Your webinar is your way to reach the largest audience possible to promote your business and inform potential customers. While in-person seminars have long been the way to do this, more people are looking for ways to get the same information without having to worry about the logistics of travel, taking time and money away from their businesses to attend these seminars. When you use these tips for your Onstream webinar, you will be providing your potential attendees with a great service.
- Spread the Word. The most important thing you will need to do is get the word out about your webinar. Because you will be reaching out to an audience that stretches across the country or even around the world, you will need to make an effort to advertise your webinar to increase the attendance you will see for your webinar.
- Create the Schedule. The farther your reach is, the more difficult it will be to arrange the schedule. Look at where your attendees will be coming from and schedule your webinar for a time that will work best for the greatest number of people. For instance, if most of your attendees will be coming from the West Coast, you don’t want to schedule your webinar for 8 a.m. Eastern time because that would 5 a.m. for your West Coast attendees.
- Understand the Technology. There’s nothing worse than attending a webinar that is full of glitches and technical difficulties. Avoid this by making sure you are familiar with the technology before your webinar. Practice the session so you know how everything works when it comes time to host your webinar. Be sure you choose a hosting company that has a good track record for being bug-free.
- Be Professional. Your attendees want you to be active in the webinar, but they also expect a professional presentation. Make sure the presenter for your webinar is well-prepared and has all the tools he needs for the most professional presentation. When you have a presenter who stumbles around and has to flip through his notes or visual aids, it portrays the wrong impression about your company.
- Use Clear Speech. When you present your webinar, people expect you to be prepared. Rehearse your webinar and make notes for yourself so you don’t stumble around or include a lot of pauses or other sounds that don’t belong in your webinar. You will quickly lose the interest of your audience if you don’t sound like you know what you are talking about.
- Avoid Wordy Slides. Slides can be a great addition to your presentation, giving your audience a visual view of what you are talking about. However, you need to be careful not to use too many words on the slides so your audience doesn’t feel the need to read everything. Instead, use illustrations to get your point across.
- Make Your Presentation Interactive. Your audience wants to be involved in your presentation. Include polls, Q&A sessions and other interactive elements so your audience can give their input and truly feel as though you care about their attendance at your webinar. The more interactive your presentation is, the better you will hold your audience’s attention.
- Tell a Story. An audience can quickly grow bored or disinterested if you simply portray fact after fact. Instead, attempt to portray the information you have to share in more of a story format to hold their interest. Use speech rhythms similar to stories and include narrative examples whenever you can.
- Record Your Webinar. Not everyone you invite will be able to attend your event live. This is why it is important to record it. You can then post it to your company website or blog so anyone who missed it can watch it later and those who did attend can watch it again if they desire.
- Follow Up with Information. If you promise to provide something to your attendees after the webinar, make sure you follow through quickly. For instance, if you mentioned specific links or files you wanted to provide to your attendees, send them out via e-mail immediately after the webinar. This will show your attendees you meant everything you said.
- Send a Survey. After your webinar, it is important to gather feedback from your attendees. Send out a survey about your seminar via e-mail shortly after your webinar. You can even encourage people to reply by offering more free information upon completion of the survey. The results of the survey can help you make improvements in any future webinars.
- Check Everything Ahead of Time. Make sure you are completely prepared for the webinar before it begins. It is important to plan ahead so everything goes as smoothly as possible. Check that all the presentation materials are in place, the presenters will be in attendance and the webinar software is operating correctly. It never hurts to double check everything. You can never be too prepared.
- Plan for Mistakes. No one is perfect. Something could easily go wrong in your webinar. The important thing is to not allow mistakes to fluster you. If you misplace something, skip over information or experience some other difficulty, simply take a deep breath and keep moving. Chances are, people aren’t going to notice your mistake unless you make it obvious.
Webinars can be an incredibly useful tool if you use them properly. Following these tips as you prepare for and move forward with your webinar, you will see just how much an online webinar with Onstream Media can help your business grow and succeed.
