Reach out, reach out and touch someone! (Anyone older than 40 probably remembers the jingle this came from.)
To get business, we need to get in front of people. For some that is speaking in person. For others, that might be giving online talks.
While nothing beats an in-person talk, the teleseminar is an awesome alternate way, especially if your tribe is all over the place.
There are many ways you can ‘reach out and touch’ your target market and clients:Your newsletter (like this)
- Blog posts
- Social media posts
- Local talks at places like the Chamber of Commerce, networking meetings, church groups, the Rotary Club, business groups, Lunch and Learns at corporate offices, etc.
- Digital talks, known as teleseminars or webinars
There are more, but our topic today is webinars (or teleseminars). Generally, a teleseminar is a meeting or conference held over a conference calling service like http://www.freeconferencecall.com or http://www.gotomeeting.com . A webinar is similar, but can include screen sharing, where your computer screen gets shared to the meeting attendees in the meeting via their computer, or showing a presentation that is shared or uploaded to the service you are using, like on http://www.instantteleseminar.com or http://www.gotowebinar.com. Many people use the terms interchangeably.
The important thing is, you can meet your target market where they are, *online*.
So what do you want to do with your market? What do you have to show or teach them so that they are interested, and want to work with you?
Giving a teleseminar or webinar is really very much like doing a talk in the real world (some techies call that ‘meatspace’, LOL). If you have given speeches or talks in person, then this is the same thing, only digital.
You tell them what you’re going to tell them: Give them an overview of what the talk will be about. (this part is short)
You tell them what you’re here to tell them: Cover 35 powerful points that people can use. Maybe do a demo of one or more of them (depends on your time) this is the longest part of your talk.
Tell them what you told them: Summarize what you just covered in your 35 points. (summarize, keep it short)
Have some Q&A (questions and answers). This is great because it tells you what your market is interested in (and you can use for further seminars or to create a new service or product).
GIVE A CALL TO ACTION!
What do you want your attendees to do? Buy something? Sign up for something? You always want to have a Call to Action. And be ready to have them sign up, or buy your thing. If you’re new to this, you’ll be doing what my coach calls an ‘ask’. That is, asking them to sign up for a free initial meeting or consult with you.
Some things to consider when choosing a seminar service:
How many people do you hope to have in your meeting? Many services price by how big your seminar is.
Do you want to record the seminar?
Not all services have recording capability. (You may want to include this seminar in a later blog post or as a ‘replay’ for those who couldn’t make it to the live meeting) If you are thinking about recording, how can you repurpose this content and use it in other ways in your business?
- You can break it up into segments and offer it in a series of blog posts/newsletter sends.
- You can add it to an electronic product you’re selling.
- You can let your strategic partners share it on their newsletter or blog
What is your budget?
If you’re just getting started out, you might not have a lot of $$ to spare. If that is the case, there are lots of free seminar services you can use, just Google ‘free conference call service’. Also, most paid services bill by the month. If you won’t be doing a lot of calls, do you want to pay monthly? You can always cancel and reup later, if that is what works best for you.
What do you need to do?
Is this a call only? Will you need to upload a Powerpoint? Do you need to share your screen? Know your requirements before getting a service, you’ll save time.
Does the service have a ‘dashboard’?
A dashboard is your control panel for your seminar. That is where you can mute and unmute participants, see if ‘hands are raised’, and control your presentation if you have one.
Will you have help?
Especially if this is a bigger meeting, say more than 1012 people, you might want to have someone help you run the dashboard, handling inquiries, hands up, muting and unmuting people, so you can focus on your subject matter.
What is your Call to Action?
What do you want people to do at the end of the talk? Make sure you have a clear and simple way for them to sign up or buy. Some services allow a link to be posted on your seminar page. Or you can include it in your last slide, and read it out to people, or put it in the comments box (get your assistant to do this for you).
Would you like to use this as a place to record talks that *don’t* have actual attendees?
You can use a teleseminar service to give a ‘speech’ that you can record and use elsewhere, even if you don’t invite a single person. It is a cheap and easy way to create audio and/or video presentations to use in your marketing.
In the end, a teleseminar is just an electronic version of an in-person talk. You’ll find that conversion (the number of people who take the action you outline) is lower this way than in person. That’s ok. You can also do as many as you need/want to do to accomplish your goals, and often at a much lower cost in both time and money.
And it’s a great way to keep your face out there, in front of your tribe.
Whatever you do, you *need* to be talking to your people. Regularly.
That’s all for today!
