At the time of writing this article, the world is gripped by
the coronavirus pandemic making it difficult to meet with people face to face.
As a result, the number of people using the Zoom platform has grown
significantly as it provides them with a great way to connect with people
during quarantine.
Even after the pandemic there are many good reasons why you
should use Zoom to grow your business and we will cover the most important ones
here. The Zoom platform is very flexible and you can do a lot of things with it
even with a free account.
Collaboration with your
Team
A lot of businesses nowadays outsource specific tasks to
freelancers who could be located anywhere in the world. If you have a small
business then it is unlikely that you will have the budget to recruit web
designers, copywriters, programmers and others. So it makes sense to outsource
these kinds of roles.
Communication is very important with anyone that you have
outsourced tasks to. You need to ensure that they fully understand what you
need and it will help to explain to them the role that they are playing in the
development of your business. Zoom meetings are a very convenient way of doing
this.
Even if you have your own employees they may be located in
different offices and it is far more cost effective to hold a Zoom meeting to
discuss business then it is to have everyone travel to a single location. The
bottom line here is that Zoom helps you to collaborate with your team better
and save money and time in the process.
New Leads and
Customers
You can use Zoom to generate leads and acquire new customers.
The Zoom webinar platform is a great way to do this for example. You can also
use Zoom meetings with your existing customers to generate more business from
them.
If you have a business that people around the world can
benefit from then you must use Zoom to communicate with them. Even a local
based business can benefit from using Zoom. There are many examples of where
local businesses have used Zoom to provide their customers with a better
service.
A good example of this is where a restaurant accepts Zoom
calls to discuss menu options and specials etc. If you want to order food to be
delivered to your home you can use Zoom to speak with the restaurant to ensure
that you get exactly what you want.
Training with Zoom
You can use the Zoom platform to train your students. Let’s
say that you offer a training course on social media marketing. You can charge
people to attend your live Zoom training sessions and then use the features
within Zoom to deliver the training.
It is possible to train or coach with a one to one Zoom call
or train a group with a Zoom meeting. You can share your screen to provide
“over the shoulder training” and you can also use the whiteboard feature to
explain concepts. Prepare a presentation on your computer and then share this
with your students for learning.
These are just three great ways that you can use Zoom to
grow your business. We recommend that you take a look at what Zoom can do and
then identify how you can use it to your advantage.
How To Prepare For
Great Zoom Events
Some Zoom events are unforgettable. The host comes across
really well and the audience feels that they got great value from attending.
Other Zoom events are dull and boring and all over the place resulting in a lot
of the audience leaving the event early or just ending up confused.
There are some simple things that you can do to make all of
your Zoom events unforgettable. Preparation for any group meeting is highly
recommended as “winging it” on Zoom rarely provides a good result. If your
audience detects that you are unprepared then they are going to be more likely
to leave early or not take the action that you want.
What do you want to
achieve with your Zoom Event?
This is the first question to ask yourself. You need to have
a clear goal in mind for every Zoom event. If you are holding an internal
collaboration meeting then what are the things that you want the attendees to
take away from the meeting?
For a lead generation or customer acquisition event such as
a Zoom webinar you need to decide how you will pitch your offer and how you
will follow up with people after the event. You need to plan your presentation
so that you provide the maximum value to your audience.
It is very important that you have everything prepared
before you launch your event. Prepare your presentation slides and determine
what other information you will need to share with your attendees. Maybe you
will want to show them some web pages or an application? Also if you are going
to share files then prepare these and have them ready in a folder.
If you are just going to use the whiteboard feature for your
Zoom event then plan how you will use this and get your point across. We
recommend that you use as many different methods as possible such as sharing
your screen, the whiteboard, using the annotation tools etc so that you make
your Zoom event memorable.
Use High Quality
Equipment
Don’t try to conduct your Zoom events on the cheap. If your
webcam is poor quality then this is going to turn off your audience very
quickly. You are the host of the event and the audience will want to see you in
all of your glory. Grainy video is not the way to go if you want a successful
Zoom event.
The same is true for the audio quality of your event. Cheap
microphones need to be avoided here. If your audience are struggling to hear
what you are saying then they will leave the event in droves.
You do not have to spend a fortune on equipment for a great
Zoom event. There are high quality webcams and microphones available for less
than $100 each. Also you may want to consider investing in some good lighting
so that your face is lit up properly. Bad lighting will mean a bad Zoom event.
Test your Meeting
Zoom provides you with the option to run a test meeting
without any participants. If you are new to Zoom then we highly recommend that
you do this. You can record this test meeting and then play it back to see what
was good and what was not so good.
How To Setup Zoom
Webinars For The Best Results
Once you have decided to use the Zoom webinar platform you
will want to set up your webinars for the best results. In this article we will
run through some of the most important features and the things that you need to
do to get the most from your Zoom webinars.
