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Competition today is fiercer than ever. If you’re looking for a way to stand out from the crowd and give your business a substantial competitive edge, then add interactive webinars to your internet marketing strategy. Webinars are live, interactive online marketing presentation events using Web conference technology.

Many small and medium-sized business owners grew their business through face-to-face networking. Every client relationship was built, one at a time, often slowly across time. In fact many businesses fail because they just can’t grow fast enough when the only way that they acquire prospects is one person at a time.

The Internet is changes this entire picture. Empowered by the magic of the Internet — exciting websites, dynamic e-mail marketing campaigns, compelling blogs, vibrant podcasts, and the like — today’s business has powerful ways to expand its market both locally and globally.

You may just find out that webinars are the most powerful addition to your Internet marketing efforts, with good reason. Webinars offer a critical element to building a business relationship with the other approaches don’t: Rich, real-time interaction in the Internet space. Think about it. How do people create trust? Interaction! How do people create rapport? Interaction! How do people create clarity and understanding? Interaction!

If your business uses presentations to market who you are, what you do, and how you do it, then you need to know about webinars. Eight out of ten business people today would much rather be invited to a one hour webinar than travel across town, the country, or the world. If you are looking for powerful ways to create relationships and interact with people you want to have as customers, webinars are an essential part of the mix. In fact they are as essential as e-mail and marketing for businesses of all sizes–small, medium, or large.

If you’ve never done webinars before, if you want to do them better, here are some critical best practices that make your online marketing events spectacularly successful.

• Identify your target audience. Be as specific as you can about defining your target audience. Is your target market small, medium, or large size businesses? Are you looking for executives, leaders, entrepreneurs? Or do you want to reach sales people, trainers, or project managers? The more you can personalize and describe your audience, the better.

• Create a compelling topic that solves a painful problem your target audience feels every day. Think of a topic that keeps your target audience awake at night. Create a title and then write a short narrative teaser that promises a solution to that problem. Better yet, write a 100-word version and a 250-word version of that description, followed by three to five bullet points of exactly what people will learn.

• Select a dynamic online speaker that has great credentials. Your desktop audience is a fickle one. At any point in time, they are only seconds away from multitasking, which is the kiss of death for your presentation. If you want to get the greatest marketing impact from your online webinar event, the speaker needs to be dynamic, passionate, and successful in engaging a desktop audience. It’s best if the speaker has written books, articles, or has attained distinction in their field. Write a brief paragraph about the speaker, and add it to the description of the topic above.

• Find a co-sponsor that’s looking for a way to market their business on the Internet, too. Even the largest companies in the world use co-sponsors for internet marketing webinars. Look for sponsors that are already doing webinars for marketing and are looking for great speakers and timely topics. Or look for sponsors that have a significant opt-in list of people that are in your target market, such as solopreneurs and small businesses. Sponsors might include associations, banks, professional groups, companies that already use webinars for marketing, and non-profit organizations, among others.

• Understand the role of the co-sponsor and the presenter in public webinars. In exchange for exposure of their brand in all communication related to the event, the cosponsor has two primary roles. First is to fully bear or partially share the technology cost. Second is to market the event to their opt-in list. The speaker has two primary roles. First is to deliver a high impact interactive presentation on a high-value topic. Second is to market the event to their opt in list. The cosponsor-speaker team has one primary role together. That is, to work together to make the event a spectacular success for both, including other joint marketing and promotion.

• Prepare a short, yet compelling win-win proposal for a co-sponsored webinar. Of course, showcase your presentation idea and the speaker. Possibly include how you propose to work together to grow both of your businesses as a result of the webinar.

• Contact the sponsor, briefly overview the event, and solicit their support. Don’t just send a written proposal. First of all, make sure you have a brief interactive phone call or face-to-face meeting, after which you submit the proposal. Make sure you have a second interactive phone call or face-to-face visit to discuss the proposal and decide whether or not to move forward together.

• Brand the event documentation, and expand your Internet marketing strategy together. Once you decide to go forward, you may decide to do additional Internet marketing strategies. For example, you might co-brand the invitation or event announcement, the event confirmation e-mail, the event reminder e-mail, and the thank you e-mail. You might co-brand banners to post on each of your websites, other websites, individual newsletters, association newsletters, public announcement cites, among others.

