Successful service business owners (and those who want to attract more traffic and clients through teleseminars) need to create calls on topics that hit your audience’s hot buttons. Choosing a topic calls for a deep understanding of your niche and your own ability to share information.

Once you’ve chosen a topic, your next step is to translate your topic into a marketing communication. In other words, you need to write a compelling  teleseminar title.

Here are 3 tips to help you create your own teleseminar title so you can promote your teleseminar actively and successfully:

(1) First, decide what you want to communicate and describe the niche that will benefit most from this presentation. Create an outline of what you want to talk about. Some people write out their entire presentation; others use bullet points or even a few notes. Your choice depends on your own style as well as the importance of the call. For instance, nearly everyone will plan a talk carefully when getting ready to launch a high-end workshop or program.  Once you are confident about the content of your teleseminar, you can begin exploring titles.

(2) Now that you’ve got an idea about content, you can start thinking about a title you can use to promote the teleseminar. Your title isn’t exactly the same as your topic. Ideally your title will be short, catchy and benefit-oriented.

For instance, I recently presented a one-hour call with the title, “Basics of giving teleseminars.”  That title may be effective for some audiences. However, I got a lot more attention with “Create Your 1-Hour Info Product.”

(3) Respond to your niche’s interests. Most of us are passionate about some aspects of our business. At times I’ve had trouble resisting the temptation to get up on a soapbox and share my views. At other times I’ve wanted to resume my former career as a professor and teach concepts, ideas and philosophies. Those areas are appropriate for a university, which is supposed to teach critical thinking rather than how-to.

As a teleseminar leader, you probably have information that your clients or prospects are seeking actively. Most important, it’s what they know they want, not what they ought to want.

You’ll know you’ve succeeded when you hear comments like, “That was exactly what I was hoping to learn about!” or, “I can use this information right away.”

Recently I received this query from someone I’ll call Pete.

“I’m very interested in holding teleseminars, but I just don’t have an engaging style or a dynamic speaking voice. What should I do?”

First, I would ask, “Why do you think you are not being dynamic?” Are people’s eyes glazing over when you talk to them? Are you getting feedback from presentations? You may think you’re not being dynamic, but not everybody has to jump up and down to get attention.

Second, you can learn some basics. Generally it’s a good idea to speak a little faster than you normally would. You can learn to cut back on “ums” and “uhs” and (more important) to be concise. Get right to the point, speak and stop.

But most important, you can set up presentations so you are naturally dynamic. That’s where the copywriting comes in.

Choose topics you are genuinely passionate about. If you’re not enthusiastic about any element of your business, you’ve got a deeper issue. Surely there’s something controversial or something that bothers you. That’s your topic.

Once you’ve chosen a topic, you can also control the format of your teleseminar. That’s why I like teleseminars so much. Few other media allow you this freedom to choose not only the topic but also the format.

For instance, you can work with a Q&A format where someone interviews you. You choose the questions. You prepare answers and keep them fairly short.

You can work with stories and metaphors. It’s hard to be boring when you are sharing a juicy story that illustrates an important point.

Just as you can make your content livelier by studying copywriting or hiring a copywriter, you can enhance your teleseminars with some coaching and copywriting support. We will discuss this topic tomorrow on the Cat Chat (and we are recording the call in case you have a conflict). It’s at 1 PM Eastern/NY or 10 AM Pacific. Just go here to register.

Or sign up for this mini-workshop coming soon: Click here for the info.

As a copywriter I create a huge amount of content. Clients often remind me that they get busy and don’t have time to write articles, ebooks, blog posts, sales pages and more. Most of my clients are busy – even time-starved – and they need to make one marketing tool do the work of three.

And that one marketing tool needs to get created very fast.

If you’re faced with this challenge, you may find your answer by holding teleseminars. The beauty of a teleseminar is that once you’ve got a system going, you can accomplish more in less time because you use your teleseminar over and over again.

Here’s what I’ve done with just 1 teleseminar.

