How to Host an Effective, Engaging Webinar [Guide]

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When people can’t come to your business, you need to get in front of them — at least virtually. We’ve already mentioned three great ways to communicate with clients and employees, so now let's deep dive into webinars as a fourth communication technique that could bring you new business while practicing safe social distancing.

“Now more than ever,” Thomas’ Director of Product & Event Marketing Brittany Asciolla says, a webinar “allows you to connect with folks and share your message virtually. Yes, you can do so via blogs, ebooks, articles — but a webinar puts a voice and personality to a company.”

What Is a Webinar?

A portmanteau of “web” and “seminar,” a webinar lets you give live, interactive presentations or training sessions to groups spread out anywhere in the country - or even the world. During the real-time informational talk, the host is often visible through video and can also share slides as if they were giving an in-person presentation. Although the audience is usually muted, they have the opportunity to use the chat function and can often unmute themselves at the end of the presentation to ask questions or respond.

A webinar should not be confused with a webcast or with videoconference. A webcast — another lovely portmanteau of “web” and “broadcast” — is a live or prerecorded presentation that is broadcast online, but does not allow for interaction between the host and audience. 

Webinars safely put your business in front of a large group of people, giving them an inside look at what you do and how you do it. It personalizes the experience at a time when many people are feeling disconnected from society and craving social interaction. As video production pro Chris Bryant said on a recent Thomas Industry Update Podcast, using video helps you build trust with your audience.

Types of Webinars

There is a wide variety of webinars, each of which serves a different purpose. Some are directed internally, either to individual departments or company-wide, while others are meant for audiences outside the business, such as clients and potential clients.

• Thought Leadership: Positions you or your company as a leader in your industry and offers an insider’s viewpoint or idea, with the goal of expanding your network reach.
• Lead Generation: Provides educational information on your company’s area of expertise with the goal of generating leads for new clients.
• Customer Engagement: Provides on-boarding to demonstrate to clients how your company can best serve them and informs their understanding of your products and service, with the goal of building trust and retention.
• Continuing Education: Instructs clients and/or staff in a virtual classroom, with the goal of sharing knowledge and educating.
• Product Demo: Teaches people how to use your product or service or illustrates how to use new features that you’re now offering.
• Membership Content: Provides exclusive bonus material for members with the goal of incentivizing and rewarding loyal customers.
• Employee Training: Instructs staff on any and all aspects of the business, from standard HR policies to tutorials that increase subject-matter expertise, with the goal of ensuring staff is aware of expectations and improving company culture.
• Corporate Communications: Unlike a training webinar, this could inform of such things as quarterly figures, what’s being done in the wake of a company scandal, or the launch of a new product or benefit, with the goal of creating a positive company culture.

Webinar Formats

In addition to the content of the webinar, you'll need to think about how to best present the material to your audience in an engaging and helpful manner. This includes deciding who and how many people will be on camera and what roles they will take.

• Keynote Presentation: An expert informs and inspires, often using slides that illustrate the topic and engage listeners.
• Conversation: Two people of similar repute dialogue together.
• Interview: A host interviews someone within the company, a leader or influencer outside the company, or a client giving a testimonial.
• Panel: A host moderates and/or interviews several scheduled guests.
• Q&A: Though this is usually the feature saved for the end of the above-mentioned webinar categories, an entire webinar could be devoted to a host answering audience questions (often sent in ahead of the webinar), with the goals of creating greater understanding, improving brand awareness, and increasing loyalty.
• Joint Webinar: Similar to a conversation webinar, in a joint webinar two businesses host a single webinar, capitalizing on each other’s reputations and mailing lists to grow their own business.

How to Set up a Webinar

A webinar requires many of the same logistical necessities of a live seminar or panel. You’ll need to decide on the topic and format: Will it be a TedTalk-like message with a PowerPoint presentation about how your business is innovating to transform the industry, for example, or a behind-the-scenes interview with one of your key workers in action? 

Choose a Date and Time

Select a date and time that not only works for anyone who will be featured in the webinar but also any additional crew you’ll be using, if any, such as a videographer and technical lead.

