Webinars can be a great activity for you to show off your expertise on a topic.
They can also be great content for your team to share out on social media.
They allow you to prove to your audience that you know your stuff. And can help educate them and give them valuable tools they can use right away.
At TechSmith, we host a variety of webinars. They range from product demonstration, training, and joint webinars with industry leaders. We worked with the Content Wrangler on a webinar recently on ‘How to start small with video and get big improvements in customer service’.
Webinars: yes or no?
Be aware that a large amount of planning goes into putting together a high-quality webinar.
Make sure the webinar platform is the right activity for your goals. You’ll need a good idea of the logistics, distribution, and follow-up activities. All these are factors in whether your webinar is successful.
Now that you’ve said ‘yes’ to webinars you’ll need a solid foundation to get started.
In this post I’ll give you three webinar best practices to focus on to ensure you get the most out of your webinar activity.
1. Don’t skimp on planning
There are many steps that need to happen to host good webinars. And you won’t want to wait for just a few days before your live event starts. Good planning should be done at least a week or two in advance.
That way you spend more time focused on your content and less time on logistics.
A few things you’ll want to plan for include:
- Selecting a topic selection (Pick one, focused topic that fits with your target markets)
- Finding a webinar provider (brightTALK, GoToWebinar, Adobe Connect, or WebEx)
- Deciding how to promote your webinar (we use social networks, email, blog, Facebook ads)
It’s crucial to make sure you reach your target audiences with a compelling topic.
After all, your goal is to get them to register – and attend.
2. Make it interactive
Webinars can easily default to a ‘sit and get’ delivery format. This is the death of any webinar attendee. You want to entertain and educate people who attend. Not bore them into oblivion.
You can make your webinar more engaging by building in interactive elements such as Q&A time, poll questions, video clips, and visuals.
If you want to make the most of your webinars, there are a few things you should always consider:
- Make a visual presentation slidedeck
- Integrate video into your webinar
- Use research and data to back up your point
3. Don’t forget about post-webinar activity
Another aspect to keep in mind when planning webinars is that the expectations of webinar participants has shifted.
No longer do people feel that they have to attend a live webinar. In fact, only 16% of B2B consumers prefer live webinars. Instead, many people register for a webinar to get the recorded link and watch it on their own time.
You can also record your webinar to share it out at a later date. Or reuse sections of the video for other post-webinar activities.
If this sounds like a lot of work, that’s because it is. But just because it’s a lot of work doesn’t mean you can’t add webinars into your marketing arsenal.
Follow the tips in this article, and you’ll be well on your way.
What have been your biggest challenges with planning and hosting webinars? Share your experience, challenges, hesitations, and successes in the comments section below.
What have been your biggest challenges with planning and hosting webinars? Share your experience, challenges, hesitations, and successes in the comments section below.
Editor’s Note: This post was originally published in December 2016 and has since been updated for accuracy and comprehensiveness.
