• Setting business goals for your webcast
• Producing an engaging customer experience
• Ensuring the right people are attending
• Using analytics to increase ROI
• Leveraging your asset beyond the webcast launch date

To register and view, go to www.worktankseattle.com/bestwebcast.

1.   Provide a Destination - Create a well-designed, user friendly web destination for your on-demand webcasts.  Benefits of a webcast channel or library microsite:

• Provide responsive, desired follow up to attendees. Ten to twenty percent of them are going to email you looking for a link to the content anyway.
• Reach registrants who didn’t attend the webcast. Point them to the site in a follow up email and encourage them to watch the webcast they originally signed up for.
• Improve searchability of your company, product or service. Search engine optimize the microsite and increase the chances you’ll show up in Google, Bing and other search engine results.
• Continue gathering post-event analytics. You can gather valuable customer data such as topic webcast searches, webcast attendance and viewing behavior, and registration contact information.

2. Build Out a Targeted Content Library - As your company uses webcasting more frequently and to reach various target audiences, the webcasts can be categorized and targeted towards specific audience interests such as sales and marketing, training, product information or others. Some ways to strategically approach this include:

• Identify your customers’ “keep me awake at night” issues and develop a series addressing each one.
•  Periodically feature expert, well known speakers- these webcasts will have a longer shelf-life of demand.
• Provide offers to on-demand attendees such as free whitepapers, interactive Q&A sessions, or credit for training course completion.

3. Market the On-Demand Webcasts - Many companies do little more than post the webcast to their website and mention it in an email to their lists.  You can boost your webcast views easily through additional promotions. For example:

• Post a link to your social media channels such as Twitter, Linked In and Facebook.
• Provide a link in newsletters or other promotions covering relevant topics.
• Use the advertiser’s tricks of “The first 50 people to view this recorded webcast receive a free…” or “Available for a limited time only…”
• Create and share a podcast of the recording.

There you have it, some of our best tips and tricks gained from producing thousands of webcasts. Now to put our money where our mouth is, on August 17th we’ll present a video webcast of Webcasting Best Practices so you can see them in action.

1.   Get Them Through the Door - Your promotions were stellar.  Everyone who came across an ad or received an email went to your registration page to sign up for your webcast.  But once they got there, what happened?  The registration page can be a goldmine if set up right.  Best practices for registration pages include:

• A simple user experience - Long or complicated registration processes can reduce conversions to as little as 10 percent.
• Target audience specific messaging - The registration page is a promotions vehicle as well. Provide clear messaging about how the webcast is going to benefit them and increase your conversions.
• Lead qualification data capture - Ask a few non-invasive questions that allow you to categorize and assign leads. Only ask questions that support planned follow up activities though. If you are not going to mail them a postcard, you don’t need their address.

2. Engage Their Hearts and Minds - Don’t just talk at them, continue to seek feedback that you can use to increase sales, improve your product, or verify training efficacy.  Some ways to engage and gather valuable data during the webcast are:

• Conduct polls during the event and a survey at the end.  Research shows that attendees like to see these results too. Positive survey quotes regarding the webcast can be used in future promotions.
• Have a dedicated chat monitor who can respond to basic questions and identify good questions for the Q&A session.
• Capture all questions and answers for distribution to attendees and follow up by employees. 

3. Report and Follow Up - Post event reports provide information that can be used to improve upon all aspects of the next webcast, help with lead scoring and management, and provide specific follow up actions. Reporting and follow up best practices include:

• Promotions Effectiveness- Assess how many people you promoted to visited your registration page.  Twenty to fifty percent is usually a darn good metric.
• Registration Conversions- Once they got there, did they register for the event?  How many people who registered for the event attended?  Opt-in email lists usually generate 90% of registrants.
• Follow Up Actions - Email “Thank You’s” and “Sorry We Missed You’s” with links to the on demand version.  Respond directly to questions that weren’t answered in the Q&A session.  Capture relevant data in your CRM database.
• Post Event Reporting - If offered on demand, 30-60-90 day reports can help determine ongoing interest in the webcast content.

