The Webinar Guy is often asked to assist in production of webinars, this one is “interview style”. Fascinating technology and worthy of a listen! Click below to watch!
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Jorie Healthcare Interview-Webinar
Tag: Webinarmoderator
Webinar Production: Golf Suites
With permission, we’re posting this video produced for our client Golf Suites. They needed an interview style webinar or video example of why you might want to invest in their project.
The interviews were planned, PowerPoint decks edited, and opening and closing scripts created. We also provided some webinar coaching and consulting.
IRA Club, Vice-President Ramez Fakhoury was also included in this webinar with information on how you can invest (self-direct) your IRA assets.
Webinar Production: ERC Golf Communities
With permission, we’re posting this video produced for our client ERC Golf Communities. They needed an interview style webinar or video example of why you might want to invest in their project.
The interviews were planned, PowerPoint decks edited, and opening and closing scripts created. We also provided some webinar coaching and consulting.
IRA Club, Vice-President Ramez Fakhoury was also included in this webinar with information on how you can invest (self-direct) your IRA assets.
E33: The Power Of A Series Of Webinars And Virtual Meetings
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!
E32: How Long Should My Webinar Be? (Long enough!?)
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:
- Be an interesting speaker with Great Content
- Solid webinar design and
- Tight planning agenda run by professionals
- Concise, meaningful Q&A
- 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!
E31: The Most Important Factor to your webinar success!
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!
E30: Staffing a Big Webinar or Virtual Summit
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!
E29: Planning a big webinar or virtual summit
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!
E24- Handling Hecklers
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!
E22- The Importance of Script Writing
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!
E19- Going solo or with guests? Consider this…
Episode 19- of Zooming to Webinar Success!
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? Well, since it doesn’t matter, let’s cover something else that you should consider as you plan; How you’ll present.
Well, duh, Grant. I’m gonna talk for 10 minutes or an hour, etc. Don’t need no nothin’ else! (Got it!)
There are several modes to use and that is the first. Let’s call that a casual presentation. In this mode, you are the focused speaker and ONLY you will be on-screen, present your information and that will pretty much be it. You may or may not do Q&A, but the point here is, that this is a solo project all the way.
If you need assistance with the tech, or want a hose to introduce or other guests, you’ll still need to plan how—Who will do what. Will you manage this yourself? Have a moderator (We call a moderator the person doing the tech side; pulling levers, pushing buttons, monitoring chat, etc.
Will you need and emcee or host? Think your favorite awards show. Say Billy Crystal and the OSCARs. I may have just dated myself, but you get the point!
BTW, The Webinar Team at The Webinar Guy.com can help with both the tech and the host roles if needed. So if you are ready to start your next webinar or virtual meeting, but don’t want to do the tech, or need a host, hit our contact form!
Next might be a slightly more formal setting. Say in this one, you’ll be using a slide deck to help disseminate the information. BTW, using slide decks is planned for further exploration in an upcoming episode! In this case you’ll want to know how to be on the screen at the same time as your presentation. This can be done a few different ways. Again, our Webinar Team can help you with both creating your deck and how to manage the tech.
I suppose there are even other ways to manage your information, but these two are certainly the most popular. I’ve also seen presenters start live, then show a video they’ve recorded elsewhere at another time. While this can work, it can come across as canned.
So far we’re assuming you’re the only one presenting. What if you’re interviewing someone, and they are using a slide deck?
Now you need to be on top of your tech game! Managing others AND doing your presentation can be really challenging.
Our advice is to practice with those that will be in your webinar before the actual live event. If your other guests aren’t available, then lean on a few friends and ask at least two or three others to join you so you can manage them in and out of the session as well as needing to hide video, spotlighting the speaker and more.
Also get very familiar with the platform you’re going to use such as Zoom, GoToMeeting, GoogleMeets, WebinarJam, WebEx, LiveStream, AirMeets and more.
They are all slightly different and some have really cool features that you may/not use, so choose wisely. A search will get you more information than you can possibly use, nd like all software platforms, they are all adding features all the time.
So we’ve covered “Going Solo”, the easiest way to go with ONLY you on the webinar or meeting and not using any slide deck.
Then about you presenting on the screen, but you’re still the only one presenting- and you’re going to add the element of a slide deck. Still pretty easy on a scale of difficulty.
The moment we add more guests and presenters, like I pointed out above, it gets more problematic. And the more guest speakers you ad…
Now you’re not only adding complexity to the meeting itself, but now your managing others and them actually showing up for your virtual meeting and preparing for if they do not!
If you are planning a virtual summit with many speakers at different times, and you can add the exponential issue of doing over more than one day, we get pretty close to a TEN on the difficulty scale.
If this is your first webinar with many moving parts such as this, we strongly suggest getting professional help. Ummm, the webinar management kind. But some may think you require the other kind!
If you decide you need assistance with your virtual event, and you are considering using a friend to moderate, that says they’re happy to help, do a practice session! Realize that not everyone has more than thirty years of stage, hosting and emcee experience, and knowing what to do if it goes south, how to handle hecklers and more… are all critical skills!
Tune it next week for using slide decks!
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!
E17: Managing your “Visual” recording space
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!
E15: Your setup for being “on Camera”
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!
E11: More on sales funnels for promotion
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
E10: Special Announcement! (with guest Deborah Gardner, cmp)
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.
E09: Using Sales Funnels
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.
E08: Marketing & Promotion (& Cancellations) Part 2
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!
- 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???”
- If your content or audience is so weak that you’re not getting sign-ups, reconsider!
- 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.
- 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!!
- 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.
E07: Marketing & Promotion Part 1
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.
