The Costco Connection

BY LONNIE PACELLI

IMAGINE THIS scenario: An audience of

400 men and women have signed up to hear you share how your small business can help them solve their problems. Every one of the attendees is a potential customer who could be from anywhere in the country. You deliver a concise, entertaining and relevant presentation that demonstrates your unique value proposition to your prospective customers. At the end of your presentation, hundreds of the attendees sign up to receive additional information about you and your company. You wrap up your presentation, walk out of your home office, go into your kitchen and eat breakfast with the satisfaction of knowing your prospect list has grown by hundreds of potential customers.

Congratulations. You have just delivered a killer webcast.

The ability to reach so many new prospects simultaneously from New York to Los Angeles to Seattle to Orlando, all from the convenience of one’s home office, is mind-bog-gling. But for today’s small-business owner, the internet is the great equalizer and can make even the smallest business look big. And webcasting is a strategic weapon that any small business can use to reach customers previously viewed as unreachable.

What is webcasting?

Simply put, webcasting is like having your own television channel on the internet. Attendees can “tune in” to your webcast channel, where you can deliver live or prerecorded audio and video content. To transmit through your webcast channel, you use special software that is designed specifically for the purposes of webcasting. You can do webcasting one-on-one in a meeting format or do a broad-reach webcast (sometimes called a webinar) for hun-

Casting your web

dreds of attendees.

The coolest thing about webcasting is it is very cost-effective (typically less than $100 per month) and can be done using basic computer equipment. Because the cost of entry is so low, you can experiment with webcasting and decide if the return is worth your time.

Considering taking the webcasting plunge? Check out the following tips to help you drive results through a practical webcasting strategy.

Experiment with webcast tools. Webcast tools like Skype for Business (various plans; products.office.com/en-us/skype-for-business), GoToWebinar ($89 per month, up to 100 attendees; gotomeeting.com/Webinar) and WebEx ($69 per month, up to 100 attendees; webex.com) can get you up and running quickly. Each of these offers either a trial or free option to allow you to play around before deciding. Take some time to see what the tools have to offer before making an investment.

Have something compelling to say. You can have the greatest webcasting technology on the planet, but if you come off like a wet noodle with a reheated message you’ll fail to attract an audience that is willing to listen to you. Your message needs to be concise, be relevant and solve some problem your audience has.

A neat feature of webcasting tools is that you can display whatever is on your computer desktop to your webcast audience. This means that, rather than sticking to just a PowerPoint presentation, you can show a spreadsheet, a web page, photos, text and more. If you can see it on your desktop, you can broadcast it via a webcast. Using several tools during your webcast not only helps you underscore your message better but also is more interesting to the audience.

Have an easy-to-maintain website. Key
to your webcast strategy is having an easy-
to-maintain website that you can update
with your webcast information. For exam-
ple, when you decide to do a webcast, create
a web page with the webcast information
and sign-up instructions included. As you
get closer to the webcast date, update the
page with last-minute information. After
the webcast, update the web page with a link
to the recorded webcast so that anyone
unable to see the webcast live can view the
recording later. If the idea of creating and
updating web pages intimidates you, check
out Weebly or WordPress ( weebly.com;
wordpress.com). Both have free offerings
and intuitive tools to help you get a website
up and running fast.

Publicize your webcast. Just as you need to advertise your small business, you’ve got to publicize your webcast and draw people in. Certainly, publicizing it on your website is great, but, depending on your web traffic, it might not be enough to attract a large audience. Be aggressive with email and social media to help publicize your webcast. Don’t be delusional about expecting people to stand in e-line to attend your webcast; you’ve got to get the word out.

Something else to think about is whether to charge for your webcast. You’ll need to decide whether you want to make money from the webcast or use it as a promotional tool to sell other products or services.