Next week, we’ll bring it all home.  Once webcasting becomes an integral part of your communications plan, we’ll talk about effective ways to build upon and extend the reach of these assets.  Then on August 17th, we’ll present a video webcast of Webcasting Best Practices so you can see these tips and tricks in action.

1. Assess Your Goals - Are you trying to train employees worldwide? Convey the features and benefits of a product to customers or partners? Motivate your sales team? Generate high quality leads? The connection you need to make, the information you need to convey, and of course, your budget all factor into the customer experience to create.  The typical webcast experiences from low to high cost and complexity are:

• Audio and Powerpoint presentation
• Audio, PowerPoint and low budget or web cam video
• Audio, PowerPoint and high quality video
• Audio, PowerPoint and high quality video simulcast with a live event

2. Put Polish on the Trusted Standby -  The lowest cost, least complex option is the teleconference with a corresponding PowerPoint presentation. This is the standard of multiple web conferencing and webcasting applications.  It can be difficult to maintain audience attention but some ways to engage them are: 

• Have a great presenter and a well-designed presentation conveying relevant information
• Utilize interactive features such as polling and Q&A
• Break up the PowerPoint with demos and white board sessions
• Offer an incentive or contest for watching through the end of the presentation
• Never use a speakerphone and turn off mobile devices

3. Add in Emotional Connection - Studies show people respond emotionally to images of people, and decisions, buying or otherwise, are usually made on emotion.  Adding video via a single camera or a web cam won’t add too much additional cost and can help create more of a connection.  In addition to the engagement tactics listed above be sure to also:

• Check your connection bandwidth - stuttering streaming video can be highly distracting
• Check the lighting and background - make sure you and your surroundings look professional
• Practice with the camera - look into the camera instead of at your computer screen or the audience won’t feel like you are paying attention to them

4.  Step it Up - When conducting a mission critical webcast where you absolutely have to provide a stellar customer experience, investing in professional-quality video can be worth it.  Building upon the tips and tricks of the first two experiences, to get the most out of high quality video:

• Hire an on-site professional crew to handle the lighting, cameras, and streaming
• Use a webcasting application that supports video well
• Use two cameras if you can - this will allow for switching between angles for better engagement, and easier editing later for on-demand replay

5. Extend a Live Event - Simulcast webcasts are a great way to extend the reach of your live event or conference.  The sessions can be streamed live or provided on demand and can add an extra revenue stream.  Some things to pay attention to are:

• Pre-load all of the session content into the webcast application and make sure all of the PowerPoint’s are rendering properly
• Work with a production partner obsessed with checking and rechecking all of the equipment before the event
• Make sure the audio and picture quality are on par with the live attendees’ experience

Next week, we’ll talk about analytics and reporting on webcasts, and how best to leverage your asset on an ongoing basis.  Then on August 17th, we’ll present a video webcast of Webcasting Best Practices so you can see these tips and tricks in action.

Want to increase sales 22-70%? Reduce the cost of a meeting by 98%? Other companies have used webcasts to do this through high-quality attendance.  But it takes promoting your webcast to get them there.

1. Make Sure Your Webcast is Awesome - first you need to make sure your webcast pays off the promise.  The customer experience must be compelling and relevant.  Some best practices to follow:

• have a well-known or charismatic presenter
• design a darn good PowerPoint presentation
• know the audience and speak to their pain or pleasure
• include high-quality audio and video
• include a contest or giveaway
• engage the audience with interactive features such as polling, Q&A, surveys, and disucssion questions

2. Invite Quality Attendees - more than 90% of webcast registrants come from opt-in email lists.  These are people who think they will benefit from what you have to say.  Here are some common sources of effective lists:

• your own in-house lists
• purchased or rented email lists of narrow target audiences
• partner/speaker/affiliate lists

3. Multi-channel Promotions - there are multiple, low cost ways to get the word out.  The general rule is that most people register within ten days of an event.  Start planning your promotions a month before and utilize the channels available to you.  Common and effective promotions techniques for webcasts include:

• email - the cornerstone of the promotions campaign, send out a series: the invitation 7-10 days before, a confirmation upon registration, reminders one week and 24 hours before the event, and a post-event follow up
• your website - publish an ad or an announcement on your website and blog
• ads and announcements in partner/speaker/affiliate/industry publications, websites and newsletters
• social media - create events pages on Facebook and Linked In, tweet about it, and post the event on digg, reddit, and StumbleUpon
• press releases - prweb.com is a great place to post press releases, and there are also industry-focused press release distribution sites
• your branded registration page - a great place to “sell” the webcast, make sure it is optimized for search engines.  Also, make it easy for folks to register and conduct some usability testing as poorly designed registration pages can limit conversions to 10% or less.

