10 Tips for hosting a successful webinar

With the outbreak of COVID-19 pandemic, the trends in technology have evolved at an exponential pace. This has impacted some of the major functions of business primarily marketing, advertising, and lead generation. With this shift, webinars have gained popularity. They provide a suitable platform for a business to establish itself as a thought leader and help in developing a voice for the brand. Webinars serve as a great content marketing tool and are significant drivers for revenue generation for the business. They are cost-effective, can reach a huge audience at the same time, capture the attention and provide quality customer engagement.

For a webinar to be successful, we should keep in mind the following tips

1. Know your Audience – It is very important to know your audience and their needs before preparing for a webinar. The focus of the webinar should be on providing a solution to the concerns of the audience. Understanding the demographics of the audience and conducting a survey will help in deciding the tone of the presentation along with the most important issue that needs to be addressed.
2. Plan the Content – Plan the content and the layout for the webinar that fits the needs and interests of the audience and aligns with what you have to offer. By putting yourself in the shoes of the target audience, it will give an understanding of what they would like to see and how to keep them engaged to achieve the objectives of the webinar. Organizing content to ensure a proper flow of the webinar helps the audience follow and remember things.
3. Create a compelling headline – The headline of the webinar is key to ensuring its success. The title of the webinar should be unique and should communicate what you intend to present. There is various kind of headlines that can enhance and improve the signup for the event. An open-ended question in the title helps in starting a dialogue amongst the audience and can generate leads. They will sign up to know the answer to the question. Similarly, a title with the word “New” communicates how relevant the webinar is to the current times and prompts the audience to sign up to learn new ideas and gain knowledge on a topic they don’t know about. A headline with “How to” is suggestive and the audience registers to gain knowledge on how to solve their problems.
4. Choose a reputable webinar platform – It is important to choose a webinar hosting platform that you can trust. A reputable webinar platform makes it easy for the target audience to register for the event and watch it in multiple ways through various devices. The choice of the platform also depends on the goals, the size of the audience, and the number of events you want to schedule.
5. Choose the right day and time – It is important to host the webinar on a day and time that allows for maximum attendance. Deciding the time for the webinar will depend on the demographics of the target audience. Using Google Analytics can help determine the regions where the traffic comes from to select a time.
6. Promote the webinar in advance – To maximize the attendance for the webinar, it needs to be promoted well in advance. To start with,
   • Create a landing page explaining what the webinar is about and the benefits of attending the webinar. It should carry the date and the time of the webinar, the speaker for the webinar, and a clear call to action for registration for the event.
   • Promote across all the social media platforms to reach more people. Create an interesting hashtag that will engage people online.
   • Share a short video to give a sneak peek into the event. This video can be used across all social media platforms as well to promote the webinar
   • Email Marketing is another way to reach a larger audience. Make sure to include a “call to action”.
   • Write a blog to promote the event. Try and include all the components and benefits of the webinar. Share it across all social media networks.
7. Use the right equipment – The equipment can make or break the webinar. The quality of the webcam, the microphone, and the headphones should ensure that the webinar is delivered with clarity to the audience and the audience can be heard well when they speak during the webinar. It is a good idea to have a copy of the slides so no part is missed any in case of a glitch.
8. Prepare and practice for the event – Practice for the webinar to ensure everything goes off well on the day of the event. Familiarize with the webinar software platform to have easy control and ensure all the equipment is working well. Conduct a dry run to review the content and ensure there are no formatting issues. Minimize technical risk, ensure that no extra software is running in the background and there are no disturbances.
9. Keep the audience engaged – Make sure that the audience is engaged during the duration of the webinar. A webinar should not be very long and ideally should not exceed beyond 60 mins to keep the engagement high. Always plan and schedule a time for each section. Setting aside time to answer questions and respond to comments in the chatbox is very important.
10. Evaluate the efforts and follow up – After the webinar concludes, there are still important tasks of evaluating the efforts and follow-up with the attendees that’s need to be taken care of. Platform metrics can be used to analyze registration and the performance of the webinar. Following up with the attendees is important not just to ask them for feedback but also to continue the conversation with those who engaged and convert them into customers who take the desired action of the campaign. The feedback also helps in improving the webinar process for the future. Remember to share the recording of the webinar-on-demand with the people who registered but were unable to attend the event.

Hosting a successful webinar involves many steps. The key to the success of the webinar lies in your hands. Following the steps mentioned above with not only help you prepare well for your webinar but also ensure it is a successful one.