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E33: The Power Of A Series Of Webinars And Virtual Meetings

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Hey, I’m Grant: My clients call me The Webinar Guy.

Welcome to episode thirty-three of  “Zooming to Webinar Success!”

Today we’re going to talk about “The Power Of A Series Of Webinars And Virtual Meetings.”

Remember you can always catch up on all the episodes on TheWebinarGuy.com

It was nineteen-twenty-six. A company was trying to figure out how to increase sales. Something we are all doing most every day. The company’s sales manager, Allan Odell came up with arguably, one of the best, and possibly most memorable marketing ideas of the era.

He was inspired by a string of signs leading to a service station in Illinois, each sign promoting a product or service available at the station.

A tweak here and there and the Burma Shave sign series was born and almost immediately the company saw a spike in sales.

If you’re not familiar with the Burma Shave Signs, do a search. A quick recap; They were “one line” signs in a series of signs, in sequence often found on fence posts along the road. Remember this was before the advent of interstate highway system and back roads kept speeds down a bit. Perfect for the time and conditions.

There were usually four or five signs about one hundred feet apart or so. Eventually more than seventy-five hundred sets were in forty-five states! And while they most often were about shaving, they also did some funny signs, and even “public service” signs that had nothing to do with shaving. But in keeping the style and brand common, you knew where they were from.

There are many lessons to learn here but first a quick work from our sponsor:

Yes, I’m the webcast and podcast sponsor, TheWebinarGuy.com! (Yeah, that’s me). When you decide to plan your webinar and are looking for marketing ideas, we have many resources and would love to help you! Email me: WebinarPro@TheWebinarGuy.com, or visit our website (TheWebinarGuy.com) and use contact form! We’d love to work with you! Thanks for listening to my commercial!

Stories like the Burma Shave Signs are fun, but there’s serious marketing stuff going on there. Let’s go back to the title of this episode: The Power Of A Series Of Webinars And Virtual Meetings.

I’d like to hope that I’m demonstrating this concept with this series of episodes on Zooming to Webinar Success.

Lets look at the lessons:

Lesson one: The signs were cohesive; they all pointed to the same goal, brand and purpose.

Lesson two: The signs were memorable. Each sign made you want to read the next one.

Lesson three: Related to that is that they encouraged people to talk about them. Almost like Super Bowl ads. Imagine them discussing them at work, “Hey did you see the new Burma Shave series on route forty-four?”

Lesson four: They were fun. I’m sure families traveling talked about those signs for miles.

Lesson five: They were long enough to create interest, but short enough not to bore.

Lesson six: They created desire. You were hoping to see another series and see what they’d come up with.

Lesson seven: No matter the content, like golden arches, it built brand awareness.

Lesson eight: The messages were perfect for the time period and conditions.

Lesson nine: Targeting; While they were really targeted to males that shaved, everyone enjoyed them! And when Jane told Sheila about the sign she’d seen, there was a subliminal message. I’m betting Sheila told her husband Mike at dinner that night, and well, that’s pretty good marketing.

Lesson ten: They are still talked about and used as a great example of how to create marketing -now nearly one hundred years later!

While I hope these “zooming to webinar success” episodes are still around one hundred years from now, I’d be really happy if just a few of you told someone else about our services!

Go back and look at the lessons;

They were cohesive, to the point and always on brand message

The signs were memorable.

They encouraged conversation.

They were fun.

Long enough to create interest, but short enough not to bore.

They created desire.

They built brand awareness.

The messages were perfect for the time period and conditions.

They were targeted.

And Longevity; They are still talked about and used as a great example of how to create marketing!

Now think of your next webinar, virtual summit, or virtual meeting. How many of those things can you capture in your marketing of the event? How many can you capture DURING your event?

There are so many ways to engage your audience and create memorable content! I’d love to hear your ideas!

So back to the title; The Power Of A Series Of Webinars And Virtual Meetings.”

Now take all that and string together content that makes people want to come back for more. Don’t give it all away at once. You may wish to use a sequential series that for number two to make sense, someone has to be in on number one. Or like this series, it doesn’t matter which one you watch first, they are all relevant to “Zooming to Webinar Success!”

—– —–

This series is for smaller organizations and solopreneurs that may not be tech savvy, don’t know all the steps, or don’t WANT to know all the steps.

Over the series, I’m going to lead you through the significant decisions and capabilities you’ll need to “Zoom to Webinar Success!” If you have a subject you’d like me to cover, please subscribe, then drop me a note or comment.

As always, if you need help now, don’t hesitate to reach out at WebinarPro@TheWebinarGuy.com

Thank you for watching! Would love to hear your questions and comments! Don’t forget to tell a friend or two!

And if you’re listening to the Podcast audio, thanks for listening!

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E32: How Long Should My Webinar Be? (Long enough!?)

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Welcome to episode thirty-two of  “Zooming to Webinar Success!”

Hey, I’m Grant: My clients call me The Webinar Guy.

Today we’re going to talk about one of my most asked questions “How Long Should my Webinar Be? (As Robert Southey author of Goldilocks might’ve said “Just Right!”)”

As you already know (I HOPE you know by now!!), you can always catch up on the first thirty-one episodes hered on TheWebinarGuy.com- just hit the links to the right, or use the search bar!

Okay, maybe not every day, but almost every day, I get some version of the question, “How long should my webinar be?”

I’m sure you’ll not be surprised by my answer. “Long enough”! But as usual, let’s back up a bit.

Another thing I tell clients nearly every day is, “Begin with the end in mind”, made famous by Dr. Stephen Covey.

I can’t overemphasize how important planning is. It’s really the point of this entire series! And it follows that this single issue is a constant. Every week I get a message, “Are you available to host or moderate a webinar…(wait for it)… tomorrow?

Oh sure!

When you begin with the end in mind, you know WHY you’re having your webinar or virtual meeting! Back in episode twenty-seven, I asked you to consider WIIFM, or what’s in it for me, or more accurately for your audience (them). So that is one great goal, what IS in it for your audience?

But what is it YOU want out of it. The reasons that TheWebinarGuy’s clients have virtual summits, virtual meetings, hybrid events are as varied as the businesses they operate.

In episode four I talked about finding the purpose of your webinar. Then in five, the Overall strategy on what you’re trying to accomplish. So go listen to those think about the answers.

When an audience is being asked to absorb new information, you need to allow the information time to trickle in. We’ve all heard the “learning from a fire-hose” or similar statement. Try that in a webinar and you’ll lose your audience.

Generally speaking, my sweet spot is under twenty minutes. Why? That’s a great time length, where it’s long enough to impart the information, leave some time for Q&A and not leave everyone tired, bored or no longer on your webinar!

If you’ve been in sales, there’s a constant in how you think of prospects and sales. You may have heard the phrase, 10-6-4-1. You have to get ten prospects, talk to six, four will be interested and you’ll close one.

How did that information jump in here? Stay with me for a minute…

Like a Realtor would say, “location, location, location” we here at TheWebinarGuy.com say “Planning, planning & planning!”

We love to be on your team from the time you first think about doing a webinar!! Yes, I’m the webcast and podcast sponsor, TheWebinarGuy.com! (Yeah, that’s me). When you decide to plan your first webinar or you’re looking to plan a larger, or multi-dimensional virtual summit, and think you need assistance, we have many resources and would love to help you! Hit me at WebinarPro@TheWebinarGuy.com, or visit our website (TheWebinarGuy.com) and use contact form! We’d love to work with you! Thanks for listening to my commercial!

Back to the sales rule 10-6-4-1. Look it up on the internet and you’ll see different numbers, but they are all relevant to the point.

If you need ten sales from your webinar, you’ll need to fill one hundred seats. One mistake, in my experience, is when people try to have a webinar and try to get two hundred in their virtual sales meeting to get twenty sales right then.

That might work. And then they pack every single thing into that first webinar, then they are disappointed that the audience thins out early and the remaining thirty people don’t buy. Most often, they’ve been overwhelmed!

Here’s a solution; Plan that webinar to be the first part of the funnel. Get one hundred or two hundred in your webinar or virtual summit! But plan to give “Just Enough” information to your audience to get the right number to the next webinar. In other words, every virtual seminar is a break down to the next.

Why blow all your time and energy on an audience that isn’t going to buy. Here’s an example. We do a TON of bit coin, binance, and DeFi webinars for clients.

They’ll do fifteen minutes on what bit-coin is, and how it relates to ten minutes on how secure block-chain technology is. Then seven minutes on their platform and how great it is. We’re now over thirty minutes. And I sit and watch the participant list drop one by one. And they’ve not gotten to their CTA!

And God-forbid you have a boring speaker that drones on and on and those numbers drop like a rock!

What could they do? Start with a statement by your webinar moderator from TheWebinarGuy.com that this webinar is a bit advanced and for those that understand bit-coin, block chain and are ready for a better platform! (read: Manage expectations).

First touch on both what bit-coin is, then touch on block-chain, maybe two to three minutes tops. Mention another webinar you’ll be having later that is more in-depth on those things. Get those people in THAT webinar.

Now work on how your platform works and the benefits of using it. You can do a lot in the next five to seven minutes. Then do your Q&A. Five minutes tops. Then do your CTA. We’re around fifteen minutes and I assure you you’ll have better numbers. Make sense?

Your CTA IS a sign up offer (why not!?!), but now get those really interested into that next harder sales push webinar with some great offer. Say 5% sign up bonus for those that sign up now for the next webinar.

If you’re planning a sixty-minute webinar, or even anything over thirty-minutes- you better have five things:

  1. Be an interesting speaker with Great Content
  2. Solid webinar design and
  3. Tight planning agenda run by professionals
  4. Concise, meaningful Q&A
  5. An interesting, well-crafted CTA

So what have we defined? A sort of sales funnel where we’ll try to peel off attendees that would be better served in a different webinar. Next, we’ll have planned content for the “real” audience and either close them with a call to action then, or, have a deeper, more detailed content webinar soon after.

This is related to sales, but it works for nearly everything. Need VoiceOver training? How about my webinar on that? But I’ll first make sure what phase of your career you’re at, “This webinar is for those that…”, then the call to action might be a three lesson course.

Selling a beauty regimen? Trying to solve racism, or hunger in your neighborhood? Helping people in some way?

Hope this helps you plan!!

This series is for smaller organizations and solopreneurs that may not be tech savvy, don’t know all the steps, or don’t WANT to know all the steps.

Over the series, I’m going to lead you through the significant decisions and capabilities you’ll need to “Zoom to Webinar Success!” If you have a subject you’d like me to cover, please subscribe, then drop me a note or comment.

As always, if you need help now, don’t hesitate to reach out at WebinarPro@TheWebinarGuy.com

Thank you for watching! Would love to hear your questions and comments! Don’t forget to tell a friend or two!

And if you’re listening to the Podcast audio, thanks for listening!

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E31: The Most Important Factor to your webinar success!

