While the focus of this article is the teleconference, it is worth mentioning a variation on the teleconference known as the Webinar. In this version, participants can listen to the seminar and can go to a website (provided by your teleconference provider) and can view video of the event or more commonly, a power point, diagrams, or other visual content while listening to the teleconference.

In its simplest form, the teleconference (or Webinar) can simply consist of you delivering a brief verbal update of important information or discussing an important topic. You can allow questions or not with most teleconference providers, simply by muting or unmuting the listeners lines.

In it more advanced forms, teleconferences often consists of you being interviewed by a third-party or of you interviewing a valuable guest with information that is important to your client or customer base. In another variation, you can have a panel of “speakers", experts, or other advisers and you can act as the moderator, questioning them on a variety of topics of interest.

Where's the Profit?

When I say that teleconference and Webinars are a highly leveraged form of marketing, what I mean is that the time you spend preparing and implementing the teleconference can yield a number of marketing tools and products that can be used over and over again in a variety of ways.

First, there is the telephone conference itself. It informs, educates, and possibly entertains your customers. That helps to keep you in front of them and builds and enforces your relationship with you and their view of you as a valuable expert in your field.

Next, you can have a transcript of the teleconference prepared in this can be edited into a report or white paper, which can also be provided to clients and to prospective clients and customers. Transcription services abound. However, www.elance.com allows you to seek bids for transcriptions and www.escriptionist.com provides reasonable pricing and reliable transcription services on a per job basis.

Additionally, you can also post the recording of a teleconference on your website, Podcast it, replay it as though it’s a live event, or burn it to CD. If you create a cd or series of cds, you can also create a product consisting of a combination of the white paper and CD of the teleconference for a high perceived value gift or marketing tool. You can even create and sell a course, which teaches a topic or provides information contained in your teleconference.

In your teleconference series and this product or course can be a new source of revenue to you. In a little while, I will provide you with all the information you need to take each and every one of the steps. However, I want to review a few more ways in which businesses and professional service firms currently use teleconferences and the marketing and profit models associated with each one.

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