How To Be Proactive When Planning Teleclassesby Tiffany Johnson
by Tiffany Johnson
The other day I attempted to participate in a teleseminar and one of the biggest mistakes that could possibly be made was made.
The event was scheduled to start at 2:00pm Eastern. It didn’t start until 30 minutes later. I couldn’t believe it considering who was giving the teleseminar.
When they finally came on the line, turns out they had been there all along, except somehow they forgot to take all of the attendees off of hold.
This is where I’d expect a sincere and genuine apology. One was not given except "We’re very sorry and sometimes things happen and well this is life so…"
What can you do to ensure you have a successful Teleclass?
- Have someone to warm up everyone that comes on the line for your event.
Many people will tune in or call in and expect to hear something other than hold music prior to your event. What better way to get the audience relaxed and comfortable than to have someone waiting there to greet them and meet them as they come on the line.
Imagine walking into a large meeting room and no one said anything as you entered. Instead you and everyone else wondered around lost because there was no direction given.
Your greeter is there to give some direction and welcome your guest. Choose someone other than yourself to handle this so you can be calm and ready when the event starts.
- Update or remove the event page immediately following your event.
It’s important to know ahead of time what you plan to do with your event in regards to those who will show up after the fact. There will be people who may not open their email until after the event is over. How will you serve them? Will you make the event available for replay? Or will you charge for the recording and maybe even the transcription?
Whatever you decide, update your event page accordingly. If you are not sure what you want to do with the event, remove the page. If you have a WordPress website this can easily be done by changing the status of your page from ‘Published’ to ‘Draft’ until you are ready for the next step.
- Update your follow up messages.
Depending on what you have decided for your event, you will need to update your follow up messages after your event is over. If you are offering the replay, you’ll want to revise the email to reflect that. Otherwise those who sign-up will receive call-in information for a call that has already taken place. You don’t want anyone to feel like they are late, missed out, or participating in something old that you don’t intend for them to receive.
If your event will not be offered as a replay for anyone new signing up you don’t have to update your follow up message if you plan to take the page down.
- Have a plan regarding what you will do after your event.
It’s very important to know in advance what you want to do with your recorded event. Will you put it on hold until you’re able to work out details? Will you make the replay available for those who participated and signed up? Will you make the replay available to those who don’t show up until after the event?
By having a plan you can move quickly and smoothly to the next step in regards to your event, follow up messages, and website pages related to the event.
This may seem like a lot to do and think about which is why it falls through the cracks. The final tip can help eliminate all of that.
- Do not try to do it all yourself.
As mentioned in #1, you want to have someone on the call with you as attendees are coming on the line. This person or someone else could also be a part of the planning phase for your event to ensure everything is in place.
You may have already experienced being overwhelmed by everything that’s needed before, during, and after your event. However, when you have someone working with you who is able to look at it from the attendees point of view it makes things a lot easier.
Your focus will be on the actual event, your content, handouts, etc. The last thing you want to think about is whether attendees can hear you once the call has started or if the event pages and messages have been updated after the event is over.
When hosting your teleclasses see it from the perspective of your audience. Be aware technical glitches do occur, however it’s all about your response. While there are things that may come up that are completely out of your control being proactive helps.
Now it’s your turn, please share in the comments below. What tips do you have for someone doing a teleclass for the first time?
Tiffany, great article with step-by-step plans of handling a teleseminar. I appreciate your wise insight to details. I, too, have been on teleseminars, webinars, etc. that were not presented professionally for various reasons. Thanks for sharing helpful information.
My pleasure:) I finally finished listening to the replay and the content was actually good. Too bad it started out the way it did.
I was on the same teleseminar! I kept checking my email to make sure I had the time right. Couple of things that bothered me about this teleseminar besides that:
1) they should have immediately said (once they went live) they apologized and to make up for the mistake they would send everyone the recording OR they would reschedule it and do it another day.
2.) I sent in 2 questions – never got an answer.
3.) They talked about making the most of the teleseminar with your prospects yet they did not do that.
4.) Craziest part for me was, it sounded like a great course BUT the classes were ONLY during the day!!!!
LOL! I got the replay, but haven’t listened to it all the way through yet. Too funny! If you’ve still got the email they sent with the call-in info, click on the link for the call and you can get the replay. Of course it’s got 30 mins of hold music:)