Whenever you present a teleseminar, teleclass or teleconference, the main channel of communication is auditory. After all, you are speaking to your audience on a telephone bridge line, and in many cases the audience is also talking back to you and to one another.
However, don’t overlook the opportunity to provide value in written form as well, by providing a teleseminar handout. This has several advantages:
Formats for Teleseminar Handouts
One style of teleseminar handout presents an outline of all the key points in the session, but with blanks for the listener to fill in while listening. By tapping into the power of curiosity, this style of handout increases the odds of someone who received the handout ahead of time attending the live session. By increasing the attendee’s involvement, it probably also decreases refund requests and increases satisfaction. However, the fill-in-the-blanks style of handout might not go over well with highly educated audiences, because it can come across as somewhat childish.
More common is a simple outline format for your handout, with subheads and numbered points or bullet points. Tell participants to print the handout ahead of time so they can take notes on it while they’re listening. And leave extra-wide margins or extra space between sections so listeners have enough room to write on the handout. For easier reference during your call, number the pages.
Most of the time, distribute handouts in PDF (Adobe Acrobat) format, because this allows everyone to see the exact same version of the material, with the same page numbers. However, if your handout is something your customer needs to manipulate or change while using it, such as a sales letter template, then provide it as a Microsoft Word document. When I present a multi-session teleseminar course, I often provide all the handouts in printed, bound format at the conclusion of the course, along with the CD recordings. Buyers love being able to place the bound course manual on their bookshelf for easy reference.
Always, always include your complete contact information on every page of the handout, and end with a brief description of products or services you sell that are related to the teleseminar topic.
Delivery of Teleseminar Handouts
What’s the best timing and method for getting handouts to participants? When people sign up for a live teleseminar, you may be able to load the handout into your shopping cart so they receive the file immediately. Or you can send them the handout right away by autoresponder. However, if there’s more than a day or two until the teleseminar is to take place, many registrants will misplace the handout. In that case I feel it’s best to distribute the handout by email no sooner than the day before the event.
The biggest problem with teleseminar handouts comes up when the recording takes on some sort of second life, when you’re inviting people to download the audio file from your web site. Many teleseminar hosts forget that they referenced a handout during the call and do not provide any obvious way for later listeners to get the handout. Solve this problem by setting up the handout to be downloaded in the same place and manner as the teleseminar recording.
It seems like you could simply post handouts at your web site and mention the URL during the call, so those listening later could easily find them. What tends to happen then is that the handouts become accessible in web searches.
See this for yourself by typing “teleseminar handout” or “teleclass handout” into Google. Thousands of handouts come up, some of them for courses that cost hundreds or even thousands of dollars to attend. I believe that most of those who posted those handouts did not intend them to be publicly available.
So create handouts, but for paid teleseminars especially, take care in how you deliver them to your event participants.
Author’s Note: This article also published here.
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Veteran teleseminar presenter Marcia Yudkin specializes in high- ticket, high-value teleteaching courses. To find out more about your teleseminar options, download a complimentary copy of “66 Ways to Use Teleseminars to Promote Your Business or Your Cause,” go to http://www.yudkin.com/teleteach.htm . Discover how to plan, promote and deliver profitable teleseminars, whether you’re an entrepreneur, business or health professional, nonprofit organization or corporate marketer.
Read more articles written by Marcia Yudkin
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