Online Conferences - a powerful marketing method

What is an Online Conference ?

Online Conference is a business conference held on the Internet. Here individual customers or the potential target group are invited to come into an online conference site which conducts your conference for say a product launch, or a customer meet, or teach online. Online conferences provide communication and collaboration software tools for distributed workgroups, communities, and companies. Our online conference software, iCohere, is the result of a ph.D thesis and years of observation at Xerox corporation.

Advantages in using Online Conferences :

• While you can make a 1 time presentation at an offline conference using an online conference you may run continous replays and keep networking with the conference attendees for upto 30 days
• Quick and lasting ROI
• Interactivity : An ad on a TV or a billboard is a one way message. A prospective customer reading it cannot ask back the billboard questions. This strongly reduces the chances of sales. However Online conferences greatly increase the chance of instant sales. The customer can now listen to a presentation and get his queries answered which quickens the chances of making a sale.
• Target Marketing : Different conferences can be hosted for different target groups whereas one can erect only 4-5 expensive billboards or one television ad at a time.
• Online Conferences can be used for PR, direct sales, advertising or market research. However each of these have different elements of Internet and marketing associated with them. Madrasmarkets has done each of these types of marketing.
  
  

  Diversity Training University International (DTUI - www.dtui.com) has selected iCohere online conferencing to provide its core platform for delivering human relations courses worldwide. With students from around the world, DTUI’s requirements for a distance-learning platform go far beyond content delivery. According to Billy Vaughn, President of DTUI, "our students need to build lasting relationships with their instructors and peers over time. The iCohere collaborative community platform allows us to create a unique learning community for each of our courses and foster the kind of online environment that leads to the rich collaboration necessary for professional development in a challenging field. iCohere’s platform simply meets our needs better than the others on the market."

  
  Typology of users :
  

Type of Group	Examples	Characteristics	Focus
Affinity Networks	Professional networking organizations	Comprised of people who derive value from building relationships based on their shared interests	Relationship oriented
Learning Groups	Distance education	People with a single purpose-learning.	Relationship oriented
Communities of Practice	Distributed business functions like R&D,sales,training.	organized around a domain of knowledge or specific content area	Relationship oriented
Project Teams	Task force	A task oriented group to achieve objectives.	Relationship oriented

Typical Users and Organisations :

1. Work Group Colloaboration -Online workspaces for distributed teams and collaboration

2.E-Learning -Learing communities for e-learing,training,distance education,and blended learing programs.

3.Intranets & Extranets -Platform for managing employee,partner and client communication and relationship

How can you use online Conferences?

• Extending reach. Many argue that because some people don't have access to the Internet, it's not an effective tool for mass-reach campaigns. Not everyone watches TV, either. Getting close to maximum reach on TV can cost a fortune. Some audiences, particularly the most affluent (and time-starved) consumers, may be more reachable online. A recent study on the at-work audience drives this point home.
• Maximizing effectiveness. Much has been made of "360-degree marketing" and like concepts advocating reaching your target through multiple touch points. Hackneyed, as the concepts may be, it's perfectly logical that exposing people to your message through multiple media can increase the likelihood they will receive, retain, and believe your message. Marketers who are serious about branding should find a way to put the Web into the mix.
• Using interactivity. In many ways, online advertising is closer to print advertising than to TV. Though neither print nor online has proven to be as powerful as TV in evoking an emotional response, both can present information in a compelling way. The Web's major advantage over print is offering consumers the ability to choose what information they need, then deliver that information as part of an experience that can be more stimulating than a static ad. Not everyone will want to interact with an advertiser's message. It's probably worth offering the opportunity to those who do.
• Leveraging online relationships. Whether it's a mini-site about relationships on iVillage or a fantasy football game on ESPN, people become very involved in online content. Communities and content online are prime places for advertisers to deliver targeted messages that link to experiences people value. Tying a message to a concept or experience through an online sponsorship can be a highly effective way to build key attributes of a brand -- even if online ads don't quite have the power to make someone shed a tear.
  
  Madrasmarkets helps you use online conferences effectively in the marketing life-cycle.
  
  Contact us at marketing@madrasmarkets.com for more details. Or call 091-44-52113814/09841545452.
  For in-depth discussions on marketing issues send an email to : indianonlinemarketing-subscribe@yahoogroups.com, SearchEngineMarketing-subscribe@yahoogroups.com, searchengineoptimisation-subscribe@yahoogroups.com.