We’ve all been there: You’re 20 minutes into a webinar and your eyelids are drooping, your head is nodding and you’re wishing the Keurig machine was closer to your desk. The webinar is a snooze-fest, and you’ve completely lost interest.
Keep this scenario in mind when you’re planning your next presentation so you can prevent this type of situation from happening to your attendees. After all, hosting a dull webinar will do more than just put people to sleep. Failure to captivate your audience and convince them to believe in your brand could affect post-event sales, too. Furthermore, the resource will continue to reflect poorly on your organization as long as it lives on your website or online channel.
You can avoid the pitfalls of hosting a boring webinar by including the following features:
Live video and audio: Make your webinar a live event instead of a prerecorded webcast to add excitement and connect with your audience members in meaningful ways. Inserting live video or audio can bring a presentation to life by allowing audience members to connect faces and voices to slide decks, and it also shows that your team is actively invested in producing a valuable presentation instead of a stale sales resource. It adds the allure, in other words, of a living digital event.
Tip: Bring out a surprise guest halfway through the presentation to keep viewers tuned in. This guest could be a company executive, a thought leader in your industry or a high-profile customer. This will add unexpected value to your presentation, and it could cause repeat followers.
Audience participation: Nobody likes being lectured to for an hour or more. Instead of speaking at your audience, facilitate an environment of inquiry-based learning by conducting a live poll during your presentation. It’s also critical to open up your webinar to question and answer sessions, too. Let your audience know that you’re interested in what they have to say.
Tip: Use valuable feedback from your audience members to develop leads and make sales. When webinar attendees ask and answer questions, you gain a clearer understanding of their needs.
Markups: Use a digital whiteboard to mark up your presentation and make your webinar come to life—just like a sportscaster draws on the screen during an instant replay to pinpoint action. This tool allows a presenter to physically highlight certain areas of a display to drive home a point, make a suggestion or even cross out material. It lets people know that, as a presenter, you are actively engaged in presenting material in a dynamic manner.
Tip: Use your mouse to cross out a brand myth or a competitor’s solution.
Click here to learn more about how you can add flair or excitement to your next online presentation using Onstream Webinars’ professional services.
