22 June 2021
By now, most of us have attended some kind of online event with a platform like Zoom or MS Teams. Wh...
Hosting a successful webinar doesn’t have to be painful.
In fact, if you or your organisation have produced successful in-person events in the past—many of the principles that you already know still apply. They simply need to be updated to fit the virtual or hybrid event model.
If you’re unsure how to move a physical event online, don’t be discouraged. The following 10 tips will put you on the right track towards hosting your own successful webinar.
Just like any professional event, the first step in planning a webinar is to have a clearly defined set of goals that align with the needs of your organisation. This will help shape the rest of your strategy, including which format will work best for your audience and the webinar tools you’ll need to help reach those goals. Here’s a simple process you can work through to discover the best goals for your webinar.
When we talk about the format of a webinar, we’re talking about how your message is delivered to your audience through content. For example, if your goal is to gather 100 new email subscribers, your webinar format could be a ‘How-to series’ that encourages attendees to sign up to an ongoing email series that dives deeper into the topic after the webinar is complete.
Some webinar formats to consider are:
Hybrid events are an increasingly popular choice for organisations that have seen success with their in-person seminars but also want to reap the benefits of moving things online.
You’ll still hire a venue and have speakers and an audience on-site, but with some nifty modern technology and the help of a professional webinar provider, you also broadcast your event to a virtual audience.
With the right webinar platform, your virtual audience doesn’t even have to miss out on interacting with your presenters. Look for a provider with features such as moderated Q&A sessions, live polling, and an engaging event host who knows how to keep both a virtual and live audience engaged with your content.
Finding speakers for your event that have authority on your topic and can pull a crowd to your event is essential.
However, this doesn’t mean you’re limited to speakers who have massive followings or star power. Some of the best speakers are simply people with an interesting story or behind-the-scenes knowledge on a topic. The best webinars are those that educate, and often that means bringing a fresh perspective to a mainstream area of interest. Best practice is to have a mix of prominent speakers and those who are less known but have a unique idea or insight into your industry.
Even if you put together a fantastic webinar program filled with wonderful speakers and great content— if you don’t have your target audience in attendance, it’s going to be hard to achieve any of your objectives. That’s why it’s important to get started on your promotional plan as early as possible. If possible, diversify your promotion strategy between social media, email marketing, and display advertising. This will help you cast a wide net and reach new, highly targeted audiences.
Whether you’re holding a webinar or hybrid event, make sure you choose a suitable space that will enhance rather than detract from your content. This means choosing a room that can be soundproofed, has good acoustics, a clear background or space for a white backdrop or 'green screen', and space for any of the tools you require to make your webinar a success.
One of the downsides of a webinar is that you do have to work harder at keeping the audience engaged than if they were there in person.
Even if your speakers are fantastic, virtual audiences require more visual stimulation since they can’t soak in the atmosphere of the crowd and have the presentation physically in front of them. To help keep your virtual audience actively engaged, ask that your speakers include visual aids in their presentations. Video snippets, graphs, memes—anything that can help them get their point across with minimal words.
Just as visual aids will help keep your audience engaged, breaking up speaking sessions with interactive sessions will help keep your agenda moving but without weighing down attendees with back-to-back speakers.
Interactive sessions aren’t as difficult to pull off online as you may think. Good webinar providers will help you set up Q&A sessions, where the audience can ask speakers questions about their presentation. These sessions come with a Q&A moderator who can vet questions before handing them to the speaker.
Live polling is another great feature that allows you to gauge audience sentiment, and have them interact with each other and you. Also, look for a webinar provider who offers a live chat feature to keep the virtual conversation flowing throughout your event.
One of the major benefits of webinars is that not only are they cost-effective because you can either downsize or completely eliminate the need for event hire and catering—but you also hardly need any tools to get started. While your webinar provider will give you a more detailed list of what you require for your unique situation, in most cases you’ll only need the following to get going:
Rehearsing before any event is important. But when you have speakers tuning in remotely or are catering to a virtual or hybrid audience, testing your equipment, internet connection, content and the flow between speakers is absolutely essential. Use the following checklist in your rehearsals to make sure you have everything covered:
At the end of the day, choosing a webinar platform that has the right features and technical support is the most important decision you’ll make. Get this part wrong and the professionalism of your event will suffer, making it almost impossible to reach your goals. While there are free DIY platforms out there, resting the fate of your organisation's reputation in one is not advisable. As well as the audiovisual quality being unpredictable, providing zero technical support, and the lack of features, some of these platforms have been the target of security breaches, putting both your business and attendee's data at risk.
Instead, choose a webinar provider who offers managed webinars. The quality, professionalism, and technical support you receive are guaranteed, as well as having many great features to support.
At Express Virtual Meetings, our experienced webinar team is ready to take the hard work and stress out of your next webinar or virtual event. As well as planning and delivering effective webinars, we can take your next in-person event and turn it into an engaging hybrid event.
If you want a seamless and professional webinar or consistent webinar series, get in contact with Express Virtual Meetings today, or call 1300 849 300 between 6 am and 9 pm Monday to Friday (excluding Australian national public holidays). Our team helps you focus on what you do best, while we take care of the technology and strategy that will help you reach your goals.
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