Complete Guide:
How To Conduct a Successful Webinar?
Webinars allow companies to expand their reach, target more people more often, and deliver a compelling, fully branded experience not to mention they are a cost-effective alternative to in-person meetings.
Successful webinars can be used to generate and qualify sales leads; seed the market with branded, targeted messaging; train employees, partners and customers; and drive collaboration and productivity within an organization.
Taking advantage of Social media platforms such as Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and LinkedIn is one way to make your webinar a success. This will allow you to advertise the event; draw more attendees; engage your audience before, during and after the event; and continue the conversation once the live meeting has ended.
The following would be a good fit for a webinar:
- Detailed examination of a niche topic
- Panel discussion of a timely, news-based issue in your industry
- Thorough, example-driven “how-to” tutorial
- Interview with an industry thought leader
Here are a few reasons why most companies use webinars.
Drive More Engagement
Hosting webinars can lead to more engagement as they are based on promoting a topic relevant to your brand as a result it increases the engagement with audiences worldwide.
Generate Leads
Majority of businesses rely on webinars as a successful tool in driving more leads for their marketing funnel.
Expand Content Creation
Webinars are considered content. Marketers increase the attention that they get for their business when they create more content. The more content that’s created, the higher the search ranks in SEO.
Here are three beneficial ways your business should use webinar.
Credibility in Your Field
By hosting more webinars, you’ll be considered as an industry leader in your field. You’ll gain expertise with the topics you’ll discuss, and possibly have more people attending your webinars each time you host one. This provides a sense of ease and flexibility.
Increased Reach Globally
Webinars have made it possible to reach out to people anywhere in the world. Recorded webinars go beyond time restrictions.
Enhanced Brand Equity
Provide a sense of leadership for your company once you constantly create and host more webinars.
Decide on a Specific Topic
Choose a highly specific content idea that you can go into in great detail. Brainstorm your webinar hosting topic idea, check forums where your target market usually goes to find answers. Any questions can be easily converted into a provocative idea for a webinar as you’ll be offering a valued solution. This will make it easier to focus on the topic and minimize the chance of going off on tangents.
Choose the Right Speaker
Consider speaking with an expert in your industry. Webinars need to be hosted by skilled, knowledgeable experts in their field. If the expert also has a social media following, they’ll let their followers know about their upcoming interview with you, which will mean even more viewers.
Use Digital to Promote
Leverage your social media accounts, email, and website to promote your webinar. Start an ad campaign at least 30 days before the event and send several follow-ups at regular cadences.
Make It Easy to Sign Up
Avoid demanding too much from your attendees. You want to put the bare minimum amount of steps between people registering for your webinar.
Be Mindful of Timing
When choosing a time to host your live event, keep in mind that not everyone will be in your time zone. Try to host webinars at a time that works for other areas around the country and across the globe.
Create An Eye-Popping Slide Deck
Keep your audience engaged for 30 minutes to an hour by giving them a visually appealing deck they can look at.
Send Out an Email Reminder
Send out reminder emails — one the week of the event and one the day of. This will help keep people from forgetting. Some people even send an email 15 minutes before they begin as one final reminder.
Record the Webinar for Future Viewing
Maximize the number of people who watch your webinar, record it and keep it on your site so viewers can come back later. As we’ll point out in a moment, you can drive traffic to your webinar for years to come with other sources of content, too.
Use Micro-Commitments Throughout the Webinar
Use micro-commitments to keep people’s interest for as long as possible. At the beginning of your webinar, bring up all of the subjects you’re going to cover and the various benefits they can expect to receive.
Leave your audience wanting more (contact)
It is usually a good idea to end with a Q&A. Make sure no one is left in the dark by answering any question they may have. Wrap up your presentation with best practices or actionable advice. Leave your audience knowing what to do next. Provide contact information for all the speakers, as well as key contacts within your organization.
Choose the Right Webinar Platform
There are several webinar platforms to choose from, each of which has its pros and cons. Make sure to Top three best practices for conducting a webinar.
Follow Up With Attendees After the Webinar
Prompt follow-up is crucial to overall event success. Send follow-up emails to attendees within 24 hours after the webinar. Send a separate message to people who registered for the event but were unable to attend. Sending them the webinar recording to view later greatly increases your chances of many more people seeing it.
Repurpose Webinar Content
Post short clips on your YouTube channel, blog, social media accounts or include the webinar in prospect nurturing emails.
If you need help on how to get started, our team of expertise is always available to set up a time to talk about your goals and see how we can help you meet them.
If you are looking for virtual exhibitions check out our blogpost here.