4. Success! - if you do it right, attendance could be as high as 20-50% of your total target audience. (Congratulations!) Plan ahead, choose the right lists, promote via available channels and you can achieve the goals you desire.

Next week, we’ll talk about how to produce a webcast that creates the customer experience you are looking for.  Then on August 17th, we’ll present a video webcast of Webcasting Best Practices so you can see these tips and tricks in action.

Setting Your Webcast Up for Success

Planning one webcast or a series of them?  Here are some key planning steps to ensure your webcast is the most successful ever.

1. Business goals - Make sure they are clear. Know what you want to accomplish, and that can help with decisions for the following steps. Some examples of business objectives for webcasts are to:

• nurture leads and generate sales conversions
• communicate with employees
• train sales teams or partners
• provide product demonstrations

2. Lead time - Did you know it can sometimes take a month or more to build demand? Once you have your business goals defined, make sure you publicize the event in time to get your audience to attend. According to Forrester, over 80% of marketers rate webinars as one of their top three tactics for lead generation. But first you have to get the leads there. Next week we’ll talk about how to best promote your webcast.

3. Customer Experience - Think about what type of experience you need to provide your audience.  It’s likely they will be multi-tasking so the key is to keep them engaged as much as possible. Ways you can do this are to have:

• a charismatic speaker
• a compelling and well-designed presentation
• high-quality audio and video
• Interactive features such as polling, Q&A, and discussion questions 

Once you decide on the experience and define your budget, the appropriate webcasting platform can be selected.  In week three we’ll talk about the nuts and bolts of producing webcasts.

4. Leverage Your Assets - A webcast can continue to generate returns long after it has aired. Registration services offer multiple ways to interact with and solicit feedback from your audience. They allow you to:

• quantify event registrant volume
• determine audience demographics
• solicit specific feedback
• communicate with attendees pre- and post- event

In week four we’ll talk about evaluating your webcast(s) through analytics. 

5. Now what? - Keep the momentum going strong with post-event customer interaction. Good post-event decisions can lead to long-term returns. Webcasting is a very inexpensive way to communicate with customers, employees, and partners– even long after the event.  While live events have higher, longer lasting initial audiences, replays of the event on-demand can increase the number of viewings exponentially. If events are going to be offered on-demand, creating a well designed webcast channel or library can keep viewers coming back for more. In week five we will fully explore post-event decisions.

And then on August 17^th, we’ll present a video webcast of Webcasting Best Practices so you can see these tips and tricks in action.

Corey Pilkington, Director of Client Services, says “All three of these projects really demonstrate the versatility and talent of the Worktank team.  Three clients with three different objectives and we delivered amazing results. I am proud to be honored with these awards.”

Founded in 1979, the Telly Awards is the premier award honoring outstanding local, regional, and cable TV commercials and programs, the finest film and video productions, and groundbreaking web commercials, videos and films. Winners represent the best work of the most respected advertising agencies, production companies, television stations, cable operators, and corporate video departments in the world.

A prestigious judging panel of 350 accomplished industry professionals, each a past Winner of a Silver Telly and a member of the Silver Telly Council, judged the competition, upholding the historical standard of excellence that Telly represents. The Silver Council evaluated entries to recognize distinction in creative work - entries do not compete against each other - rather entries are judged against a high standard of merit. Less than 10% of entries are chosen as Winners of a Silver Telly, our highest honor. Other outstanding work is awarded a Bronze Telly. For a complete list of Silver Telly Council Members, please visit www.tellyawards.com.

