The web conference format
One-Hour Processing: One of the most frequently asked questions we receive is "How long should a Web conference be?" It is important to remember that most people can only sit patiently at their desk for 45 to 60 minutes.

In addition, make sure that the Web conference is interactive and that it conveys an educational message.

Start With Objectives
Begin with the End in Mind: Web conferencing is not an objective in itself; it is a tactic to achieve strategic objectives. Start with your objectives first, then build your Web conference program around those objectives.

For example, if you are conducting a Web conference to generate sales leads, go first to your sales team. Ask them what they need in terms of the target audience, qualification processes, and key information to garner from attendees during the Web seminar program. In this case, your objective is to hand the sales team a report with the desired quantity and quality of leads, and, most importantly, the right information for the sales person to act on. That’s where the journey both begins and ends.

Leverage Guest Speakers
Image by Association: One of the advantages of Web conferencing is the ease with which you can use multiple presenters in your event. Presenting content from the comfort of your own desktop provides convenience that opens doors to many speakers who would otherwise be unavailable or too expensive to fly to an in-person event.

You should always consider inviting an industry luminary to co-present at your event, even if it costs more. A well respected analyst or business leader adds a number of advantages:

• Greater attendance
• More and possibly better content
• More variety during the presentation itself
• Credibility for your event and company
• Better relationship with the invited speaker
• Running an Web seminar with guest speakers can have a halo affect on your company’s image.
• Leverage your lower "cost of halo" when planning your next Web conference.

Give Incentive for Attendance
Drawing Their Attention -- Due to the complexity of our product and the long sales cycle involved, it is very important that prospects who attend our online events sit through the entire presentation so that they get the most out of the product demonstration.

To encourage them to stay to the end, we always announce that there will be a brief online survey at the end of the presentation that they will have to complete and submit in order to be entered in that month's prize drawing. Every month we do a drawing for an electronic item (Palm, DVD Player or Digital Camera) from all those who attended an event that month. We limit the drawing to prospects who actually attend the Webcast and complete the survey with lead qualifying questions.

Keeping attendees to the end of our events benefits us all: we get the necessary background information on the prospect in order to make a successful follow-up call and they are better informed about our product to help them make their purchase decisions.

Garbage In -- Garbage Out
You get what you pay for: You'll probably supplement your internal lists with outside rented or purchased lists. Start with the highest-quality invitation database as possible. Use previously established benchmark data from prior direct marketing campaigns to start the list segmentation process. Educate your list broker on YOU, and WHAT you are trying to accomplish. Then rely on their experience to guide the decision-making process. When using a list broker, allow an additional 2-3 weeks for building a segmentation plan.

In most situations, your list will be comprised of multiple list sources. As such, the registration process should include a methodology that will map registrations (and or interested prospects) back to a particular list source. The more events (web-seminars, e-mail blast, direct mail, etc.) you run, the better your list-building skills will become.

Don't Waste Anyone's Time
Beat the Clock: Don't waste anyone's time -- your prospect's, or your sales rep's. Create an invitation that tells potential attendees:

• What they will see/hear in the web-seminar,
• What they will learn, and,
• Who should attend (by title or job function).
• Confirmations should be immediate, not bunched and sent at a later time or date.

If you've reached the right audience, here are some more guidelines. Web events may have a greater number of registrants per invitation than in-person events, but show up rates are a little lower, ranging between 30 and 60%. Free events get more registrants than fee events, but show up rates are higher for fee events.

Call Down to Build Up
Reach Out and Qualify Someone: In this day and age, it is nearly impossible to drive high-quality attendance by relying solely on one marketing vehicle, i.e. e-mail blast invitations. Linking marketing tactics will not only increase the volume of qualified registrations/attendees, it will also assist in the lead qualification process.

A call-down program coupled with your e-mail/mail invitation delivers the commitment, and will help ensure overall success. Utilize an outbound telemarketing initiative. Build off your existing marketing/sales efforts to Help-Drive-Quality-Attendance!

Timing is everything: calls must commence and conclude within a few business days AFTER the prospects have received your invitation. During this calling phase, you should be able to differentiate your message from the many other messages that inundate each person – on a daily basis. Remember, you are not only competing with firms that sell a similar service/product, you are also competing with any organization/person that is asking for a "slice" of your prospect's time.

Invitation telemarketing is the perfect time to start the Lead Qualification process. Start by inviting them to your event, and if they register – great! Qualify them at that time. If they do not register, you can still ask "weighted" questions whose responses will indicate near-term/long-term sales opportunities.

A good telemarketing call center asks if the invitation was received up front in the conversation. If not, the telemarketer should have the capability to immediately resend the invitation either by fax or email.

Contact us if you would like USA WorldTel to provide telemarketing services.

Promote and Promote Again
Plot Your Journey: Expect to find all sorts of personality types in your prospect lists as you begin promoting your next Web seminar. In particular, think about these two groups:

Advance planners -- they like plenty of time to consider your event and see if it fits in their busy schedules. That's one reason why you want to start your promotions two or three weeks ahead of time -- to get that all important hour in their schedules.

Impulse buyers -- these people have such hectic days that they don't even think about anything weeks ahead of time. You want to catch them a couple of days before the event, when they can sense some urgency in signing up.
Whatever list you use, you'll find both types of prospects, and a big range in between. This fact argues for contact your list more than once. Come up with two or more invitations, with the latter ones emphasizing "this is your last chance." This also lets you evaluate different headlines or offers for impact, even though it would not be a head-head comparison.

But Wait! There's More!
Offers they can't refuse: Offering an incentive to respond to an invitation is one of the oldest tricks in the book -- yet still effective. Incentives allow you to sweeten the deal for your target audience, underscore more benefits for your product or services, and leave your attendees with something tangible to remember you by -- even if it's only a coffee mug.

Choosing the right incentive for a Web seminar can be difficult. The incentive must have value for the intended audience member, yet not drive your cost per lead through the roof. It should be practical, yet not so broadly used that it attracts attendees outside your target audience (for example, who doesn't want to win a trip to Florida?). Also, you need to be able to deliver it quickly and cost effectively.

We recommend that Web seminar planners think in terms of "knowledge incentives" that are closely related to the event's theme.

• A white paper detailing research results for a particular market segment
• Copies of reports from industry analysts
• Subscriptions to analyst or industry newsletters or periodicals
• Checklists of best practices or business processes
• Product or technology comparisons, as long as they are reasonably unbiased or thorough
• Knowledge incentives appeal to very specific audiences and can be easily distributed. Very often, you can use them for other marketing and sales purposes as well.
  
  --tips submitted by the Web Seminarian