Guide to Hosting Webinars

Guide to Hosting Webinars

Jamie Carter
Managing Director
Marketing

Be Punctual, smart and secluded

It's always better to be early than late. There is nothing worse than inviting potential clients to attend your webinar and you turn up late. It can be portrayed as disrespectful and unprofessional to some. Remember people have taken time out of their busy schedules to attend and you need to get through as much as possible in the short amount of time you have allocated.

Ensure you are dressed smartly and appropriately for the meeting, show your audience you care and are a professional body.

Finally, ensure you are away from noise and in a quiet environment. If there are animals making noise, bin men emptying bins or road works nearby, try to seclude yourself from this so you yourself are not distracted and your audience can hear you clearly.

First impression

  • 40% of webinar attendees pay attention from start to finish

Within the first three minutes, an audience will judge you and decide whether they want to stay connected or not. Play it cool within these first three minutes. Don't be too enthusiastic or go in the total opposite direction and be too laid back.

Give it your all

  • 32% of attendees said they felt more engaged when the webinar host was really into giving the best presentation ever!

When you're writing your script, make sure it flows, sounds natural and allows your personality to shine through.

  • 81% of webinars incorporate Q and A’s

Keep your audience entertained by including punch lines and ask the audience questions to prevent them from losing interest.

Local and International Webinars

  • Webinars that take place in the morning are 93% more successful

Remember that your morning may be someone else's evening, so be aware of time differences and the variety of languages that may be spoken by your audience. Try and transcribe your script in a variety of languages where possible to help engage with all of your audience.

In addition, it's important to be aware of time throughout your webinar. If you're going to run over the designated time set, make sure you inform your audience in case they have to be somewhere else.

Share Personal Experiences

Relate to your audience with personal experiences that are about your chosen topic. Audiences will engage more knowing your human too and have gone through similar scenarios as them. Don't get too carried away though and veer off track.

Promote your business and brand

  • Consistent branding helps to improve brand recognition, trust and revenue, by up to 23%

Remember to include your brand fonts, colours, logos and slogan on as many slides, images and videos as you possibly can.

Give your audience what they came for

  • 38% of viewers described great content as being the most important thing in a webinar

If you promote your webinar advising you have solutions to common industry related problems, make sure you deliver these solutions. Give examples of how your solution has been tried, tested and implemented in the necessary way. The more solutions you have, the more appreciative your audience will be and increase the chances of a successful webinar.

No Jargon

Some of your audience may be new to the industry or topic you are presenting so make sure you use plain english and limit the amount of technical jargon in your script. With the limited time you have with your audience, you don't want to be explaining technical terms too much.

Visuals

  • 90% of information transmitted to the brain is via imagery

Use plenty of clear images, slides and videos to help your audience stay engaged, learn and understand your presentation.

Prepare for the worst

  • 74% of people use designated webinar hosting software, rather than general video-sharing platforms like Youtube

Making your way to a conference in person can have its problems such as your car breaking down or the train being late. Presenting a webinar is no different. There are a host of problems that may occur such as your Microphone not working, loss of internet connection, or even your laptop battery dying.

Without panicking, you need to look like you have every eventuality under control and seem to be taking it in your stride. Have a back up laptop to hand if possible, your charger to hand and don't panic!

It may also be worth familiarising yourself beforehand, with the webinar set up so you know your way around the room.

Breathe..you have done it!

Whether it's your first or thirty first webinar, it takes courage and confidence to host a webinar. Give yourself a pat on the back, you did a great job!

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Feedback

It doesn't hurt to ask your audience for their feedback after the webinar. Follow up with an email asking them how they found your presentation and if they got what they came for. Just a simple questionnaire would suffice, nothing too long winded or in depth, you don't want to put them off submitting their feedback.

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