Question for promotion experts - Why teleseminars?

Television newscasters used to joke about the fact that all of the words in a typical half-hour news broadcast would fill only a fraction of the front page in a daily newspaper. Obviously, the value of TV news came from the fact that it brought sights and sounds and live feeds into the equation in a way the print media cannot match.

Looking at teleseminars, I can understand why an hour of time listening to a actual (as opposed to a scripted) interview with a favorite author would be interesting. Some authors speak well, spin great yarns, and are very good and drawing their listeners in by "just talking."

From the seller's point of view, the teleseminar looks like a great opportunity to use ones personality and speaking skills to share ideas with others--especially if the ideas are new and require a convincing speaker to get across.

But why do listeners listen?

Listening for an hour is very slow and tedious compared to seeing the same information on a sheet of paper.

Listening is linear: You have to sit through a lot of chit chat as well as info that doesn't apply to you while waiting for the stuff you want to hear.

Listening doesn't leave you with anything in writing you can refer to later, so you have to take handwritten notes.

Personally, I feel cheated when I listen for an hour and end up with less than a hundred words of solid, usable facts. The cynical part of me wants to say that some (many?) seminars are designed to transmit very few facts and serve instead as advertising for the e-books and other deals that will be mentioned at the end of the hour (where the facts really will be found).

So, any promotions people out there want to tackle this question from the listener's view point?

Malcolm

OK Malcolm, I want to have a stab because although not a marketer, I do lots of speaking/training. I think that very few people do actually want to learn (or be engaged) strictly by listening. (That phrase in one ear and out the other comes to mind)... In school we are taught to adjust to being visual, watch the teacher, watch the board, look at books etc, and so even if we are not really visual learners, we adjust to that method of learning. Then there are the people who learn best while moving and doing; they probably won't enjoy audio books and may watch movies, but most often are also incorporating something to it (fidgeting, making notes, doodling, cleaning up the room as they watch). Really, then, I suppose that teleseminars are a benefit to a narrow scope of potential readers. At the same time (and this coming from the speakers point of view), an ethical speaker is supposed to speak for the benefit of the listeners/audience. You are right that many of them will only speak in order to push their own agenda (sell books) which is a shame. When an interview or speech is arranged, it is helpful is the interviewer actually brings that subject up; that they want the audience to learn something rather than just hear an infomercial.

Hi Pam,

Since the teleseminars are usually free, I don't expect the speaker to "give away the farm" by explaining all the of the facts and ideas in his/her book or on-line courses.

When I was doing some talks for service clubs when my book came out, the big NO NO was using up the members' time simply pitching the book. They were there to learn something interesting, then buy the book if they felt so inclined after the meeting.

What I'm missing from the teleseminars is "something interesting," the secret or the tip the seminar's advertising promised the talk would deliver.

Sigh.

Malcolm

Hi Malcolm,

I have to admit that I knew nothing at all about teleseminars and had to google to find out. From all the web pages I pulled up, it seemed that the people making the most money out of teleseminars were those teaching so-called "experts" how to set up their own teleseminars.

The pages were full of comments such as "If you don't know your target market, you won't succeed. We'll help you to find your target audience ..."

It reminded me of all those "how to" books that promise to help you self-publish, sell your self-published books, market yourself as an author etc. etc.

Without thousands of wannabe writers and authors, a massive support business would collapse. All those books that promise to help you to make a fortune wouldn't have a target market. Which brings us full circle. These businesses certainly know their target market: all those hopeful authors with their unpublished manuscripts!

Yes, people are making money out of teleseminars, but not the ones setting them up!

Shelagh I think you are, sadly, right. I see so much glup that is geared to people trying to start in an industry - whether it is writing, coaching, speaking or whatever - and the information is set up to have "newbie" invest a significant amount of money on someone else's business.

What a scheme!