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Welcome to episode thirty-one of  “Zooming to Webinar Success!”

Hey, I’m Grant: My clients call me The Webinar Guy. And another shoutout to Jane Wing at JaneWing.com for our new podcast introduction!

Today we’re going to talk about “The Single Most Important Factor (to your webinar success)”

I’m often asked, “When planning a #webinar or #virtualevent, what is the single most important factor I need to cover?” Well, here we go! If you are planning a #virtualsummit, or a simple #zoommeeting, I have the answer! The most important factor is…

I’ve discussed many things over the first thirty episodes! And quite frankly, most of them are really important! Stay tuned for a moment while I review…the last episode (thirty). I discussed the staffing needs larger webinars need and the bodies and capabilities to make sure you have covered for success. If you missed it, head to TheWebinarGuy.com and look for episode thirty.

Okay, so what IS the The Single Most Important Factor (to your webinar success)?

It’s you! I’ll bet you’re not even surprised! NO ONE else will care as much as you do your webinar, zoom meeting, or virtual event. No one else will have as much skin in the success or failure of the event as you will.

Any single one of the staffing needs I mentioned last episode, if done poorly, can certainly embarrass you.

Here at TheWebinarGuy.com we think we’ve seen it all. Expected speakers that don’t show up or misunderstood the time zone of the event. Bad connections, scammers that do stupid things in a public forum, really bad backgrounds, bad scripts, bad powerpoint decks, those that simply don’t even understand the interface and take no time to figure it out, poorly managed hand-off and more.

A step aside here. Actually, it’s a step up to my soap box. When asked to speak for an international conference because they’ve achieved some modicum of success, they may have been awarded a PhD in a field, published papers and more. Then this person comes onto a virtual webinar session where they are the featured speaker. Their screen comes on and they are still straightening their hair. They don’t know how to share their screen or know how to get PowerPoint into slide show mode. Oh, they’ll open it and start talking in edit mode where you can see all their notes and remnants of their desktop and more. Really?!

In my mind this is the Walmart version of presentations. It’s just way too casual! And I see it ALL THE TIME.

If you have no respect for yourself, at least have respect for those that have invited you to speak?! Makes me want to scream.

Sorry, I’ll step down for now. However, throughout the series, I’ve constantly pointed out the pitfalls that can occur while planning or holding a webinar.

How can you avoid these things? Well, partially, the answer is “good luck”.

One way is first to contact a company whose sole purpose is to produce an amazing webinar or virtual event for you.

Here at TheWebinarGuy.com we include all these points and work with your speakers and others to help ensure they are prepared and you look amazing!! Yes, I’m the webcast and podcast sponsor, TheWebinarGuy.com! (Yeah, that’s me). When you decide to approach your first big webinar or you want to plan a large, multi-dimensional virtual summit, and think you need assistance, we have many resources and would love to help you! Hit me at WebinarPro@TheWebinarGuy.com, or visit our website (TheWebinarGuy.com) and use contact form! We’d love to work with you! Thanks for listening to my commercial!

So how do you eliminate this?

Let’s go back to what we’ve identified as the “The Single Most Important Factor (to your webinar success)”

You.

One other thing I often see is that would-be presenters doing their first webinar, is that they think that pulling off a fantastic, memorable (for the right reasons) webinar or virtual summit is a walk in the park.

Its like they think, “Well, I’ve been on plenty of zoom sessions. It’s can’t be that hard!”

Well with that attitude it won’t be hard! It will likely be embarrassingly bad.

Most new clients are surprised by how may questions we ask. It’s because we know what’s all needed and we want your event to be stellar! And we try not to leave anything to chance!

Many times, in this series I ask you to stop and consider the depth of the subject we’re on. Not to take it lightly or pass over it entirely.

This is another of those times. It is YOUR name or YOUR brand. How do you want to be perceived? How do you want it treated? This is one of those crossing line decisions we make in life. We can cheap it out and hope for the best or decide today that you’ll put in the work to produce the most noteworthy, fun, engaging, interactive and maybe more- webinar possible.

THAT is why you are the most important “The Single Most Important Factor (to your webinar success)”

YOU will set the standard that all the participants producing your webinar will follow. The standard of excellence on the script, the slides, backgrounds, production values and more. Its. ALL. On. You!

That everyone on your team gets that standard is the hurdle you must cross! At TheWebinarGuy.com, we get it and can join you at that same standard!

—– —–

This series is for smaller organizations and solopreneurs that may not be tech savvy, don’t know all the steps, or don’t WANT to know all the steps.

Over the series, I’m going to lead you through the significant decisions and capabilities you’ll need to “Zoom to Webinar Success!” If you have a subject you’d like me to cover, please subscribe, then drop me a note or comment.

As always, if you need help now, don’t hesitate to reach out at WebinarPro@TheWebinarGuy.com

Thank you for watching! Would love to hear your questions and comments! Don’t forget to tell a friend or two!

And if you’re listening to the Podcast audio, thanks for listening!

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E30: Staffing a Big Webinar or Virtual Summit

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Welcome to an anniversary episode of sorts- Episode Thirty of “Zooming to Webinar Success!”

Hey, I’m Grant: My clients call me The Webinar Guy. And a special shoutout to Jane Wing at JaneWing.com for our new podcast introduction!

Today we’re going to talk about “Planning your Big Webinar or Virtual Summit- Part two”

We’ll talk about the pieces parts you’ll need! Stay tuned…

In the last episode (twenty-nine) I started talking about producing larger webinars and how that might be defined. If you missed it, head to TheWebinarGuy.com and look for episode twenty-nine..

As I mentioned in that episode, here at TheWebinarGuy.com we’re often involved in large virtual events. These events can be “large” in different ways. What are those ways? It’s all about numbers. The number of speakers planned, the number of days it will span, the number of staff required to take care of myriad details and of course, the number of dollars you’ll spend to do any of that. ALL the numbers are related, btw.

I talked about overusing the word “multi” as I hit those numbers above, Multi-everything!

And I said that the webinar or virtual summit, or virtual event- whatever you want to call it, will be constrained by two significant factors. Audience and Budget.

Okay enough going back over the last episode, let’s move on, but first.

—-

Before we dig in too far a word from our webcast and podcast sponsor, TheWebinarGuy.com! (Yeah, that’s me). When you decide to approach your first big webinar or you want to plan a large, multi-dimensional virtual summit, and think you need assistance, we have many resources and would love to help you! Hit me at WebinarPro@TheWebinarGuy.com, or visit our website (TheWebinarGuy.com) and use contact form! We’d love to work with you! Thanks for listening to my commercial!

—-

So, define “Big” already, Grant!

Alrighty. Again, I define a BIG webinar or virtual event when it just flat can’t get done by you alone and likely not by two people. Can they be done, yikes, yes but not if you like to sleep!

What you might need; First take a real, honest, frank evaluation of what you can actually do on your own. Know what your gifts and capabilities are and make an honest assessment of whether that serves your virtual summit or event.

Now fill that in with those that can do other things around your gifts.

Let’s start at the beginning with marketing the event. Here we go…

Web designer/web master to post events. Will they need to integrate with platforms like EventBrite to post or zoom to create the event?

Social media posting: There’s a specialist in every field, and this is no different. You may need someone with knowledge of each platform for best practice and keyword usage and more. How often will they post. Are they paid ads? Is the budget made for that? Can that person or persons interact well with your speakers or their staff to market them into your event?

Script writing/editing: Maybe you’ve got a script and you just need someone to look at it for clarity, maybe it needs written from scratch. I get many scripts to record for clients that you can tell were written by the person that is the subject expert, so it’s really detailed and then at the same time, it steps right over the points the audience really needs to know!

Slide Deck creation/editing: Repeat the paragraph from above on script writing. I’ve gotten slide decks where the “expert” just flat skipped an important slide or two.

But the other problem with inexperienced slide deck creators is using all the cute bells and whistles that will ruin a professional presentation. We spend a lot of time normalizing animations, removing animations that aren’t needed and more. And we end up adding graphics that better explain processes or expressing the appropriate emotion for that point the speaker is making.

Back to Speakers: Who else is going to speak? Who will interact and help to manage them, their notes, their slides and as mentioned, possibly work with their staff?

Event coordination: Who is going to track all this and manage all these people?

Tech Coordinator:  Who is responsible for set completion? If a simple virtual event, you may just use your room (see episode seventeen) what do you need to do to be ready? What about sound (mic, etc) and your speakers and camera (just go hit episodes fifteen through eighteen!). Oh yeah, make sure your computer is ready as well as your internet connection too.

Software: Do you have someone to check your computer and KNOW that all your software is working and will play nice on presentation day. By the way, a word of caution on “updating your software because the publisher said it was a new version that can run faster and jump higher. Just last month we had to roll back three of our packages to the point where they would play nice. I’ll just say it will be a while before I upgrade stuff that’s working.

Do you need programs like: OBS, WhatsApp, Skype, Discord, zoom or another platform installed and working?

WhatsApp, Skype and Discord are great for off platform communication for your team. Get everyone in a group!

Moderator(s): Depending on size, you may need one or two folks to monitor chat and the Q&A box, assign breakout rooms, setup and show polls, remove trollers (episode twenty-three, twenty-four and twenty-six).

Host: Usually one host is sufficient, but if you’re doing sections, you may want a different host for each section. Maybe you’re doing a session for say Spanish speaking attendees and having a host that speaks whatever language or that looks like them, might matter!

Finally: POST Webinar: Who all from the list above is needed for follow-up, sending thank you notes, follow-up social posts and other web related activities? You just had a great webinar, don’t let the energy die now!!!

It IS a LOT to consider, and I think I hit most of it! So what is a BIG webinar? I think I was on a team of eight recently- that I knew of!

But with the help of TheWebinarTeam at TheWebinarGuy.com, we’re ready to jump in where YOU need us!

—– —–

This series is for smaller organizations and solopreneurs that may not be tech savvy, don’t know all the steps, or don’t WANT to know all the steps.

Over the series, I’m going to lead you through the significant decisions and capabilities you’ll need to “Zoom to Webinar Success!” If you have a subject you’d like me to cover, please subscribe, then drop me a note or comment.

As always, if you need help now, don’t hesitate to reach out at WebinarPro@TheWebinarGuy.com

Thank you for watching! Would love to hear your questions and comments! Don’t forget to tell a friend or two!

And if you’re listening to the Podcast audio, thanks for listening!

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E29: Planning a big webinar or virtual summit

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Welcome to episode twenty-nine of “Zooming to Webinar Success!”

Hey, I’m Grant: My clients call me The Webinar Guy.

Today we’re going to talk about “Planning your Big Webinar or Virtual Summit”.

We’ll talk about some of the pitfalls and advantages! Stay tuned…

In the last episode (twenty-eight) I talked a bit more about promoting webinars and virtual meetings. If you missed it, head to TheWebinarGuy.com and look for episode twenty- eight.

