markrice

Compendium Blogware's new Twitter/Facebook integration posted this mobile replay link to our social media sites http://tinyurl.com/27dglho

So here we are in Summer already.   Beautiful weather, bike rides, baseball games, vacations--Who wants to work in a stuffy office?   "But I have to watch that new product intro and be prepared to speak to my customer next week."  "I have to review that latest webinar replay to see what my competitors are up to".

We've got the answer to your Summertime Blues.   Webinar Resources is excited to announce "mobile replay".   Now you can view that relevant content on many mobile devices (supported devices -- iPhone, Droid, Blackberry 8900 and even the iPad).   Yes, it is time to "lounge and learn" while soaking up sun, fun and knowledge at the same time.

We have begun producing content in the new Brainshark enhanced mobile format and will be adding more relevant content to our mobile catalog.    To view a sample on a supported mobile device, text the word webinar to 88769 and we will add you to our mobile subscriber list to receive our latest mobile replay.

With our new condensed webinar replay service, you can accelerate your customer acquisition process with mobile on demand presentation content.   Imagine serving up relevant, targeted content to a customer or prospect's mobile device with a simple text message.

Join our mobile subscriber list and see how easy it is to go mobile and get out of the office!

 

How many times have you missed a webinar?   I am sure many of you have for one reason or another.   Webinars have become so ubiquitous now that there are several you could attend in any week.   However, that is why there are webinar replays--recordings of the live webinar event.   More people view webinar replays than those that attend live webinar events.   A webinar replay is a great medium to catch up on the content of what you missed at the live webinar.   Or is it?

"Thank you for attending today's webinar.   Today's webinar will be in a listen only mode.   You can ask . . . "   What's this?   Why do I need to listen to this unnecessary banter of the live webinar when it has already passed?   I just want to get to the "meat" of the webinar and move on.

This is the problem with replays/recordings of webinars today.   Many are simply a recording of the audio and slides (and some of the entire webinar interface) that are not edited and are produced and posted for viewing.   Many of the replays are not edited as it is easier and faster to post the replay without further modifications.

Some of you may remember the days of reel-to-reel tapes or cassettes.   With this medium, you had to fast forward and rewind through the tape to find the audio you were looking for.   When CDs came out, you were able to select the song you wanted to hear without searching through the entire catalog of music on the CD.  

Some webinar replays are like the old linear tapes.   You need to use the player "scrub" bar to search through the content until you can find what you are looking for.   Some replays provide a table of contents so you can advance to the slide and audio you are seeking.  

Companies like Brainshark provide a great solution for repurposing the audio and slides of your webinar.   Webinar Resources uses Brainshark to produce our "Webinar for ONE" presentations that basically make your webinar "live again" with the addition of interactive polls, live web slides and flash video.  Still, do viewers want to search through 45 minutes of content when all they require is the 10-15 minutes to retrieve the content that they require and probably have time to listen to?   As the lady said in the old commercial, "Where's the beef?".   I am probably dating myself.

The team at Webinar Resources and our partner, Bizucate, have examined this content delivery dilemma and have come up with a solution that we believe will provide the "beef" that webinar replays have been missing.   After producing our second in a series of Webinar Wednesdays events, we decided to repurpose the best content that we believe our viewers wanted to see and hear.

Using Brainshark's new "microphone audio" feature, Bizucate presenter and president, Peter Muir, re-recorded his audio content for 10 specific slides of the original webinar presentation which contained 24 slides.  Our intention was to produce a "condensed" webinar replay that we could post as not only a replay, but as a learning module that could be posted on Brainshark's Content Network and Training Industry's Learning Content Network. 

We have been pleasantly surprised to see the number of views increase as we broadened our reach by posting the content in many different channels.   With condensed webinar replays we can repurpose, re-market and renew your webinar content and drive new business opportunities.
 

At Webinar Resources we have been producing short 2-3 minute Brainshark presentations as ticklers or "webinar trailers" to promote our series of Webinar Wednesdays events.   Webinar Trailers are a very effective customer acquisition process for engaging and acquiring registrants as they appeal to more modalities than traditional email invitations.

With Webinar Trailers, we can strengthen our marketing message with an on demand presentation that consists of audio, slides and capture a registration at the moment of the viewing of the presentation.   We also can post Webinar Trailers in many different locations - social network applications, webinar newsletters, landing pages and of course link directly to a personalized email.   Using our proven process of selecting the appropriate multi channel mix, we gain the attention needed to capture registrants for our webinars.  

