Lesson 3:
Pick a Date for the Teleseminar or Teleclass
By Daniel Janal
Founder, Great Teleseminars
Picking a date might seem pretty obvious. But I actually think this is a very important step although it sounds pretty simple because it commits you to the event and to creating the materials.
When I first had the idea of hosting a teleseminar on how to do a teleseminar, I didn’t have a date in mind, and you know what happened? Time passed and the seminar never happened. That is, until I made a firm commitment, set a date and then began doing the marketing and creating the content.
So committing yourself to a date puts every thing in motion!
However, before you pick a date, there are a number of factors to consider:
- Which day of the week is best?
- What time of day is best?
- What is best for my clients?
- What is best for me?
Which day of the week is best?
This is a variable that goes to a number of points.
One is your schedule. How busy are you? When can you devote the time to this? When are you going to be able to do this so you’re not frazzled?
I had one client who is such a consummate speaker he did a teleseminar at 11 o’clock from his hotel room, and at 1 o’clock he was meeting his client to do in-class training. He was a pro and knew exactly what he was doing! He could deliver the seminar in his office. He could do it in a hotel room. He could probably even do it in an airport waiting for a plane! Look at your schedule and just make it easy for yourself at first. Then, as you get more comfortable with delivering teleseminars, you’ll be able to do it virtually anywhere.
The next issue to consider is your clients' needs. Some days might be busier than others. I don’t know about you, but all of my clients seem to think that Monday is the worst day of the week. That’s when they meet with their staffs. That’s when they do their training. That’s when they do their weekly projections and things like that. So I never want to do seminars on Monday.
Some people feel that Friday is a great day because it’s the end of the week and people are less concerned about things and are just wrapping up. Others think it is a bad day because some people take the day off or leave earlier so they can have a long weekend. If you have clients in the publishing industry, don't hold a seminar on Friday in the summer, because the New York editors take the day off! You need to find out when your clients' busy periods are and what makes sense for them. How do you know? You ask them which days of the week and which times of the day are best. Then you test those times.
If we look at this issue from a marketing prospective--and this is tossing out everything I said before--in a perfect world I would rather have the seminar late in the week, on a Thursday or a Friday. That way you can promote the seminar during the week. On Monday you can include a note in your newsletter. On Tuesday you can send a stand-alone e-mail. You'll have time to see how sales are progressing and you'll see if you need to take additional marketing steps to attract more people.
What time of day is best?
Again, this goes back to your schedule and your clients' needs. Will your clients dial in during the day or the evening?
If you have a corporate audience, schedule it during normal business hours. They won't give up their personal time or family time to do work.
If you have a work-at-home audience, then anything from 9 to 5 could be great. If you have an entrepreneurial audience or a speaker audience, they may be totally busy from 9 to 5 and would really appreciate having a seminar after normal business hours. There’s no one rule of thumb here. Ask them and then test over time and you’ll find exactly what you need.
The time of day also raises an interesting logistical problem if you plan to have people attend from across the country because there is a three-hour time difference between East Coast and West Coasts. For example, 9 a.m. Eastern is 6 a.m. Pacific. No one’s going to listen to your seminar at 6 a.m. in California.
Action Steps:
* Schedule your conference. Make a commitment.
* Write down the date, day and time you plan to hold your first teleseminar
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