Generate more responses to your webinars

During the pandemic, it became clear that webinars had a prominent role in keeping in touch with customers, employees and friends alike. Now, in a post-pandemic world, webinars can be an excellent tool to communicate efficiently with customers, but with ‘webinar fatigue‘ (check out our blog on this) and an increasing number of events competing for people’s attention, we have compiled 10 steps to consider when designing a webinar.

Step 1: Why are you holding a webinar?

You need to determine the goal of the webinar and what you want to achieve. A big part of this, is defining your target audience – the ‘who’ you want to target. Once you know these things, you can make an informed decision about the best time to hold the webinar, and on which platform, so that most people from your target audience can be reached.

Step 2: Consider the format

The format is important. Consider whether it is going to be a PowerPoint presentation? Would you like to incorporate video components or, a live demonstration? Is it a solo or duo presentation, or perhaps an interview?

Step 3: Who will speak?

Will you have one or more speakers? If it is an interview, the question is whether the interviewer is also in the picture. To avoid presenting an almost static image to the audience, you can use multiple camera setups.

Step 4: Be original!

Present the topic with enthusiasm and originality. Use PowerPoint, illustrations and other visual material to reinforce your story. Avoid too much text on the PowerPoint slides. If you are unsure, practice the presentation in front of someone who can give you feedback.

Step 5: Audience interaction is key

What degree of interaction is desired? Will there be open questions or a poll? If you are inviting questions, ask someone ‘behind-the-scenes’ to handle questions and polls so that the speakers are not distracted. Questions from the audience may not come quickly but, once the first question has been asked, more often follow. You could invite people to submit questions ahead of time, or alternatively, a member of your team could ask the first question to get the ball rolling. It’s always good to have a few questions ready and prepared. If a question cannot be answered right away, park the question, and answer it after the webinar

Step 6: Address the topic 

Your audience have signed up to learn more about the topic that you have advertised. Everyone’s time is precious, so stick to the topic, avoid lengthy introductions (that you could have already given in the invitation) and make sure your audience are left feeling informed and that the event was valuable.

Step 7: Promoting the webinar

Focus the promotion on your target group, and choose the appropriate means from direct, indirect and social media channels. When confirming registration, include a calendar link so that the time reserved is in the calendar of your registered audience. Don’t forget the reminders to limit the number of no-shows as much as possible.

Step 8: Test

Test in advance whether the presentation is the right length (not too long, not too short), and whether all key people can perform their tasks. Familiarise yourself with the applications and equipment so that you are confident in using them.

Step 9: Mitigate distractions

Be sure that the quality of the connection and equipment meets your needs, and that you are sufficiently familiar with the operation of the applications and equipment so that this does not distract from the message. Failing equipment, poor sound and/or image quality are distracting, and this can be avoided with professional video and audio-conferencing technology and by making sure you use a professional platform such as Zoom, Microsoft Teams, BlueJeans, RingCentral or Pexip to host your Webinars.

Step 10: Follow up, follow up, follow up!

You now have a list of people interested a particular topic, so use the time after the event to follow up with these people. You could also publish appropriate articles, share links to the webinar so that people can watch it back at their leisure, and make sure you answer outstanding questions. You should also evaluate whether you have achieved the desired effect so that your next webinar will be even better.

Nuvias UC offers a range of solutions to help you deliver the best experience by providing video and audio quality across multiple platforms.

For more information, please contact us via email sales@nuvias-uc.com or call our team on +44 (0)1635 225 000.