Here at TheWebinarGuy.com we’re often involved in large virtual events. These events can be “large” in different ways. What are those ways? And how does this play into your planning and budget? Stay tuned because in this episode, twenty-nine, we’ll discuss some of the many ways that larger virtual summits and multi-day, multi-presenter, multi-EVERYTHING is different than “just doing” a simpler webinar.

Let’s start with defining what a “Large” virtual event looks like. Maybe an “official” definition from the web is in order:
“Webinars provide attendees with a single session to attend, while virtual events offer flexibility in single or multi-session agendas that take place at different times or days” Okay, that helps, but…

Another definition suggests that the answer to virtual events is that they are multi-dimensional.

Where webinars go big on a single topic for whatever period of time, Virtual events can be just a few sessions on multiple subjects that are usually related in some way, to multi-day events with myriad speakers from all over the world, drawing a multi-national audience.

Sorry, I feel like I’m overusing “multi” but there just isn’t another word that works!

Okay back at it. So what DOES large mean? Add complexity and it gets “large” in every sense of the word from number of attendees to speakers to well, everything you can think of.

I’m going to suggest that the webinar or virtual summit, or virtual event- whatever you want to call it, is going to be constrained by two significant factors. Audience and Budget.

First, I’ve talked in multiple episodes about promotion and snagging audience and getting attendees to your virtual event. This is the first factor. It may be or seem obvious, but your ability to define your audience, market to them, get them to register and the million dollar part: Get them to attend- That is a huge challenge! (And then make them want to stick around!!)

The second part that I’ve really not gotten into in this series is defining your budget. Well, this is really the first factor, quite frankly. Because if you have enough budget, you can get audience!

—-AD START—

But before we dig in too far on that little gem, the budget, a word from our webcast and podcast sponsor, TheWebinarGuy.com! (Yeah, that’s me). When you decide to approach your first big webinar or you want to plan a large, multi-dimensional virtual summit, and think you need assistance, we have many resources and would love to help you! Hit me at WebinarPro@TheWebinarGuy.com, or visit our website (TheWebinarGuy.com) and use contact form! We’d love to work with you! Thanks for listening to my commercial!

—-AD END—

Okay, the 900# gorilla in the room: BUDGET. A standard conversation we often have with new or potential clients goes like this:

THEM: “How much does it cost for you to produce a webinar?”

TWG: “Here’s our standard list of fifteen questions we always ask to get started. One of the first is; Do you have a budget?”

THEM: “Yes, but…”

I can tell you that this conversation goes back and forth until there is an understanding that there is no “one size fits all” webinar or virtual meeting/event. And to help you, we really need a realistic budget. It saves our team AND the client both time and resources.

So my first advise here is: Get you or your current team serious about how much you can or will spend.

That said, a simpler, one day event could cost well, what all do you need done?

Marketing? Planning? List buying? And on and on. Again our simple “starter questionnaire” is around fifteen questions and our planning sheet has more than eighty things we consider when planning an event!

Some things to consider; is your event going to only be in your native tongue? Do you need moderators in other languages for that specific audience?

We were involved recently with a two-day multi-national event that started in India with speakers and moderators working in Hindi, then it flowed to Africa, Europe (switching to English), then into the Americas. Do you need interpreters? And more.

Are you doing social postings? Are awards involved? Breakout rooms? Casual networking rooms? Do you need someone to manage each breakout room? Will presenters help? How will you handle it when a speaker doesn’t show, or has connection issues?

How will you introduce speakers? Will you use a host? An introduction video (cartooned intros are fun!)?

What will you do to keep the event fun, interesting and keep people from becoming fatigued during a five hour event?

Do you have systems in place already to assist with any of this, or does it all need produced for you?

How will you measure ROI? What will you do as follow up with speakers and attendees? What marketing data do you expect back and how will you use it?
Will you be paying speakers or are they speaking pro-bono for some exposure? How will you handle that?

What polls will you plan to capture marketing data?

How are you going to present or push your brand? How far can your stray from your brand story, and serve the webinar topic. OR… How far can you push the webinar topics and speakers and stay on point with your brand?

Just like going out to dinner, or virtually any purchase you make, adding complexity, creating videos, hiring a band to play, and all that I’ve mentioned to this point adds to your budget.

These things also add to audience experience and their want to stay around.

The bottom line, and I’ve mentioned this often in previous episodes: Focus on what you and your attendees want from a virtual event!

  • What do you want to achieve with your event? What “End result” are you looking for? (Episodes four and five).
  • And what do your attendees hope to gain? Have you thought of that (Look for the WIIFM episode twenty-seven).

I’ve often mentioned the webinar planning sheet we use (that you can request on our website: TheWebinarGuy.com) that grows almost daily as we add things that we take for granted, that you shouldn’t.

Best of luck in planning your “Large” event!

—– —–

This series is for smaller organizations and solopreneurs that may not be tech savvy, don’t know all the steps, or don’t WANT to know all the steps.

Over the series, I’m going to lead you through the significant decisions and capabilities you’ll need to “Zoom to Webinar Success!” If you have a subject you’d like me to cover, please subscribe, then drop me a note or comment.

As always, if you need help now, don’t hesitate to reach out at WebinarPro@TheWebinarGuy.com

Thank you for watching! Would love to hear your questions and comments! Don’t forget to tell a friend or two! And if you’re listening to the Podcast audio, thanks for listening!

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E28: Where DO I promote my webinar?

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Welcome to episode twenty-eight of “Zooming to Webinar Success!”

Hey, I’m Grant: My clients call me The Webinar Guy.

Today we’re going to talk about “Where DO I promote my webinar?!”

How do I start might be the subtitle! Stay tuned…

In the last episode (twenty-seven) I talked about WIFFM and why it was important. If you missed it, head to TheWebinarGuy.com and look for episode twenty-seven.

Today we’ll discuss some of the many ways you can market your webinar, virtual learning or virtual training event, and your virtual summit. Will this be an exhaustive list? No it won’t. In fact, I’m tossing in a bit of a twist. But I want the thinking or strategy behind this to be what is learned, not necessarily to use this tactic to do that.

In our current world, being “followed” or “liked” is the thing (social media wise!). I think the first most important thing to know is the makeup of your current “following”.

How many people are in your influence circle? Ten? Ten Thousand? Not only is there a huge difference in those numbers, but there’s also a huge difference in the way you market and approach that difference.

I’ve touched on the subject in several past episodes, by the way- take a gander at episodes eight, nine and eleven. Episode seven was even more specific, where “Filing the seats” was the title. Valuable to catch up on if needed, but I didn’t go deep on purpose. I want to add on today.

Let’s assume you’ve listened to Episode seven, so you know most of the options. Above I alluded to whether you have fewer followers or small audience capture, or a larger following. And for no reason other than normal marketing and sales numbers, let’s call that number five hundred.

—-AD—

But before we dig in too far, a word from our webcast and podcast sponsor, TheWebinarGuy.com! (Yeah, that’s me). When you decide to approach your first webinar, and think you need marketing assistance, we have many resources and would love to help you! Hit me at WebinarPro@TheWebinarGuy.com, or visit our website (TheWebinarGuy.com) and use contact form! We’d love to work with you! Thanks for listening to my commercial!

This episode I’ll concentrate on those of you with fewer than five hundred in your sphere of influence. Here’s the first problem with that number. Most of us have that many in our sphere with just business and social contacts, not even trying for reach or growth. But it’s likely you’re not maximizing that number or just not realized it’s that big.

We’ve all heard the saying that “Content is King”. Yup sure is. High quality content where your audience wants more of your stuff is crucial! So how do you build your audience for better promotion?

The topic on this episode is “Where do I promote your Webinar?” Start with what you have where you are. But I think you need to start six months or more before your event. Why? Social credibility is all about people seeing, sharing and yes, liking your content. Six months gives you the space to start posting content that engages people to follow you.

On Facebook you have so many friends and so many followers. Yeah, kinda weird but people that aren’t your “Friends” do follow what you post. Instagram is even more that way. Then we have Tik-Tok, YouTube, WhatsApp, WeChat, and even more. And that’s only the top six! If your content is more business oriented, add LinkedIn to your list.

Many of us are on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, and maybe TikTok and Twitter and even Reddit. There is no shortage of places to waste your time and efforts.

Why do I say that? Learning the nuances of every platform can drive you nuts and waste time. So Don’t. For this first effort, concentrate on the place or places you already have the most traction. Again, I’ll swing towards Facebook, Instagram and TikTok.

You’ll want to get people having conversations. So, posting what you had for dinner or your baby blowing bubbles isn’t what we’re going for here.

Posting a great quote, or sharing another post isn’t going to cut it either. Start with a piece of advice. Show people something and ask a question (start the conversation).

Here’s the simplest rule for ANY platform; Get Engagement and don’t take people off THAT platform. Engagement is people commenting on your content, sharing your content, their friends commenting on their comments, and their friends sharing your content.

That engagement is the path to people following you. You can look at stats and ask people to “follow you” and such.

So technically we’re not yet promoting your webinar. What we’re doing is establishing social credibility. Once you are known for “X”, people start asking you for advice and/or you’re seen as the expert. Having your closest twenty friends on a webinar is great, especially for practice, but you’ll likely not be able to build a business model around that. You need twenty, one-hundred twenty, FIVE-hundred twenty and more in your sphere of influence, just to get some traction. Trust me, you want more.

Remember you’ll likely never get all five hundred twenty on a webinar. If you do, call me and I’ll take some advice from you!

It IS a numbers game, but the credibility factor is HUGE!

Your plan for today is to do an inventory of the platforms you’re on, where you have the largest reach and plan to start there, building credibility!

So did I answer the question of “where to promote your webinar, or virtual meeting?” Not in the literal sense, but hopefully in a way to help you plan on approach.

So what do we know now that we didn’t earlier? Don’t drive people from the platform(s) you’re using.

That social credibility and being seen as THE expert is crucial to success! Take time to build that when you’re looking for zooming to YOUR webinar success!

—– —–

This series is for smaller organizations and solopreneurs that may not be tech savvy, don’t know all the steps, or don’t WANT to know all the steps.

Over the series, I’m going to lead you through the significant decisions and capabilities you’ll need to “Zoom to Webinar Success!” If you have a subject you’d like me to cover, please subscribe, then drop me a note or comment.

As always, if you need help now, don’t hesitate to reach out at WebinarPro@TheWebinarGuy.com

Thank you for watching! Would love to hear your questions and comments! Don’t forget to tell a friend or two!

And if you’re listening to the Podcast audio, thanks for listening!

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E27: What’s a WIIFM and why is it important?

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Welcome to episode twenty-seven of “Zooming to Webinar Success!”

Hey, I’m Grant: My clients call me The Webinar Guy.

Today we’re going to talk about WIIFM!

