Showing posts with label Sales. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Sales. Show all posts
Teleseminars: Are You Charging Enough?
If you're involved with Internet Marketing you've probably settled into a comfortable rut of "free" teleseminars. After all, they're used to promote products, services, and events.So it may be a jolt to find out that the rest of the world isn't doing them free. In fact, they are charging handsomely for them!
Take for example, SoundView Executive Summaries - the company that sends out the executive summaries of books for those of us too busy to read the full book. I just looked at one of their teleseminars. Keep in mind it's a 90-minute audio conference with a best-selling author. Their prices:
Audio Conference & CD Recording - $258.00
Audio Conference only - $199.00
CD Recording only - $199.00
Now if that doesn't make you sit up and take notice I don't know what will!
And consider - they are not going to open up the line for your individual questions - and I'll bet they didn't even offer an ASK campaign for your questions prior to the call.
And that's not the only one! I get regular notices from The Competitive Advantage.net. Here are their prices for a 90-minute audio conference:
Audio Conference Only - $159
Audio Conference & CD Combo - $209 (plus $20 CD shipping)
CD Only - $159 (plus $20 shipping)
Yikes! Now count how many people were on your last teleseminar. How much money did you lose by offering it as a "complimentary" teleseminar?
Can you charge those prices? It depends on your market and your topic.
If you market to CEOs, conventional business managers and sales professionals, you generally can charge well for the information you provide. Not only do they have the money to pay for it, but they recognize the value of good content - and regularly invest in their professional development.
On the other hand, if you market to those seeking to start a home business or a second income, they may not be able or willing to pay those prices. Traditionally, these markets are very cost-conscious.
Then let's consider the topic - your content. If your primary purpose in offering the teleseminar is to teach a topic, then you should charge for it. If you don't put a value on your information, no one else will either. However, if your primary purpose of a teleseminar is to sell a product, service or event, then you generally don't charge.
Could that change in the future? I think so. The quality of the information provided on preview teleseminars, for example, leading to a seminar is extremely valuable. Why not charge a small fee - to weed out those who have no intention of registering for the event? After all, either you need to sell a ticket to the event or you need to charge for the content.
The same should be true of a product or service. If you're offering a valuable amount of information, at least charge $10-20 to indicate the value and to reimburse you for the expenses and time of a teleseminar. In 90 minutes you will easily reveal that amount of information - and probably more!
The trend starts here. If each of us who provides quality content in our (previously) complimentary teleseminars starts to charge a small fee, the trend will catch on.
So ask yourself: What is my information worth?
Copyright 2006 Jeanette Cates
About The Author
Dr. Jeanette Cates works with consultants and other experts who are ready to leverage their expertise into Online Success. She is an expert at hosting and attending teleseminars. Learn how to host your own teleseminar this week athttp://www.TeleseminarBasics.com
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Marketing Your Products Through Teleseminars
You may be having a hard time marketing your products through the Internet, especially if there aspects to your products that you cannot explain. Now, imagine how much harder to market services are: are you a massage specialist, hair stylist, or even a professor or lecturer hoping to make a killing online?
It can be hard to convince people to avail of your services if you do not have concrete proof of your abilities, and so much harder if you do not talk to them personally. Websites can be great in featuring products and how they look, but they can be quite impersonal when you need to talk to people and address their needs.
One way for you to get over this hurdle is to conduct a teleseminar. Basically, a teleseminar is a seminar that is conducted over the telephone. This keeps you from having to go through the long, costly process of booking a venue for your activity, feeding your guests, and giving them either free samples or paraphernalia.
It also gives your guests the chance to hear what you have to say without them having to leave their homes. On both sides of the knowledge divide, there are advantages, and if you have a product, you can use the advantages of teleseminars in order to get your word across.
All that you need is a bridge line to allow a lot of people to listen to you. The people who need to listen to you need only a telephone number as well as an access code in order to listen to your seminar. If you are going to market a product, a teleseminar can be great: it can allow you to answer questions and address issues that you might not have anticipated had you not consulted your target market. If you are going to market your product through a teleseminar, here are a few tips that you may want to take into account:
- Have you ever heard the expression that if you smile, you can tell over the phone? Keep this in mind as you conduct the seminar. You need to appear enthusiastic (but not overeager) and you need to appear as though you are made happy by your own product. If you can’t be happy because of your own product, who else can be made happy by it?
- If you are going to create a network marketing scheme around your product, you can also use your teleseminars to train the people that you hope will sell your product. Teleseminars have been used for training, and you can use this aspect of the teleseminar not only in selling your product at first, but in sustaining sales.
For instance, if your product requires special training to be used, then you might conduct a teleseminar in order to get people to learn how to use it. You may also conduct follow up training for all the updates that you make to your product.
- Sustain your sales by having teleseminars constantly: this can allow you to keep in touch with your customers, and it can polish off your reputation as someone who cares about customers more than sales. You can have teleseminars that are useful to your target market, but mention your product only briefly. This way, you can still market your product without appearing like a hard-selling salesperson.
- Always provide information on where people can buy your product, and what they can get out of it. Moreover, be persuasive in telling people that they should get the product.
