Webinars for Trainers and Business Coaching

Webinars are an effective way to deliver online training courses to a wider audience or those not able to attend a physical training event.

Users like the flexibility of attending training sessions in the own time at a place suitable to them.

If you are a Trainer or Coach or run a Training Business then offering Webinars as well as the traditional training methods provides customers with choices and your business with additional revenue.

For the purpose of a Webinar Project I have been researching options. Here are my findings:

Wordpress Webinar Integration

For those that already have a WordPress Website then sourcing a suitable plugin would be the obvious solution, so what are the options?

1 WP WebinarSystem

First to come up on the Search Engine is WP WebinarSystem.

Features:

• Live and automated Webinars
• Fully brand your Webinar pages.
• Woocommerce integration for PayPal payments
• Mobile response so attendees can watch on mobiles on the go.
• Interaction with attendees. Attendees can ask questions, raise their hands and participate using live chat even if the webinar is automated.
• Automate branded email reminders so attendees do not forget the event.
• Automate with Google Hangouts.
• Integrates with Mailchimp, AWeber, YouTube, Vimeo, WooCommerce
• No limit to number of webinars or number of attendees.
• Import exact same settings onto any other website.
• 14 Day Money Back Guaranee

The pricing is good and the solution looks easy to implement and configure.

I love the 'raise hands' for questions during the webinar and the live chat feature. What appears to be missing is the ability for the host to analyse the attendees movements i.e. who is online and offline.

This webinar is suitable as a basic webinar but lacks elements for a Training Business.

2 Webinarignition

Webinarignition is full of useful features in addition to WPWebinarSystem. The website gives you lots of information about the product features.

The most powerful webinar platform for live and automated webinars.

Features:

• Dashboard hub to manage the webinar as it is happening. Monitor attendees in real time, total sales/revenue, questions.
• On air message to get attendees to take an action.
• Embed video feed
• Viral Sharing to encourage attendees to share on social media
• Email marketing integration wit MailChimp, AWeber
• Connect with Facebook
• Templates that can be customized to fit branding
• Add events to Google Calendar or Outlook.
• Manage registrants
• Reply to questions live and have them marked as responded to.
• email and text notifications at stated times
• live chat or questions boxes
• countdown timer
• translation monitor unique vistiors, webinar registrants, attendees, sales and conversions using the live console.
• Integrate with PayPal or google checkout for paid webinars
• 1-click registration
• export and import settings to any other wordpress website
• registration widget
• 30 day money back guarantee

Certainly a well thoughtout product. The One-click registration makes it easy for people to sign up and adding events straighting into Google Calender or Outlook is beneficial.

This software encourages loyality and repeat business from Attendees.

3 WPWebinar

The Worlds Easiest Webinar Software!

Might be true but what can it do?

Features:

• Creates easy webinars on any theme
• Built in templates that can be customised for branding.
• Works with MailChimp and AWeber
• Built in sizeable video player
• Thank you pages and integration with Social Media so your webinars go viral.
• One time or recurring webinars - edit time zones for attendees
• Call to action can be timed so it only appears one time.
• Reminder and automatic reminder

This softare is built for lead generation and is very sales ortientate but I love the 'thank you' pages.

4 Easy Webinar

This is the most expensive of the WordPress options and by all accounts looks to be very Sales Oriented.

Features:

• Create Live, automated and prerecorded webinars
• unlimited attendees
• unlimited events
• Events streamed in timezone
• Analytic system
• autoresponders and notifications
• Fully mobile responsive
• Brand and customize webinar pages
• social share incentive
• one click registration (Facebook signup)
• Built in chatbox
• Infusionsoft CRM Tagging API

Offering unlimited attendees and unlimited events and aims to make the Webinar mangement easy for the host.

It is hard to say if this is a better option than Webinarignition although it is more expensive.

5 Creative Minds Video Lesson Manager

Finally I found Creative Minds products designed specifically for educational videos.

The requirement is to have at VimeoPlus or Pro Account to ensure you have required storage for lots of videos and no advertising.

• Statistics and reports
• imports multiple videos from Vimeo
• Users can make and leave notes
• Glossary of Terms
• Pay per view or post videos to groups
• Questions and answers.

Creative minds offers a range of plugins to suit the project all of which work well together to create a unique online training experience.

Webinar Software Solutions

It is no surprise that as the popularity of webinars increase so do the software solutions popping up vying for business.

Yes, there are lots of Webinar solutions to choose all with different features and varying price tags, but they are all require monthly subscription rather than a one off licence.

Below is a list of the 5 solutions that I have spent time reviewing.

• Clickmeeting
• AnyMeeting
• ReadyTalk
• Webinarsonair

Conclusion

Webinars have become quite sophisticated online revenue generators for many businesses, not just for Trainers. They give the online consumer the opportunity to learn in their own time.

I recommend software that allows you to publish pre-recorded and live webinars, includes Email Marketing integration and integration with Woo-commerce or Paypal and one that offers reminders.

Companies want a product that is easy to use, easy to access by Attendees and easy to share on social media.