Importantly, you’ll also want to ensure that the date and time you select is feasible for attracting the greatest amount of people you’re targeting.

• Day of the week: Tuesdays through Thursdays work best, as Mondays people are usually rushing with work after the weekend and Fridays people often already have one foot out the door for the weekend.
• Time: If your target audience is local to where you are, you won’t have to account for the various time zones in the country, but if you’re trying to expand to other markets or if you’re specifically targeting overseas markets you’ll need to consider time differences. Noon Eastern Standard Time accommodates most people globally.

When choosing the time, it’s helpful to note the running time or end time as well. Most webinars are about an hour long.  

Choose Your Webinar Platform

There are dozens of webinar software options, including:

• GoToWebinar (7-day free trial)
• Livestorm (free)
• Livestream
• Webex (free)
• Zoom (free)

Some of the factors you may want to consider when selecting which webinar software option is right for you are:

• Enabled for pre-recorded and live webinars
• Facilitates more than one presenter
• Presenter can share screen, such as a PowerPoint presentation
• Attendees can live chat; chats can be filtered
• Options for how attendees can listen (dial-in via phone; weblink)
• Invitations and automatic calendar reminders
• Webinar can be recorded and archived for future distribution

Ensure that you, any in-house team that you’re working with to create the webinar, and any external individuals which will be part of the webinar are all fully set up with the software and understand how to use the technology prior to the day of the webinar. You don’t want to discover right as you’re about to go live that your operating software is too outdated to run the webinar software. Nor do you want to be the boss that turns yourself into a potato. 

Market Your Webinar

If your webinar is mandatory for employees, perhaps it doesn’t much matter what you call it or when during office hours you have it, but if you’re looking to reach a larger audience you’ll want to put in the effort to market your webinar with the same energy as if it were a live event or new product or service.

Title and Description

Create an eye-catching title and a blurb that hooks your intended audience. Think of it like the title of a book and the flap copy that snags a reader’s attention.

The idea is to create so much anticipation for your webinar that people will have a fear of missing out if they don’t attend; of course, you must deliver on what you promise. Consider using search engine optimization (SEO) in your title and description to garner a larger audience.

In addition to the title and descriptive copy, don’t forget to include the basics:

• the name of your company
• who will be presenting and their job title
• the day and time (include time zone) of the webinar
• cost of attending the webinar (if applicable; if free, mention that)
• how to purchase (if applicable) and RSVP

If you add hyperlinks — whether to a page within your website or to an external presenter’s page — make sure that each link opens in a new window.

Marketing Imagery

Just like a book is bought for its cover, you’ll likely need a great image that you can use to market the webinar too. Familiar faces tend to be the most effective marketing images, so featuring photos of your host and speakers is a great idea. Just be sure to request the photos from the speaker or their publicist/agent, and give them ample time to provide it. Ensure all photos are high resolution.

Where to Advertise for Your Webinar

Cast a wide net in getting the word out about the webinar, just like you would for a live event. Here are some ideas to get you started:

• Create an optimized landing page for the event (i.e., on your website).
• Email your mailing list.
• Implement a pop-up window for the event on your website’s home page.
• Promote on social media (e.g., LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, etc.), and consider using a unique hashtag for marketing purposes that your audience members can also use during the live event.
• Run an ad on a relevant website or digital publication.
• Run an ad in a print publication.
• Conduct a pre-interview with the presenters that you can run on your blog or social media.
• Distribute a press release.
• Pitch an article idea to a writer or editor.
• Provide media that your presenter(s) can use to promote themselves as speakers at your event on their own social media.
• Add it to webinar listing pages (e.g., Eventbrite, Tell Online, Zoom Marketplace).

Make sure to always include the accurate essential information (title, presenters, day and time, etc.) on any and all marketing you do and make it as easy as possible for people to sign up for your webinar. You don’t want to lose out on a potential audience member who is intrigued but is confused because the details say “Monday, April 21” when in fact Monday is the 20^th not the 21^st or because they can’t quickly and easily figure out how to RSVP.

