Conducting a Webinar: Tips for Success and Why a Webinar is a Great Marketing Tool
During COVID-19, businesses have turned to virtual conferencing platforms such as ZOOM, GOTOMEETING, and Microsoft Teams to conduct meetings and webinars in an effort to keep in front of customers. If you are thinking of conducting a webinar for your customers, here are some helpful tips:
What is a webinar?
A webinar is a presentation given online. It offers similar interaction as an in-person meeting, and is convenient for both the presenter and the attendees since no travel is required.
What equipment do I need in order to present a webinar?
A computer or tablet with a webcam and microphone, as well as a high-speed internet connection is required. In regards to troubleshooting, a headset is best practice to reduce background noise both for the presenter and attendees.
Where should a webinar be conducted?
You can conduct the webinar in your company’s conference room with the door closed for privacy, or another area that is visually appealing and free of distractions.
As the webinar presenter, be mindful of the following:
- Pay attention to aesthetics; choose a well-furnished location with good lighting and minimal clutter.
- Position your camera for a straight-on view of your face.
- Avoid any setting where you will be backlit, such as in front of a window.
- Do a dry run with a colleague to test out your internet connection.
- Rehearse your webinar to make sure you are familiar with the format, especially if you are accepting questions from your audience.
- Know your subject inside and out. Speaking extemporaneously makes for an engaging presentation. Reading from notes is a surefire way to bore your audience.
- At the start of the webinar, ask your attendees to mute themselves, and instruct them on how and when questions will be fielded.
- Practice how to access comments and questions from your attendees before your webinar presentation.
- Consider enlisting a co-presenter. Back-and-forth dialogue can enliven the content, and provides a unique way of getting deeper into topics.
Why is a webinar successful for marketing purposes?
A webinar is easy content to consume; attendees anywhere can participate and no reading is required. Moreover, if you position your webinar topic as education (“New Developments in Sewer Inspection Technology”) rather than promotional (“Why You Should Buy a ROVVER X!”), you can appeal to potential attendees’ instincts for self-betterment. Most importantly, you can record your webinar and get additional mileage out of it by promoting the archived version alongside your broader collection of marketing content. Heck, you can even gateway it so all viewers are captured into your marketing database.
