Have a teleseminar guest to interview? Here’s what needs to happen behind the scenes.

Written on June 4, 2009 by admin

Having a guest on a teleseminar is a great way to build your database as you can both cross-promote the event to your lists. Sounds simple to set up, “Oh I’ll just make a quick call, confirm and we’re off to the races,” but there are several things that need to happen in the background to ensure a successful call – all tasks a quality virtual assistant can handle.

Have your VA either call or send out an initial query email to your prospective guest or if you make the initial invite yourself, you can sit back while your VA takes care of the rest.

Your VA will:

1. Send out a follow-up email with information about the date and time of the call, topic, request the guest’s photo, bio and brief blurb on the topic they’ll be speaking on, as well as any questions they might want you to ask during the call.

2. Follow up in three days if the guest has not replied.

3. Create or update your teleseminar page and send the link to the guest so they can proof it in case there are any changes needed. This is the link your guest will send out to their email list to cross-promote the call.

4. Monitor registrations, send out broadcast reminders of the event. Also send out any handouts if applicable.

5. A week before the event, send the guest a reminder email with the date and time as well as the call-in information. Request that the guest arrive 5 minutes early for the call.

6. Two days before the event, send the above email again, asking if there are any questions or anything else the guest needs.

7. On the day of the teleseminar, your VA will send you an email with the call-in details, including your host PIN code, recording instructions and ask you if you need anything else. (Hint: If you’ve not yet held a teleseminar that will be recorded, it’s a good idea to practice. Have your VA call into the line and you can talk for a few minutes while you record just so you have the system down pat.)

8. After the event, your VA will send a thank you email to your guest and send out any follow-up email broadcasts to your participants (pre- and post-event emails can be set up in your shopping cart system ahead of time).

As with any marketing initiative, you’ll want to do some advance planning on when to start sending out the word about your upcoming teleseminar. Start at least four weeks before the event. Ahead of that, you’ll already want to have your guest confirmed and your registration page up and running as well as your pre- and post-event emails queued).

As you can see, logistical planning is required to make everything run smoothly. There are always several “moving pieces” in carrying out a task like this, so the more lead time you can give your VA as well as your guest and your participants, the more chances you’ll have for a successful event!

Contributed by My Creative Assistant’s Senior Writer & Client Manager, Kathy Smith.

Posted in Business Tools