What’s WIIFM? Stay tuned…

In the last episode (twenty-six) I talked about using polls and chat interaction in your webinars and virtual meetings or presentations. If you missed it, head to TheWebinarGuy.com and look for episode twenty-six.

So, what is WIIFM? We ALL suffer from WIIFM now and then. At least from the side effects of not knowing what it is and how it affects all we do.

If you’ve been around business or marketing very long, you already know what it is, if not, WIIFM is an acronym for “What’s In It For Me!?”

What’s In It For Me strikes at the base of Maslow’s hierarchy of needs! Maybe not literally, but wanting to know how something will benefit us is so very deeply rooted we may not even give it conscious thought.

We are always looking for things that are pleasurable, make our lives easier, that are fun, taste good, earn us more money and so on. Remember in this instance we are on the subject of holding webinars, on-line meetings, virtual summits, self-improvement workshops, virtual master classes, virtual podcasts, and so on.

So What IS in it for me? Well, define first define “me”. Because you first need to know what is in it for you.

WHY go to all the work of assembling a webinar, writing the script, creating a powerpoint deck, planning, scheduling, finding a moderator and/or host. Planning and creating all the collateral where needed and more!

By the way, as an aside that list is woefully short of what’s really needed. Our webcast and podcast sponsor, TheWebinarGuy.com! (Yeah, that’s me), has a free PDF with the steps needed to cover when you want to get all the details right. More than eighty items to consider. Want a copy? Hit me at WebinarPro@TheWebinarGuy.com, or visit our website (TheWebinarGuy.com) and use contact form! I’d love to send you a copy! Thanks for listening to my commercial!

Back to the subject; Why would you go to all that work? What is in it for YOU!? You should know the answer. “Just deciding” to do a webinar or virtual event is fine but know why you’re doing it!

Why do I do these videos and podcasts? Yes, I’m a bit altruistic and want you to have great webinars and I hope this series helps you. But let’s be frank; I want your business! I want you to look at all those details and think, “I just want The Webinar Team to do it! Yeah, I’m contacting The Webinar Guy!

I’m in this to gain customers plain and simple.

Why do YOU want to have a webinar? What’s in it for YOU. If you’re not real sure, maybe go hit TheWebinarGuy.com and look for episodes four and five. I talk about Purpose and strategy.

Okay, after you figure that out, you better know “What’s in it for ME”- your audience- or “What’s in it for them?” Why would they bother to take part of their day to listen to you? What’s your expertise? What will you offer? What will they gain?

To drive your webinar attendance you must be able to answer that question. Why would someone care?!

I’ve presented or hosted webinars, such as; employment webinars where interested candidates find out about a company and why they’d want to work there.

For a trucking industry consulting company, why drivers would want to become owners instead of just being drivers (it’s to build wealth).

For a consultant on relationships: How to manage a relationship with a narcissist. If you’re in that type relationship, you need her workshop!

Several for the elder care market, where one client helps current communities manage them better and another on helping those communities help their elder members build memories.

A client that is treating Bi-Polar disorder with laughter, trying to help others with the same challenge.

MANY companies that want you to invest in their bitcoin operation!

I host, present or moderate several hundred webinars each year. There are several common threads; Helping people, selling people, developing authority and trust, generating leads, broadening your current audience and more.

When you know why you are doing your webinar and you can really define “What’s in it for THEM”, you’ll be way down the road on your marketing, your scripts will be better, you’ll have better engagement and the audience you draw will be more open to your message!

What’s in it for me? My goal is more clients and broadening how many people know about the services The Webinar Guy.com offers and sell those services.

What’s in it for you? I want you to hold amazing webinars and have massive success!

So what do we know now that we didn’t earlier? There are two “me’s” for lack of better definition. What’s in it for me as the presenter, speaker, consultant, etc. And the “What’s in it for me” that is really “them”, your audience. Take time to define those for zooming to YOUR webinar success!

—– —–

This series is for smaller organizations and solopreneurs that may not be tech savvy, don’t know all the steps, or don’t WANT to know all the steps.

Over the series, I’m going to lead you through the significant decisions and capabilities you’ll need to “Zoom to Webinar Success!” If you have a subject you’d like me to cover, please subscribe, then drop me a note or comment.

As always, if you need help now, don’t hesitate to reach out at WebinarPro@TheWebinarGuy.com

Thank you for watching! Would love to hear your questions and comments! Don’t forget to tell a friend or two!

And if you’re listening to the Podcast audio, thanks for listening!

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E24- Handling Hecklers

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Welcome to episode twenty-four of “Zooming to Webinar Success!”

Hey, I’m Grant: My clients call me The Webinar Guy.

Today we’re going to talk about how to handle hecklers.

First off, there is no one way to eliminate getting a heckler in your session. As with many subjects I chat about, this one has setup and things to consider.

Let’s go back to the beginning and think about the purpose of this webinar. If you need or want audience interaction, your audience will need to be able to use a chat function, and/or be able to unmute their mics at some point and be able to talk.

Most webinar and virtual meeting platforms allow you to turn these functions on and off. For instance, in zoom, you can mute your audience and either allow or not allow them to unmute.

So think about how you want this to happen during your session. There is a belief that charging for a session as opposed to free will eliminate this issue. I can tell you that if someone wants badly enough to harass you, they will find a way.

So now let’s prepare a bit. Assume that in any given session that you may have one or more hecklers- by the way, this assumption will save you embarrassment at some point and being ready for the “might happen” will serve you well.

Step one is to consider your familiarity with the webinar platform you are using. And along with that, are you using a moderator or not? Depending on the formality of your session and how many attendees you expect to have, you may want to have a moderator that is on your session if only to monitor chat and remove idiots, or if mics have been allowed to be unmuted and you get a vocal heckler, your moderator can pop them out of the session immediately without warning.

A lot also depends on the heckler and their goal. As The Webinar Guy team does hundreds of webinars each year, we’ve seen it all- or so we’d like to think! Sometimes you just have pushy, belligerent people that think for some reason your virtual meeting or training is their playground.

Just yesterday, I was doing one of my regular sales hosting sessions where we talk about lead generation. We always start with concepts and strategies on how to generate your own leads. One guy in chat just had to chime in, “Generate my own? I like working off a client list!”

Well, goodie for you! Give me a minute and we’ll talk about that. But why he thought he had to tell everyone that and what he thought he’d accomplish is beyond me. What it did do was eliminate him from my client’s prospective hire list. Any potential salesperson that jumps to conclusions and doesn’t listen has already put themselves at a disadvantage.

Forgive my self-promotion here, but I’m pretty good at what I do moderating and hosting. I’ve had webinar attendees put in chat, “He’s not really live, this is one of those canned webinars!” Imagine their surprise when I call them out!

Using a moderator can really help these kinds of situations. In both the examples above, I did not have a moderator. But my experience level, familiarity with zoom controls and the way I setup my screens allows ME to monitor things in my simpler webinars.

I want you now to consider your personality. How you handle various things will mirror your personality and your brand. Yeah back to your brand. How you handle hecklers reflects not only on you, but your brand or in our case the brands you represent!

Please allow me to take a moment to promote our sponsor, TheWebinarGuy.com (yeah that’s me!). Our webinar and virtual meeting team will work with you to produce stellar events! From a few people on a book cover reveal to hundreds of attendees with breakout rooms, we’d love to discuss how to make your event amazing! Thanks!

Okay, I began this section talking about the goal of the heckler. So far, I’ve really just talked about people that don’t think before they type or talk, or think their opinion matters at a given point. I’ve had people whine about THEIR sound. THEY can’t see my video, When is the Q&A, and my most consistent favorite, “Will this be recorded for us to watch later?” Even though the sign up said it would be, we said it would be in the introduction, and there’s a banner at the bottom of the screen that says that- simply amazing.

My personality is one to take control of the situation, it’s what my clients pay me for, and eliminate, or mitigate the challenge.

On to the bad hecklers…The ones with the goal of embarrassing you, or “calling you out” or trying to damage your reputation.

Sorry if I’m pounding this, but having a moderator really helps. But as I said above, being ready for it and having a few strategies can help.

So again, ensure you know your webinar platform’s controls! Make sure you know how to mute them or remove and block them on the fly.

When someone is calling me or my client out, I realize the issue will be a reputation challenge, so I know to have something ready to speak to that. For example: one construction company I do regular informational webinars for- had a guy turn his mic on and before I could remove him (you’d be surprised what can happen in fifteen seconds!) he swore, used really offensive language and also called us out for poor quality, etc.

I removed him, apologized to the rest of the webinar audience, then having noted his name, I said, “Dang, Sure wish that Dan had gone to the Better Business Bureau site and looked up our A+ Rating. Too bad he also missed our more than 600 positive Google reviews!” Then I used other points in the session to refer back to his interruption. Everyone had a good laugh and didn’t lose one attendee.

On the fly sometimes you just need something snarky to say like, “I remember the last time MY breakfast upset my tummy.” Or “Geez, Larry must be Hangry!”

The biggest point is to acknowledge it, then move on. Most everyone in a webinar or virtual meeting understands this can happen and will overlook it. However, NOT handling it or handling it badly WILL affect your audience. KNOW your controls and how to remove and block.

Okay my really biggest point: Never, ever argue or get into a battle with the heckler. The sooner you can remove them from your session and move on, the better.

I’ve done hundreds of “Live” sessions where we’re in a hotel conference room or other large venue. Depending on the size of the conference, we’d usually have one of the production team ready to call for security. Tough to do with zoom.

This series is for smaller organizations and solopreneurs that may not be tech savvy, don’t know all the steps, or don’t WANT to know all the steps.

Over the series, I’m going to lead you through the significant decisions and capabilities you’ll need to “Zoom to Webinar Success!”

As always, if you need help now, don’t hesitate to reach out at WebinarPro@TheWebinarGuy.com

Thank you for watching! Would love to hear your questions and comments!

And if you’re listening to the Podcast audio, thanks for listening! Tell a friend!

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E23 Handling the Question and Answer period

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Episode 23- Handling Questions & Answers or Q&A.

Hey, I’m Grant: My clients call me The Webinar Guy. Welcome to episode twenty-three of “Zooming to Webinar Success!”

In case you’re catching up, the last three episodes (twenty, twenty-one and twenty-two) had to do with presenting content via some choice on slide decks (PowerPoint, Prezi, Canva, etc) and the importance of script writing.

So what to do with this episode, twenty-three?

Since we’ve been covering content, let’s talk about the ubiquitous Q&A session, often held at the end for obvious reasons.

You know what you want to say and based on episode number twenty-two, you may have even written and practiced a script to ensure you are actually saying it.

But as you know, no matter how well we prepare, our guests will always think of something to ask. Usually.

Maybe they didn’t pay attention during part of your webinar or virtual meeting. They got a phone call and couldn’t watch for a bit. Yes, I’ve gotten questions that cover those situations. I love it when people ask in the chat feature and others answer the question for you!

