Not in the position to go through all the knowledge points in full? Below are the 10 most important tips & tricks for a successful webinar. The following topics are covered:
- Determine your objectives and target group
- Determine the right subject: dare to choose!
- Determine the day, time, duration and set-up of the webinar
- Interaction keeps the participants involved and gives more results
- Promotion of the webinar
- Show/no-show: the e-mail reminders
- Show/no-show: the e-mail reminders
- Optimizing PowerPoint
- Follow-up of leads
- On-demand recording and the rule of 5
1. Define your objectives and target group
Defining the target audience and setting the objectives is the foundation of the webinar. This affects, among other things, the subject of the webinar, but also the time and day of the broadcast, the interaction applied and the quality of the leads. Objectives are best drawn up SMART: specific, measurable, acceptable, realistic and time-bound. Make a distinction between generic and company-specific objectives.
2. Determine the right subject: dare to choose!
The topic of the webinar is the decisive factor for the target group to participate in the webinar. It needs to be interesting, relevant and specific in order to achieve a high attendance rate. Determining a topic can be difficult. Therefore, ask the target group for input whenever possible, e.g. via the registration or evaluation form or interview them.
3. Determine the day, time, duration and format of the webinar
Decide how long you want the webinar to last, typically 30-60 minutes. In addition, the day and time of the broadcast must be decided. Here a distinction should be made between B2B and B2C. With regard to the subject, a choice has to be made as to who will present the webinar; someone from the organisation and/or a guest speaker and will a host also be involved?
4. Interaction keeps participants engaged and gives more results
Interaction during the webinar is essential to keep participants engaged and get more results from the webinar. Interaction can be done in many different ways, including the use of polls, the handling of questions, the survey at the end of the webinar and call2actions. Think carefully about building in interaction moments during the design of the presentation. Make sure these elements are well timed.
5. Promotion of the webinar
The webinar needs to be promoted in the right way. This is best done with a promotional mix. Email invitations, supplemented with website promotion, deliver the best results. The design and timing of these e-mails require the necessary attention. Start with the overall promotion 3 weeks before the webinar, sending 3-4 e-mail invitations. With the email invitation, the subject line is the eye-catcher and good wording is extremely important. Furthermore, the benefits of participation should be clear (WIFM) and the sign up button should not be missing.
6. Show/No-Show: the e-mail reminders
The email reminders are the most important part of converting registrants to webinar participants. The content of each reminder should be made relevant and attractive to the registered person from a different perspective; give a short summary of the content or emphasise the special (guest) speaker again. Sending an outlook agenda invitation is also an important part of the reminder process. This ensures that the space in the agenda is kept free sooner, which in turn increases attendance. Finally, send a test link to prevent technical problems with participants during the webinar.
7. Rehearsal and the dry-run
Practising the presentation improves the quality of the webinar. Two good tools for this are the script and the dry-run. Fill in the script as completely as possible. This forces the team to think carefully about the content of the webinar, from time management to the use of interaction moments and the smooth introduction and conclusion of the webinar. The actual effect of this can be tested during the dry-run(s) and subsequently adjusted if necessary.
8. Optimising PowerPoint
Attractive PowerPoint slides with high contrast and consistency are very important. Covering a relevant topic in a limited amount of text provides a clear structure and keeps participants engaged. Next, the use of supporting diagrams, figures and illustrations is also essential in a good and effective presentation. Finally, make sure there is a clear timetable.
9. Follow-up of leads
The follow-up of leads is especially important for webinars with marketing purposes. It is important to distinguish between lead nurturing and sales-ready leads, in order to effectively follow up on all types of leads. Marketing and sales need to coordinate this well and then follow the 5-step plan to determine the point in the sales cycle at which a lead is located.
10. On-demand recording and the ‘rule of 5’
On-demand recording has many advantages. Knowledge is preserved, the webinar can be watched again at any time from 5 minutes after the live broadcast and it is easy to offer. Promoting the on-demand recording via e-mail, social media and during related webinars is important and results in an average of 15 to 50% extra viewers
Other ways to get more out of the webinar content is through the so-called ‘rule of 5’, this is especially important in content marketing. This involves reusing the same content in 5 different ways, for example via slideshare or in a blog. This way people stay in touch with the product or service and more can be done with the content.
Tip: A lot of research has already been done on some of the above topics. Read more about this in “webinar benchmarks: the most important statistics at a glance”.