Several factors deem a webinar unsuccessful: endless gatherings, unprepared hosts, chaotic presentations, and lack of relevant information. Instead of bringing value, they show poor time management skills, leading to Zoom fatigue or general exhaustion.
You, as a presenter, have a crucial role to play in how the webinar will go. So here are the five rules top webinar hosts abide by to create valuable online gatherings.
Leverage the elements known before the live event to save time during the webinar: date & time, speaker(s), team member(s), maybe even some of the participants.
These may seem small things, but they can make a huge difference. Also, by doing every small thing you can think of in advance, you’ll be less stressed or nervous during the webinar because you know you’re prepared.
2. Great webinars have a clear structure.
Having a clear-set goal ensures you get to the destination. Knowing precisely what you want to discuss and having all the resources ready will help you stay on track.
Sessions allows you to create the meeting’s Agenda and save it as a template. Anytime you need it in the future, you import it and adapt it according to that gathering’s specific needs.
Not wasting your audience’s time and energy is critical in a large webinar!
3. Great webinars deliver top-quality content.
The presence of online courses and webinars has multiplied in the last months. But the difference between a professional and an amateur is in the quality of the content they deliver. Here’s what you should keep in mind:
Focus on diversity and use it to your advantage.
4. Great webinars are not a host show.
Remember that the webinar’s goal is to bring value into people’s lives. It’s not about you. With that in mind, this is what you should pay attention to:
Pay attention to the little details that can make your webinar great or not. When people see you bringing value into their lives, they will genuinely praise and recommend you.
5. Great webinars continue after ending the video conference.
A webinar is as great as what comes after the end. You’ve put effort into preparing the webinar during the presentation to deliver your best material in the best possible way, but don’t forget that there is another step. The follow-up is as necessary as the rest of the process.
Sessions is a great tool that offers even more features and functionalities that could get your webinars to the next level. Here are some ways in which you can effortlessly hold a 250-guest webinar with Sessions:
Speakers sometimes ask you to save all your questions for the Q&A sections because otherwise, they get lost in the chat and remain unanswered.
Sessions solves this problem by designing a tool intuitively named Questions where Attendees can submit questions. No need to scroll through tons of conversations in chat; you’ll find all the questions in one place. Clicking one of them brings it up on the screen for all to see; it gets marked as answered when bringing it down from the screen.
However, you can always bring back an answered question to add more to it.
You can invite guests either by adding their email addresses or via a link you individually share via other channels of communication.
Participants are required to fill in their names when entering, and they’re ready to join your free webinar. There is no need to download apps, sign up/in, or create an account.
However, should they register, they’ll receive via email the personal notes they took in the platform’s My Notes tool and the sessions’ Takeaways.
It’s also easier for you as a webinar host: you create your contact list and add them into groups. If you know that you’ll be working with the same people again, grouping them will make it easier to invite them all to your webinars simultaneously.
It’s no easy task to have people willingly engage in your webinars. However, Sessions makes it look easy with Forms, the native surveying tool, or the interactions with Slido and Mentimeter.
It’s easier than ever to have active participants and for you to know their feedback in real time!
In conclusion
Here are all the things you should know about designing an excellent webinar. Now let’s get to work! Apply all the information gathered here and use innovative platforms like Sessions to ensure the success of your webinar!