E05: Your First Webinar (Strategy)!
Episode 5- Strategy
In E4 we discussed defining the purpose, goals or objectives. Hopefully you have now defined WHY you’re having your webinar, or better- WHAT you want to accomplish.
Today’s episode- number 5- we’re going to strategize a bit.
Think about the learning by firehose memes you’ve seen. We all GET the metaphor. So defining what you wanted to accomplish should inform how to go about your inaugural webinar. In other words, we don’t want to firehose your audience! We want to break it down.
Lets assume several things for the sake of this episode.
Assumption 1) You have hundreds (or more) followers on various social media platforms- And/or hundreds of legit email contacts (And for “legit”, we’ll discuss that on a later episode).
Assumption 2) they like your content that you’ve been dribbling out piecemeal. This isn’t a slam on that approach, it’s how we build audience and will be used to make a point in a moment.
Assumption 3) You’ve decided to sell a coaching package. How THAT is delivered will be another episode!
So to reiterate, you’ve got an audience that to some degree is ASKING for a webinar, and your end goal is to sell coaching. Your goal might be different, say sell a course, a book, a PAID webinar or other goal, but this should help move us forward.
The obvious point here is to use THIS first webinar to whet their appetite, not sate it. As PT Barnum might have said, “Always leave them wanting more!” This is where piecemeal comes back in. We don’t want to dump, we want to tease a bit and feed.
Use this webinar to set the stage and bring your audience all to the same place. What do I mean? Remember that some of your early audience joined you at the preface of your “story”, some joined on chapter 6, and some joined last week and have been binge reading. Start with the basics:
1) where did you from (history relatable to the story)?
2) what got you into the situation you solve?
3) what was your breaking point that helped you decide to fix it?
4) how did you test your hypothesis?
5) who else found the solution valuable (do you have testimonials you can use?)
These first five help all your audience to know you better.
Now think…
1) do you have a free ??? to give away that starts helping without someone having to buy your coaching package?
2) Remember our assumption that our goal is selling coaching; have you priced your coaching according to your value and the benefit to the buyer?
There’s likely there more to decide, but even that is a lot of information to assemble and put into an initial package!
From my experience as a professional presenter, corporate trainer and webinar moderator, I can tell you to plan your webinars, especially this first one, to come in under 30 minutes.
If you can do all the above in a really short time period (Less than 15 minutes?) you need more proof of concept and MEAT for your audience. It will seem hurried, rushed or like, “where’s the value”?
More than 30 minutes and you’d better be an AMAZING presenter. I notice that my clients often start to lose audience (remember we’re talking virtual!!) after 20 minutes and REALLY drops at 30 minutes. (There’s MANY reasons for this including, “my lunch is over)!
Therefore I try to encourage (especially initial) webinars between the 20 and 30 minute mark is good. Remember we have to open the webinar with talking and close it with an offer and that takes time too and needs to be considered in the above- as well as time for a short Q&A.
Several issues control this;
1) How interesting you are.
2) How valuable your content is.
3) How interesting the content is
a. revealing? stunning? etc.
4) Date/time of day held
The goal here is to get people to the webinar, establish you and your credentials to “prove” your value/worth, then offer the next step.
This is when we create a limited offer like taking the next/first 10 people into your coaching program.
AND offer the free downloadable PDF that people can start with on their own.
There are MANY strategies and tactics, so this is only one.
Hopefully you know see how we’re moving people along.
Free webinar, There MUST be value, not just sales.
Another offer for a free thing (PDF)
Offer to enroll in the coaching program (First 10 save $15%?)
Would 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 VoicePro@grantsvoice.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.
E04: Purpose, Goals, Objectives
In E3 we discussed managing your contacts. We assumed you have some type following and as a result of that episode #3, you’ve now created some type of structure to manage contacts. This is one of the most critical early steps!
Today’s episode- number 4 we’re going to discuss purpose, goals or objectives.
As simple as this may sound, in consulting on webinars and business both, it stuns me how often people don’t consider the real purpose of what they are doing!
There’s an old story that then President Kennedy, remember this was moon-shot-planning days!— asked a janitor what he did at the White House. Supposedly the man answered, “I’m helping put a man on the moon!”
True or not, it really demonstrates someone who understands their purpose.
So, I ask you; What is the purpose of your webinar? What’s the goal, the objective?
When I’ve coached professional speakers on their speeches and presentations and stage craft, I always asked, “At the end of this speech, what do you want your audience to– feel? What do you want them to DO? Change? Enact? and more.
So I ask you- WHY are you doing this?
I consulted with a client yesterday who is about this phase of webinar planning. I asked her the same question.
She had the base answer. “I want to XX”. After using the “ask why five times” exercise, we discovered there were SEVERAL purposes (porpi?).
Give away free information
Build audience for future paid webinars
Build audience for a planned paid course
Attract clients for private consulting
FOUR perfect goals that go together! But when we first started talking, she was no where near that.
So todays homework for you: Write down ALL the goals/objectives…Reasons you’re having this webinar and now see if they fit together, or is there something there better left for the future?
One example of this from another consultation. The client wanted to do a 90 free webinar for single moms. Great. But how many single moms, that work, do you know that can sit through ONE 90 minute webinar?
Exactly.
Once considered, we started working on breaking that down to initial free “Teaser” information and one later paid event.
When I know what you’re trying to accomplish overall, I can really help you more towards the longer term goals.
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 VoicePro@grantsvoice.com
Thank you for
Can we help you create & produce an awesome webinar or event?
*Editors note: This was originally posted as a “Grants Voice” post before we split the brands.