Tag Archives: Webinar

Top 12 Benefits of Hosting Webinars & Teleseminars and How It can Boost Your Online Business

Webinars and Teleseminars are fantastic business building tools that many marketers unnecessarily hesitate to take advantage of. They aren’t as daunting as they seem, and even the shyest of us can become confident in hosting them.

Webinars vs Teleseminars: What’s the Difference?

Teleseminars came first as a way to share information between parties that are not in the same physical location. Teleseminars are fully audio based learning, with the audience listening in through a telephone or computer. Webinars, on the other hand, use audio and visual learning with the listening in through a computer. Each medium offers its own advantages and disadvantages.

The Benefits of Webinars and Teleseminars

You’re immediately seen as the expert. You are in the position of a teacher, which comes with a certain amount of credibility at the start. As you speak and share great content, your credibility will grow. When you’re seen as an expert, consumers turn to your website, follow your social media pages and blogs, and purchase your products and services.
Increase brand awareness. Some attendees of your presentation might’ve joined because of their interest in the topic without knowing about your organization. In your presentation, you can educate them on what your company does and how it can provide value to them.
Gain reusable content. No need to reinvent the wheel! The information you gathered for your presentation can be reworked into blog posts, newsletters, e-books, social media posts, audio files, etc.
A large potential audience. Traditional seminars can cost more money to attend, plus require travel hassles and costs. This can keep individuals from attending. A webinar or teleseminar can be attended from the comfort of a home, making your potential consumer base significantly larger.
Discover new contacts. Individuals who sign up for your presentation can be fellow industry experts to network with or potential customers to connect with.
Distinguish yourself from your competition. Webinars and teleseminars are especially valuable if your competitors are not offering them. You’ll be set apart as an expert who offers more value to customers than your competitors.
Direct more individuals to your site and social media profiles. In your presentation, draw attention to your website and social media profiles as a way for the audience to get more information after the presentation. If your presentation is received well, many people will want to check out your other pieces of content.
Another avenue for sales. In your presentation, you can briefly mention different products or services offered by your organization. Even if only a few people make a purchase, it’s still revenue gained in addition to the other benefits.

Is a webinar or a teleseminar better for you?

It all depends on your audience. Asking yourself some key questions will help you decide which option is the best fit.

Am I worried about audience attention span? If so, do a webinar. Webinars allow the use of visuals, which can not only improve audience learning but can help keep the audience engaged throughout your presentation.
Would I benefit from audience engagement/feedback in the presentation? Webinars offer tools, such as polls and chat rooms, to gain instant audience insight and encourage audience engagement. Not all presentations need this interaction though, and you can get feedback through post-presentation surveys.
How much time do I have to prepare? Webinars require more time to create given the need to create engaging visuals that correlate to what you are saying without detracting from it. If you’re more limited on time, a teleseminar is the way to go.
What technology does my target audience have? To access a webinar, audience members need a computer with a reliable connection. To access a teleseminar, audience members simply need a telephone or computer. Keep in mind technical difficulties are much more prevalent on webinars than teleseminars.

Worlds tend to collide. Webinars frequently offer a call in feature that will allow your audience to simply call in and listen as well. So you can experiment with what is best for your audience.

Keep in mind that sometimes when getting starting doing a webinar, it can be distracting trying to present with people chatting or trying to engage with the technology features. It might be best to have someone monitor the room while your focus on your presentation. Your monitor can interrupt at appropriate times for questions, or help read questions to give you a break in speaking.

You can try out both and see which better fits your teaching style. Remember that the different methods work better for different audiences, so by learning both you open yourself up to reaching more audiences. You’ll be most effective if you can do webinars for certain topics or audiences and teleseminars for others.

Want help crafting a webinar or teleseminar? Alpine Small Business Solutions is here for you to help with any aspect of small business building. Just give us a call or shoot us an email today!

An Introduction to Audience Insights

Audience Insights is an intelligent tool that allows you to discover demographic, behavioral, and social data on audiences before you ever target them with your ads. It’s a great method of gathering data and insight on your audience, and is easy to use.

How to Get There

To get there, you click on Ads Manager, click on tools, click on audience insights, and then everyone on Facebook. Your audience will be the dark blue bar graph, compared to the general Facebook user data. Once you begin selecting customizations (such as age, interests, and relationship status), you’ll be able to see how your custom audience differs from all Facebook users.

Studying Your Audience

You can study your audience as a whole, or break up your audience into segments (such as only looking at female followers, or only individuals 18 to 25). To segment the audience, enter in information (such as age bracket) on the left-hand side. How much you want to segment your audience depends on the campaign you’re gathering data for.

