15 Ways to Promote Your Webinar

By Donna Gunter,
the Online Biz Resource Queen™,
and owner of OnlineBizU.com

dgunter at sohobizsolutions com
www.getmoreclientsonline.com

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Teleclasses, also referred to as teleseminars, teleconferences, and webinars (with the added component of seeing a presentation) provide a platform for online service business owners to connect virtually with prospects around the world via a teleconference bridge line and share information with them. Many service professionals use paid or free teleseminars to grow their lists, establish their expertise, and deliver training and coaching programs. It's an ideal platform for information delivery, as both the presenter nor attendee can listen from the comfort of their home, office or car, without any of the headaches of having to be present for a live, in-person event.

Once you have created a compelling description and list of learning points for your teleseminar, how do you promote your teleclass and find participants? Here are 15 ways for you to promote your upcoming teleclass:

1. On your web site. Regardless of your reason for offering a teleclass, you need to create a search-engine optimized page on your own web site that contains an opt-in box where interested participants can opt into your list and get the call-in info for your teleclass. This is the landing page to which all of your promotional efforts should link. You may want to use a hover ad promoting your teleclass that pops up when visitors land on your site, or use a graphic popup.

2. Your ezine and blog. Be sure to post an invitation to your teleclass within your email newsletter as well as on your blog. When I'm offering a teleclass, I make the post about the teleclass my featured post on my blog so that it shows up above all other posts while I'm taking registrations for the teleclass.

3. Events on social networking sites. Both Linkedin and Facebook permit you to create an event (your teleseminar) and invite your contacts and friends to the event. On Facebook, you'll want to remind those friends who have RSVp'd "yes, I'll attend" to go to your teleseminar opt-in page to register. You may also belong to some niche-specific, target-market-specific, or business-to-business social networking sites which will allow you to create an event and invite your followers to your event.

4. Press releases. You can submit this online via a fee-based service like PRWeb.com. Don't bother with the free online press release services, as your release doesn't go anyplace other than on the site to which it has been submitted, with the exception of PRLog.com, which has been shown to give releases high search engine ranking. Send your release out to your local media list, as well.

5. Affiliate Marketing. Create a special email, blog posting, or Twitter campaign that your affiliates can send out to their lists to promote your event. Remind them to use their affiliate link for your program so that they get proper credit for any registrations. Even if you're holding a free teleclass, your affiliate program should let you to create a special affiliate link to your teleclass registration page for your affiliates and track those registrations and credit the affiliate for any purchases made from your upsell promotion on the teleclass.

6. Article Marketing. If you're planning a free preview teleclass where you will offer an upsell to a paid program, begin writing articles and submitting articles on your teleseminar at least 30 days prior to your event. In your resource box, you can offer your free teleclass as your client attraction device, and send readers to your opt-in page as your call to action.

7. Email signature. If you correspond frequently via email or participate in online discussion forums or lists, create an email signature either in your email program or as part of your discussion forum profile that specifically promotes this teleclass and sends recipients to your opt-in page.

8. Viral report. Write a special PDF report or white paper about the topic of your teleseminar and give it away free of charge to your list and social networking friends with an opt-in box. Offer your list members and followers the opportunity to give it away by using a viral report brander. Then your list members can personalize it with their name, web site, and affiliate link. Be sure that the report links back to your teleseminar opt-in page.

9. Discussion lists and forums. Some lists and forums permit members to overtly promote their products and services on the forums, while others have separate forums and lists specifically for those purposes. Be sure you know the rules of the list before sending a promotional post. And, if no overt promotion is permitted, post other comments to the list/forum and use your email signature to help you promote your teleclass as described in #7 above.

10. Strategic alliance partners. Ask colleagues with whom you have a relationship and who publish ezines and blogs to pass along your teleclass information to their readers. Or, you can use DirectoryofEzines.com to help you identify ezines that reach your target market and request that they let their readers know about your upcoming teleclass. If you offer a free event and promise to deliver valuable content, you may have an easier time getting ezine and blog editors to help you promote. Or, offer them the opportunity to become an affiliate and outline your commission structure to help motivate them to help you promote your program.

11. Speaking. If you regularly speak to groups and organizations, mention your teleclass to them at your next speaking gig. Or, ask colleagues if they will sponsor you as a special guest to their list to offer your teleseminar. Research radio talk shows on BlogTalkRadio.com or podcasts on iTunes.com and contact the host to interview you about the topic of your teleclass.

12. Purchased advertising. You can do this by buying classified ads in ezines that cater to your target market, as discovered in #10 above. Or, you can create a pay-per-click (PPC) campaign on Google, Yahoo, or MSN. Most of these programs let you set a daily/weekly/monthly budget that you can begin and end as you choose. If you time your teleclass during the time when people are actively searching for information on your topic (like "home owner tax tips" in April before the IRS tax deadline), the greater the likelihood that your PPC ad will yield results for you.

13. Audio and video marketing. Create videos about the topic of your teleclass using your webcam, video camera or screencast software and post to the major video sites via TubeMogul or TrafficGeyser. You can also create a Powerpoint presentation about your teleclass and upload it to Slideshare.com. Lastly, you can create a viral video or movie about your teleclass topic and ask your colleagues and strategic alliance partners to pass that to their lists, as well.

14. Teleclass promotion sites. There are a number of places where you can post your teleclass either free or for a fee. Paid listing sites include:

Teleclass.com

24/7 Coaching: (must be a paid member)

PlanetTeleclass.com

FullCalendar.com: (post in the San Francisco area because they seem to have the media most open to posting teleclass info)

Solo-E.com: (you have to pay to be an expert here to post your teleclass)

Free listing sites include:

SeminarAnnouncer.com

CraigsList.org: (can only post in one city without being penalized and removed from the listings)

Conference Call University: (You do have to place a link to their site on your event page)

FindFreeSeminars.com

AllConferences.com

Also search Yahoo Groups and Google Groups for any teleclass announcement lists.

15. Track your results. You need to know what promotional efforts are bringing you the best results. Create a specific URL where you can track the click-throughs on any promotion. Or, use a tracking service like Hypertracker.com to track your results.

Add teleclasses to your marketing mix. Watch your business gain credibility and see how quickly your list grows!

Published - March 2010

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