Just as likely, especially due to the complexity of a given subject, it’s possible that one explanation just wasn’t enough. Maybe they just didn’t get it!

Pay attention to this! We often think we nailed something when talking about it- due to our familiarity with the subject, but some stares, furrowed brows or tilted heads may say otherwise.

Why pay attention? If you do many of the same webinars and continually see the same questions pop up, it’s time to modify your presentation. For some reason, your audiences just aren’t getting it.

This is what makes using a script on a zoom webinar tough. You’re so concentrating on the content that you can’t “read” the audience like you can when you’re live on stage. So also take that into consideration. And even if you don’t use a script, the people’s images may be so small as to not be able to track that well anyhow. To me, it’s one of the greatest drawbacks to virtual events.

What’s the answer there? I know in many of the sessions I do, we just tell people to enter their questions in the chat or (Q&A function of some of the webinar platforms) and tell them we’ll wait until the Q&A part to answer. Or we tell them to NOT enter the questions, just to hold them till the end. Then either way, we stay on-task and on-script until the end.

This option also has the added benefit of you answering the question before it’s offered. That happens too.

First considerations: If you have someone like a professional from TheWebinarGuy.com team moderating your webinar and gathering the questions, (and knowing in advance what’s coming) possibly telling attendees “We’ll get to that” or answering simple questions you’ve approved- that helps simplify your webinar. The point here is that a moderator can help you a lot on this.

If you’re running solo, or you don’t have a moderator, tell people that you’re running a “one man show” and can’t monitor the chat and you can’t track questions. Then don’t!

Let’s say you’ve presented your information and we’re now to the actual Q&A. Now that we’re there, let’s back up. This requires planning.

First of all, limit the time for Q&A. Tell people ahead that you’re limiting the Q&A to five minutes, or ten, or whatever. This helps your audience know what to expect. If you followed the advice from the last episode, you should know how long your presentation is within just a few minutes and plan accordingly. So if you have a twenty minute or so presentation, then plan a ten minute or so Q&A and tell people at the start that “Today’s webinar/presentation/training/whatever will be about thirty minutes- THEN STICK TO THAT. But what if people are really engaged and asking great questions? Your call, but it’s “Entertainment Law” to get off stage with the audience wanting more! Suggest they enroll again for the next one- offer a deal! If it’s a series, consider telling people, “Sorry we’re out of time, but we’ll answer more of these: On our blog; Our social media feed, or possibly (not recommended) at the beginning of the next session.

Now that you’ve managed that expectation, one choice is to just wing it. You start reading through chat and take the questions as they come. But another reason to use a moderator is while questions are being asked, they can also organize them and even collapse multiple similar questions into one better question instead of you parsing out answers as you read them- that can get repetitive.

Your moderator can also ignore repetitive, ignorant, or otherwise bothersome questions-because your moderator isn’t trying to read them ‘live’.

Answer questions concisely. Don’t blather on. This is another thing to practice! Keep your eye on the clock!!!

—-By the way, a quick commercial from our current sponsor TheWebinarGuy.com (me). I’ve mentioned utilizing a moderator or session manager several times in this post. Your moderator can also be your tech person, or depending on the complexity of the session, ONLY moderate chat and NOT do any of the tech. Whatever mode you choose, contact our team at the TheWebinarGuy.com and let’s chat about your needs and how we can help you manage your webinar, virtual summit, training sessions, product launches and more! Thanks!

Ok, so what happens if you get to Q&A and you get crickets? NO ONE has put a question in chat? They’re silently staring at you. There are no questions!

That does happen. I do many repetitive sessions for clients and two times in a row won’t get a single question. The next session, with the exact same content, I might get ten- You just don’t know.

First, if you feel it’s needed, have a handful of “canned” questions for your moderator to toss at you. “This is from a recent email…” might be a way to handle it. This may help get the Q&A going.

But if you feel you’ve done your job, people are smiling and nodding, thank them for their attention, announce any follow-up sessions, offers, etc, and get off the call!!

If you sit there, like you’re not gonna end the call until you get to answer a question, it’s just really bad theater. It sucks all the energy you’ve built -out of your webinar session. Honestly, give it ten, twenty seconds, then end the call.

If you can, record the call! For example, zoom sends you a transcript of the chat function. It will help you later to look at that and see what you may have missed.

I hope this has helped you think about how to better manage your Question & Answer period!

This series is for smaller organizations and solopreneurs that may not be tech savvy, don’t know all the steps, or don’t WANT to know all the steps.

Over the series, I’m going to lead you through the significant decisions and capabilities you’ll need to “Zoom to Webinar Success!”

As always, if you need help now, don’t hesitate to reach out at WebinarPro@TheWebinarGuy.com

Thank you for watching! Would love to hear your questions and comments!

And if you’re listening to the Podcast audio, thanks for listening! Tell a friend!

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E22- The Importance of Script Writing

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Hey, I’m Grant: My clients call me The Webinar Guy. Welcome to episode 22 of “Zooming to Webinar Success!”

Just wrapped up two episodes on slide decks and proper use. And I touched on script writing and using a script when doing your webinar, zoom meeting or other virtual meetup.

For a bit of background, I’ve been on stage since I was five years old. That was my first vocal solo! Ah, the memories! (Not really, that was WELL over twenty minutes ago!) Since somewhere in my thirties, I’ve not only sung professionally, I’ve been a keynote speaker and also worked as a trainer in corporations on everything from IT to soft skills to corporate turn-around management to helping entrepreneurs with “How to start a business”.

Over thousands of presentations, I’ve come to know what works- and what doesn’t! 

And not in the list above, I’ve also held seminars (Ya know-the old kind where people actually came to a hotel conference room?? In Person!!??) I’ve trained many individuals on using slide decks from the podium, speaking skills, stage craft, or stage management, how to use equipment and more. I’ve even trained National Speakers Association candidates.

Sorry for the personal commercial, but I think it’s important that if someone is spewing advice, you know if they are qualified to do so. I’ll let you judge.

So all that said, I want to revisit a few points from my last episode, twenty-one; 

Writing a script will be the lead on this episode, but will rehash the why.

Why write a script? Many/most(?) experts in a field can talk about their given area of expertise at the drop of a hat (and quite frankly for too dang long!) . On TheWebinarGuy.com website, look at the “fantastic-scripts-matter” page (https:// TheWebinarGuy.com/fantastic-scripts-matter). We have a couple quotes attributed to Mark Twain and Woodrow Wilson. Both quotes have to do with preparation.

Mark Twain’s is: “I … never could make a good impromptu speech without several hours to prepare it.” I’ll let you go find the other {WINK}. In fact, this page speaks to many of the things I’ve been saying about scripts, but I’ll take it here a bit differently.

First, that preparation could be practicing your presentation many times to get the flow, check equipment and so on.

But in my mind, KNOWING what you’re going to say and practicing saying it that way is KEY to a great presentation. I’d think that the purpose of any presentation is to get your audience to engage somehow. -Buy something, volunteer, etc.

Having your sequence right, the verbiage right…ALL that to me is critical.

Here’s what I’ve done. I mentioned in the last episode that while you could write a script then the create the slides to support your talk, or switch that, creating the slides first (this happens often with highly technical subjects where certain images must be displayed in a given order to explain a subject). I do a bit of both. Once I have my deck created (PowerPoint, Prezi, Canva, etc) I then hone in my script. At every point, I want to make sure both are working together.

Here’s my secret. I practice both until no real improvements are left to make. Then I begin to use my slides as prompts for me.

By now I know what I want to say and the slides prompt me to say that. As I practice this sequence I glance less and less at the script knowing those critical points are on a slide.

By the way, a short commercial for our sponsor, which is still me, TheWebinarGuy.com; if you’d like help writing your script, or would like presentation coaching, hit our site and send us a contact form. We’d love to help YOU zoom to webinar success!!

Thanks!

Using an outline; this strategy is like using an outline to guide you through your presentation.

After practicing, you’ll notice you’re using your script less and less. And by the way, earlier I mentioned “practicing until no real improvements are left to make”- learn when to stop “improving” your presentation. 

Even when writing these pod-video cast scripts I tweak a few times, but I also notice a point of going beyond tweaking and sometimes it breaks the flow of what I was trying to accomplish.

Also try to write your script in one, uninterrupted session. I find that when I start now and wait until later to finish, I’ve lost that initial energy of what I was trying to say and sometimes find myself  trying to recover that.

TIME your script! As a professional presenter, you should ALWAYS KNOW how long your presentation is. If you’re doing a webinar, virtual meeting or other online meet, recording a blog, and especially when presenting publicly, you need to KNOW how long you’re going. From my experience as a keynote speaker for many conferences, I can tell you that if they give you twenty minutes, or forty-five minutes- that’s really what they mean! They may have another session or lunch planned after you and you deciding to just go over because you think you’re all that… 

Respect your limits. If there’s just NO WAY you can do your content in the time slot they have asked you to fill, tell them that! If you tell people your webinar will be around twenty minutes and at the twenty-eight minute mark there’s no indication you’re closing, unless you’re just an AMAZING speaker, you’ll lose audience! As you’re writing your script, you can use this link http://www.speechinminutes.com /  (that I’ll also put in comments) to test your timing. It’s not perfect, but sure beats typing out a LONG script only to realize that you’re ten minutes over!!

Being “on time” and doing your job in the time allotted, will get return audience and return engagements!

So now you know why scripts are important. One more tip. You’ll be tempted to adlib and stray from your script when running live. Resist the temptation! You’ll do enough without trying, but the moment you decide to “toss in a freebie”, you also have the opportunity to go down the wrong path and then have to recover that. 

Good luck with your scripts!

—

This series is for smaller organizations and solopreneurs that may not be tech savvy, don’t know all the steps, or don’t WANT to know all the steps.

Over the series, I’m going to lead you through the significant decisions and capabilities you’ll need to “Zoom to Webinar Success!” 

As always, if you need help now, don’t hesitate to reach out at WebinarPro@TheWebinarGuy.com

Thank you for watching! Would love to hear your questions and comments!

And if you’re listening to the Podcast audio, thanks for listening! Tell a friend!

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E20: Series Recap & Creating Your Slide Deck

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This is Grant: My clients call me The Webinar Guy.

For the last few episodes, I’ve been covering many things to consider as you think about doing Webinars. Mainly your Recording environment- specifically web cams, lighting, and the “set” or space you record in.

So, what’s next? I’ve said here before that maybe other than the decision to hold a webinar, there are many decisions that need to be made and for many, the order really doesn’t matter. You need to do them all!

