Live webcasting has become an important way for businesses to conduct important meetings and to reach out to their potential clients. With the way a webcast is used, it can reach a much larger audience that is located around the world, rather than focusing on a smaller, local audience. You will be able to offer the same live experience without the costs and other logistical issues of holding the meeting in person. Follow these webcasting tips to better reach your audience.
1. Create Your Plan
Before you even start thinking about the actual setup of a webcast, you need to create a plan that will include your goals for your live webcasting, as well as a strategy for your presentation. In the past, it was a necessity to complete as much planning as possible because of the extensive amount of work required to set one up. Even though webcasts are much easier to set up today, it is still important to follow these steps.
The proper planning for your event starts with what your goals for the event are. Once you know your goals, you will be able to develop a strategy and a plan based on those goals. Understanding the many reasons why companies use live webcasting can help you decide if it is the right choice for you. Webcasting is useful for:
- Introducing and launching new products
- Reaching a larger audience with less cost
- Building stronger relationships with customers and colleagues
- Reducing training costs
- Shortening sales cycles
2. Write a Compelling Title
If people aren’t sure what your webcast is going to offer, they aren’t likely to attend. Therefore, your primary goal should be to create a compelling title and description to entice people to sign up. You want your potential attendees to take notice of the invitation email, despite the amount of email they receive each day.
To write the most compelling title possible, make use of action verbs, preferably using them at the beginning of the title. You should also consider the keywords you would like to target, especially if you will be promoting your live webcasting to a larger audience than your email list. This will allow people to search for these keywords and discover and potentially attend your webcast, increasing your reach.
The next step is creating a compelling description to complete the attraction and lead them to act. This description should again make use of the keywords and action verbs. However, because the description is longer, you will be able to elaborate on what your webcast is about so your attendees know just what to expect from your live webcasting. Following these webcasting tips for your title and description will increase your success.
3. Encourage Discussion Before and After
Live webcasting isn’t designed to be used all by itself. It should be a way for you to start a conversation among your attendees. Before you hold the event, write a blog or two about it to post on your company blog to generate interest among your readers. You can also post about the upcoming webcast on social media, such as Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn. Posting on discussion boards can be another great way to start the discussion. No matter where you choose to talk about your upcoming event, you will build interest and get people talking about the potential of your event, increasing the size of your audience.
This technique shouldn’t stop once your webcast has completed. Continue the conversation afterward with a designated area of your blog or social media account to talk about what you discussed at your event. The longer people talk about it, the greater your success will be.
4. Make It Memorable
Perhaps one of the most important webcasting tips is to make your webcast as memorable as possible. It is a waste of everyone’s time and energy if they have difficulty remembering what you talked about after the event is over. Those who attend your live webcasting event want to stay engaged. Therefore, it is up to you to find engaging speakers who can portray the information, as well as choose interesting subjects that are relevant and timely so you can keep your audience interested throughout. Even though you are trying to sell your business, it is important to keep the topic somewhat general so it doesn’t sound as if you have gathered everyone together to sell them on your product. Using industry leaders and high-profile customers to help you present can serve as just the boost you need.
5. Tell a Story
The best thing you can do is connect to your audience on a personal level. One of the best ways to do that at your live webcasting events is to tell a story within your presentation. Using stories to get your point across is both interesting to the audience and provides them with a good illustration of the concept you are trying to portray. Make good use of statistics to drive home the point. However, it is important to keep these facts to a minimum to avoid losing your audience. It is best to provide additional information by email after the event so you can keep the actual webcast interesting for the viewers.
With all the companies that are using live webcasting today, it is more important than ever to follow these webcasting tips for keeping your event interesting to the viewers. You don’t want to provide them with an event that is the same as all the other ones they’ve attended recently. You need to work hard to make sure yours stands out from the rest, building your audience and fulfilling your goals.