Begin promoting your webinar early so that people can schedule it into their calendars before something else fills that time slot for them. Promote it often — the rule of 7 says people need to be exposed to something seven times before they take action on it. Keep promoting it right up until the day of the event to keep it front and center in people’s minds and to snag any last-minute attendees who may have suddenly had time open up in their schedules.

Gearing up for the Webinar

In-house Logistics

Work with your team to ensure you and all involved are fully aware of the content and logistics of the webinar. A few key technical components to check:

• internet access
• camera angles
• picture quality
• lighting
• sound

Presenter(s)

Likewise, make sure all on-camera individuals are well prepared and aware of your expectations. This includes, but is not limited to:

• Prepping invited presenters and the moderator with expectations for when they are to arrive, even if they will be logging in virtually.
• Informing presenters of how long they will speak.
• Having a basic outline of what will be presented (you may provide this, the presenter(s) may provide this, or you may collaborate on it).
• Obtaining any necessary slides, imagery, etc. (you may provide it, they may provide it, it may be a collaboration).
• Confirming any necessary guest biographies (if you haven’t already done so for marketing).
• Providing any tips or parameters you have.

Audience

Be sure that you send out a reminder to all registrants leading up to the webinar that again has all accurate essential information. Ensure that registrants also have all necessary log-in instructions, even if you’ve previously provided it.

Key Elements of a Webinar

Going into the live webinar, you should have a crystal-clear picture of the content. Even if you’re not the presenter, you should be working so closely with the presenter(s), including panelists and interviewees, that there are no shocking on-camera surprises.

This doesn’t mean you need to micro-manage or have an exact script. You want those on-screen to have flexibility and freedom to respond in the moment so that they don’t sound artificial with canned responses. However, providing a clear outline and talking through content and logistics with the on-air talent will go a long way in ensuring both parties feel comfortable and confident in the material and process. For example, you may want to have a conversation with the moderator for how to handle a panelist that hogs time.

If you’re doing a standard one-hour webinar, a solid format is 5–10 minutes of welcome and introductory remarks, a half-hour presentation, and 10–15 minutes of Q&A and wrap-up remarks.

Pro tip: Include time markers in the outline, and have a timekeeper assigned (or at least a clock in sightline). A professional speaker may be used to timing themselves, but even so many people speak too fast when they’re nervous or excited while others may get sidetracked by tangents and stories that take longer than expected.

Welcome

Greet your audience, and thank them for attending. Set up expectations for what will take place during the webinar. Provide logistical information, such as that the audience should mute themselves, that they may use the chat function to type in their questions, and that there will be a question and answer time at the end. Introduce your guests and give short bios, if applicable.

Speaker’s Introductory Remarks

Introduce the talk. A common approach is to give a three-point preview of the talk.

Content Core

Adhering to the outline, the presenter(s) gives their talk or product demonstration, interviews their guest, or moderates the panel.

Conclusion

To drive home the message, the presenter should reiterate the core message, such as the three main points, and provide any takeaways.

Importantly, this is an excellent time to have your call to action. For example, now is the time to put up the slide with your contact information for how they can get on your mailing list to find out more or to put up a photo of your new product and the link to where it can be purchased.

Q&A

Your technical lead can help field questions coming in through the chat function or through the phone. Unless your entire webinar is a Q&A format, you’ll likely want to keep this short. Reserving 10 minutes at the end is a good rule of thumb.

Just as you want a precise outline, you should anticipate the questions audience members will ask that might not be covered in the talk so that you are prepared to answer. Of course you may not always know the answer, and it’s perfectly fine to be candid and, if applicable, tell them you can look into it for them if they’d like to contact you.

Another option is to develop a few questions ahead of time in case your guests are hesitant to engage. This sets you up for success by offering questions you know the answer to and keeps viewers engaged through the very end of the presentation. 

Wrap Up

Thank everyone for attending, presenters and audience alike. Let the audience know if you’ll be making the webinar presentation or the slides available and how they can find them. Remind them of how to locate your business and your product — a slide with the essentials works great — and reiterate your call to action or any upcoming webinars.

