I need some guinea pigs for my inaugural webinar!

[Neville Bailey]

I provide remote desktop support for Pastel Accounting, and I have developed a client base across the country.

I have now decided to provide Pastel-related webinars as part of my offering. Some webinars will have a marketing slant, with demonstrations of certain add-on Pastel modules, and they will be free-to-join. Other webinars will be of a training nature, focusing on specific areas of Pastel, and they will require a registration fee from attendees.

However, before I launch my first "proper" webinar, I would like to practice and refine the process with a few guinea pigs (no charge of course).

I plan to use Pastel's new Project Tracking module as the topic of the webinar, and I don't expect it to take longer than 30 minutes or so. The webinar software that I will be using does not have VOIP, so I will be talking via Skype, so the attendees will need to have Skype and join me as a Skype contact.

I have place for 10 attendees. If you are willing to be one of my guinea pigs, please email me at neville@accountingsoftwaresupport.co.za. I will decide on the date and time of the webinar once I have assessed the response to this message, and I will communicate to all respondents via email.

[Dave A]

How'd you go filling those "seats", Neville?

[Neville Bailey]

Oh well, so much for that!

I had 7 potential attendees, of which two let me know that they could not make it for the scheduled webinar at 7pm this evening.

Then, after numerous trial runs with Margaret, I was all set and ready at the appointed time.

One attendee clocked in on time and the other 4 were nowhere to be seen.

Then I got a message from one to be excused, and one other said he could not log in.

The others are still missing in action...

Seems like this webinar story is not as simple as I hoped!

[Dave A]

I'm sorry to hear that.

In my experience you generally get a fair amount of attrition with physical meetings too, but generally not to that sort of level.

I was asking for two reasons, one out of curiosity (which you have now sated - thanks) and two on the off-chance you hadn't held the "event" yet. I would have happily sat in, but only got to reading the thread this morning afternoon. (Yes - I've been truly chilling out for this holiday )

[Mark Atkinson]

I think you will find that if you build up an email list and then advertise your webinars via email you might find a higher attendance rate. I'd think you would need quite a large subscriber list, though.

I can't imagine that the "conversion" rates are very high, though.

Just a suggestion, instead of featuring modules in Pastel - what about a "Pastel tips and tricks" webinar where you discuss neat shortcuts or more efficient ways of doing things that people may not have known. Also always good to have a Q&A during/at the end of the webinar. I'd think that that might be slightly more attractive to your potential audience.

Once you have established yourself as a person who runs great webinars, people will be more inclined to join webinars relating to other topics (such as module showcases).

[Neville Bailey]

I think you will find that if you build up an email list and then advertise your webinars via email you might find a higher attendance rate. I'd think you would need quite a large subscriber list, though.

I do have an mailing list (MailChimp) but I did not want to mail them yet, until I had tested the process with some tame guinea pigs! BTW, are you on my mailing list?

Just a suggestion, instead of featuring modules in Pastel - what about a "Pastel tips and tricks" webinar where you discuss neat shortcuts or more efficient ways of doing things that people may not have known. Also always good to have a Q&A during/at the end of the webinar. I'd think that that might be slightly more attractive to your potential audience.

That's a very good suggestion Mark - thank you!

[Mark Atkinson]

I don't believe I am on your mailing list. (I'm subscribed to your blog, though.)

Hope it goes better the next time. Have you decided on a webinar system to use?

[Neville Bailey]

I don't believe I am on your mailing list.

Well, then I suggest that you subscribe! Here is the link.

Have you decided on a webinar system to use?

The best (free) one so far, in my opinion, is Mikogo and that is the one that I was hoping to test-drive this evening. It's biggest downside is that it does not have VOIP - hence the requirement to use Skype in tandem.