EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

Web Seminars. Webcasts. Webinars. Whatever you may call them, these events are no longer regarded as just a novel concept. Since the days of the first commercially available web conferencing product, introduced by PlaceWare in 1997, the value of delivering interactive online presentations to anyone, anywhere, anytime has been realized. And thanks to accurate metrics and reporting tools, organizations have seen multiple benefits to their bottom line. But as these organizations have also discovered, delivering a high quality event takes extensive behind the scenes work, and failure is not an option.

Web events, when well executed, reach a larger audience, generate highly qualified leads, and do so at a fraction of the cost of more traditional marketing venues. In fact, Wainhouse Research, an independent market research firm, surveyed a group of web conferencing users and reported that lead generation was the number one use of web seminars.

On the surface, planning, producing and promoting a web seminar may seem easy: upload a PowerPoint presentation to a web conferencing software application, procure a conference call line, and then post it on your website. If you build it, they will come. Or will they? And what will they see when they get there?

By doing adequate planning upfront, and by finding the right resources to partner with, you can turn a lackluster, problem-prone web seminar into a top-notch, professional event that will help you further your strategic sales goals, present your company and products in an outstanding manner, and provide valuable insight into your attendees.

Perhaps you’re new to web seminars and need to know how to get started. Or maybe you’ve conducted a few events that didn’t quite live up to expectations. Whatever the case may be, this paper will guide you in planning, promoting and producing flawless web seminars that achieve outstanding results.