We are now extending the reach of our multi channel marketing to SMS text messages and mobile video.   Registrants and/or past participants can subscribe to our Webinar Wednesdays SMS reminders and alerts by texting to the word "webinar" to short code 88769.   Once the subscriber is added to our list, we can then reach out to them in their preferred communication method with a text reminder.

Soon we will be delivering mobile content to our Webinar Wednesdays SMS subscribers.  Stay tuned for more information in our blog or text "webinar" to 88769 and join our Webinar Wednesdays subscriber list.

Building customer acquisition is all about extending your reach through an effective multi channel mix using cross media applications to drive attendance and list growth for your events.   We have partnered with Peter Muir, and his Bizucate team to communicate these strategies and enable our participants to learn how to develop a marketing plan to drive effective events.   Join us at our next Webinar Wednesdays event on June 23rd, from 1-2pm CDT.   Listen to our webinar trailer and register at:   http://www.brainshark.com/webinarresources/WebWed.  We hope to see you there.

 

Webinar Resources was recently recognized for our unique, personalized, Christmas Story Photo Book application at the second annual Brainshark Sharkie awards.     Our application was selected and recognized at the online Sharkie awards last week among a hundred entries of interactive Brainshark presentations.

You can view a sample Christmas Story Photo Book at the Brainshark Sharkie Gallery.   This presentation is a great example of the use of effective landing pages, cross media applications and on demand presentation content.   We personalized the reading experience for children with personalized text, images and audio in a unique Christmas story about Santa Claus and the Lost Dog.

Readers of our blog have seen some examples of how we have implemented cross media applications to drive the customer acquisition process.   Stay tuned for more creative uses of a multi channel mix of content and solutions that will bring business opportunity to your company.
 

Webinar Resources just distributed the latest newsletter and it contains some exciting announcements, enhancements and tools to keep you in touch with industry news and trends as they relate to event management and customer acquisition.

You still might have time to order your Sweetheart a personalized eCard along with their favorite audio clips from iTunes.   This Valentine's Day, we are adding music to the mix and further personalizing the experience of the recipient. Provide us the name, email address, a special message and the name of your Valentine's favorite musical artist and we will deliver a personalized eCard and iTunes Preview landing page with album selections that your special Valentine can listen to. Webinar Resources will be posting an iTunes redemption code ($15 value) in ten of the lucky Valentines' personalized landing pages on February 14th.

Order now at this link.

The elves at Webinar Resources are busting their buttons as the MyChristmasBook Trailer on MyBrainshark is now the most viewed and most popular Brainshark presentation.  Says Santa, who just read this latest update in the Webinar Newsletter from Webinar Resources, "We are very proud that this on demand presentation has received such wide appeal.   Rudolph told me that "rich media" was the way to reach the masses so I thought I would give it a try."


The MyChristmasBook Trailer has been viewed across the country and across the world.  Webinar Resources launched this campaign to drive lead generation for North Pole IndustryCo.   Every MyChristmasBook online Christmas Photo Story Book contains personalized text, images and audio using a good little boy or girl's name and is delivered on a unique personalized North Pole web page.   Says Jack Frost, CMO in charge of North Pole's lead generation and personalized marketing campaigns, "We hired Webinar Resources to produce the story of Santa Claus and the Lost Dog as they are the experts in demand generation marketing and the theme song has the reindeer tapping their hoofs."

The success of the campaign can be summed up by Mrs. Claus, "Things have gotten a lot more jolly around here now that the old man is coming home from the shop at a decent hour. Thanks to Webinar Resources launching MyChristmasBook.com with their partners ExactTarget, Brainshark, Vontoo and Compendium, Santa is much more productive and best of all, there are no more cold calls which is important in the frozen North.

During this time of year, people have a lot on their mind and buying that unique gift is always a challenge.   The elves at Webinar Resources teamed up with Santa to create a unique and personalized online offering for this holiday season for young children - MyChristmasBook.com.

MyChristmasBook.com brings to life the story of "Santa Claus and the Lost Dog".   It is unique as it provides personalized images, text and audio using the child's name.   The Christmas Story Photo Book is delivered through a personalized, North Pole web address with an embedded Brainshark presentation.

