Whether your goal is to build a house or a reputation, you can own all of the tools in the world necessary to accomplish these, but it would still not guarantee success. The difference between success and failure is how you use the tools. Therefore, a blueprint of sorts is required.

These days technological advancement, particularly where web conferences are concerned, provide a fantastic alternative for internal and external seminars. Not only does a web conference shave costly travel expenses but it allows your clients or employees to attend without setting foot outside their office or home.

In case you are wondering about just how popular web conferences have become, take a look at September’s Business Week where they outline how some Fortune 500 companies are equipping their web conference rooms with equipment and software costing upwards of $300,000. And, for added reinforcement, peruse the Ipsos website and find their survey that shows web conferences growing from 2% usage last year to well over 15% in five years — that’s an increase of 7.5 times! Now, getting back to the technology, you don’t have to spend six-figures to enjoy this benefit — try as low as $25 per month for the market-leader’s alternative.

Now, a web conference by itself will do nothing for you or your business. Rather you should look at it as you would a plant. Seed it, water it, nurture it. Web conferences are no different. First, you plan the seed and entice people to attend. This can be as simple as hosting a training web conference for employees or existing clients, or it can be a direct sale pitch to new clients. Either way, you will have a captive audience since they will choose to attend, so it makes sense to use free trial periods to hone your skills with the software.

The best way to make the technology work for you is through adequate planning. Plan your marketing efforts and plan your message. Consider a highly targeted marketing plan (don’t invite existing or recent clients to a webinar that will focus on pitching your services to prospects; likewise, don’t target prospects when you want to update existing clients on products and services). Also, you will want to place emphasis on your message so that your prospects and clients know exactly why you have invited them.

With these pointers in mind, you should provide a “value-add” purpose for your webinar. For example, a sales pitch webinar by a plumber might come with an invitation to “Sign up for our webinar to learn about the most-common mistakes amateurs make and how to fix them.” When the prospects join your webinar, be sure to illustrate the problems but emphasize that a professional, qualified like you can and will fix such mistakes before they result in costly damages. Again, this is merely an illustration that you can adapt to your specific industry.

Regardless of how you wish to use a web conference, the technology is now cheap enough and good enough that you can achieve greater sales growth and eliminate a lot of expenses by using this method of targeted, mass communication. Not only will you solidify existing relationships with customers and employees, but will dazzle prospects.