We’ve been hosting webinars for years now with varying degrees of success. Some are highly popular and we have many people listening in and then, on occasion, they don’t ignite enough interest and there may be just one or two people online. We take the view that it doesn’t matter how big the audience is – what we have to say is integral to our business and webinars are an excellent way to impart a message and gain new contacts. For us, it’s not a matter of numbers – we don’t need to attract 1000s of people per sitting. We can start to establish a relationship through a webinar and that’s what’s important to our business.

Here are 5 good reasons to host webinars:

1 If it has a true value with content that is up to date and interesting (never salesy), a webinar provides a great vehicle to connect with your potential audience

2 You might accidentally sell your services through giving great advice which is obviously a positive. What’s equally as useful though is strengthening your organisation’s brand through the credibility of your presentation and depth of knowledge

3 You can connect with people without being a threatening presence. There is an expectation at face-to-face meetings, often unspoken, of ‘what’s in this for me?’ that you simply don’t get in a webinar

4 You get to explain your concept/service/product in an approachable way that you can’t do through printed material

5 A webinar can be as interactive as you and your audience prefer. Some people like to ask questions, others prefer to type them on screen and sometimes, it might be a quiet affair with little communication

Most of all, they’re a good way for your audience to get closer to you and understand more about what you are offering without any pressure to sell or buy.

Give one or attend one – webinars are fun!

PS In case you haven’t had any experience of webinars… a webinar in an online seminar – sometimes you can see the presenter, sometimes you can see a presentation (like PowerPoint or similar) and other times you might get a webinar admin screen. You get instructions to ‘join the room’ and your presence is indicated by your name. That’s all there is to it!

We all have our favourite websites but are they effective?

When planning or reviewing your firm’s website, consider these 5 basic but essential top tips…

1 Are your contact details easy to find? Is your phone number on every page? Is your contact page clear and helpful?

2 Is your website mobile-friendly? From a user perspective, viewing a clunky old-fashioned website on a mobile phone is very difficult and Google now penalises you for it by down-ranking non-mobile friendly sites.

3 Is your site well laid out and easy to navigate? Is there a clear, consistent route through your site? Ask people from outside the firm for their feedback.

4 Does your website offer added value? It’s all very well having an attractive ‘shop window’ website as an alternative to your company brochure. However, if you can provide useful information, of any ilk, your website will provide reasons for people to return to it. Such attention magnets include useful tools, blogs, downloads, diary dates, reference charts and so on.

5 Does your website change? A good website will have refreshed content, images and information. You don’t need to change every part of it every week but I’d say you do need to update it and renew words and pictures every month at the very least. Look out for out of date information too – nothing is worse than promoting something that has been and gone!