• Be explicit about how to maintain the privacy of each business’s opt-in list, and at which point the contact information is shared. Never give your opt-in list to the sponsor, or vice versa. Instead, each company sends out the branded invitation to its own opt-in list. Be very clear about defining the point where the attendee gives permission to be added to the other party’s opt-in list. Is it when people register for the event? Or is it at the end of the live webinar event when you ask people to sign up for further contact? Make sure your privacy policy and op-in policy is clearly stated on your registration page.

• Always use a reliable, proven, and very interactive technology for your audio conference and Web conference. If the technology doesn’t work, you will look bad, and people will get frustrated. Therefore, select only major Web conference providers with a proven record of technology excellence. Make sure your technology does more than show slideshows. At minimum, you’ll need a polling feature, and an audience Q&A feature for large marketing events. If your technology also has a spontaneous response feature, it’s even better. You want to interact with your audience, and they want to interact with you. Technology must support that.

• Design your presentation for rich, vibrant interaction throughout. Nothing turns an audience off faster than Death by Presentation webinars. No matter how good your content is, if you want to keep your audience engaged, interaction has to happen throughout the presentation. The interaction can’t be to see if anybody is paying attention. Rather interaction must replace missing nonverbal cues and create a synergy between the speaker in the audience. Interaction quality is everything.

• Never do a hard-sales pitch in your lead-generating webinar. The single purpose of the lead-generating webinar is to get people to enjoy the experience so much that they opt in for further contact from you. If you turn the webinar into a sales webinar, people will be offended, and they will not opt-in for future contact. It is OK to do a soft-sell at the beginning and the end. That means that you can mention what your businesses do, very briefly. But it is a mistake to push product in this kind of a webinar. Instead, do the sales pitch in a follow-up sales webinar.

• Always give an incentive for people to stay to the end of the webinar. If you have delivered an engaging, interactive presentation, people will stay to the end. But give them an additional bonus, too, such as a free white paper, a free self-analysis, a free eBook, or a free gift (like an iPod). Freebies work!

The bonus of doing a successful Internet marketing event is that you can walk away from that one hour session with hundreds of highly qualified leads that have given you permission to contact them. They’re going to remember you, your business, and this event because you have given them an experience of interacting live with you.

As literature and writing evolve, more and more people join the successful ranks of bloggers, online article writers, and eBook authors. Are we not sure that what we are doing here today on the Internet is not omnipotent? I believe what we write on the Internet today, will in fact, be how history judges us tomorrow.

Is Blogging changing Literature and Writing in the present period? We know that online article writers are beginning to change content on the Internet and that people spend as much time on the Internet as they do reading newspapers and watch TV combined now.

Some might believe as others have said in the past that “what we say here today will be forgotten,” but will it? And will those who played a part in making history in cyber space be the ones who literally changed the face and the future of the written human culture? What say you?

The answer is indeed left for the historians and the entrepreneurial victors of these Internet venues and yet we are well on our way to making that history a reality with our own participation on Blogs, online article sites and content writing.

With this incredible responsibility before us; we must commit thinking time to the cause and understand the importance of this cross-roads in designing the future on the Internet. Let’s make a difference!

http://www.american.edu/lfs/tesol/In%20Press%20Paper–Future%20of%20Written%20Culture.pdf

I certainly hope this article is of interest and that is has propelled thought. The goal is simple; to help you in your quest to be the best in 2007. I thank you for reading my many articles on diverse subjects, which interest you.

So, you want to get a great Valentines Day present for them. Something that will show how much you care, how much you value them, how much your relationship and they mean to you. Buying some last minute flowers or chocolates won’t do that. That’s simply throwing money at Valentines Day, and there is no romance in that! There are two techniques I want you to consider in your gift. One is extreme personalization, and the other is surprise. If you can do both, so much the better! If only one, that’s fine too.

So, what do I mean by extreme personalization? Get them something they love that only you, or perhaps a very few people, know they would love! You need to know them well for this, or might pull it off by being sneaky and perhaps talking to old friends of theirs or family. Don’t let anyone know what you’re up too for maximum effect! Surprise is simple to understand, but harder to pull off. They are probably expecting a gift. Make it a very special gift they simply wouldn’t expect.

How about a cruise? That’s probably a big surprise! A surprise doesn’t have to be expensive however. You might for example cook them a meal, especially if they think you can’t cook (hint: it’s not hard and you get massive points for just trying!). Now I know some of you may not be able to pull off a great present every time, and the classic gifts are wonderful too.

