No matter why you feel compelled to put on a webinar or webcast, it's a good idea to learn about the best practices that can help make the event a success. One simple event can result in huge gains for your organization– but don't stress! We're here to give you all the secrets you need to know to ensure your webinar goes off without a hitch.
If you're putting on a webinar or webcast for potential customers, you can communicate with hundreds of people worldwide from the comfort of your desk. This can be a great way to generate new leads, position yourself as an authority in your field, and leverage the audience and credibility of your speakers. On top of that, it can also increase revenue and improve brand awareness.
If you're thinking about the most effective and efficient ways to train your employees, you can save a ton of money and time by doing so through a webinar.
No matter why you feel compelled to put on a webinar or webcast, it's a good idea to learn about the best practices that can help make the event a success. One simple event can result in huge gains for your organization– but don't stress! We're here to give you all the secrets you need to know to ensure your webinar goes off without a hitch.
The best webinars or webcasts will help to improve the lives of your attendees. That might sound like a lofty goal, but it is entirely within the realm of possibility if you can identify your target audience.
Before you get too deep in the weeds of your webinar, ask yourself a few questions, including:
By beginning from what your audience needs and wants, you can custom-build your webinar so that it leaves your attendees satisfied after the fact.
You can make the best webinar the world has ever seen, but it won't be a success if no one knows it's happening.
There are so many channels you can use to promote webcasts these days, and it would be advantageous to take a diverse approach when spreading the word.
You can use your organization's social media profiles, website, LinkedIn, blog, and more to let people know you'll be hosting a webinar. On top of that, you can invite people through email to communicate just how valuable your event is and why your invitees shouldn't miss it.
To go above and beyond, make your event promotion a two-way street by encouraging your audience to engage in the days or weeks leading up to the webinar.
Consider asking your audience to submit comments or questions beforehand or creating a giveaway where a lucky attendee gets a prize if they tweet out a specific hashtag before the event begins.
Creating a webinar landing page is essential in driving registrations and giving your audience essential info.
You'll want to outline the topic, the date and time, the speaker, and what the audience can gain from attending. Your landing page doesn't have to be over-the-top– in fact, keeping it simple can be a good idea so your potential attendees don't get overwhelmed by too much information.
Your landing page is basically the first impression your audience will receive about your webinar. From this space in the digital world, they'll glean all sorts of information about the quality and tone of the event.
To create a solid webinar landing page, here are a few tips:
You can also incorporate social media buttons, so people can easily share your webinar with their friends and coworkers.
To have a successful webinar, you'll want to ensure the conversation stays on track and on topic.
A webinar host is essential to ensure the presentation flows smoothly, as they'll do the introduction and help transition between sections of the event. They'll introduce speakers, relay audience questions to the speakers, and be the one that wraps the whole event up with a tidy bow.
A moderator, on the other hand, has a role that's a little more behind the curtains. They can respond to technical problems that attendees are having and moderate chats if necessary. Having a moderator on hand can make the whole experience easier for the speakers and the host.
Timing your promotional efforts is key if you want great webinar attendance. Studies have found that certain times and dates consistently have much higher registration rates than others.
Some of the best times to schedule webinar promotions are:
According to some reports, Wednesdays and Thursdays are the best days to hold your webinar. However, for both attendance rates and audience engagement, the best time of day to start your webinar is either 10 am or 11 am.
More and more people are using their mobile devices to connect to the internet, so it's a good idea to make sure your webinar will be just as enjoyable, entertaining, educational, and engaging on phones and tablets as it will be on computer screens.
If the experience of logging on and watching a webinar isn't seamless, you'll likely find that many of your attendees bounce off and find something else to do.
How do you make a webinar or webcast mobile-friendly, you ask?
For one, you'll want to choose a webinar platform that supports mobile. Another important step when accommodating your mobile audience is ensuring that your text and visuals are large enough to be easily seen on small screens.
You've done a great job organizing and planning out your webinar. You've got the word out; many people are signed up to attend. When you start your event, though, there's one major problem– the audience can't hear you!
A high-quality microphone or headset is one of the most important investments you'll want to make when you're planning to host a webinar. You don't want your audience to need to have their ears pressed against their computer speakers to barely make out what you're saying or have to strain through strange feedback to catch your words.
You want your attendees to be able to hear every word you're saying easily and without any extra effort. Ultimately, you want them to be able to comfortably take in all of the wisdom you're sharing through your carefully crafted webinar.
It's easy to fixate so much on the content and promotion of your webinar that you forget about the technical side of things. The last thing you want after you've worked so hard to create an incredible webcast is for there to be some catastrophic (or, frankly, even minor) tech problem during the event.
To avoid this outcome, you'll want to set up a test webinar that includes all the features you expect to use. Begin with your video and audio recording equipment and work through your gear to ensure everything is in good order.
If you're using a webinar platform to put on your event, take some time to get comfortable with all of its features so you won't have to stumble around when the pressure is on.
It's a good idea to double-check your gear on the day of your webinar to ensure you don't run into any hiccups when you're live.
Having a high-quality microphone is great, but it won't do much good if dogs bark at your feet and sirens wail out your window.
You might think that where you host your webinar doesn't matter since it's a virtual experience for all of your attendees. Actually, though, that's really not the case. The physical location of your webinar is very important to your success. Therefore, you must give the topic the proper amount of attention before the day of the event arrives.
A soundproof room is ideal, but if you don't have access to one, then you'll want to find a very quiet space where you can close the door and expect not to be interrupted.
Look around the room you choose and ensure there isn't anything in there that creates steady or sporadic noise. Tell anyone else in your office or home that you're going to be off limits for the duration of the webinar, and make sure pets can't wander in when you're in the middle of introducing the keynote speaker.
Don't forget about your devices, too! Make sure everything that isn't necessary for the webinar is muted. Finally, you can close any other applications running on your computer to avoid any unintentional and distracting noises.
Choosing the right speakers can have a major impact on the success of your webinar. When choosing a speaker, it's important to balance a speaker's knowledge of the topic at hand with their ability to engage the audience. Some people are incredibly knowledgeable in their field, but that doesn't necessarily make them good at communicating that information in an interesting and lively way.
It's a good idea to meet up with your speakers beforehand so you can do a demo run. It's also essential that they are comfortable with the tech they'll be using on their end so it doesn't cause any problems on the day of the event.
It's annoying but true: practice makes perfect. If you're nervous about how your webinar will go, the best thing you can do is practice, practice, practice. Practice on your own for the role you play in the event, and practice with all the speakers and the moderator to do test runs in the days leading up to the event.
You'll find yourself a lot calmer and more able to enjoy the experience of hosting a webinar when you're prepared. This is the type of thing that the audience can subtly pick up on, and it can greatly impact the impression they get of your brand and organization.
It might seem obvious, but don't be late for your own webinar. Some experts do suggest that you start your webinar two or three minutes after the scheduled time so everyone has the chance to get settled in. That being said, you should give yourself ample time beforehand, at least ten or fifteen minutes.
This gives you a chance to test all of your tech and also mentally prepare for the big event. You've worked hard to make this happen– you may as well enjoy every minute of it!
If you're looking for a way to push your webinar or webcast event over the edge to the realm of mega-successful, we have a few ideas to help you out. If you're worried that your employees aren't going to be psyched about their required training, you might consider giving them pizza. If you're looking for an incentive to drive registration and attendance, we would highly suggest running a promotional giveaway where the first certain number of registrants receive piping hot pizza.
Maybe we're biased, but we think pizza solves just about any problem you could throw on the table. If you want to take your webinar to the next level, let us plan a pizza party for your event.
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