When it comes to webinars, there are really no hard and fast rules. But these webinar tips will get you started in the right direction.
For those who are just dipping their toe in webinars as a complementary addition for your online marketing strategy, you’re on the right track. It’s a fairly easy way to present information over the web and engage your users in a discussion.
The important thing to remember is webinars aren’t meant to be one-sided. At the end of your presentation, the goal is to get your listeners to engage with you, discuss topics, and ask questions.
Here’s my tried and tested flow to help you get there…
1. The Warm-up
Start by welcoming your audience. I’ve seen some people start their webinar 10 minutes early, just so they can start to build a relationship with their attendees before “the big show” begins.
Why?
Because as your audience trickles in, you want them to know that they are in the right place and that you, as the host, care about them being there.
A simple ‘hello’ would suffice—nothing fancy. It’s all small talk at this point.
2. The Welcome
Once everybody is gathered—and it’s important that you start your webinar on time—you have to set the tone of your webinar.
Establish your authority:
- Introduce yourself
- Talk about what makes you an “expert” in what you are about to discuss
- Give them reasons to trust in your expertise
This should be brief and short; not an entire run down of your resume. Then, you should immediately go into what they will get out of your webinar.
You’re asking your attendees to give up half an hour (or more) of their time to listen to you and what you have to say, make sure they know why they are there, why you are the right person to pay attention to, and what they should expect.
3. The Agenda
Next, take a couple of minutes to spell out what you’re going to cover in the webinar.
But don’t just talk about it… build a simple Powerpoint (or Keynote if you are a Mac user) slide to show them exactly what you’ll be covering and (again) why each part matters to them.
4. The Content
This is where you live up to the promise you made earlier on.
It’s important that you don’t fall short of your attendees expectations. So if you promise to provide an informative discussion on a specific topic, your content should live up to that and provide real value. If you try to just “cover the surface” your attendees will know and you’ll lose their trust.
Their trust is your gold.
I’d say a good 30-45 minutes is enough. Cut it too short and you run the risk of seeming like you just rushed through the subject; too long and you’re likely to bore your users.
5. The Pitch
At the end of your presentation, you usually will have a pitch. This particular step is one of the most important webinar tips to pay attention to. The pitch could be an invitation to optin for a subscription to your membership site, training program or even physical goods. Even if you don’t have a product or service to sell on the webinar, be sure you include some sort of call-to-action. Even something as simple as asking them to optin to your email list to continue the conversation.
Transition from the end of your actual content and into your pitch seamlessly. Do this briefly and with confidence. You don’t want to sound like the entire point of the webinar was to sell them something. While that may be true, you want to emphasize that the content you provided in the webinar itself is already worth something and it’s a no-brainer to purchase your product or service to get the full benefits they may be looking for.
6. The Wrap-Up
After you pitch, move on into a Q&A—and prep for it. Tell your attendees that you’ll be allotting the next few minutes to answer questions regarding the subject that was just discussed.
A few points to remember:
- Address each attendee by name when you answer.
- Keep your answers short and clear.
- Don’t be afraid to say you don’t know the answer if you actually don’t—ask for their contact information and say you’ll get back to them.
To wrap things up, be sure to thank everyone for their participation and say goodbye. If your webinar is a weekly, recurring thing, remind them to catch the next one and give them some options they can use to stay in touch. That could be as simple as mentioning your blog and asking them to comment on your most recent post.
Here are some final tips for your next webinar:
- Keep things short, but still interesting.
- Avoid having to rely on a live demonstration and use slides whenever possible.
- Use bullet-points on your slides and use them to guide your conversation with your attendees. This format will keep you from reading lengthy sentences and sounding like that boring professor you had in college!
- Take the time to practice—especially if you’re new to this.
- Leave your audience wanting more. Give them something relevant and useful, but not so much that they think they won’t need more. (Then give them a way to satisfy that need with your pitch.)
- Spell out the action that you want your audience to take. Don’t make them think about what they should do next… just keep it simple and tell’em.
- Offer an incentivize for those who purchase/ sign up/ optin. (Things like bonuses or other freebies.)
While this isn’t an exhaustive list of webinar tips, it should be plenty to get you headed in the right direction! Start with these and tweak them as you go along to fit your audience.
Do you have a favorite webinar tip you’d like to share? Please leave a comment below and let me know. As always, if you felt this post was helpful in any way, would you please like, share, plus and otherwise help us spread the word?
– Mercer