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Planning a Teleseminar
If you are into Internet marketing, then you may have heard of the teleseminar. This is a digital alternative to meeting everyone in a brick and mortar facility: you will deliver a seminar over the telephone, and your guests or participants need only to listen to you without having to leave the comfort of their homes.This spells savings on both sides of the phone lines: you do not have to worry about getting a venue and spending on marketing your seminar, and your guests or participants do not have to worry about hotel reservations, travel fees, and other things that make traveling to a conference or seminar inconvenient.
If you are planning a teleseminar, you will need to remember a few things. Here are a few tips for you to contemplate on and take note of as you consider a teleseminar for your next marketing gig.
- Take note that there are some things that you will need at barest minimum to conduct your teleseminar. Make sure that these things are already bought or reserved. These include: an autoresponder, a bridge line, recording and transcribing equipment, a squeeze page for the seminar, and your speakers!
- Feedback is always a good thing, but keep it to a minimum. You will need to have a plan that will ensure that you have a healthy exchange of ideas and a moderate number of questions. If you have already had seminars, then you may want to see what questions you’ve been asked and what strategies worked. Did you constrain the number of people who could ask questions? Did you ask participants or guests to send their questions in advance?
- If you are marketing a product, you might not be the only person who can make the teleseminar a success. Consider having a panel of speakers. For instance, there is you, the business owner or product or service creator. You can have a success story, a person who has benefited from the product or service, and who has the capacity to answer questions about how the product or service has changed his or her life. You might also consider getting a medical, fitness, or whatever appropriate expert there is to back up your claims.
- If you have an e-book available, you can teach people from that e-book in addition to marketing your product or service. This can allow you to not only market the product or service, but market your e-book as well.
- Have an agenda: you may want to plan your order of speakers and the extent of feedback and question-and-answer that you will have in order to keep your teleseminar to its allotted time. This can also allow you to control things so that your teleseminar is conducted in a logical, not to mention persuasive method.
- Have drinks ready! Talking for a long while can tire you out and you have to sound off loud and clear on your business or product.
- Never forget the plan B: have backup speakers, guests, or even a backup agenda if the original plan doesn’t push through.
- Have recording and transcribing equipment and plans ready. You will need to have these handy for members who would like to record the event, and if you need to release a copy to the press. You may also want to test your recording and transcribing equipment a day or two before the teleseminar to ensure that they work.
- Ask for tips from people who have already conducted teleseminars.
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6 Business Benefits of Teleseminars and Webinars
If you've ever wondered why many business owners and entrepreneurs moonlight as speakers for teleseminars and webinars, it's because they know that both of these methods can be harnessed to their advantage. If you have never considered using teleseminars and webinars before, you might want to change your mind. Here are just some of the business benefits of teleseminars and webinars that you can use to your advantage:Introduce your business or brand
A perfect benefit of teleseminars and webinars for business is that they can be leveraged to introduce an unknown company or brand. Quite often, business owners who are new to the industry will find it difficult to build interest in their business simply because they don't have history or sufficient background.
Teleseminars and webinars can benefit a business by allowing the owner to represent the business and give it a face. This helps nail the fact that the business is a real entity. Furthermore, lectures through phone and the Web also help a business build its brand.
Become a recognized authority
Another common business benefit of teleseminars and webinars is that they can be used to build your reputation. This is especially important if you're still trying to break into a particular industry and have to create enough buzz for yourself.
If you are able to produce a successful teleseminar or webinar, you will be able to build a following among your target market. Continued success will also help you expand and capture a wider segment.
Promote products
Teleseminars and webinars are not only a means unto themselves – they are also very often used as vehicles to promote a product. This is why you'll find that speakers of teleseminars and webinars have books, e-books, audio, videos and other products that they market to their audience via their lectures.
Generally, a speaker would discuss a topic with his audience and then refer to a product that can be used as reference, guide or instructional material. Much of the content found in these products cannot be accessed in the teleseminar or webinar so the audience is motivated to purchase.
Increase sales
More traditional means of promoting and selling products very often do not suffice these days, especially since many consumers and a huge segment of a business' target market prefer to browse and shop online.
With a well-crafted and delivered teleseminar or webinar, it's quite easy to drum up sales for a product. Many experienced teleseminar and webinar speakers swear by these methods, even reporting sales of their products in thousands of dollars.
Communicate with customers on a more personal level
Another great business benefit of teleseminars and webinars is that they allow business owners to keep in touch with their customers. Businesses can harness the technology used for both methods to personalize their services.
Whether a teleseminar or webinar is given for free or as paid lectures, they are always very effective as a means to interact with a business' audience or market on a more personal level.
Maintain a low cost
One of the main concerns of many businesses is expense. To build a brand, promote a product or launch a marketing campaign, a business owner simply has to spend. Using either a teleseminar or a webinar, a business can benefit by taking advantage of the low cost associated with producing a lecture through phone or the Internet.
Teleseminars and webinars are highly cost effective, easy to produce and do not incur plenty of expense. And they work! That alone is music to any business owner's ears.
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