Tips & Tricks for a Successful Webinar

For a “successful, meaningful webinar,” Asciolla recommends that you “put yourself in the viewer’s shoes.” She advises putting together a webinar with a tangible takeaway: “You attend webinars to learn something and walk away with tips and tools that you can act on immediately.”

Here are some best practices for webinar presenters:

• The webinar topic should be relevant, interesting, and add value for your targeted audience.
• Be passionate! If you’re not excited about the topic, your audience won't be either.
• Make eye contact. Just because you can’t see your audience, doesn’t mean they can’t see you. Look directly in the camera. As Tyra Banks would say, smile with your eyes.
• Run a few camera tests, getting feedback from a trusted colleague or career coach, to see how you look on camera. The outfit you wear on video will be a visual cue to your audience. A little powder can soften a shiny face. And of course, be aware of your angles so that your head isn’t cut off from the screen or your back to the audience if you’re interviewing someone.
• Practice your presentation. You don’t have to memorize your entire talk, but do not read your presentation in a droning voice with your head down. Use a teleprompter or cue cards off-screen so that you can maintain eye contact with your virtual audience. Timing your talk, practice the rhythm of your talk so it’s not too fast or slow. Clearly articulate your words, making sure you know how to correctly pronounce difficult words and names.
• If you have a tendency to speak too quickly or be too stiff, put a few reminders to breathe, smile, or gesture in your off-screen cue cards.
• Make sure your slides and any other visuals are legible on camera. Don’t use too many slides or overwhelm each slide with too much text. Strong visuals, like photographs, charts, and graphs, are compelling. 
• Be focused. Don’t try to cover everything in a single webinar. While you do want to educate and inspire your audience, you don’t want to overwhelm or bore them. It’s better to leave them wanting more.
• Use stories to illustrate your point. Stories are not only more engaging, but they’ll also stick in your audience’s minds longer.

How to Make the Most of Your Webinar After It's Over

You put a lot of work into the success of your webinar, and just because the live segment is over doesn’t mean it should be forgotten. Capitalize on all you’ve done.

Send Thank You Notes

Send thank you notes and calls to action to all who attended. Don’t spam registrants, but if they’re not already on your general mailing list, now is a great time to give them the option to sign up for your newsletter or follow your company on social media so they can stay informed.

Website and Social Media

Post recaps, screenshots, quotes, or whatever is relevant on your blog and social media sites, as applicable. Being grateful to your guests and audience and enthusiastic about what you have to offer will remind those who attended to engage with you again, and may interest those who weren’t able to make it.

While you’re at it, “like” any social media posts from audience members who mentioned your event (which you can find if they used your business account handle, speaker handle, or event hashtag) and take time to leave them a comment. Consider reposting any that particularly stand out.

Archive the Webinar

You may want to offer your archived webinar for download even to those who were not able to attend the live virtual event.

Your Webinar Checklist

• Select your topic
• Select your webinar type category (Thought Leadership, Lead Generator, etc.)
• Select your webinar formats (Keynote Presentation, Conversation, etc.)
• Scout and secure your host and guest(s), providing them with the same pertinent information as for a live seminar (date, time, speaking honorarium, etc.)
• Make sure your logistics team is available and prepped (cameraperson, lead technician, etc.)
• Choose your webinar software (ensure you know how to properly use it)
• Market your webinar
• Write a tight outline of the talk, with time markers, and practice it (this might come from your on-air talent)
• Have slides, etc., ready (proofread and ensure imagery is compelling)
• Send out reminders to logistics team and presenter(s)
• Send out reminders to registrants
• On the day of the webinar, be early and check in with all logistics team members and presenter(s) and make sure all tech is properly working
• Have fun experiencing the webinar that you’ve put together!
• Send thank you notes to all who helped make the webinar possible
• Send thank you, calls to action, and feedback form to all registrants
• Post about the webinar online (your website, social media, etc.) in the form of a quote from it, a screenshot from the live event, etc.
• Make archived webinar available

Want to learn more about Thomas’ upcoming webinars? Find our Thomas webinars here.

Image Credit: Image courtesy of nampix / Shutterstock