Video calls and web meetings have become a staple of many businesses but they’re especially effective if you do any kind of client calls, coaching or training where being able to refer back to a recording would be beneficial.
There are a multitude of choices to suit all kinds of needs, regardless if you’re looking to do 1-to-1 meetings or even larger 1 to 1,000 or more. The best tool for the job depends on how you will use the system, and how often you will use it. As always in business, what your expected ROI is or needs to be will also dictate the best system to suit your needs.
Zoom is a LOW-COST video conferencing service, but it can be used for so much more than just that. With a Basic (forever) FREE account you can hold unlimited 1 to 1 meetings and meetings with 3 or more participants for up to 40 minutes. The Pro account is just $15 per month with no meeting time limit, again with 1-100 participants (again that’s upgraded from 50 participants since I made the video – the Pro account price stayed the same 🙂 ).
The Best Thing About Zoom Video Conferencing…
is you can easily record your meetings, have the file rendered then sent to the cloud or your desktop. When you end your recorded meeting, you’ll receive a download of the meeting in 3 file formats, an audio file (perfect to repurpose into a Podcast or e-book), an M3U file (add this to multimedia playlists) and an MP4 video file (ready to post to YouTube or on your own website).
For a simple to use, low-cost solution I highly recommend Zoom. It’s perfect for recording coaching or training sessions, small meetings (up to 100 participants (that’s updated from 50 participants since I made the video – but the Pro stayed the same 🙂 ) and webinars.
They do offer other services for Webinars and Private Meeting Rooms too, you can read full details of those services (if you need them) on their homepage.
Using ZOOM for web meetings with clients and to create coaching or training videos for your team or for sale is a no-brainer at a cost of…FREE! And, if you want to dip your toe in the “webinar-waters” without getting tied into contracts or complicated systems ZOOM might be just the ticket to let you try before you buy.
Tool Type: SAAS Application
Cost: Freemium
Basic: FREE! (unlimited 1-to-1 meetings, unlimited group meetings upto 40 minutes)
Pro: $15 per month (allows for unlimited, longer duration meetings and more active participants )
**Click here to learn more about Zoom Video Conferencing**
I love ZOOM too though I don’t use it nearly enough. Thanks for the reminder, Deb!
Thanks Wendy – it’s an awesome tool and can be utilized in a lot of other ways beyond as a web meeting tool. I’ve been using it (in place of Camtasia or Snagit) to record PowerPoint demo and explainer videos, just because I can easily grab the MP3 audio file for extended distribution. You know a FREE Zoom account would be a great tool for your community to use to have family group video calls!
I use zoom all the time as well. I specially like that with the webinar option you can multicast to Facebook live. It’s great for doing interviews and you can’t beat the cloud recording set up. I use it more for my closed coaching sessions. You’re absolutely right now for a lot of people the free option is perfect.
Thanks for commenting John, always good to have an opinion confirmed by another user and expert!