your bedroom or your living room as venue. The problem with conducting the webinar in these particular areas is that there could be too many distractions which may cause the audience to not fully absorb the information being presented, or worse, irritate them and not participate in succeeding webinars that you would be hosting. A dog barking, a family picture frame, scattered children’s toys and other common household fixtures could catch your audience attention rather than the webinar. If you choose to host the webinar at home, choose a quiet area and make it as formal and featureless as possible like a conference room.
3. Underestimating webinars. Do not underestimate the power of a webinar because it could be potentially be more potent as on-site seminars. As such, you have to go into the battle prepared. Preparation should not only be on the technical aspect but also the content as well. You might not see the look on every audience face but there would certainly be grimaces and frowns when you ramble about nonsensical and irrelevant stuff. You should always have a back-up plan for cases when the speaker does not show up, your visuals do not work or the telephone lines are blurry.
There are still many mistakes to avoid if you want to run a webinar. When you do it the first time, you might be committing some of these mistakes and more but the important thing is to learn from them and avoid committing them again in the subsequent webinars.
Despite being less costly than on-site seminars, webinars also require lots of work. The top things you have to avoid in designing a seminar are summarized as follows:
1. Product or service preaching. If you plan to endorse a product or service in the webinar, do it subtly. There is nothing worse than turning the entire webinar into an infomercial. Remember that the audience attended the webinar to get information they can use in their lives and not hours of preaching about your product or service. There are overt ways of doing it like pitching in a bit of information here and there during the course of the webinar and then providing them with electronic brochures or email invitations afterwards.
2. Choosing your bedroom or your living room as venue. The problem with conducting the webinar in these particular areas is that there could be too many distractions which may cause the audience to not fully absorb the information being presented, or worse, irritate them and not participate in succeeding webinars that you would be hosting. A dog barking, a family picture frame, scattered children’s toys and other common household fixtures could catch your audience attention rather than the webinar. If you choose to host the webinar at home, choose a quiet area and make it as formal and featureless as possible like a conference room.
3. Underestimating webinars. Do not underestimate the power of a webinar because it could be potentially be more potent as on-site seminars. As such, you have to go into the battle prepared. Preparation should not only be on the technical aspect but also the content as well. You might not see the look on every audience face but there would certainly be grimaces and frowns when you ramble about nonsensical and irrelevant stuff. You should always have a back-up plan for cases when the speaker does not show up, your visuals do not work or the telephone lines are blurry.
There are still many mistakes to avoid if you want to run a webinar. When you do it the first time, you might be committing some of these mistakes and more but the important thing is to learn from them and avoid committing them again in the subsequent webinars.
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