Deliveries started over the weekend and one satisfied customer has posted her son's personalized North Pole web address on her Facebook site.    It seems our mascot, Bella, is becoming a celebrity very quickly. 

This is the most unique demand generation marketing activity that Webinar Resources has ever engaged in and we are pleased to have our customers boast and post about their satisfied experiences.

Go to MyChristmasBook.com to order that unique gift today.

 

If you read one of our more recent blogs on re-purposing content of a Brainshark presentation, then you will understand how we can drive additional lead generation by reusing existing content.

Webinar Resources recently launched the MyChristmasBook campaign and deliveries are about to begin.   We repurposed content from a Brainshark presentation and created a MyChristmasBook Trailer on the MyBrainshark site.  MyBrainshark provides tools to create simple Brainshark presentations and it is free.  

We have been watching the popularity of the MyChristmasBook Trailer on the MyBrainshark site and are delighted to report that we are holding the number two position of the most viewed and most popular Brainshark presentation.   MyBrainshark provides social media tools for sharing presentations and a reporting dashboard that displays a world map indicating viewing activity    The MyChristmasBook trailer  has been viewed across the U.S. and in China, Austrailia, and in South America.

It is exciting to watch the popularity of the trailer grow.   Re-puposing existing content pays off.

The elves at Webinar Resources spent time last night blogging about our holiday offering, MyChristmasBook.com.   We included a lot of information about re-purposing Brainshark presentations and creating an effective lead generation campaign using ExactTarget, Vontoo, Brainshark and Compendium Blogware.

We did an organic search this evening and were very pleased to see that MyChristmasBook.com is at the top of the organic search.  We were also delighted to see the tracking results of our email campaign where many of our subscribers visited their own personal North Pole webpage to see a 2 minute demonstration.  Over 25% of the recipients selected the personalized link that included their email address.   Here is a sample personalized URL (PURL), that we call the North Pole web address - http://helper.mychristmasbook.com/NorthPole/personalizemybook@gmail.com.

We also spent time tweeting, posting content on Facebook sites and updating a Brainshark presentation.  Of all the lead generation activities we engaged in, blogging received the fastest and most desired results.   

We don't have a long-tail keyword for this campaign, but MyChristmasBook.com is unique enough that it can be found in an organic search in Google.  We know as we blog about this subject this evening, we will keep our rating up and more customers will find us as they hear more about us.  So blogs are faster than Santa's reindeer Virginia and they rate high on Google's naughty and nice list. 

I recently took a vacation from our customer acquisition practice at Webinar Resources.  Of all of the different modes of transportation, I have learned this Summer that taking the train across the country is a great way to meet new people.   It is also an interesting opportunity to connect with people and make new contacts.

Think of it, passengers on a train are a lot more open as they have no other place to go
other than a dining car, sleeping berth or observation car.  People just have to interact
with each other as they are captive for the many hours it takes to reach their destination.

My wife and I joined a friend of hers to travel from St. Louis to San Francisco.   Our friend was volunteering for the 17th annual Sharkfest, where 900 brave souls swim from Alcatraz to the San Francisco shore.   See the Brainshark presentation on our webinar service portal for highlights of the event -  www.brainshark.com/webinarresources.

During our ride we met many interesting people and had some good conversations.  We met one retired couple traveling to visit their sons who work in Silicon Valley.  One of their sons works for Google and another is beginning a startup company.  I wrote down the company website www.glyde.com to look at later.   Maybe I will send them a Webinar for ONE presentation.

We met more interesting people on our 48 hr trek and I spent some time jamming with a fellow musician.  Luckily I brought my traveling mandolin and it was great to wake up to the sunrise in Colorado and be able to sing some John Denver tunes.

We had a great trip when we got to San Francisco, San Jose and Aptos.  When we headed back home on a Southwest flight, my wife commented on how people were more friendly on the train and that everyone was rushed in the airport.   We had lots of luggage in tow with souvenirs and we would have loved to have a porter help us aboard a train that would take us back home.  We took the quick way, but planes have no charm, no space and provide little opportunity for interacting with others.

We will always remember our great trip to California this year.  If you want to spend some time with people, see the scenery and possibly make a business connection, plan to take a train trip across the country.   Right now I am hearing "Flight 3346 is ready for departure.  What I would rather hear is "All Aboard!