Virtual events or webinars when done right can generate an incredible number of leads and connect the audience. It is of no surprise that webinars are engaging and are not very expensive. After implementing hundreds of marketing techniques for lead generation, it is the webinars that come as a blessing for many B2B companies to generate more and engage better.
Now that we know webinars are important for not only the B2B marketers but also the B2C marketers, we have created a checklist that will help you create an exciting webinar from scratch.
Solidify your team structure
Webinars can’t be conducted by a single person, it needs an army of experienced people who are always on their toes and willing to take up exciting opportunities. The key professionals who you need in a team to conduct events are the organizer, the assistants, and the presenters.
While the organizer facilitates the entire event and handles almost everything, the presenter develops the presentation and troubleshoots errors with registration or the event presentation. Assistants are a team of experienced people who handle queries and helps the organizer and the presenter.
Outline the webinar format
Organizers must decide on the format of the webinar from the formats below.
- Single speaker: A single experienced speaker communicates with the attendees.
- Interview: A speaker who acts as an interviewer questions the expert panelists.
- Moderated panel discussion: A panel of speakers who talk over predetermined topics.
- Q&A: The speaker answers multiple questions from the audience.
Get the visuals for your webinar
Avoid presenting black and white slides to the attendees because it is not exciting. Rather create an engaging presentation implementing the brand colors, visuals, images, video, or GIFs. Include an introductory slide, showcase the synopsis of the webinar, and showcase the websites or tools used in creating the webinar.
Also, try to instill the video of the speaker along with the presentation. This makes the conversation more human and interests the attendees to look at their computer screens and engage with the speaker.
Choose your webinar platform
Choosing a webinar platform is not very difficult, considering the number of options available for unique events. There are the famous players in the market like Zoom, WebEx, GoToWebinar, or Adobe Connect.
Also, there are many new players in the market like Aventri, Goldcast, Socio, Eventbrite, and many more that are distinguished from each other and provide brilliant features.
When choosing a virtual event platform, select the one that helps you find answers to the below questions,
- The objectives of the webinar?
- How user-friendly is the product?
- The cost of the platform?
Try to always tick-mark these questions before purchasing a virtual event platform.
Equipment and space
Now when the events are online, you need a secluded place to conduct an event. So, select a place that will let you focus on the event and allow you to open with your audience.
Choose the right equipment for the webinar like the microphone, camera, and others. Also, focus to keep a backup of everything like the laptop, camera, microphone, etc.
Planning ahead regarding the equipment and space will help you save time, and allow you to conduct a webinar with confidence.
Promote the webinar
As a marketer, you have to give your best in promoting the webinar for maximum registration.
- Create landing pages including the webinar selling points.
- Create a banner on the homepage to inform new visitors about the event.
- Use social media to spread the word.
- Perform email marketing campaigns.
- Send emails with the direct link to the webinar.
- Create an urgency on the day of the webinar.
Choose the right date and time
Webinars provide you the flexibility to invite audiences from all over the world. So, you can’t conduct the webinar at your suitable time. You must find a common time that would be feasible for all the attendees from their respective countries to join.
As per a poll conducted by ON24, the best days to conduct a webinar are mostly Tuesdays and Wednesdays.
Work with your team to fix on the right date and time, communicate with experts from all over the world, use Google Analytics to see the trends, or conduct polls on your social media handles to get better answers.
The topic must be of interest
It is not a great practice if you are not researching about the industry or trying to find solutions to the most asked questions.
Conducting a webinar on how to deal with the pandemic after eight months is not beneficial, rather your topic must revolve around how the organization can use the listed techniques to learn and grow post pandemic.
When researching for the topic of interest, make sure you,
- Check the previously produced content.
- Attend other webinars.
It is likely possible that other organizers might already use the topic you chose, so make sure you provide something different from the others.
Practice
Before you conduct an event, it is important that you take time for your dry runs. Events can’t be conducted on an impromptu basis. A proper rehearsal of the entire flow of the event is necessary. This ensures that not only the speakers but also the assistants, production, camera, and everyone else is on the same page and knows their involvement.
- Confirm if everyone is well-versed.
- Finalize on the presentation.
- Choose the communication method.
- Assign activities to team members.
- Review the final registration.
Follow up with attendees
This can be a grave mistake if you don’t follow up with the attendees. Most of the people register for an event because of their interest, but soon forget about the upcoming event because of multiple factors.
It is our responsibility to follow up with the registered participants over an email. Create a drip of emails for the registered participants, and also for people who have shown interest but not yet registered. Also, intrigue the attendees with your upcoming events and other informative snippets.
It is important that after the webinar you collect feedback from the attendees. Make sure to follow up and thank the attendees and encourage them to participate in more.
Engaging webinars are planned, organized, practiced, and executed well. Spend enough time in planning and executing your webinar, training your team, streamlining the structure, and working to remove flaws or problems.
