This document will give you the key concepts and guidelines presented by Ken Molay in his web seminar on the secrets of producing and managing webinars.

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This is a very high level summary of the major tasks that need to be addressed by webinar producers. Each of these nine areas may include many details and subtasks. We will look at recommendations, tips, and tricks in each step of webinar production.

Of course step number 2 is unnecessary if you already have web conferencing technology in place. I included it for completeness if you are just getting started with webinars.

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You need to decide who will be involved in the production and presentation of your webinar. These are the four main functional areas, but they don't have to be four different people... It is common for an individual to fulfill multiple roles. Or one functional role may be served by several people. For instance, you might have multiple presenters or an entire marketing department working on various aspects of promotion and publicity.

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I include this step very early in the planning process because it forces you to think about a lot of different things... Where is our audience and what is convenient for them? Will I need multiple sessions to cover different time zones? Does that change how I set up (or purchase) the web conferencing software? Will my speaker(s) be available for the sessions? Do I need to promote things differently based on language, time, or call-in information?

For a useful discussion of days and times that seem to work best for webinars, h k t thi ti l li htt // bi i / t /2008/5/27/ bicheck out this article online: http://www.webinarwire.com/posts/2008/5/27/webinar-

scheduling-survey-results

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Putting together a webinar involves a large number of small details. None by itself is difficult, but if you forget and let something slip, it can impact a chain of other things farther down the line and you can find yourself with a panic situation near the event date. An organizer should be in charge of keeping track of all the little tasks and milestones to make sure you are hitting your key dates along the way and that everything will come together to make your event work. Keep a list of responsibilities and deadlines and nag the right people at the right times. Somebody has to be the bad guy!has to be the bad guy!

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Other considerations in the planning phase include:

1) Will you record the event?

2) Will you give your attendees collateral associated with your subject?

3) Will you charge people to attend? This will bring in the need for additional vendor requirements, security considerations, procedures for handling refund requests, and setup of payment processing during registration.

We will examine details about each of these options on upcoming slides.

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Think ahead to how audience members can see an archived version of your webinar. Will you host the recording on your server? Send it out on CD? Do you have a standard page where you list all your archived events, or do you need to create a special viewing page and link? Will you want to store recordings on your vendor’s server?

If possible, determine the link to the archive ahead of time and build a placeholder. You want to be able to announce the location during your event or immediately ft d if th di t k l t d W 'll b k t thiafterwards, even if the recording takes longer to produce. We'll come back to this

later.

Your IT department will have a say in this decision. Hosting long audio/video recordings on your servers can potentially have a large impact on your network resources and performance. Alternatives include external storage sites such as Amazon S3. Amazon is very reasonably priced and has vast capacity. But setting up an account and placing files for access requires a technical specialist It is not builtan account and placing files for access requires a technical specialist. It is not built for business users.

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If you are just getting started, you will need to select the software platform you will use for your web conferences. There are many, many choices available.

Don't let vendors overwhelm you with a laundry list of all the features they offer. Make a list of your requirements and then check your prospective suppliers against your priorities. Make sure you examine the functionality of important features by using them or getting a live demo... A "Yes" on an RFP grid does not tell you how one vendor differs from another.

Webinar Wire (www.WebinarWire.com) has a set of articles on important webinar features. Search on the keyword "Features."

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You have a bewildering set of choices in how you will offer audio to your attendees. You can stream the audio over the internet and/or allow attendees to listen via telephone. If using telephone audio conferencing, you need to determine whether you will make attendees pay for a toll call in order to listen, or whether you will pay for a toll free line.

If you are working with an international audience, you have the option of offering local toll free phone numbers at an additional cost to you.

Your audio conferencing provider may offer audio recording of the event, which is usually higher quality than the compressed audio used by most web conferencing vendors.

Subconferences for presenters are useful for preparing before the event begins without the audience hearing you.

If you want to take questions from the audience over the telephone, you should look y q p yfor operator assistance and the ability to queue questions for individual handling.

If you elect to use a technology that relies on computer VoIP for audio, it is your responsibility to ensure that all presenters have quality USB headsets for their presentation.

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If you will charge attendees to register for your event, it requires additional setup work on establishing or linking to a merchant account to process payments. You also need to determine whether you are concerned with the possibility of attendees forwarding login instructions to others. And you need to put a procedure in place for handling refund requests.