Since this is episode 20, I want to do a quick recap. If you’ve been following along and have heard previous episodes, you can jump to around the three minute mark, but if you’re new, here’s a recap of what you’ve missed:

E1 was an intro to the series
E2: The real basics to consider such as a CRM or Customer Relationship Management tool as you build your webinar kingdom.
E3 More on audience management and the considerations as you use that CRM, audience tracking and so on.
E4: Finding the purpose of your webinar. Not the actual subject, but what you want people to do when they’ve attended.
E5: Strategy on overall what you’re trying to accomplish- strategically setting up your webinar, webinar series, or virtual summits for success
E6: Was about considering the frequency and cadence
E7: I discussed taking your list of followers and strategy on getting them to the webinar
E8: Having fewer sign ups than you’d like and thoughts about cancelling your event.
E9: Sales funnels P1
E10: Interviewed Special Guest Deborah Gardner.
E11: Looking more at Sales Funnels
E12: Standing in your confidence!
E13: More on marketing and promotion
E14: Even more on marketing and promotion: A lack of preparation.
E15: Planning and the Webinar Guy Checklist- First bit on equipment: Cameras
E16: Sound and your environment
E17: Set Design
E18: Lighting your set, especially if you wear glasses.
E19: How you’ll present: as in solo, with a slide deck, etc.

E20: Today I’m going to chat about another consideration for webinars; Using PowerPoint, Prezio, or other type of slide deck to back up your presentation.

But first a word from our sponsor, which at this point is me… if you need help creating a great presentation or training on how to use a slide deck in a webinar, training on slide deck creation or need a deck created, or coaching on live stage craft, please hit TheWebinarGuy.com and use our contact page. We can help you!

Okay, thanks for allowing my short commercial!

This will be a two part episode, btw to stay in a shorter format. So part one:

Your first consideration is choosing the software you’ll use to create your slides; again such as Prezi, Google Slides, Canva, Keynote, Microsoft PowerPoint, (which of course might be considered the 900# gorilla in the room.

It matters not which you use. But rule number one is remembering that a presentation is only EVER there to support the speaker, not BE the presentation.

Rule number two is that you should be on-screen with your presentation- many folks use a small feature window. We can help you with that too. But switching to ONLY slides takes the personal touch out of it. Trust me, stay on screen!

Rule three: Use “cute” animations, GIF images and such to a minimum.

Rule four: Limit the number of animations, GIF images and such.

Hopefully you get the point being made. So often, we get slide decks to evaluate, or to recreate a slide deck for a client and you can tell the professional level of whoever created it. They’ve tried (or so it seems) to use every single animation available. This zooms in, that one Wipes, then a Pinwheel and more.

Folks, this is NOT professional. A bit of tough love: If you as a presenter need a “cute” slide deck to support you, you need presentation coaching/training . I’d love to help you with that, but if you can’t pass the “Cute stuff” test, know you’ll lose audience.

In that same vein, many presentations love to use GIF animations. I’d love to say “don’t”, but at least find ones that animate for a moment then stop. When you use motion on the screen, it draws the eye. If that GIF is one that is going to repeat forever, learn how to take it off the screen, have it exit or disappear. It’s really distraction and is unprofessional.

Enough on that? I HOPE so!!

This subject is going to be a two parts to keep the content where I want to time-wise, so I’ll wrap up here. Hit the next episode, 21 for the wrap!

This series is for smaller organizations and solopreneurs that may not be tech savvy, don’t know all the steps, or don’t WANT to know all the steps.

Over the series, I’m going to lead you through the significant decisions and capabilities you’ll need to “Zoom to Webinar Success!”

As always, if you need help now, don’t hesitate to reach out!

Thank you for watching! Would love to hear your questions and comments!

And if you’re listening to the Podcast audio, thanks for listening! Tell a friend!

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E18: Set Lighting Challenges

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This is the last part about the space you record your sessions or zoom meeting virtual meetings or virtual summit. I also cover the challenges with lighting for those that wear eye-glasses.

Set lighting challenges

This is Grant: The Webinar Guy.

For the last few episodes, I’ve been covering several things surrounding your webinar recording environment- specifically web cams or cameras and mics. Then I talked about really thinking about the brand you’re putting forward in that “look” you’re broadcasting.

And I promised to cover lighting soon.

Well, here we are. Finally. I’m going look at lighting a bit differently than you might expect.

As mentioned previously, there’s plenty of video tutorials on lighting you can find. As with everything on the ol’ interwebs, some are better than others. But I had a unique challenge. Well, at least unique to those of us that wear glasses.

The first time it occurred to me that I was going to have a challenge was a long while back when I was on a live zoom meeting or virtual training I was watching. The trainer had done everything correctly on lighting. The back lighting was great. A couple focus lights were aimed to eliminate dead spots in the room. And they’d used a ring light to light there face well.

Ring-light

If you’re not familiar with ring lights, its exactly like it sounds. It’s a round lamp and on most setups you can put your camera in the middle, so you’ve got (mostly) perfect lighting.

Like I said, their lighting was nearly perfect. Except one thing. They’d not considered how ring lights would act on their eyeglasses.

What happens with glasses and ring lights is that the ring lights put a fairly large white dot on the glasses. And the wearer cannot see that dot (unless they look in their feed).

So the whole time this presenter talked, every, single, move of her head was accompanied by that little dot dancing all over her glasses.

Talk about distracting!

Many people wear glasses! So how do I beat it? With almost ZERO direct light. Everything is off angle as opposed to straight on (see ring light!).

I’m also told a polarizing filter on your camera lens can help eliminate that. My results varied.

Let’s wrap up lighting. I really didn’t intend for this to be THE ANSWER to your lighting issues, I wanted to call attention to it. I see no point in redoing training and instruction that’s already out there.

But many presenters don’t consider not only how they look, but the room around them.

A couple tips, if you’re using a “natural Setting” (no green screen), watch for dark “dead” spots in the room where a little fill would help.

On the other hand, glare can be a problem. Think about sun movement. If your virtual meeting is only 20 minutes, likely not a big deal. However, if you’re running an all-day virtual summit or a webinar of any length, pay attention in the days ahead to see how your space is affected by sun travel. You might be surprised. Also is planning for one type lighting (say overcast) and you get another (yeah, the sun came out).

Most possibly, a green-screen setup can be better as you pretty much set it up and forget it. It can also help eliminate the variables in a naturally lit space. And the same goes for a dedicated recording space using a “natural” set.

But that glasses thing. Again, just pay attention to this and you’ll be fine! One last trick I learned. I have four monitors in my studio. Yeah, four. It’s GREAT for screen and software management, but yikes! If you have windows open on your desktop, use white backgrounds on a WORD script, that also will drive you nuts with glasses. TOOO much light to reflect. So I have a black desktop I switch to before recording and I use a blacked out Microsoft word setup to read scripts. It helps!

Oh, by the way, it took two different camera set ups and more lighting changes than I care to try to recount and the black screen/close windows you don’t need open trick to get my glasses and lighting “right”. Best luck!

This series is for smaller organizations and solopreneurs that may not be tech savvy, don’t know all the steps, or don’t WANT to know all the steps.

Over the series, I’m going to lead you through the significant decisions and capabilities you’ll need to “Zoom to Webinar Success!”

As always, if you need help now, don’t hesitate to reach out!

Thank you for watching!

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E17: Managing your “Visual” recording space

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Episode 17- This is Grant: The Webinar Guy.

For the last two episodes, we’ve covered two essential things:

Recording Equipment- specifically web cams or cameras and mics.

This episode I promised to cover lighting.

But I’m going to side-step that for a moment. Today, we’re going to discuss your “brand”. Think of any newscast you’ve watched. The late night shows. Talk shows, and sports talk discussions. They all have a “look” and purposefully designed set.

I bring this up because I want you to take a moment to think about the perception that your recording space will pass along about you and your brand- and its direct correlation to your product or service. I’ve a friend that does his video podcast from his recording booth. He’s a fellow voice artist, so that makes perfect sense.

A client serving the elder care market records from a nice- “just this side of plush” office. Classy, but not overly done. It looks like he is “successful“ but the office doesn’t look “ornate or costly”. In other words, successful here means that prospective clients would think he’s very capable, can be trusted with advising them on retirement plans and won’t be soaking them for dollars.

Perception is EVERYTHING here. Think hard about the surroundings you’re presenting while “on camera”.

A while back I was hired to evaluate an organizational specialist doing a webinar. She was suffering horrible results and wondered why.

Let’s start with the bookshelf behind her that looked like anything BUT being organized. Books were leaning every which way. Photos were badly displayed. And a couple weird things were on the shelf that the audience I’m sure spent more time wondering what “that” was, than on what she was saying. Even her hair was a bit tousled and messy. Remember we can listen to a LOT of words and if our minds are distracted visually, we’re not really listening. In fact you MUST understand we’re constantly forming opinions.

And in this case, almost nothing in the frame fit her “organized” brand. She was creating a disconnect and it’s my opinion that anytime the brain experiences disconnect, it does just that.

Oh, yeah. Did I mention she started late? Yeah. That.

All that said, think set up. Do you need to have others IN your recording space to record interviews? There is a great energy of having people “in your space” when interviewing, but not necessary! Frankly, this is a whole ‘nuther thing and well beyond this episode.

So let’s get back to “just you” and what you’re doing. My experience says that the less tech you can deal with, the better.

Try to eliminate using a green screen unless there’s a great reason to do so. Eliminate using the platform-provided backgrounds, you know the famous zoom palm tree island? Yeah, try NOT to use ANY.

“Natural environments” (you in your office, etc) are best in many ways. But be sure to eliminate the distractions. Heck, hire a real estate stager to help design your space if you lack design skills. But the important thing is to NOT step back and admire your set from across the room! Pull it up on camera and see how it looks there. What sticks out? What can be eliminated?

What do YOU look like? Take who you are to your best advantage.

Here’s a change I made. Last year, I started recording videos about getting started in the voice over business. Some of my early missives are quite humorous. I did them mostly in a black t-shirt. Okay, fair enough. A voice artist gets hired for his voice, not his camera presence.

But starting these podcast videos about successfully holding webinars (Zooming to webinar success), I knew my audience was different. First, if I flub a line in VO, I just re-record it. In some ways I get unlimited tries.

But being a live emcee or moderator doesn’t carry that same flexibility. I needed to pass along confidence in my delivery, my production values, and yes, put on a jacket.

I’m the same guy that did the videos in a t-shirt. No warp forward in skill, but I didn’t want ANY disconnect that I could eliminate. Suit coats are still the part and parcel of professionals. It makes a difference.

Take a piece of paper and describe your brand. Maybe you want to do webinars about Motorcycle insurance. Maybe wearing a biker vest and doing your webinar from your law office works.

After describing your brand, now think of your set design. Use the “record” feature on zoom or google meets, or whatever and record a few different looks and get feedback. And as always, The Webinar Team is well-versed in helping our customers design space and can help you evaluate yours!

Maybe next episode we’ll talk lighting.

Until then…

This series is for smaller organizations and solopreneurs that may not be tech savvy, don’t know all the steps, or don’t WANT to know all the steps.

Over the series, I’m going to lead you through the significant decisions and capabilities you’ll need to “Zoom to Webinar Success!”