The Web Conference

The web conference is like an in-person meeting in a conference room - a group of people come together to get some work done.  There is probably someone who owns the agenda, but the format of the meeting is collaborative.  Applications such as Live Meeting, WebEx, and GotoMeeting are popular tools to use for web conferencing. In addition to audio and PowerPoint presentation capabilities, they contain a variety of interactive features such as white board functionality, chat, file transfer, and polling that can simulate and enhance the in-person meeting experience.

Web conferences are cost effective ways for geographically distributed teams to work together, and permit a much higher level of collaboration than a phone conference can.  They can be self-managed as long as one of the attendees knows the functionality of the application, and can be rescheduled for network outages or other technical difficulties with minimal risk. An added benefit is that they can be recorded and referred to later.

The Webcast

The webcast is like a TV broadcast - pre-recorded or live content is distributed to a large number of viewers.  One or a few people “own” the content and the audience experience.  The typical goals of corporate communication webcasts are to disseminate corporate messages, influence opinions, or train large groups of people.  Some examples of these types of webcasts are All Hands Meetings, HR and Benefits Updates, Compliance and Regulatory Information, Reorganization Announcements, Field Sales Trainings, Analyst Briefings, Corporate Brand Adherence Trainings, Crisis Communications, Press Announcements, and New Product Demos. 

Using webcasting for these types of communications has many benefits.  It is much more cost effective than in-person meetings, it is more persuasive than conference calls and emails, and it allows the collection of useful information about the audience.  Information can include who signs up, who attends, how long they attend, when they drop off, and what the common questions are. 

The main thing to keep in mind about these types of webcasts is that failure can be highly damaging.  While many of the web conferencing applications can be used for webcasts, there are important factors to consider beyond hosting a simple web conference.  Is the webcast being marketed and promoted properly to ensure that attendees will show up?  Is the registration process streamlined and secure?  Is the video and PowerPoint content high quality and compelling? Will the audience be engaged when the most important information is covered (at least)?  Is the presenter polished and passionate?  Are there any technical issues the audience may encounter?  Can the presenter present and solve technical issues at the same time?  Is there an audience follow up plan?  Will the webcast be available on demand? Where will it live?  How will people know it’s there?

When the webcast has to go off absolutely without a hitch, it is a good idea to work with a professional services firm that can provide consultation and support through the life cycle of the webcast.  Some considerations when deciding on which professional services firm to hire are their technical level of expertise with the appropriate webcasting platform, their customer service and responsiveness, and their ability to consult and support through the entire process from marketing to replay.  Basically they should eliminate any concerns other than the presenter engagement with the audience.  That way the focus can be on communicating the message and not on solving issues.

Established in 2001, Worktank is a digital marketing and online events firm. As conversation advocates, Worktank designs and builds digital communication platforms and tools that enable meaningful and relevant conversations with a target audience to achieve measurable goals. Worktank leverages its core areas of expertise in sales training and incentives, product launch, customer outreach, and internal communications. Worktank’s clients include Microsoft and AT&T, among other significant brands. For more information about Worktank, please visit www.worktankseattle.com.

Worktank www.worktankevents.com is the experienced leader in webcasting and online event management services. From event planning and production through follow-up, we provide dedicated support that frees you to deliver a professional, meaningful, and relevant message to your audience. For more information call 206-254-0950 or email info@worktankevents.com.

For webcasts presented in applications such as Live Meeting, WebEx and GotoMeeting, the PowerPoint presentation is the key visual aid used to convey ideas.  While the enthusiasm and clarity of the presenter counteracts a badly designed PowerPoint to a degree, a webcast will have the most impact if the presenter’s ability to emotionally connect with and tell a good story to a virtual audience is supported by a compelling presentation.  There are three main factors to consider when creating a PowerPoint presentation – audience behaviors, application limitations, and story and design.

Audience Attendance Behaviors

In a live webcasting environment, there are important audience attendance behaviors that must be taken into account.  The first five minutes of a webcast involve people logging in, solving technical issues, and running late.  Any critical information should not be presented during this time.  The first five minutes should include introductions, speaker bios, an overview of the upcoming presentation, and ice breakers.