If your web conferencing vendor does not support integrated payment processing for scheduled events, you must look for a third party registration/payment

t t S h di t i t ti ith t i f imanagement system. Some have direct integration with certain conferencing platforms, others operate independently with no link to the conferencing system.

Here are some options for third party systems that can handle payment processing for events. This is not a comprehensive list, but should get you started.

• AMP from Corvent LLC

• Act-On software from Act-On

• Event Manager from Meeting One

• Eventbrite software from Eventbrite

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This task refers to the physical creation of your webinar in the web conferencing software. You will put in the expected information about title, date, time, description, etc.

You also need to create registration pages with the information you wish to capture. If you are charging, you need to add payment processing information. In most webinar software you can specify custom messages for registration confirmation and pre-event reminders. Some packages also let you set up "thank you for

i " d " i d " i dcoming" and "sorry we missed you" messages in advance.

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An early task in the production work is to get registration pages set up, tested, and ready to accept signups. You need them in place when your promotional activities go into play. Try to minimize the amount of information registrants have to give you. Each input field is an incremental barrier to registration. You should particularly avoid sales qualification questions as part of your registration process.

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It's a good idea to create a way for your audience to give you additional feedback at the end of your event and follow easy click-through links to action items you want them to take. Create and test your page well in advance of the event itself. You can build these forms in HTML or make use of third party utilities such as www.SurveyMonkey.com. If your web conferencing software allows automatic display of a web page at the end of the event, you will usually get more valuable and numerous feedback than if you send out a separate email later. A combination of instant display and email reminder gives you extra chances to collect responsesof instant display and email reminder gives you extra chances to collect responses.

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Marketing your webinar will use the most time and money in the entire process. There are many avenues for promoting a webinar... Some are free and others cost money... Potentially a lot of money. But the good news is that your budget and preferred methods are completely discretionary.

Even internal webinars for small groups need promotion. When you invite team members to attend an online session, you are “selling them” on the value of the meeting just as much as when you market to outside audiences and potential sales l dleads.

As webinar producer, you need to work with your marketing team and presenters to make sure that key value points and promised information deliverables are clearly understood and agreed upon by all. Make sure the presenters are prepared to speak to the points promised by the marketers!

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Before you take your promotions live, figure out what people will see when they respond. A landing page gives more detailed information about your event when you can't put all the details in a marketing channel. Many landing pages can also serve double duty as HTML email invitations. There are many factors that determine whether a landing page or invitation is likely to be successful. One of my favorite reference works is The Landing Page Handbook available from MarketingSherpa. It costs $500 but is worth every penny in improving registration rates.

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Public marketing and lead generation webinars advertised to a general mass list typically result in less than 1% registration. Of those who register, you will see 1/3 attend your event.

More targeted lists and promotion methods to specific groups can raise both your registration and attendance rates.

If you charge for your event, the number of registrations will decrease, but almost all registrants attend. Still, there is always someone who can't make it or has technical problems, so you need a refund policy and process in place.

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Know how long you have for each part of your event. Work out a table of milestone timings for the introduction, speaker content, Q&A, wrap-up, etc. Share the timetable with the moderator and all presenters so everyone knows exactly how things are supposed to run. This makes sure that you know whether you are on track during the event. If you have multiple speakers, put your most experienced and comfortable presenter last. That person can adjust the presentation if necessary to account for the prior speakers going short or long.

A t ti i t d i lid d l t lid i t Thi iAs a starting point during slide development, assume one slide per minute. This is an optimum amount of time for the audience to combat latency in receiving new slides without getting bored by looking at the same image for many minutes on end.

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If you have multiple presenters, you may need to act as “editor-in-chief” for the master presentation. A smooth presentation should appear to the audience as an integrated, flowing whole. If they see a sequence of disconnected presentations with different formats, it appears less polished.

You will proofread text, compress graphics to reduce file sizes, watch for improper use of copyrighted imagery or human images without permission, and let presenters know about redundant or conflicting information in their sections.

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Work with your presenters to plan for interactions with the audience. Create polls or surveys if your software allows it. Have some questions ready that invite your attendees to type responses in the Q&A box. Plan some seed questions to stimulate discussion during the Q&A period in case things go slowly.

