A Better-Conference-Call Tip #1: Remind Your Audience Regularly

Here's the one tip to insure your next conference call, and all the ones that follow, is better than your previous one:

REMIND YOUR AUDIENCE.

There's nothing to minimize the effectiveness of a conference call like...no one showing up. Simple. Obvious. But everyone is overbooked, wearing so-o-o many hats, overworked, needing sleep, over priroritzed. Help them and by doing so help yourself.

REMIND YOUR AUDIENCE.

* An hour before. Send them an email an hour before the call if there's less than 1 week from your last conference call or the day you scheduled this call.

* The day before. Send your audience an email reminder the day before your conference call  if it was scheduled more than a  week in advance. Yes, send the 1-hour reminder as well.

EMAIL TIP: Put the date and time of the call in the Subject line:

REMINDER: Monday, April 17 at 10:00 AM.

Then in the body of the email remind them of the call's purpose and include an agenda for the call.

This accomplishes three important feats:

1) It will improve the attendance rate for your conference  call.

2) It will reduce the number of late arrivals.

3) Attendees will arrive ready to focus. Your meetings will be more effective. That will start a vicious cycle of higher attendance, more prompt attendance and more focused participants with each subsequent call.

We'd love to hear your stories. Tell us how this simple step impacted your conference calls. If your story is chosen we'll send you a $50 gift certificate from Amazon.com. Email them to me at [email protected]