As always, if you need help now, don’t hesitate to reach out!

Thank you for watching!

Podcast audio

Would love to hear your questions and comments!

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E15: Your setup for being “on Camera”

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Episode 15- This is Grant: The Webinar Guy.

Last episode, 14, I had two main points:

When given the chance to be drive through or fine dining, be fine dining, and by extension- Be a chef!

I think the points there, are obvious. Prepare as well as you can, but at some point you need to stop aiming and fire.

So what’s next? When planning your webinar there is very little in preparation that HAS to be done in any certain order.

You have to START! But whether you start your slide deck first or start social media planning first pretty much doesn’t matter. You need to be on both! On ALL the things that matter!

That said, let’s talk more about planning. I’ve found it really helpful to have a check list to work off. Over time we’ve developed a multi-sheet/multi-tab Excel spreadsheet that has more than 75 line items and growing every week as new things come up! This sheet has pull downs for tracking responsibility and such. We use every day!

 When planning, some of these items you may only ever need to visit or touch once- For instance, you purchase a mic, camera, lighting, etc. and get it set up.

That’s on our list. Yet chances are, once set up, you’ll not have to worry about those things again. But here’s something that can catch you- What I just said IS true. BUT- What about guest presenters, or panelists?

While it may seem duplicitous, it IS worth checking- EVERYTHING- for what you don’t check will eventually bite you. And as needed, check the items on your checklist with anyone involved!

Some days we’re managing five webinars and without that check list things would get forgotten, I’m sure.

How do you get a copy of our “The Webinar Guy” planning sheet? Visit our website and fill out the popup form on the home page! And if that is being blocked by your browser, Hit our contact form and specifically ask for it. The free version is a PDF you can print as often as you need. We update that free PDF form every month or so, but not on a regular basis.

The excel form that we are constantly updating and upgrading and adding things to is available for purchase. Drop us a line about that also and we’ll connect and get you a copy. And when we update, we’ll send you the update for free!

Enough with the commercial. Let’s dig into the things we spoke of earlier, the audio and the visual.

Solid audio and video require a good microphone and a good webcam- that you probably had figured out. Well, what is good and how deep do you go into your pocket? How much do you spend? More and more, really good USB mics can do a really nice job! And you may spend less than $100, maybe only $30.

What is your “look” going to be? Is it okay to wear ear pods or headphones? On that note, avoid headphone mics like are used for gaming unless you check the quality.

Are you going for a green screen studio? BTW that is a whole unique box of rocks. I wish I had back all the time spent on eliminating glare on my glasses and the “wrong lights”. But I digress.

I have several clients that do their webinars on their ear pods, and use the mic that is on the wire and they sound awesome! Best to buy something recommended and test it. I’m a staunch supporter of Sweetwater audio, but there are many places to buy equipment. Do some homework, ask friends. In the case of mics and cameras, you can somewhat literally spend as much as you’d like, but don’t need to.

Again, think of your end goals.

Cameras: laptop cameras can be fine, but consider: More often than not, the angle that makes it easy to see the screen, when your laptop in on your desk is rarely the angle that is good for the camera. Put your laptop up on a box or other raised surface, so you’re looking more directly at it.

If you buy a separate camera, look for a glass lens that will give you a great picture. Look at the software. While not critical the ability to Pan and zoom your camera-using software, is a nice feature and I use both often. Sometimes you just need a tiny nudge to get the look right.

If you ever think you might try a dual camera setup; 1st a Main that you look directly into, and you add a 2nd “Side” camera shooting at you from an angle, that you switch to and back, it’s a great idea to buy that second camera when you buy the first, if possible. Regardless, buy two of the exact same brand/model, etc. I did that by chance, but was glad I had. Later I also bought a different- what could be called “Better” camera later and it was impossible to balance the light between the two! It was horrible! So back to the first two I bought that you see here.

In the 2 camera setup I use now, there’s only 20” or so between the cameras, but occasional switching really makes the video a bit more interesting. And with using a OBS software trick you can add a zoom and make it look like three!

I’ve really not beaten up the camera thing, but there are so many options and there’s a thousand videos, reviews, “how to’s” etc on line that for the purposes of this series, no need to go any further on cameras. Again-do your research and buy something that you’re happy with.

Next episode we’ll talk SOUND. You may know that I also work as a Voice Artist, so the sound thing will be interesting to you I’m sure!

Until then…

This series is for smaller organizations and soloprenuers that may not be tech savvy, don’t know all the steps, or don’t WANT to know all the steps.

Over the series, I’m going to lead you through the significant decisions and capabilities you’ll need to “Zoom to Webinar Success!”

As always, if you need help now, don’t hesitate to reach out at WebinarPro@TheWebinarGuy.com

Thank you for watching!

Podcast audio

Would love to hear your questions and comments!

No comments

E14: Webinar & Virtual Meeting Planning! It is Critical!

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Episode 14- This is Grant: The Webinar Guy.

For several episodes now, I’ve been talking about marketing and promotion. Why so much concentration on that?

It’s the juice that gets the seats filled!

Over my marketing and brand development career, I’ve held to one constant example;

Would you start a business in a blind alley, not put up any signs and then not tell anyone you’re open?

Well, of course not! So ALL of your marketing is quite frankly a decision on what you can afford (in dollars AND time) as you promote that Webinar, Virtual Summit or expo.

The biggest challenge I see in this market is a lack of preparation.

One great thing about the webinar and virtual conference space is that people are forgiving when the technology is a bit rough (who hasn’t lost a connection or had a shaky one?), They forgive glitches and less-than-perfect hand-offs.

But to me, its sort of like the fast-food market. When you hit the drive-through, you KNOW full well the food is NOT going to be high quality. You KNOW you’ll have to wait too long. You KNOW the food has a 97% chance of being cold when they hand it to you. But in a crunch for time, what do we do? We go through the drive through knowing that the experience will be disappointing!

But when you really want to enjoy a great meal, what do you do? You go to your favorite sit-down restaurant. What made it a favorite? On nearly every visit the staff did everything they could to provide great food, great service and a great overall experience.

I want you to consider the ENTIRE package of your virtual session, training, or hybrid event: The question to you OVERALL is this: Do you want to be drive-through or fine dining?

Answer that and you’ll have the answer on how to approach ALL the planning you do from day one. This is not to say that you need to Aim, aim, aim and never fire. There is the well known quote: “Perfection is the enemy of greatness”. But decide today, right now; drive-through or fine dining?

This is a pretty serious thought process! And now I’m going to toss one more at you. We already have discussed the want to “Aim, aim, aim and never fire”, but most people have no appreciation for the amount of planning, work, and experience it takes to provide “fine-dining”.

Remember this; there is a reason fine-dining is more expensive than take-out. We can hire a 16 year old and with 3 hours of training they are a “cook”.

Or the chef at your favorite restaurant that has a degree from a culinary school that knows how to build fantastic recipes from scratch.

Be the chef.

The more you can do ahead of time to conceive ALL that you are going to is crucial!

I’ve done many a first-time session for a client, that had planned to do “X” more sessions, then realize that their normal schedule doesn’t allow for the exact thing they wanted to do!

Another example, back in the day, I did a lot of marketing for clients that wanted to produce a regular newsletter. They’d get the first one done. Then the second one was harder, if not late on the cadence they’d hoped to achieve. After a while I found them missing the next episode all together. Then dropping it altogether.

In case my 17 examples haven’t worked, here’s the advice, and I know you’ll be surprised to find out it includes “The Webinar Guy” and “The Webinar Team”; At the very least, engage with us (Or someone you know that knows the webinar, zoom meeting, virtual event space) for at least an initial strategic planning session.

It’s surprisingly affordable and can make a huge difference!!

One more story and I’ll stop. Probably. I’m an avid motorcycle driver- I ride ALL THE TIME. Often 5K miles a year and more. I’ve worked as an instructor.

Years ago a buddy of mine, thinking he wanted to ride took a riders training course (not one I taught and very smart, BTW). After the course he took, he never wanted to ride again. That simple investment made him change his mind on riding.

Many take that same course and now know they are better prepared to move forward as a rider, maybe long-term like me.

Let’s get together and strategically plan your Virtual meeting. We can get you started, and it’s surprisingly affordable!!

Remember: Do you want to be drive-through or fine dining?

Next episode I’ll tackle more off our Webinar Planning form available on TheWebinarGuy.com

Until then…

This series is for smaller organizations and soloprenuers that may not be tech savvy, don’t know all the steps, or don’t WANT to know all the steps.

Over the series, I’m going to lead you through the significant decisions and capabilities you’ll need to “Zoom to Webinar Success!”

As always, if you need help now, don’t hesitate to reach out at WebinarPro@TheWebinarGuy.com

Thank you for watching!

Podcast audio

Would love to hear your questions and comments!

No comments

E11: More on sales funnels for promotion

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Episode 11- staying with marketing and promotion: looking more at Sales Funnels

In E10 I had the honor to interview my good friend Deborah Gardner. Deborah is a very accomplished professional and the interview is worth a watch in my unbiased opinion!
And I introduced TheWebinarGuy website, which as of this recording is about 72.3% complete. Take a look! For a while I’ll be posting these videos here and on TheWebinarGuy.com to help establish the brand. If your company or someone you know is planning a webinar or event, I’d appreciate the referral!! Thanks for your support!

Before that, in episode 9, we started talking about sales funnels. To recap, you know after a period of time on a website, or when you go to leave, an offer pops up. It’s one last attempt at a relationship.

In today’s episode- number 11-
I’m going to work more with the sales funnel concept.
For most of my “on the web” career and having built more than 100 websites over the years, they’ve ALWAYS been passive. And for sites where I do business? The same! Why?
I don’t want to offend anyone that visits with an “in your face” sales offer.
Then several things happened.
1) I realized I want to build a large business.
2) I realized that if someone was on my website, or a given web page, and they were there for more than 10-15 seconds, they were probably interested in my offering. Web stats across the world say you get less than that for a visitor to decide to stay or bolt.
3) Then the question hit me: if they appear that interested, why not ask to start a relationship?
4) And related to that, Was I really going to “offend” someone that “Mattered” to my business?
It seems our world is now full of “offended” people. I may even offend someone by saying that.
But I realized having a “pleasant” website, with a “nice” picture and a “polite” presentation wasn’t getting me the sales I want to have.
Did people buy? Well yeah, but I’m betting they were already intending to buy due to the nature of my previous contact with them.
To build a larger business, I needed to reach outside my comfort zone. I needed to start asking for the sale! I want visitors to KNOW that I’m ready to do business (NOT passively)!
But here’s where a funnel can work for us. While a funnel/pop up CAN be used to “sell”, when done right, you’re inviting a visitor to start a relationship with you. You’ll offer your new friend something of value to download, and by submitting the form, they’ve agreed to continue the conversation- connect again.
Back to what I said earlier, “Was I really going to “offend” someone that “Mattered” to my business?” I don’t think so. I want you to know your relationship with my company matters and that I want to do business with you. If that offends you, You might not be my customer. I’m willing to take that chance.

