As marketers, we always remind webinar presenters to use a landline phone to deliver their presentation. Using a traditional phone usually improves the quality of the audio broadcast and the recording. Traditional phone lines have less risk of being garbled or losing connectivity. But what happens when your webinar presenters don’t have a landline?
Several of the best presenters I have worked with recently, use a home office that has no landline. These cord-cutters rely on their mobile phone or Voice over IP as the primary communication tool. More and more people are cutting the cord seeing a desk phone as redundant and inconvenient. Tighter expense control policies are encouraging these behaviors as well. Monthly stipends of $75 don’t allow much room for a business phone after you pay for Quantum FiOS.
The cord-cutting trend won’t be limited to home offices. Just as payphone have started disappearing from street corners, we will see traditional landline phones vanishing from offices as well. Companies such as Coca-Cola and JPMorganChase have already eliminated voice mail. Desk phones will be next. In fact, most startup employees wouldn’t be caught dead using a traditional landline phone.
Many of the best webinar presenters are also road warriors that frequently are traveling to visit customers, analysts and business partners. The hotel room phone is usually a good, reliable option for a webinar recording. But I envision a not too distant future where hotel rooms don’t have phones either. Who wants to pay the high mark-up phone rates the hotel charges when your iPhone is within arm’s reach?
The best option I have found currently is to have webinar presenters connect to audio through two diverse paths. Examples include:
- Use a mobile phone as the primary connection, but be ready to quickly use the computer microphone as a backup.
- Use one mobile phone from Verizon as the primary connection. Have a colleague dial-in on another mobile phone using AT&T. Have the second phone on mute ready to transition if necessary.
