Hosting a live webinar can seem a daunting task whether it’s your first or fiftieth time. Doing anything in front of a live audience can be nerve wracking but remember it doesn’t have to be perfect! We all slip up from time to time and what’s more relatable than that? Audiences will always appreciate the human aspect that webinars and live streaming bring to the table. Besides once you get through those initial nerves you’re in for hosting an engaging, interactive experience for your audience that’s sure to drive great results for your business. In short, preparation is key. With a solid plan and lots of prep you’re sure to succeed.
See below for our checklist for hosting a successful webinar – you can thank us later!
1. Pick your platform
First and foremost, it’s important to choose a webinar platform that can suit all your needs. A paid webinar platform will ensure you can host a virtual event that’s ad free, has a branded video player, interactive features, high quality streams and customer support creating a seamless experience for you so you can focus on what’s important; your live webinar.
2. Choose a topic and title
Choosing your webinar topic will take your expert knowledge and in-depth research in finding out what resonates with your audience and based on their needs and goals. Just be sure you’re offering your audience content with value and create an appealing title to go with your topic remembering to include keywords for SEO purposes.
3. Choose a date and time
There’s a lot of online data stating the best days and times of the week to host webinars for the best attendance rates. In fact, in a Hubspot article they suggest to ‘host it on Wednesday or Thursday at 10 AM or 11 AM.’ While this is a great rule of thumb to follow, it’s good to consider the differentiating time zones of your audience. Remember, you can also offer your webinar on demand to anyone who can’t make the live show.
4. Plan your content
By this point, you have already identified the goals and challenges of your target audience. With this information you can now further specify the objectives of your webinar and develop your topic based on your research. Decide who and how many people will be presenting and the format of your webinar. Once you’ve done this, it’s time to plan out your content and create an agenda for your webinar event. Planning the sequence of topics you’ll be covering will help it to flow naturally.
5. Create a registration page
Your registration landing page is your gateway for capturing leads so make sure it’s got all the information they need to know, written in an engaging and informative way. It’s beneficial to include a short video summary or image if you can, and to include an agenda so guests don’t feel that they were misled when they tune in.
6. Promote the webinar
When promoting your webinar make sure to choose social channels where your target audience consume information, and where you’re likely to attract leads who will benefit and interact with your webinar topic. A top tip: make sure there’s continuity between your promotional efforts and registration page to reduce bounce rates.
7. Send out an email campaign
Create a pre webinar email campaign to send to your CRM list of people who have already expressed an interest in your brand. Craft effective headlines and entice them with all the details of your webinar content. Make sure to schedule your sequence of automated emails well in advance of your event including a save the date option for the leads who engage. It’s important you don’t stop there though, continue to nurture your leads once the webinar has ended offering valuable information and compelling calls to action directing them back towards your product or service.
8. Create your slide deck
By now you should have your agenda and topic down to a tee so it’s time to emphasise your key highlights, statistics and facts you intend to include in your webinar. Remember to back up your points with evidence, create entertaining slides and use this time to set up Q&As polls for an interactive experience. This will be easy to set up with a paid webinar platform.
If you choose to go with a paid webinar platform, like Quickchannel, you can offer dual streaming so your attendees can see both you and your presentation simultaneously. Simply watching a slide deck can cause your audience to lose interest and exit your event so this is key for boosting interaction and maintaining interest.
9. Prepare your script
Preparing a script will help you get focused and aligned with your subject matter. Scripting your webinar gives you a guide to follow throughout your virtual event helping you to stay on topic and making time keeping easier.
10. Rehearse your webinar
Practice, practice, practice! The more in tune you are with your webinar, the better you can expect the final result to be.
And finally, host! With these top ten steps you can be sure you’ll be hosting successful webinars in no time.