The Webinar
Registration Process
There is actually an option with Zoom webinars to disable
the need for webinar attendees to register at all. You do not want to choose
this option. Always make your attendees register for your webinars.
When you are setting up the webinar registration process you
will have 2 options when it comes to approving the people that you want in your
audience:
1.
You can approve each registrant one by one
manually
2.
You can instruct Zoom to automatically approve
all of your webinar registrants
Once a registrant is approved to attend the webinar they
will automatically receive an email from Zoom notifying them of the joining
instructions. You can customize all webinar emails that are sent out and even
choose not to send some emails. We recommend that you let all of the emails go
out as they are designed to encourage maximum attendance.
All webinar registrants will need to complete a form to
register. As a minimum the form will require that they enter their name and
email address. You can ask for other information too such as the industry they
are in, their telephone number, their job title and so on.
If you already have a list of people you want to invite to
your webinar then you can create a CSV file and automatically import these into
the Zoom webinar platform. Each row must include the attendees name and their
email address or they will not be accepted.
You can customize your registration form and you should do
this. Add any branding to the form such as your logo and change the form them
if you want to. Zoom will provide a default description which you can change to
make this more appealing.
Schedule your Webinar
on Zoom
It is not difficult to schedule a Zoom webinar but you will
need to make some decisions and provide accurate details. Sign in to your Zoom
web portal and then select “Webinars”. If you have scheduled any webinars
before you will see a list here.
Now go to the “Schedule a Webinar” tab which will take you
to the screen for webinar settings. The first thing to do is to provide a title
for your webinar and then add an enticing description. You will need to enter
the date and start time and an estimated duration time for the webinar.
Setting Up Recurring
Webinars
If you plan to run the same webinar often, which you should
do, then you have the option to set your webinar up as “recurring”. Here you
will be presented with some time options:
·
Daily
·
Weekly
·
Monthly
·
No Fixed Time
After this you will need to decide on some other details
such as ending your webinar after a set number of repeats or specifying the
exact date when you want the webinars to stop recurring. These are optional and
you can leave your webinar to run indefinitely if you want to.
Other Webinar
Settings
We recommend that you record all of your webinars so that
you can send out “replay links” to those people that registered and did not
attend or to your contacts who didn’t register but you think will be
interested. The other feature we highly recommend is the questions and answers
panel.
Avoid These Zoom
Meeting Mistakes
Zoom is a great platform that you can use to grow your
business. Unfortunately not everyone uses it right and they end up with Zoom
events that do not achieve their goals. In this article we will discuss the
most common mistakes that people make with Zoom meetings so that you can avoid
them and get the best results.
1. Not Planning your
Zoom Event
While it is sometimes OK to just have a one to one Zoom call
with someone without any planning, it is a different story if you are
scheduling a meeting with a number of participants or a webinar.
You need to decide what you want to achieve with your
meetings before you hold them. If you don’t do this then it is very easy to
wander all over the place leaving your attendees totally confused.
Make sure that you have all of your materials prepared prior
to your Zoom meeting. This includes presentation slides, web pages that you
want to use, applications and so on. A good tip is to have web pages and
applications already open on your computer so that you can quickly bring them
up when you share your screen. Nobody wants to see things loading.
The best Zoom events are always well prepared for. You can
practice your event on your own before you go live as well and record this so
that you can identify weak areas that need to be addressed. If you fail to plan
then you plan to fail.
2. Get rid of
Distractions
There is nothing worse than a major distraction in a Zoom
event. If you are explaining a complex concept and suddenly your phone rings then
you are going to lose your audience. You must do everything that you can to
eliminate distractions.
If you are hosting your Zoom event from home then keep your
children and your pets away. Screaming kids and barking dogs are not conducive
to a good Zoom business meeting. We get it that you love your kids and your
pets but they can be a real distraction so do the right thing here.
Check your background prior to launching your Zoom meeting.
Does the room you are using look totally cluttered with stuff? If it is then
this will distract your audience and they will quickly form a bad opinion of
you that you want to avoid at all costs.
3. Be Interactive
Nobody wants to attend an hour long Zoom event where the
host just rambles on the whole time. This is very boring for the participants.
Make your Zoom events interactive by getting your audience to participate as
much as possible.
One of the best ways to do this is to allow them to ask
questions which you will answer. You can either have questions and answers at
the end of each section (if this is appropriate) or at the end of the meeting.
Ask your audience questions as well to test for understanding. Use surveys and
polls for even greater interactivity.
4. Not Timing your
Zoom Event
The attention span of human beings is getting less and less.
Studies have found that people will digest information best in 7 minute chunks
so bear this in mind with your events. If you tell your audience that your
event will last around an hour then try and stick to this as much as possible.