(1) I recorded the call as part of the regular Cat Chats. These calls (held almost every week). These calls accomplish several purposes:

… Connecting to people on my opt-in list

… Market research

… Promotion of products for myself and for affiliates

(2) Unexpectedly I was asked to participate in a joint venture, where I’d be part of a telesummit. I needed to come up with a giveaway info product and didn’t have time to write a new ebook. My gift was of this one-hour teleseminar recording drew over 100 new subscribers to my opt-in list.

(3) I offered the teleseminar recording as a bonus for a paid product.

Time to create the product:

Set up Time: 5 minutes.

I had my teleseminar recording system in place.  I use InstantTeleseminar.

Write the Landing Page: 15 minutes.

I am a copywriter and I’ve created templates, which I will share at the forthcoming workshop. If you’re not used to copywriting you might need some more time.

Modifying the Landing Page for the Bonus Giveaway: 10 minutes.

Organizing the Call: 15 minutes.

Since I give these calls often, I can put my notes together quickly. I’ve also got some tricks for creating content for a teleseminar so you can do the same. And I’ll share those on the forthcoming workshop as well.

Now … compare this to writing an ebook. No comparison!

We’ll talk more about this topic on Friday’s Cat Chat.

Today’s New York Times included an article by Virginia Heffernan, “Keep Your Medium In Mind,” that seems important for anyone who creates copy or content for the Internet.

Heffernan ruthlessly dissects Barack Obama’s recent YouTube video. Her analysis has nothing to do with politics: it’s all about communication.

Two takeaways:

(1) Remember Marshall McLuhan’s,  “The medium is the message.”

People do not listen to YouTube videos the way they listen to television or radio. For one thing, the viewer is involved from the beginning. When watching a YouTube video, Heffernan says, people want “surprise, and a moment that they can manipulate, post to a social network, recut or reframe.”

She concludes that Obama was so afraid of parody that he went too far the other way: no opportunities for parody but no strong involvement either.

This point applies to creating content for websites, blogs and sales letters. Viewers read differently.

(2) Know your audience.

Obama’s video refers to hard-working Americans who come home at night and watch the evening news. As Heffernan points out, many of us are “radically time-shifted people who work odd hours” and often turn to the Internet for our news.

Many of us can relate to these challenges.

When I first started creating content online I had written a book that was published as a hard copy by a traditional publisher. My first articles were written in the same style. And my earliest teleseminars were more like classroom lectures. It took awhile (and several classes in copywriting) to make the transition to online viewing and listening styles.

To take just one example: For many business owners, teleseminars represent a new medium, yet increasingly they represent a happy alternative to traditional learning.

I’ve been asked to speak at a brown bag lunch for lawyers: a common type of presentation for marketing to professionals. But this group meets on the West Coast and I’m currently on the East Coast. They’ve decided to hold their brown bag lunches via teleseminar.

I expect more professional groups to do the same thing. For one thing you spend 60-90 minutes on the phone insstead of 3-4 hours to attend a live meeting, when you include transportation and getting ready to go.

We’ll talk more about teleseminars as a marketing tool on Thursday, August 4, 2011, at 1 PM Eastern/ 10 AM Pacific. Get more info and sign up at http://budurl.com/chataug4

You probably know this already … one of the best ways to grow your opt-in list is to interview a guest on your teleseminar. Here are some reasons why these interviews work so well.

—  A well known guest will draw traffic when you add his or her name to your landing page announcing the call. Blog posts with the guest’s name will be even more effective, as search engines pick them up. Tweets and Facebook posts will get attention from your guest’s own followers.

—  Your interview adds value to your own list and your own followers will forward your messages about the call, especially if you have an unusual or interesting topic.

—  When your guest is new to your audience, you’ll get kudos for introducing a new resource. Audiences like to listen to someone they’ve never heard before.

So … how do you make this happen?

(1) Get clear on the purpose of holding the teleseminar. Do you want to grow your list? Gain credibility? Make a recording you can repurpose later?

