If you are looking for an easy way to educate your audience, train your employees, or generate leads, then what you need is to create effective webinars.
The word “webinar” is taken from two key terms: web and seminar. From these words alone, you get the essence of what a webinar is: a video presentation, lecture, or workshop held online.
Here, you will learn more about this exciting medium – and what you need to do to start one.
What Can You Do with a Webinar?
While the primary goal of a typical webinar is to engage and educate, it could also be used for the following purposes:
Captivate Your Audience’s Interest
Webinars have something that most marketing materials don’t: the element of scarcity.
They don’t have the sense of permanence that social media or advertisements have. While they can be replayed for a limited time, users can only get the gist of the presentation if they tune in to it.
It’s just like a TV show you have waited for – you need to be there on the dot to enjoy the entire thing!
Acquire New Leads
Leads are vital for every business. However, it could be hard to acquire high-quality leads that you can turn to conversions. Fortunately, effective webinars can help you address this issue.
For one, those who sign up for webinars are genuinely interested in such events. After all, they would not go through the registration process – no matter how quick it is – if they’re not bent on attending.
Compared to those who clicked on your marketing links and downloaded your e-books, webinar attendees are more likely to be transformed into paying customers.
Promote Your New Product
It can be quite pricey to set up a product launch, especially if your clients are dispersed throughout the country, if not the world. Add to that, the current pandemic has made traveling a particularly risky venture. Fortunately, a webinar can help you market your product safely and cheaply.
What’s great about a webinar is that it can channel all your possible leads in just one place. This makes it advantageous to you as well, as you don’t have to repeat the same info or answer the questions time and time again.
With the help of a great webinar platform, you get to share relevant product or service information as you promote it along the way.
Establish Your Expertise
Hosting a webinar goes beyond just promoting your product, as it’s a perfect opportunity for you to establish your authority. After all, you were chosen to share your knowledge or thoughts about a specific niche.
While the product itself is a good selling point, an established speaker can also help attract registrants who have the potential to convert.
Why You Need to Host a Webinar
As mentioned, there are so many things you could do with a webinar. Add to that, it allows you to enjoy the following benefits, too:
It’s cheap
Compared to hosting a real-life seminar, you’re sure to save a lot of money with a webinar.
You don’t have to rent out a meeting place, pay for the caterers, or fly in your treasured customers. All you need is you, your guest speaker, and reliable equipment for webinars.
With this tool, you can market your brand to throngs of audiences with just a few clicks!
It can be repurposed
Webinars offer the best value for your money because they’re cheap and reusable. Your recorded presentation can be used as website content, which you could optimize to boost SEO as well.
It’s time-flexible
You don’t have to cram everything in a 30-minute presentation just because it’s the only allotted time you have. You can be as comprehensive as you want to be because time is not an issue with webinars.
Just make sure to keep your presentation engaging so viewers won’t end up leaving your webinar.
What Additional Features Should Your Webinar Have?
Your webinar should go beyond just the video presentation. You can also add the following features that make the presentation more interactive:
Text Chat
If you have a lot of viewers, you might not be able to see one person raising his hand for a question.
This is where the text chat option comes into play. The audience can type in the question without interrupting your lecture.
It’s essential to answer these queries to satisfy the viewers’ curiosity, as this can help you establish your expertise.
Polls and Surveys
While text chats prove to be a good way to engage your clients, it can be quite hard to answer everything when you’re servicing a broad audience.
For this, you are going to need the help of a poll or survey feature. It’s a quick way to interact with your clients without having to respond to 100+ text chat questions.
Slide Decks
If you’re talking about a particularly complicated topic, your audience may find it hard to follow through. After all, tutorials and how-tos can be a little hard to explain, especially if you just talk about it.
If you want them to understand the presentation better, then you need to add these visually stimulating slide decks.
Whiteboard
If you’re an old school presenter, then you should try a webinar whiteboard feature. It allows you to doodle, draw, and illustrate the critical points in your presentation.
Screen Sharing
Screen sharing allows your audience to view your presentation on their PCs and mobile phones.
This is particularly important if you are talking about several processes, or if you are using two or more programs. It’s more interactive and helpful compared to sharing screenshots with your viewers.
Recording
Even if you schedule your webinar at the best time, some interested audiences may not be able to view it.
If you want to tap into the potential of these late viewers, then you need to enable the recording of your live webinars. That way, they can play the video at their most convenient time. Think of it as a passive way of promoting your product.
Recording your presentation is also recommended if you’re working on evergreen content. You can then add this to your website, which makes it another opportunity to market your product and earn revenue passively.
How to Create an Effective Webinar
Now that you know the advantages and uses of hosting a webinar, it’s time to get started with your presentation!
Step 1: Pick a topic
It’s important to choose a subject that’s engaging, informative, and related to your business. If it’s out of your comfort zone, it’s best to invite an esteemed speaker for the webinar.
Step 2: Create your content
After selecting a topic, you should get down with your script and other necessary preparations. This includes planning the other features (text box, slide decks, polls, etc.) that you’d like to incorporate into your presentation.
You should consider length as well, as a report has shown that 60-minute webinars attract 2.1 times more registrants than shorter 30-minute presentations.
Step 3: Schedule your presentation
If you want to get as many registrants as you can, make sure to plan and schedule your webinar according to the hottest days and times.
According to the same report, the best day for a webinar is Thursday, followed by Wednesday and Thursday.
The ideal time for live streaming, on the other hand, is 11 AM PST, followed by 2 PM and 1 PM.
These times make your presentation accessible for audiences from both coasts.
Step 4: Choose a theme
You’d want your webinar landing page to be very appealing to your registrants. You can do this by customizing this page and making sure it has your brand’s logo and design philosophies.
Step 5: Create a #hashtag
Social media is an excellent way to market stuff, including webinars. By having a hashtag, you get to entice the social media world with your upcoming presentation.
Step 6: Promote your presentation
Apart from engaging your social media followers, you should promote your webinar through other platforms as well. You could advertise it on your website or send personalized invites to your email list.
A quick tip is to send emails on Tuesdays, as the same report noted that the highest number of registrations (24%) occur during this day.
Step 7: Get your equipment for webinars ready
This is particularly important for a live presentation. You’d need to have your computer, mic, and other necessary programs ready and working well for the big presentation.
Step 8: Practice
Practice makes perfect, whether you’re doing a live or automated webinar. You need to run your lines and rehearse with your co-host or guest.
Step 9: Stream it!
Now that you have everything in place, it’s time to reap the fruits of your labor. Remember, when you stream your webinar, make sure to record it!
Step 10: Follow-up
Your work doesn’t stop even if the webinar has ended. You’d have to follow up with your registrants if they have questions, comments, suggestions, or other requests.
Step 11: Make it available
Even if you have scheduled your webinar at the best time possible, there’s bound to be some viewers who are not able to see it.
You can tap onto this lost potential by keeping your webinar viewable for at least another 48 hours.
A webinar has a marketing potential that’s incomparable to usual tools and platforms. If you want to take hold of this effective yet inexpensive presentation, then go ahead and start making one!