A Webinar is an online seminar or an interactive tutorial where you give out a lecture or a presentation, and discuss ideas with people. Webinars are a great way to not only bring in new and unique ideas and content, but also to increase customer conversion and hence earn more money through your blog/website. They allow people from all over the world to communicate and share files, presentations, and ideas. Most companies use them to launch new products, carry out training, and conduct meetings. In essence, Webinars will generate many leads for you.
Holding a Webinar isn’t very difficult. Anyone can host a Webinar. But there’s a reason why everyone doesn’t. Many businesses or brands don’t realize their potential. Many others think it’s too much of a hassle. Well, in this post, we’ll show you that it’s not! And of course, we’ll also talk about how you can host your very own Webinar.
Choosing a Webinar service
The first thing to do is to choose a webinar service. You need to make sure whether it will support the software your files need to be shared on. It should have additional services such as audience participation, online room and conference set up, early registration, and so on. Most important of all, it should be smooth and reliable, so your audience won’t face problems or glitches during the webinar.
Some of the most notable webinar services are GoToWebinar, and iLinc. Both are great services, and offer free trials. So if it’s your first webinar, you can get the webinar experience for free! The set up process is really simple, and you’ll be guided through the steps.
Webinar layout
The next part is planning the webinar itself. First of course would be your topic. Think about what the people’s problems and questions might be. Just as you’d write a blog post, you can think of a unique topic, and brainstorm ideas. This would be the stage where you make a general outline for your webinar, such as what things you’ll include, i.e. presentations, interactive session, Q&A section, etc. Also, pick a suitable date and time for your webinar (read the point below).
Time and schedule
Not one date or time would work for every one. You can just hope to reach out to a maximum number of people. For that, you’ll have to take their time zone into consideration. Target a specific audience and set your time accordingly. For example, if most of your audience are in Europe, then you can choose an evening time according to Central European Time. Also, pick a suitable day of the week. Most people aren’t available on weekdays. Some won’t sacrifice their holiday on Sunday for an hour (or so) long lecture. Most people make outing plans. Usually, Saturday works best. But you can start a poll and ask your audience what time and day suits them best.
Practice-run your webinar
Gather a few colleagues or friends, and start a rehearsal of your webinar. You don’t want to discover a glitch or technical problem during your actual webinar. Secondly, you can rehearse the different segments, and also your presentation. Practice speaking along with your slides. That way, you won’t look like a goof on the actual webinar 😛
Prepare presentations
You will have to prepare presentations for the most part of the webinar. But first, you’ll have to formulate an agenda first. You should include images in your presentations as well so that your audience won’t end up only reading your slides and not listening to you. These images will allow you to explain your points, and also interact with people. You should also prepare slides for the time before your webinar begins, so you can show something to those who came a bit early.
Create an event
Create an event for your webinar. A lot of people use Facebook. So create a Facebook event to which your audience can RSVP to. There are other services as well that send out emails to people. This way, you can remind people about your webinar, and also get to know how many people are coming.
Interact
Interact heavily with your audience. If they have taken the time out of their lives to listen to you, then they deserve your full attention. These are the ones who will eventually bring in leads. Give them time for their queries. Also ask them questions. Make use of polls. A good webinar service should have a poll feature. You should also discuss ideas with them, and ask them for their opinions.
Next up
And finally, you need to promote your webinar. We have talked about this in our post on promoting a webinar. If you have question, feel free to ask 🙂
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