Once you’ve created your audience, you’ll be presented with data under six tabs. Each one offers unique information on your audience.

For example, the first tab provides you with information their lifestyle, relationship status, education level, and job titles. Another useful tool is “page likes,” which displays the pages that are most relevant to your custom audience. Once you know the pages most likely to be “liked” by your audience, you can add these pages to the interests when you create an ad.

Examining the data on your audience equips you to better tailor your advertising efforts and your content marketing efforts. You’ll want to check back into the audience data occasionally, as your audience demographics can change as you gain new followers.

Studying Your Competition

The “Page likes” data can be used for more than tailoring your ad audience. You can discover other pages that resonate with your audience, which you can study to improve your own page. When you see what types of content they post, which messages perform best, etc., you can use that information to try to replicate their success (and avoid their failures). Again, you’ll want to check back up on this section occasionally as the most common “page likes” can shift as your audience grows.

Audience insights offers a large amount of free data on your audience and its many segments, which can be used to improve your social media marketing. If you want to take advantage of this tool, but don’t have the time, Alpine Small Business Solutions is here for you! We’re ready to assist with any aspect of small business building. Reach out to us with a phone call or email today.

For a more in-depth look at Audience Insights, check out this free informational webinar.

9 Reasons Why You Should NOT Host A Webinar

Just like hairless cats, habanero peppers, and neon blue hair, webinars are not for everyone. Granted, they usually see more universal appeal than those three, but I repeat. They. are. not. for. everyone.

Webinars can be an extremely effective business growing tool, but before you jump on the webinar bandwagon, consider the reasons you shouldn’t be hosting one.

You lack the technology. If your audio/video will look and sound more like a blurry
tape from a police interrogation than a professional quality service, rethink a webinar. Proper equipment is the first step in making a solid webinar, and is a nonnegotiable one. If you’ve got a decent set-up, you may be equipped to host a webinar.
You don’t know what you’re talking about. Okay, this is highly unlikely. But you’d be surprised at the number of webinars failing to offer any insight or substance. If you know your industry well and can provide value, you may be ready to share your expertise with the world in a webinar. Some of you are not there…YET!
You don’t possess that golden radio voice. You know how some people’s voices sound so charismatic you could listen to them talk about anything? Yeah, those are the people that should be hosting a webinar. It sucks, but if your voice sounds more like nails on a cheese grater, people will be too distracted to focus on your content (which means you won’t get the great benefits of a webinar). If you can speak confidently, slowly, and clearly, you’re in a good position to host a webinar. If you are net yet confidant speaking, don’t be that nervous person, “ya, um, uh.”
You lack the time to promote your webinar. You need to devote time to marketing and selling your webinar-otherwise it’s like planning a party without having time to make invitations. If you’re marketing resources are already stretched too thin, now’s not the time to host a webinar. If you can prioritize promoting your webinar, then you’re at a good place.
You’re doing it because all the other cool kids are. This was a bad idea in high school, and it’s a bad idea now. Webinars work great for some, but it doesn’t mean you’ll benefit from hosting one. Be sure you’ve got a solid idea of what you’re trying to achieve and why a webinar is the best means to do so. If you can clearly articulate how a webinar fits in your business strategy, you may be ready to host one.
You’re as boring as that teacher from Ferris Bueller. Again, highly unlikely. But you do need to commit to engaging an audience. Remember, you’re not monologuing, you’re teaching. It’s a different ballgame that requires engaging slides, powerful stories, easy application, and more. If you can captivate an audience, you may be a great webinar host.
You’re a one-man band. While there’s an “i” in webinar, effective webinars are not a solo effort. Think WE-binar. Even if there’s only one speaker, other people still play a role. You’ll need staff support in marketing the webinar, working out the sound details, and following up with the webinar attendees. You’ll be stretching yourself too thin if you try to handle all the details. If you’ve got a solid support staff, you may be well equipped to host a webinar.
You don’t want to reach thousands of people. If you’re not ready for the brand awareness explosion that comes with hosting a successful webinar, then now’s not the time for you. A successful webinar can put a small business on the map. If you prefer your “little known” company status, shy away from webinars. If you’re ready for a large number of people discover how great your business is, a webinar might be right for you.
You don’t want to grow your list. A webinar is networking on steroids with the number of leads and connections you’ll come away with. It’s a valuable tool for effective and efficient business building, so if you’re ready to expand a webinar may be the perfect choice.

If these do not apply to you, then you should seriously consider hosting a webinar. It can serve as a great service to your target audience as well as a killer business building strategy. If you’d like help creating or marketing a webinar, ASBS is here for you! Our experienced staff would love to assist with any aspect of building your business, so send us an email or give us a call today.