(2) Choose a guest whose  topic will be a strong fit for your  business strategy and your niche. For example, some business coaches find that their audiences are not interested in talks about spirituality or time management. A financial planner might interview a real estate agent, but a nutritionist would probably be a stretch.

(3) Make sure you and your guest are on the same page, as we tend to live in a shifting business world. For instance, I once invited a teleseminar guest based on a talk I’d heard her give a month earlier. She had moved on to a new direction in her business and didn’t want to revisit that topic. I had to decide if I wanted to invite her to talk about her current business …  or if I needed to admit that we didn’t have a good match.

(4) Clear the Q&A format and content ahead of time. A well-prepared guest will have an interview kit all ready to go with suggested questions, a bio and promotional support. As the host, you have to decide whether you will work with the guest’s questions … or whether you want to ask your own to fit the audience’s needs. You need to clarify when you will take questions.

(5) Set up the logistics before the call.

- Who will create the landing page? (Typically the host – but some guests want to make their own.)

- What kind of platform will you use? Will you record the call (a standard requirement these days).

We’ll talk about the different ways you can use a teleseminar for your own online marketing in much more detail on Thursday’s Cat Chat. Get the details and sign up here.

You just got an email. A thought leader in your field – someone you’ve always admired – wants to interview you for Blog Talk Radio or for a seminar  to his followers. He’s got a big, responsive list, filled with your ideal prospects, There’s just one catch. He needs your topic, bio and questions … yesterday, Normally you couldn’t touch this gig but hey, somebody cancelled and you got lucky,

Will you be ready? Here’s what you’ll need:

Bio tailored to this gig

Blurb about your talk

10 questions for the host to ask you

A special offer (with landing page)

3 nice-to-haves:

3 articles for the host to publish in his blog to promote the call

5-10 tweets host can use to promote the call

A press release for the host

And … 1 private set of notes on the 5 questions you hope your host will never ask, but you want to be ready just in case.

Got all that? Or when you get The Call, will you be typing furiously all night long?

Well, if you take my course that’s coming up in August, you’ll have all that and more! Learn more here.

I highly recommend listening to telesummits and other events where you get to listen to interviews. You can take detailed notes about both guests and hosts.

Here are just a few tips I’ve picked up myself.

First: “Tell us about how you got here” is not an invitation for True Confessions. It’s an opportunity to answer the question, “Why are you qualified to offer the services you are promoting?” Don’t get side-tracked into a detailed story about your past life. Focus on the path you took. There’s no need to be inauthentic or untruthful, but you can put a spin on your experience that’s honest and relevant to your viewers. For instance, if you’re a financial planner, you don’t have to go into detail about your own challenges. Talk about how you get inspired by the people you help.

Remember that these background questions are intended as an introduction. Your audience will start fidgeting if you go on too long. They want to hear the meat of your presentation!

Second, questions about your current business need to be answered carefully. Think of those absurd job interview questions, “Tell us about your weaknesses.” You choose a weakness that won’t disqualify you for the job. Similarly, you’re being interviewed for a job by your prospective clients. That’s a good way to frame your thoughts as you plan for your interview.

Finally, make the host look good. Add comments like, “That’s a great question!” or, “I’m so glad you asked me!” or, “I love answering that question because it gives me a chance to talk about …” When you make the host look good, you look even better.

Want to learn more about getting interviewed (and interviewing others too)? Check out my forthcoming fast and affordable workshop.

Yesterday I had a great time being interviewed for the Summer School for Entrepreneurs. The three “dean” combined forces to bombard me with questions and the time sped by.

There’s no charge to tune in and I encourage you to listen to these calls for three reasons.

First, some of their guests — and their information — will be new to you. Some are new to the marketplace. Future opportunities will be found here.

Additionally, we can learn a lot about being a guest and host by listening to calls like these. How do the interviewers frame their questions? How do the guests handle questions that seem challenging? What makes you walk away with a feeling of respect for the folks you just heard? And what makes you tune out and turn off – sometimes in the middle of a call?