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Rehearsing is one of the most important things you can do to ensure a quality webinar and is definitely the most overlooked and abused. Each speaker needs to give his or her entire presentation, word for word, as if an audience was listening. This is the only way to check timings, segues, and concept clarity. Since nobody likes to take the time to do this step, you will need to act as “the heavy” and demand compliance with this task.

A technical familiarization session makes sure that all parties are comfortable using th b f i ft d k h th ll di /t h i lthe web conferencing software and know how the overall audio/technical components will work. You should conduct this or arrange for an appropriate technical representative to lead this session

A group run-through lets the moderator and speakers practice introductions and handoffs, as well as check for conflicts or redundancies between speakers.

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Moderators play an important role during the live webinar. They should have prepared, scripted introductions and exit speeches. Make sure they know the proper pronunciation for each presenter’s name and how the presenter prefers to be addressed during the presentation.

Moderators should have the answers to commonplace questions such as “Will the slides be available?” and “How do I get my Continuing Education credits?” They should have key support information at hand, such as technical support numbers

d lt t di l i b f diand alternate dial-in numbers for audio.

Moderators should have a copy of the slide presentation and be ready to take over advancing the slides if a presenter loses connection during the event. They should know when polls occur and be prepared to display the polls and results for the audience.

Moderators also keep an eye on audio volume and time, and need to be prepared t h l t k h th h ito help presenters know when they have an issue.

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Poor audio quality is annoying on a live event, but really destroys your recording, where the quality is usually compressed and degraded anyway. Use wired connections and quality microphones in a quiet environment.

Always have a backup plan in place in case a presenter loses internet connection during the event. They should have a hardcopy printout of their slides and a moderator should be ready to take over and advance the slides for the audience.

If possible, presenters should dial in on a backup phone line in case the first one loses connection.

Use a computer on a hardwire, rather than wireless internet connection.

If your web conferencing software uploads and converts slides for display, make sure to test all slides and animations before your event. Some PowerPoint features may not convert correctly.

Presenters and moderators should log in 30 minutes early to have last minutePresenters and moderators should log in 30 minutes early to have last minute conversations, iron out problems, and ensure that nobody is running late or unavailable.

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Your webinar tasks continue even after your attendees have logged off. You need to communicate with attendees and no-shows, thanking them and continuing a dialog. Send them collateral or any other promised materials. Make your archived recording available for reference.

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You have a very short window of opportunity after your webcast to engage your audience. If people get something of value from you, they briefly lower their defenses and are willing to talk to you or follow up in some other way. But that feeling goes away quickly, and within a week or two, they mostly forget about your event entirely. Make sure in advance of your webinar that you have everything queued up and ready for rapid follow through.

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Attendees always ask for a copy of your slides. Do you need to erase confidential speaker notes, or create a PDF version for distribution? Do you want attendees to have access to a white paper, datasheets, or marketing brochures?

Don't wait till after the event to create handouts or extra materials. Have them ready for distribution or download right after the event.

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If you have other events planned, make sure the next one has already been scheduled in the system and that you can direct your audience to the registration page for it.

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Get your audience the recording link immediately. Even if it is only a placeholder and the recording is not yet ready, they can forward the link to their coworkers while it is fresh in their minds.

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If you are engaging in a lead generation activity, tell your sales team it is coming up, let them know when, and tell them you will be farming out hot leads immediately afterwards for quick follow up. Then do it!

Even in webinars that are not sales related, there are usually follow up items necessary shortly after the seminar. You may need to do research and get back to a participant who asked a question you couldn’t answer during the session. Or you may need to respond to requests for additional materials. Block out time on your calendar for an hour following your webinar. Now you will have the time needed to respond and react to contact requests.

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The final task in your webinar duties is to analyze your results and use the information to help you plan future events and refine your tactics.

Run registration and attendance reports and check the performance of your different promotional channels. Look over audience feedback and responses to see what connected with them and what didn't work in their minds. Review any technical glitches and determine how to avoid them in the future.

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Finally, find a way to measure whether you achieved your primary goals for the event, whether that was to increase sales leads, improve customer education, build satisfaction with your company and products, or something else. If you don't know whether you succeeded, you won't know whether you should do it again.

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I welcome any comments or questions you might have. Please feel free to email me or use the contact form on the Webinar Success web site.

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