Sales funnels. Think about it. More next week!

Would love to hear your questions and comments!

Next episode: Part 2 of reaching/promoting.

This series is for smaller organizations and soloprenuers that may not be tech savvy, don’t know all the steps, or don’t WANT to know all the steps.
Over the series, I’m going to lead you through the significant decisions and capabilities you’ll need to “Zoom to Webinar Success!”
As always, if you need help now, don’t hesitate to reach out at WebinarPro@TheWebinarGuy.com
Thank you for watching!

How can we help your business succeed?

See other episodes at: GrantsVoice.com

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E10: Special Announcement! (with guest Deborah Gardner, cmp)

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Zooming to Webinar Success with guest Deborah Gardner, cmp and a special announcement! E10

Two great reasons to watch the WHOLE episode. First is my special guest, Deborah Gardner (https://www.deborahgardner.com/) AND my special announcement about my new offering for #webinar success!

In E9 I talked more about filling the seats.

But for today’s episode- number 10- I’ve got two amazing things!!
First is my guest, Deborah Gardner.
Second is an announcement you’ll have to hang around for!
I’m so pleased to have Deborah in this Super Special Episode!
I had to chop down her bio, or we might have had another episode!
Deborah Gardner is a swimming champion, author, consultant & competitive performance expert who is professionally trained to transform people that want less resistance and more momentum while working and living in the fast lane. Better known by many Fortune 500 companies as the Pit Bull in a Skirt, Deborah is a highly regarded and in-demand global keynote speaker that successfully brings an explosive high-energy, captivating, engaging and in your face sassy approach.
Deborah owns several entrepreneurial businesses as a high-impact leader worldwide. Her laundry list of honors includes CNN’s Top 75 Keynote Speaker Worldwide, Meetings Today Magazine Top 20 Meetings Trendsetters, Smart Meetings Magazine’s Top 50 Smart Women Leaders, Meetings Mean Business Ambassador, Fabulous Arizona Magazine’s Fabulous People to Watch, crowned as Mrs. Arizona 2020/2021 and Mrs. America with the American Queen Organization 2021/202.

Learn more about Deborah at: DeborahGardner.com

Deborah is one of the most accomplished people I know and proud to call her friend!
So what DO you do after lunch? Really too bad you’re not more motivated!

HISTORY Together:
I’ve known you for around 18 years or so. you were referred to me when I was creating marketing and websites, and doing brand development.
—Chat—

TODAY:
Beyond the exhausting list above, what all are you doing today?
(Maybe bring up Hosp Today last?)
—Chat—

Five Tips on Interviewing:
Using your Hospitality Today show as a reference, Hit me with your top five interviewing techniques or approaches.
—Chat—

Being Competitive:
Since we’ve been connected, you’ve come from a stance of competition; How does that resonate with you? (and/or why?)
—Chat—

Your Turn:
What do YOU want to talk about?
—Chat—

ANNOUNCE: “The Webinar Guy” business and website.
I’d like for you to kind of take a moment here to interview me on how I got to this point and what I’m doing.
—Chat—

Next week, episode 11 and I’ll jump back into “Zooming to Webinar Success!”

I’d love to hear your questions and comments!

This series is for smaller organizations and soloprenuers that may not be tech savvy, don’t know all the steps, or don’t WANT to know all the steps.
Over the series, I’m going to lead you through the significant decisions and capabilities you’ll need to “Zoom to Webinar Success!”
As always, if you need help now, don’t hesitate to reach out at TheWebinarGuy.com

Can we help you create & produce an awesome webinar or event?

Editor’s Note: This was originally posted as a “Grants Voice” post before we split the brands.

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E09: Using Sales Funnels

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Episode 9- Invites and managing Filling the seats Part 3 (also known as marketing/promotion!)

In E8 we got this going- I talked about The possibility of cancellations, and/or having to cancel an event

Today’s episode- number 9-
A VERY Cool “Almost announcement” at the end!! Stay around!
Let’s talk today about sales funnels.


You know the ones. When you land on a page, there’s either an offer there (give us your email), or one will pop up when you go to leave the page.
I used to equate these with swarmy used car salesmen. But then I realized several things (Stay with me on this).
1- You had to have driven enough interest in your offer to get people to your site, or they’d not be seeing your offer!
2- WHY ARE YOU here?? I’ve not had one single potential client come to me and say, “Hey I want to give away everything I know, pay you to manage the event and not expect ANYTHING in return!”
3- No body. I DO have (and its a majority of clients) that DO offer an initial free webinar, but it’s always to the goal of a paid something.
4- Nobody had to cooperate with a funnel page. Click on!
5- If your “free” funnel page has a legit offer- something you ARE giving away to collect an email address, What’s wrong with a fair exchange? It’s not like we don’t know!
6- Finally, there’s NOTHING to stop someone from putting in an email, getting your offer and unsubscribing! (I may have done that. Once).

That’s the chance we take with a sales funnel. But there are businesses making serious money, I’m talking LOTs of zeros– selling through sales funnels!
We’ll come back to this in episode 11!

But Grant, what about episode 10 next week?
Well, next week, in episode 10 I’m going to interview one of CNN’s top 75 keynote speakers, and the entrepreneur behind the “Hospitality Today” video production/podcast series that discusses tough subjects affecting the hospitality industry, her experiences and helping me introduce a new website and service called… oh you gotta come back!
I’m so excited to have you meet Deborah Gardner, Certified Speaking Professional and hear about all that she’s got going on!
I’d love to hear your questions and comments!

This series is for smaller organizations and soloprenuers that may not be tech savvy, don’t know all the steps, or don’t WANT to know all the steps.
Over the series, I’m going to lead you through the significant decisions and capabilities you’ll need to “Zoom to Webinar Success!”
As always, if you need help now, don’t hesitate to reach out at TheWebinarGuy.com
Thank you for listening!

Can we help you create & produce an awesome webinar or event?

Editor’s Note: This was originally posted as a “Grants Voice” post before we split the brands.

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E08: Marketing & Promotion (& Cancellations) Part 2

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Episode 8- Invites and managing Filling the seats Part 2 (also known as marketing/promotion!)

In E7 we got this going- I talked about how far out to connect about your webinar and options to reach your fans.

Today’s episode- number 8-
We will look at light sign ups and cancelling.

Let’s review the options I gave for connecting and inviting.?
· Email (Direct and in Sig file)
· –Share button!
· MailChimp-Constant Contact-others
· Blogging
· Any “Property” (social, etc) you own!
· Popups on webpage (Timer?)
· Friends & Family
· Fellow presenters/keynotes
· Chamber of Commerce, networking groups, etc.
· —Lower on the ladder are
· SMS texts
· Paid ads on social media
· Influencers you can afford

Why? We need to remember that people love to buy/ be involved with people and organizations that they know and trust!
‘DUH,’ right?
With that in mind, in my opinion- we reach for the audience that we know best and that knows us best.
Long term we should be working to ALWAYS build that long-term audience and virtually the entire list above helps build audience.
So we need to look at that audience first when we start reaching out.
If this is your first webinar, I’d also suggest reaching out in the most organic way possible.
Obviously, this has a lot to do with the size of your audience. If your current “natural” audience is only 20 or 30 people, pick up the phone or message them personally!
Otherwise, pick each channel (they’re likely mixed over several channels, right?) and send a message to inform there.
This should be your earliest people to sign up. Make your offer solid and without desperation. Many clients I work with get nervous at some point ahead and want to start “begging” the audience to attend. DON’T!

  1. Remember one of our first points was that you’ve been building an audience and they’re already saying they want focused content! “When will you do a webinar???”
  2. If your content or audience is so weak that you’re not getting sign-ups, reconsider!
  3. IF you do decide to cancel, pull it off your site, or better yet- change the page to “Coming soon; date TBD” for the “next” one.
  4. And just let it fade on social and other channels. NO “we cancelled” notices. Regroup and reconsider. The ONLY time you should announce a cancellation is for reasons OTHER than low sign up numbers!!
  5. If sign ups are still really low, go back to calling, yes, calling close friends and get SOME bodies on the call. Even if it feels like the audience is way less than you’d like, this is a golden opportunity to practice and ensure you know what’s going on.

Use this session to get feedback from your friends!
Next week, episode 9 and part 3 of filling the seats!
I’d love to hear your questions and comments!

This series is for smaller organizations and soloprenuers that may not be tech savvy, don’t know all the steps, or don’t WANT to know all the steps.
Over the series, I’m going to lead you through the significant decisions and capabilities you’ll need to “Zoom to Webinar Success!”
As always, if you need help now, don’t hesitate to reach out at TheWebinarGuy.com
Thank you for listening!

Can we help you create & produce an awesome webinar or event?

Editor’s Note: This was originally posted as a “Grants Voice” post before we split the brands.

No comments

E07: Marketing & Promotion Part 1

  By

Episode 7- Invites and managing Filling the seats P1 (also known as marketing/promotion!)

In E6 we discussed frequency and cadence

Today’s episode- number 7-
We’re going to back track a bit. With all that going on and being decided, now we need to think about taking our list of followers and getting them to the webinar! In my “Zooming to Webinar Success Prep form” of over 50 steps, how you’ll communicate with or in this case TO your audience that you’re having a webinar is next.


First question is how far ahead to communicate. The obvious approach here is to communicate and invite through the channels you’re already attracting them by.
There is a sweet spot somewhere less than 3 weeks, more than 7 days that you want to hit. It will depend on your audience, but longer than 3 weeks loses immediacy and less than 7 days doesn’t give people enough time to plan. Many feel that 14 daysISH is pretty decent to start.
So what are the options?
· Email (Direct and in Sig file)
· –Share button!
· MailChimp-Constant Contact-others
· (With MailChimp being the 900#…)
· Blog
· Any “Property”(social, etc) you own!
· Popups on webpage (Timer?)
· Paid ads on social media
· Friends & Family
· Influencers you can afford
· Fellow presenters/keynotes
· Make sure reg page is optimized
· Chamber of Commerce, etc.
· SMS texts

And I know companies that have jump-started a campaign through a purchase of CellPhone numbers and used SMS, integrated video, etc.

Would love to hear your questions and comments!

Next episode: Part 2 of reaching/promoting.

This series is for smaller organizations and soloprenuers that may not be tech savvy, don’t know all the steps, or don’t WANT to know all the steps.
Over the series, I’m going to lead you through the significant decisions and capabilities you’ll need to “Zoom to Webinar Success!”
As always, if you need help now, don’t hesitate to reach out at The Webinar Guy.com
Thank you for listening!

Can we help you create & produce an awesome webinar or event?

Editor’s Note: This was originally posted as a “Grants Voice” post before we split the brands.