Finally, one of the hallmarks of great interviewers is that get their guests you to share material they’ve never presented before (and some things they never intended to share!). They ask new questions or ask the same questions in a new way. That’s what Carrie, Paige and Brian are doing and I am getting some inspiration for my own future calls just from paying attention to their interviews.

Here’s an exercise (one of several I have planned for my upcoming workshop on teleseminar materials):

As you listen to teleseminars, make note of the questions the interviewer asks. As you listen, ask yourself, “How would I answer? How could my response be as good or better than the person who’s now being interviewed?”

Keep a list of those questions and plan your answers. That way you’ll sound really good – and prepared! – next time you get invited to an interview.

Here’s my affiliate link to sign up for the 2011 Summer School For Entrepreneurs:
http://bit.ly/m61jcI

No charge to listen and you can buy the recordings for a very reasonable investment.

Are you invited to be a guest on a teleseminar or talk show?

(1) Have 5-10 questions, a bio and a blurb ready to send to your host. Recognize that your host may want to modify the questions and/or take questions from the audience.

(2) Remember that you are entertaining an audience, even when you provide content and promote yourself. Answer questions in a brief, upbeat way.

(3) Rehearse what to say when you get a question that you can’t answer. Saying “I don’t know” will stop the conversation cold.

(4) Remember you are not signing on for True Confessions. You are being interviewed – not being coached! There’s no need to share your biggest problems or tell the world how dumb you are. Package your experience in a positive way, even when you’re talking about your mistakes or bizarre experiences.

(5) Make the host look good. Compliment the host and say things like, “Great question,” even if you wrote the question ahead of time.

(6) Respect the host’s format. Will you answer questions? Or will you take the microphone and deliver a presentation, uninterrupted? Be sure to ask ahead of time.  One of my guests showed up with 17 single-spaced pages, which she proceeded to read, one at a time. I actually got calls from my audience, saying how horrible the call was.

(7) Promote only what you’ve agreed to share. Ideally you will offer your host an affiliate link to your own product. If you do, don’t invite the audience to buy other products. Above all, don’t invite the audience to come to another presentation! This step really insults your host.

Want to learn more about teleseminars … but you’re too busy for a full course?
Get started fast with this short home study option: Teleseminar Star Power

Want

With fall coming up, many of us will be holding teleseminars. We will also be inviting others to be guests and hosts.

Here are some tips to invite a guest (and I’m happy to be your guest if we are a good fit!).
(1) What makes Egert or Elena a good choice for your business? Will Egbert attract sign-ups among your target market so you can grow your list? Will Elena give you credibility because you get to say, “I interviewed this famous person?” Will Egbert agree to publicize the event to his big list? Will Elena make an offer with an attractive affiliate commission?

We’ve all made this mistake: We’re so excited to get a famous person that we don’t ask this question. We also forget that sometimes our list would rather hear from someone new who may be less famous but more targeted to their needs.

(2) What’s in it for Egbert? Why would Elena want to be a guest on your teleseminar or blog talk radio show? Does your market buy their products? Have they written you commission checks (evidence that your audience likes their products)? Are they newcomers looking for exposure?

Tip: Make it easy. “I’ll do all the footwork. You can just appear.”

(3) Guests don’t like surprises. You set the rules. Do you want the guest to send questions? Or will you make up 10 questions and send them to Egbert for approval? Will you just turn the call over to Elena so she gives a presentation with no interruptions? Negotiate these opportunities *before* the guest appears.

(4) Send the guest a call-in number well before the appointed date. If you’re using a teleseminar system, make sure your guest is signed in as an administrator or host (systems use different terms). You need to be able hear Egbert even when all participants are muted.

(5) It’s a nice courtesy to send a thank you message afterward. Some people send hand written notes or send-out cards. Some guests will view this gesture as friendly but others will think it’s a little over the top.

What do YOU think? What’s been your experience as a host or guest? Click on the “Comment” link below to share your views.

(2) Guests rarely like surprises. Ask your guest, “Do you have a prepared list of questions you’d like me to ask? Or would you like me to create questions?”

Learn more at my fast and affordable teleseminar workshop.