For My Next Webcast, Can I Use Slides From Our Last Analyst Conference?

The correct answer to this question is (quite frankly), “What do you think?”

Let’s step back for a moment and re-think the purpose of your presentation? Essentially, each PowerPoint presentation is a conversation. So ask yourself, would you use the same conversation you had at your last analyst conference with a group of 500 potential clients? Probably not.

In fact, if you’re like most speakers, you probably didn’t have a conversation with the audience at your last analyst conference either - you just presented. And that’s exactly my point.

Webcasting provides a unique opportunity to engage individual clients (or prospective clients) on a one-to-one basis, regardless of your audience size. Using the right materials and presentation techniques, you can interact with each individual participant, instead of addressing a large, faceless group of strangers. Here are a few tips that can help you achieve that goal on your very next webcast.

Let’s Dance

Back in High School, it took a lot of courage to ask the simple question:

“Would you like to dance?”

In webcasting, your proposition should sound something more like this:

“How about I lead a little, then you lead a little, and on Monday I’ll call you for our first date?”

The truth is your audience doesn’t want to follow you through 45 minutes of slides and marketing speak. They want you to address their specific questions. They want you to justify the time they have taken out of their hectic schedules. They want you to interact with them.

But they need you to stimulate them. Try starting off with a short poll while they’re waiting for the webcast to begin. Remember to use this information immediately. Your audience is not answering polls to help increase the accuracy of your statistics. They want you to discuss the answers with them, and help them make sense of the poll results.

You might also want to think about taking a few questions early on in your presentation. If no one has submitted any questions yet, create your own. This will help stimulate real audience questions significantly.

Smaller Bites Are Easier To Swallow

Webcasts are an excellent opportunity to collect useful information about each participant. You’ve already learned a lot from the registration information provided (which can be used even if registrants don’t attend your live event). But most of us like to ask really important questions in fancy, lengthy, in-depth surveys.

Let me ask you this, did you enjoy filling out the last survey you took? I didn’t think so. In fact, most of you probably avoid filling out surveys at all. Then why do you think your clients will?

Webcast participants are much more likely to answer a few well-constructed polls than they are to fill out a lengthy survey. Polls are easier, faster, and come with the expectation that the speaker will incorporate the results immediately into their presentation. So for very little effort, your audience is getting immediate recognition and telling you what they want.

For your next webcast, consider breaking up your survey into a few short poll questions that you can insert into relevant portions of your presentation. On the whole, you will be getting a lot more information out of the same audience than if you pushed out a survey at the end. Also, try to incorporate your polls early, because not all participants will stay on till the end of your presentation, and poll responses can tell you what information your audience will find most appealing.

Show Me How It Works

Most of us agree that ideas that sound good in theory are often very difficult to apply. Actually, theory doesn’t really sound good at all - it’s boring. With theoretical discussions, you risk losing many of your participants who simply may not get the point you are trying to make.

When discussing benefits participants can gain from your service/product, use real-world examples. In fact, avoid discussing benefits at all. Try discussing value. 

Take an example of one of your successful clients, and walk your audience through their implementation plan, and their success story. If you don’t have a successful client, create one. Use real-world data with a sample (fictional) client and show how that client can use your service/product to obtain value. If possible, try to show extended capabilities resulting from the combination of your service/product and creative implementation.

As a matter of practice, you should always have multiple case studies available to discuss with your webcasting audience. Judging from the poll results and questions received, you will then be able to use your most appropriate case study for each specific audience.

Small changes like these can significantly increase your audience participation, and more importantly, your lead conversion rate. Interested participants are the best ones to call first. In fact, they’re almost begging you to call them. So take a moment to put yourself in your audience’s shoes and remember their attention span is probably a lot shorter than yours. Keeping that in mind, I think I’ve made my point, so I’ll let you go.

Good luck on your next webcast.