What is A Webinar?
A webinar is an event done online and hosted by a company or organization in which a message will be broadcast in selected individuals or groups through the Internet. The term is a combination of the words “web” and “seminar”. Webinar marketing allows companies and organizations to promote products as well as inform individuals and groups on the Internet.
Basically, a webinar allows a speaker from the company to share presentations, web pages, videos, and other multimedia materials to viewers who can be located in different parts of the world. Webinars are often composed of audio and visual components. The visual part of webinars can be shared through online browsers or through a more defined tool for web conferencing. The audio component of webinars can be channelled through common computer programs such as media players or via communication devices such as telephone.
Webinars also allow the hosts to interact with an audience, so they can ask the moderators some questions simultaneously using email or instant messaging programs. Just consider webinars as a fast way to attend a conference without travelling to a certain point of assembly. Through your computer or mobile device, you can receive information (similar to conference calls) while also viewing the slide presentations. Usually, you cannot see the moderator and others who are attending the program, and they cannot also see you unless you have a web conferencing tool that enables your webcam.
Most webinars would require you to sign-up before the conference day in order to reserve a space in the call and for you to have enough time in reading instruction in joining the program on the scheduled day and time. Normally, you will receive an email confirmation, which you must keep handy because you need the important details such as the time of the conference and even password to access the webinar. During the sign-up, you may need to provide basic information about yourself such as name, address, company affiliation, age, educational background, etc. The registration phase may also require you to answer several questions that can help the moderators prepare for the expectations of the audience.
Before the scheduled time, you need to sign on to the URL that is specific for the conference call as stated in the confirmation email you receive. You may need to download certain software or application to your computer, so make certain that your download settings will allow the process. The software will enable your computer to access the presentation slides, in addition to the real-time changes that will be made during the presentation.
In many instances, before the conference call starts, you also need to dial a conference call line through telephone and you may also be required to enter the pass code provided for that particular program.
Different kinds of webinar software provide different features, but more often than not, you can easily ask questions for the presenter as well as make comments through telephone. There are cases when you need to respond during the call to answer poll questions, in which you can also observe the responses of other participants.
If you have a slow internet connection, you can still listen to the audio component but it will be like a conference call, because you need to call a telephone number. In most instances, you need to pay for the call time. If you have a mobile phone plan, it is best to use it so that you will not incur too much expense for long-distance calls.
Some webinars are now done through Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) that makes it easy to hear the audio program over the computer online without the need to dial in a phone. This is now a common feature of new computers and often used in the corporate setting.
The Webinar Marketing Process
Many businesses are now using webinars when they need to present ideas to a group of individuals without the need to gather them in one place. This process called webinar marketing involves the presenters creating the presentation and saving the data to a web service or preparing the software, which will be used for the presentation.
The audience for webinars need to log into the website that simultaneously hosts the conference call. The user will need to log into the web hosting site at a certain time to access the live presentation. You may need to install a flash player into your computer for full multimedia experience. This innovative process integrates interactive technologies of web presentations, teleconferencing and the World Wide Web to provide a cheaper way of conducting seminars.
Hosting Services
The rise of webinars is underpinned by the fact that there are companies today that are offering hosting services, which allow small businesses and organizations to give web presentations even if they don’t own the required tools and equipment.
Growing organizations that now require holding seminars online may find that it is more effective to buy the required hardware that to use a hosting service. The factors that affect the price include the number of people to be included in the seminar, bandwidth, and the service that the moderators choose to host the conference.
Benefits of Holding Webinars
Holding webinars can be a good way to develop business or simply make a single presentation to individual clients, or to colleagues who are located around the world. In the last five years, we have seen the rise of high-speed internet to an ever-increasing percentage of the population that is easy to perform live audio and video feed.
One of the main benefits of a webinar is that it allows people from around the world to participate in the same presentation simultaneously through the World Wide Web. Many companies are saving thousands of dollars every year, because they have cut down on travel expenses that are normally incurred when they require their people across the globe to come into one place and attend an important gathering.
Another great thing about webinars is that they are live. Rather than creating a presentation and disseminate it through email, webinars also allow presenters to easily provide their presentations to their audience in real-time. This makes it easy for the presenters to receive automatic feedback and immediate sales through the webinar marketing process. If the audience have questions, they can easily get immediate answers while the moderators are present to give answers. However, some webinars can be pre-recorded and broadcast at a different time using the latest software products.