“Two days out, you only have two people registered to attend. What went wrong? What could be done to help ensure a win-win webinar experience?”

What would YOU do?

It’s worth wondering what you could do in this situation.

Of course, one option is to cancel the webinar altogether, but that’s the easy way out. And the two people who have registered have made a commitment to you – are you willing to keep your commitment to them?

Read the blog post for the contributions from others.

Here are a few things I’ve done:

• Advertise the webinar again – because not everybody will have got it the first time, and some people just don’t like making a commitment until the very end.
• Open it to a wider audience
• Go ahead and do a fabulous job for the two people anyway!

When: Thursday 20th June, 9-9.30am WA time, 11-11.30am AEST, 1-1.30pm NZ time

One of the things I particularly like is that he writes this from a marketer’s viewpoint (rather than an author’s viewpoint). For instance, the first two chapters about choosing your topic and your title, which are important starting points for your e-book’s success. They are not the only things that matter, of course, and you do have to write great content. But the great content won’t reach enough people unless you’ve done some preliminary research into the right topic and title.

This “marketing first” approach is evident throughout this book. For example, in the chapter about writing the e-book itself, he makes no bones about the fact that you don’t have to write it yourself (You can outsource it, or get a transcript of you speaking). An “author first” approach, on the other hand, would focus more on the writing process itself.

Not surprisingly, the book also spends a significant amount of time talking about how you can market your e-book – and this is invaluable, because without it your e-book can just languish on e-book sites.

If you’re seriously considering publishing and profiting from e-book sales, this is an excellent guide for you.

Buy the book from Amazon.com.

Look for ways to show your site visitor that people just like them have gained benefits from your products and services. Choose people with the same background, same demographics, and same needs as your ideal customer.

Here are some five ways to use the power of social proof on your Web site.

1. Written testimonials

This is probably the most common example. It simply involves a written note from somebody who has used your product, and speaks positively about it.

The most powerful testimonials are:

• Verifiable: They use the person’s real name (which could be checked if desired) and possibly even a photograph
• Results-based: They describe the results and benefits of using the product
• Specific: They mention specific results (for example, “a 300% increase in profit in 6 months”)
• Relevant: They appear on the page that describes that product (rather than only being on a separate Testimonials page)

2. Testimonial video

A written testimonial is good, but a video testimonial is even more authentic. It conveys enthusiasm, sincerity and is less likely to be fake.

It used to be difficult to create good video, but now it’s a cinch because modern smartphones have very good video capabilities. Record your customer testimonials, upload them to YouTube, and then embed them on your site.

All the points previously mentioned (verifiable, results-based, specific and relevant) apply to video testimonials as well.

3. Case study

You can also tell a more detailed story of how a customer or client used your product successfully. First describe their problem, and then explain how they used your product to solve it – and of course be specific about the results as well.

Case studies take more work than testimonials, but they can be just as powerful, so use both if possible. Case studies can also be used in situations where testimonials are not appropriate (for example, if you work in a sensitive area where customers don’t want to be identified).

4. Customer comments

Allow your customers to add their comments, feedback and product reviews to your site, to describe in their own words how they like your product. This is a double-edged sword, of course, because they might post negative comments! But if your products are high quality, the positive reviews should outweigh the few negative comments.

For example, Amazon does this with the books on their site, allowing customers to add their own reviews, and even allowing them to rate the book from 1-5.

5. Social media ratings

If appropriate, allow site visitors to share the page on social media platforms. Your Web developer should be able to provide you with a “widget” that makes this easy for site visitors, and the widget shows the number of times it’s been shared. Of course, this is not the same as the number of people who bought your products. But high numbers do help site visitors know that many other people liked the page enough to share it.

To understand where they fit with other electronic communication tools, consider these two criteria for grouping these tools:

• Interaction: How much do the participants get to contribute in the conversation? The level of interaction increases as the number of participants grows, and they have increasing ability to contribute. Books, for example, have low interaction (it’s all one way, from the author to the reader); presentations have medium interaction; and discussion groups have high interaction.
• Bandwidth: How many different “channels” are used in the communication? The more senses you engage, the higher the bandwidth because we pick up different communication cues. Books have low bandwidth (just reading words and looking at pictures); telephone calls have medium bandwidth (audio); video has high bandwidth (audio and video).