Attendees typically exit early as well.  All key information should be presented five to ten minutes after the webcast starts and revisited again before the webcast ends.  Use the end of the session for questions and answers, feedback, or other audience interactions. 

If the time a live webcast is presented bleeds into the lunch hour, attendees may bolt mid-way.  This is something to consider when scheduling a live webcast across multiple time zones. Offering giveaways to attendees who stay till the end or complete a post-event survey can help keep people from logging off before the event is over.

Application Limitations

The webcast applications have limitations on how well they support PowerPoint.  For example web friendly fonts resolve better and less common fonts may not resolve correctly.  Also animations don’t resolve correctly, and should be broken out over a series of slides.  Video embedded into PowerPoint slides will not work in most applications.  Once a PowerPoint is loaded into the webcasting application, every slide should be reviewed to ensure the encoding didn’t cause strange formatting changes.  It may take some trial and error to figure out the idiosyncrasies of each application, but a company that offers professional webcasting support services like Worktank www.worktankevents.com can identify the pitfalls up front.

Story and Design

In structuring the PowerPoint, the presenter should develop a story outline first to organize his/her thoughts around how ideas need to be conveyed.  Once the story arc is developed, the presentation content should support the verbal presentation and not be used as a script to read from.  Words and images can be constructed in multiple ways, and working with a designer who can convey ideas visually can mean the difference between another boring old PowerPoint and audience full engagement.  Here are some examples of before and after PowerPoint slides created by Artitudes Design http://www.artitudesdesign.com/. It’s clear that the designed “after” slide will support the presentation more effectively.

Before:

After:

In Support of the Audience Experience

In-person meetings and presentations offer personal connections between the presenter and the audience.  With a webcast the connection points are often just a presenter’s voice and the PowerPoint presentation.  Extra effort must be made to engage the audience and keep them focused on the presentation.  It is easy to check email or surf the web during a presentation and if the content is boring that is what will happen.  Even highly relevant content must be presented in a compelling way both verbally and visually to keep the audience’s attention.

Xeko, an eco-adventure entertainment platform developed by Matter Group, provides an incredible tool for kids to have fun and learn about science and conservation issues. Through its four mission sets, which include Madagascar, China, Indonesia and Costa Rica, Xeko’s inventive game takes kids through a journey of beautiful wilderness and wild animals, teaching the importance of sustainability, conservation and biodiversity.

We developed Xeko’s new interactive Web community, greatly enhancing the game’s experience by extending it well beyond the box and cards sets, allowing kids to connect with peers from all over the world, take and create quizzes and accumulate points.

“Xeko is an incredible resource for educating children, and we’re proud to help Matter Group expand the game’s reach,” says associate creative director Carrie Byrne. “This project included everything that we’re passionate about at Worktank: creativity, innovation and connecting people through stories and technology.”

The launch is part of our broader effort to expand into casual gaming, where we see a huge opportunity. From desktops to laptops to mobile, casual gaming is exploding. Not as time-consuming or complex as many massively multiplayer online games (MMOs), casual gaming appeals more to consumers who have a little time to kill while waiting for their next appointment or chore to begin.

Casual gaming represents a huge market of fun and easy to learn video games that can be played across mobile, PC, Mac and console platforms. Companies such as BigFish Games and PopCap Games cater to this audience, offering subscriptions or downloads allowing consumers to easily access simple yet engrossing games that they can play in short bursts.

“Beyond the hardcore gamers, there’s a huge audience out there that wants to play games but don’t want to spend their entire day doing it,” said Amy Tucker, CEO and inventor of Xeko. “Casual gaming is a growing market, and we believe that Worktank is well-positioned to help the industry connect with consumers.”

And with our experience in consumer product launches, online media consumption and the recent Xeko project, we bring a unique set of skills to the casual gaming industry. We have a deep background in crafting online experiences, including UX capability, video production and social media, and we’re an expert at bringing consumer brands to the market.

“With our experience and commitment to casual gaming, we’re a great partner to this industry,” says CEO Melinda Partin. “This market will be a key focus of growth this year.”