Top tips for hosting an effective webinar.

Webinars have quickly become a key marketing and customer communication tool for many businesses. Whether you want to update your clients on new industry developments or host online tutorials on how to get the most out of your products / services, more people than ever before are choosing to dial into webinars.

Topic

If you choose a topic that doesn’t interest your audience, your webinar is doomed to failure. Do your research and identify a topic that will resonate with your audience. Check out what your competitors are up to – are they covering an interesting topic that seems to get the attention of customers? Take the time to check out what other firms in other industries are doing too – you might be able to take a theme or idea and repurpose it in a way that works for your audience.

Promote your webinar

There is no point creating a webinar if nobody knows about it. Email a link to your customers inviting them to join in. Give them a couple of weeks’ notice and follow up with a reminder a few days before the webinar.

If you want to attract some potential new customers, post an invitation to your upcoming webinar on your company website, LinkedIn page, on Twitter, etc. On the day of the webinar, send a final email reminder that includes a direct link to attend.

Practice

Practice makes perfect. Have a few rehearsals in order to ensure you iron out any potential glitches. A good practice session can help you to get your timing right, ensure your technology is working correctly and will also help you to deliver your content in an engaging and effective manner.

Timing

It may seem obvious, but ensure you choose the right time and day for your webinar. If some of your customers are in different time-zones, you can also record the webinar and make it available to them after the event.

Choose the right platform

It’s important to use a reputable webinar platform that makes it easy for people to register and supports multiple ways for people to join. For example, some people may join from a computer whereas others might want to join via a smartphone app. The large, well-known webinar platforms such as GoToWebinar, Zoom, Webex or ClickMeeting offer the functionality that most business users will need.

Think about the number of attendees that you are likely to have as most webinar platforms offer different packages for say 100, 250 or 500+ attendees.

Follow up

As with any marketing activity, follow up is key. After the webinar, send an email to attendees thanking them for joining. If possible, include a copy of the slides or a summary of the topic covered. You could ask participants to suggest potential topics that they would like you to cover in the future – if you are going to provide webinars, it makes sense to tailor the topics that are of most interest to your clients.