On the interactive scale, a webinar is fairly interactive, but still has one presenter (you) controlling the environment. On the other scale (bandwidth), a webinar is very high. It’s not just written or audio material; it also includes visuals (which don’t have to be video, but are still visual).

Let’s briefly compare the pros and cons of a webinar with similar communication techniques.

Video calls

Video telephone calls – using technology such as Skype – are becoming more common now, for the same reason webinars are becoming more common (faster broadband and better software). However, unlike a webinar, a simple two-way video conference call isn’t usually a presentation; it’s more likely to be an equal conversation.

Telephone call

The humble telephone call is still one of the most important business communication tools. I won’t say much more about it here, because I’m sure you’re familiar with telephone calls!

Teleseminar

A teleseminar, like a webinar, also involves one presenter and a group of participants, but it doesn’t have the visual component of a webinar. Just a few years ago, teleseminars were far more popular than webinars. But now, as Internet access gets faster and webinar technology improves rapidly, the gap is narrowing.

Video conference

Video conference calls are the group version of the one-to-one video call. Unlike a webinar, where one person (the presenter) does most of the talking, everybody participates equally in the conversation. In other words, it’s a meeting rather than a presentation. Leading this call means chairing a meeting, and the skills required are very different from those for webinars.

Conference call

This is similar to the video conference call, except it has no visuals. These types of conference calls are very popular in many business environments, because they are easy to schedule and operate.

Like video conference calls, these are usually used for meetings rather than presentations.

What’s right for you?

It depends on your needs! Although webinars are very powerful, and often include some of the features of the less sophisticated services, sometimes those other services might be better for your particular situation.

1. Be more social.

Whether you call it social media, social media marketing, or social networking, focus more on the social side of it and less on the media, marketing, and networking. No, this doesn’t mean you should share family photos and cat videos! It means you use social media with the intent to build connections and help other people. Forget about tying every tweet, post and update to some marketing campaign or product launch. Instead, use it to genuinely connect with people (as people, not prospects).

2. Pick your battlegrounds.

Find the social networks where you can make the biggest difference, and focus your participation efforts there. This is unlikely to be your own Facebook profile, LinkedIn network or Twitter followers. But it might be a particular LinkedIn group, a specific Twitter hashtag you follow regularly, a private Ning community, or some other discussion forum. For me, one such place is ThoughtLeadersCentral.com, where both my colleagues and clients hang out. It allows me to help out colleagues and peers, and in turn that demonstrates my expertise and authority.

3. Solve their problems.

Keep your eye and ear out for problems, concerns, issues, questions, goals, and aspirations that people mention in social media. If you can help out, do so. If you can refer them to somebody or something else, do that instead. Don’t always be looking for opportunities to promote yourself; just be genuine, sincere, and helpful.

4. Share other people’s expertise.

Be a curator (filter) of other people’s material, and share it with your network. You should already be reading blogs, watching videos, listening to podcasts, reading books, watching slide shows, and so on as part of your own professional development. Some of this material is appropriate to share on social media, so share it. Just be sure you do it with permission (for example, by using a link, rather than the original material itself).

5. Blog.

Finally, make a commitment to blog regularly (at least once a week, preferably more). Your blog is the hub of your social media efforts: Everything you do elsewhere should be copied into your blog, and your blog posts can be distributed automatically to Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, and some online communities. Every blog post is a Web page in itself, so blogging also helps raise your profile in Google’s eyes. Apart from anything else, blogging allows you to demonstrate your expertise in small but well-considered chunks, and that helps to build your reputation.

The book starts with a (large) section about the benefits of Pinterest and how to create your own Pinterest strategy. This makes it extremely useful for business owners, because it helps to set the scene before it dives in with technical information. That means you can first determine how best to use Pinterest in your business, and only then start learning about how to do so.

