Troy Hollenbeck
For any marketer looking for the best bang for his buck, webinars are the way to go. While a number of marketing pros out there are undoubtedly looking for the best marketing tool possible to connect with his or her audience.
To become a pro at holding valuable, information-packed webinars, the truth is there’s a hefty amount of work that needs to go into planning them in order to reap the benefits of a successful webinar.
Leading up to the webinar though there is some work to be done, such as getting an influential speaker, social media promotions, picking topics to speak on, writing a blog post and so on. So there are numerous points to expand on including good webinar pointers.
Well, look no further, as below, I’ve outlined 10 areas you should focus on to ensure you and your team are fully prepared to put on a high-quality, successful webinar…
Here’re my Top Tips on Webinar’s you can implement right into your webinar promotion and make it a success!
1) Interact with your audience before the webinar
It is imperative that you get your audience excited before the webinar starts! Tweet to a hashtag for the webinar, write blog posts promoting it, and ask for people to post their questions or input before the webinar starts. Remember people want to get to know you as well, interacting and answering their questions is a good starting point. Also builds trust into your event.
Giving something away is also important, creates a viral buzz before the show!
Can be:
- Tickets to a live event
- A special feature
- A major discount on a product
- Or anything of value to the business owners
2) Create an appealing slideshow
To keep an audience engaged for 30 minutes to an hour, you’ll need to give them something nice to look at. Create a slideshow that is what you’re talking about with good “visually appealing” pictures.
Don’t simply write a paragraph on a slide in black and white. Instead, make sure the copy adds to the presentation.
3) Use a hashtag dedicated to the webinar
Create an “Easy to Remember” hashtag for people to find your webinar. One tip here is to use a “less popular” hashtag that nobody else uses so your webinar stands out amongst the crowd.
Use a webinar hashtag to create a community of people with something in common. Something original and catchy is best.
4) Bring in your mentor or a powerful influencer
This is when things get interesting, pick someone who is energetic, successful, not boring, and got lots of value to add for your audience. Nothing is worse than to bore your audience to sleep.
Additionally, if you have more than one speaker, have them play off of each other, making the webinar a discussion instead of two different monologs.
6) Have at least one host or moderator
Adding in a moderator to help you answer questions and even add to the discussion. Getting one or more speakers to join your webinar can really liven the conversation, but with no moderator to help out things can lose track pretty quick.
Also, moderators can mute out negative and people who cuss and swear and feel that is appropriate behavior (Which it isn’t).
Simply put, a webinar host can help with the flow of the presentation, and can help out with the webinar conclusion with a bit of Q &A in the end.
7) Try out various types of media
Using 100% screen sharing is one idea. Walk through your daily social media activities, how you take screenshots, how you record a video, how you write a blog post, or how you post it to Twitter/Facebook and share it. I like this idea because it produces a lot more engagement and creates a highly interactive webinar.
Combine that method with a prominent speaker, a hot giveaway, and a valuable product, it will be a full house begging for more!
8) Perform a thorough sound check
Nothing is worse than when your sound does not work properly, so, doing a sound check is very important.
For example, if you’re going to be sharing your screen or switching controls, have a pre-webinar dry run where speakers can practice before doing it live. It’s always best to find out where mistakes could occur before the actual webinar so you don’t waste your time or that of your guest speaker(s). Make sure your mic works as well.
9) Take other time zones into consideration
Not everyone will be in your time zone, so taking that into account, so try to host webinars at a time that works for other areas around the country and across the globe. Pick a time that is suitable, or offer a replay time via email.
5 MST may not work for people in the UK, for example, they are 7 hours ahead in time zones.
10) Find a quiet place to talk
Keeping background noise to a minimum is a must. Nobody likes a webinar presentation when there is a bomb going off in the background, or a loud TV, or people talking, or the dog barking non-stop. Find a quiet place to host your webinar, so you stay focused on presenting!
11) Template and Lead Magnet
This is my best tip, get a lead magnet and a proven template for your webinar. There are places to buy them, can cost upwards of 2K, but consider it an investment into your business. Some template packages can include: 30 cash sucking follow-up emails, a sought after lead magnet, engaging slide show pics, and a proven template. I’m one of those marketers that like to take shortcuts, investment aside is worth it! Maybe you are too.
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