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Tips to Make Your Next Webinar a Success

Tips to Make Your Next Webinar a SuccessWebinars are rapidly becoming an effective tool for marketers to connect with potential and existing clients. Webinars can be broadcast as live events and then archived for later use. The versatility of webinars has contributed greatly to their success, but anyone who has hosted a webinar knows that presentation is everything. The success of a webinar hinges on the execution of the presentation, so let’s look at some helpful presentation tips that are sure to make your next webinar a hit.

How to Keep the Audience Engaged

Successfully conveying information is the main goal of webinars, but for the audience to retain this information, it is vital to keep them engaged. Polls, Q&As, and surveys are all effective tools that keep webinar audiences engaged. These tools not only help boost audience engagement, they can also help provide metrics for future presentations.

Posting polls and other engagement tools on social media adds an extra layer of user interaction. To create more engagement, create a unique hashtag for a webinar to allow audience members to interact not only with the hosts but other audience members as well. Encouraging audience interaction is an effective way to ensure a successful webinar.

How to Structure a Webinar

Webinars are all about content. Unfortunately, many hosts focus too heavily on preplanned content and end up reading directly from the slides. Reading slides verbatim is sure to cause some audience members to tune out. Instead, use the preplanned slides as a model for your webinar’s content, not as a strict guide. Reading slides word for word creates a tendency for hosts to over-explain ideas, which frustrates the audience. It is a sure way to lose the interest of audience members, rendering your webinar less effective than it could be.

When it comes to the actual visual presentation, its vital to include an aesthetically appealing display. An overabundance of text, numbers, and figures makes it difficult for audience members to stay focused. Instead, incorporate graphics and charts. Graphics and charts can display identical information as numbers and text in a more readable format.

Another common mistake during webinar presentations? Using only one speaker. Having a panel of multiple speakers increases audience interest and reduces redundancy. Having multiple speakers during a webinar allows audience members to shift their focus while still being engaged with the content.

After the Webinar

In order for companies to get the most out of webinars, it’s imperative to follow up with the audience members. Creating and distributing a whitepaper that contains the highlights and main points of the webinar is a great way to ensure audience members remember the main points of the presentation. A whitepaper also conveys to audience members that your company values their time. Distributing a whitepaper after a webinar increases the chances of repeat audience members for future webinars.

Also, recording your webinar and posting it on various channels allows your content to be consumed after the live broadcast is over. By posting a recorded webinar, your business’ content will gain more exposure by a larger audience when compared to the original live audience. More content exposure equates to a more success.

The Takeaway

Webinars have become common practice for businesses in every industry. They provide a way for businesses to share relevant content with audience members who choose to participate. However, many webinar hosts fail to use the best practices that can maximize the effectiveness of webinar. Reading verbatim from slides, over-explaining content, and incorporating too much text are all common mistakes to avoid.

Instead, use slides a guide, expand on ideas only if needed, and use graphs and charts to display numbers and figures. Also, companies should be using social media polls to increase user engagement during and after webinars. Polls are an effective tool for companies to gauge how successful a webinar was. Lastly, following up with audience members after a webinar with content, like a whitepaper, to recap and ensure content is fully understood. Webinars will continue to increase in popularity, and these tips will help your next webinar be as successful as possible.

Photo Credit: jandas1 Flickr via Compfight cc

Sabrina George