The technical information itself is not very detailed, but it’s enough to get you started.

The book also has a section about Pinterest etiquette, and that also includes an overview of legal and copyright issues. Again, these are very useful to beginners, because they can help you avoid embarrassing – and potentially costly mistakes.

All in all, this is a good book for business owners new to Pinterest.

Buy the book from Amazon.com.

Watch the recording here:

Register for future webinars in the series here.

Before you even think about designing your webinar, discover your audience’s passion:

• What makes them tick?
• What keeps them awake at night?
• What are their wildest dreams?
• What are their biggest fears?

Then use that as the basis for your presentation.

This doesn’t mean you bend like a reed in the wind to cater to every audience’s whim. You might be presenting the same core message each time, but you tailor it to ensure you engage each audience.

For example, if you’re passionate about saving the rain forests, how would you present that message to a group of fellow environmentalists? What about to a mining consortium? What about to a group of politicians? How about presenting it to a class of high school students? Primary school students? Your fellow workers? You can’t just present the same message to everybody – no matter how passionate you are about it!

One of the advantages of webinars is that you can deliver them at low cost and to small audiences. So it is easy to deliver the same webinar over and over again, with minor changes for each audience.

If you know their questions, issues, challenges, problems and concerns before you start, you’ve got a much better chance of addressing them in your webinar. This doesn’t mean you’ll tell them what they want to hear. Rather, it means you know their viewpoint before you start.

Apart from simply being more engaging (which is important in itself!), understanding your audience has other benefits:

• You can structure your presentation to address their most important concerns;
• You can be ready for a hostile audience, and for presenting sensitive or controversial material;
• You know their main questions ahead of time, so you won’t be caught by surprise with difficult questions;
• If you’re not planning to address some of their concerns, you can set the agenda so they know the scope of your presentation;
• They know you’ve taken the time to understand them (As the saying goes, “They don’t care how much you know until they know how much you care”);
• Because they have participated in the preparation, they feel a stronger commitment to the presentation;
• Even if they haven’t met you, they “know” you before you begin your presentation.

The other big advantage of this approach for webinars is that presenting a webinar can be an unnerving experience the first few times you do it. It can feel like you’re speaking to an empty room! But if you’ve asked your audience beforehand about their needs and objectives, you’ll give yourself a psychological head start because you’ll “feel” like you’re among friends.

More help with asking your market

I realise this might seem a bit theoretical to you, especially if you’re not quite sure who specifically would be interested in your webinars. In fact, finding the right market can be half the battle won.

I’ve created an e-book/MP3 program “Find Your Market”, which helps you identify and target key markets in your area of expertise.

If you’re a member of the eGurus Community, you can get this in the Market Research section of the eGurus Vault.

If you’re not a member, you could buy the program here for $67. But I reckon you should seriously consider joining the eGurus Community instead. For $55 a month, you get access to this and all of my other webinar recordings, as well as a heap of other useful resources for your business. Find out more at eGurus.info.

Listen to the episode here:

Download the MP3 file here

Be Their First Choice

One of the biggest ways the Internet has changed selling is that you don’t know when your customer is ready to buy. So you have to be there always, regularly delivering value. A high-quality e-mail newsletter, published regularly and delivered to your readers’ in-boxes – with their permission – is one of your most powerful marketing tools.

Get the book “Fast, Flat and Free” here.

Selling In the Internet Age

Paul Archer is an international speaker, trainer and consultant, who teaches sales leaders and salespeople how to be more effective – especially in the age of the Internet, where the dynamics of selling have changed. In this interview, he talks about the changing sales landscape, how to build rapport in an electronic world, and what practical steps organisations and sales leaders need to take.

Follow Paul at his Web site.

Social Media for Business Leaders

This year I’ve been a regular contributor to Winston Marsh’s excellent Business Marketing audio program. In this extract, Winston interviews me about social media – and how to do it differently so you stand out, not just fit in.

Subscribe to the audio program here.