To give a just-right gift is one of life’s great joys. We look for something that perfectly suits our loved one, and we can’t wait to present her with a gift that will make her face light up.

So much time goes in to finding the gift that, too often, the gift wrap is an afterthought, but you can take your gift giving to a whole new level by making the wrapping part of the experience.

You don’t have to be an artist or a crafter to wrap a magnificent and memorable present. Here are a few easy guidelines for wrapping beautiful gifts.

1. Match the giftwrap with the type of gift. If the gift comes in a box, it’ll be a cinch to wrap it in a high-quality wrapping paper or fabric, and tie with ribbons and bows. But if the item is oddly-shaped (and it isn’t practical to find a box), fill a gift basket with tinsel or raffia or straw and arrange the gifts on top.

Wrap the basket in colored cellophane, which you can find at party stores as well as many discount superstores. Cut a piece of cellophane two to three times as wide as the diameter of the basket. Place the basket in the center of the cellophane and gather the cellophane a couple of inches from the top. Tie with ribbon.

2. Match the style of the wrapping to the taste of the recipient. Think about his or her personal style (which you’ll find clues on by looking at how she dresses and how he decorates his home). Wrap the gift accordingly, whether it’s pastel colors or primary; rustic or classic or bold.

3. Customize the wrap as much as possible. If you use solid colored paper, tissue paper, or plain brown kraft paper (which you can buy inexpensively and in bulk from your nearest office superstore) you can use alphabet or themed rubber stamps to add a monogram or fun customized message to the wrapping.

4. Think in themes. If you are wrapping items for a gardening gift basket, use a flower pot to hold the goodies and tie a small trowel or packet of seeds to the bow at the top. If you are wrapping a gift for a baby, use a personalized baby blanket.

5. Think in layers. Now that you have a wrapped the gift basket or box, tie a small decorative item into the ribbon or bow. Try a few small Christmas bells, a sprig of ivy, or pine cones. For other times of year (or for younger recipients) tie on a small stuffed animal, even a piece of hard candy or a lollipop. For baby gifts, tie on a rattle or pacifier. For weddings, tie on real or faux flowers. As you shop for gifts, be on the lookout for small items you can add to your gift wrapping kit.

When we open a present that is artfully and creatively wrapped, it’s almost as much fun as seeing what’s inside! Enjoy your gift giving this holiday season.

Can you identify what each of these actions or activities have in common: 1. Motivate people to accept change; 2. Launch a new program; 3. Give a briefing at work; 4. Solicit donations for a charity; 5. Train people to use your product or service; 6. Unveil a new policy; 7. Give a sales presentation; 8. Introduce a speaker; 9. Calm angry employees; 10. Instill confidence in customers; 11. Honor a community leader; 12. Deliver new employee orientations; 13. Articulate your vision as a leader; 14. Review an employee’s performance; 15. Speak on behalf of your organization; 16. Call your dog by name.

The list could easily have dozens more ways that – you may have guessed – we
make presentations, daily! Okay, “call your dog by name” is stretching it. But, there
are many daily activities when we speak, that we present. Would you risk
ineffectiveness in ANY of these situations? I’d love to share some of the best 52 tips
with you from my professional speaking and training:

1- “Begin with the end in mind,” is habit number two of Stephen Covey. If you
present to anyone, what is the purpose of what you are talking about? Keep your
purpose in mind as you put the words together. See, hear and feel how you want
people to respond to what you say.

2- Know what you are talking about! You don’t have to experience everything you
want to say although it is always a powerful position to speak from. For example, if
you are calming an angry customer, speak from the perspective of how you feel
when you are angry. Feel, hear and see what anger means before you move to calm
them.

3 – Know your audience. One of the worst presentations I sat through was as a
member of a women business owners organization. The speaker was talking with us
as if we were employees! Talk about missing the mark. Survey enough information
about your audience to tailor your message.

4- Let the 76 trombones lead the hit parade. Both your first words and your
appearance as you first speak are important in the tone you will set for the rest of
what you say.

5 – Make a connection, build rapport, early on and through out with what you say.
Tell a story, or use an anecdote, that has universal appeal, not just application to a
few.

RIGHT ON!
Whatever you say to people, you are a visual aid. People are primarily interested in
what you have to say; not your visuals or fancy slides or overheads. You are the
message.

Copyright© Patricia Weber, http://www.prostrategies.com