Webinars can be cost-effective meeting option
It may be time to get into webinars.
Elgin's Lending Solutions Consulting, Inc., offers two service levels to the credit unions it serves: For $495 annually, a credit union can purchase a Gold membership that provides several key services - but not participation in LSCI's popular webinars.
To attend the next LSCI webinar, a Sept. 12 presentation on auto financing, a gold-level credit union will shell out $349.
LSCI's Platinum membership, $995 annually, includes four free webinars.
It's no wonder, then, that David Johnson, LSCI director of operations, says webinars have helped the company sell more than 500 Platinum memberships since 2004 - an annual cash flow boost of almost $500,000.
Thomas Compliance Associates, Inc., a Chicago bank compliance consultant with clients nationwide, conducted its first webinar series in May and June: 10 webinars, each beamed to 14 bank sites where any number of employees could attend without spending dollars to travel or losing time from the office. It helped that the subject was hot: November 1 compliance with new customer identity theft protection rules. (TCA, so you know, is a client of mine.)
"It's a no brainer," says Managing Principal Tom Thomas. "We got great feedback." But the real benefit for TCA - and perhaps for other smaller businesses that take up webinars - is the ability to reach large numbers of clients or prospects without the costs of renting a site and traveling to get there, and the inevitable employee downtime that comes with travel and seminar presentations.
Webinars, essentially power point presentations with what Thomas calls "voice over laptop" audio, give small businesses a state-of-the-art way to get information to clients; connect far-flung staff for regular meetings and updates; introduce new products or services without shipping that big blue widget extender and its caretakers to a remote site; and offer clients one-on-one services tailored to their needs.
"Absolutely," says Dave Davenport, president of Mother Network Guardians, LLC, an IT managed services company in Itasca. "This is what smaller companies should be doing. The downtime and cost involved with flying in for a meeting" make webinars the most cost-effective way to communicate.
Whether they're online seminars for clients or more mundane weekly staff meetings, effective webinars aren't automatic. Presentations, Davenport says, "need to be a little faster. You need to get the content going." You'll also have to work out - beforehand - the best way to handle interactive questions and comments.
Audio quality, especially amplification, can be an issue, says Wylli Foote, TCA's operations director, and you should work on branding opportunities - the ability, for example, to cycle a company commercial or other promotional message in the pre-meeting waiting time.
Both TCA and LSCI use WebEx to host their webinars. The only other significant webinar providers seem to be Gotomeeting and Live Meeting, a Microsoft service.