Last week our blog topic was on Webinar Services and which tool was the best fit for you. Hopefully you found that article helpful in making your decision and you should now understand and acknowledge that you need to allow time to prepare the technical aspects of the webinar as well as the meeting, hosting and testing every aspects of what goes on behind the scenes to help you have a successful Webinar.
We also need to know the importance of planning every detail of your webinar in advance from greetings and introductions, to reviewing your agenda to conducting an ice breaker if needed. Once you have all of this set, then you need to practice and test out the entire presentation before you’re LIVE in front of your audience!
This week, we’d like to focus our energy on helping you have a successful webinar! Webinars are the way that you can virtually connect with people from all over the world! We came across this FANTASTIC YouTube presentation given by Natalie Sisson on the 5 Steps to Running a Successful Webinar! Natalie mentions this fact and also encourages you to take the time to make your slides visually appealing so that your audience will be captivated and interested in what you are discussing! We’ve taken the liberty to provide you with a hi-level overview on what Natalie suggests!
5 Steps to Running a Successful Webinar
Step 1: Know the psychology of Webinars– Don’t just use text on your slides for the webinars…make sure to use nice visuals and speak to those visuals…you may have to create 100 slides to go with what you will be speaking to and that will be fine because less text and more visuals is key. Also, make sure that your tone is upbeat and that your audience can hear your energy. This is important to know because you want your audience to be engaged.
Step 2: Know the structure of your Webinar inside and out – Prepare, prepare, prepare! Make sure that the content in your presentation is correct and that you have proof-read your slides (have your VA review them as well). Make sure to give yourself plenty of time to rehearse your presentation and know your topic VERY WELL.
Step 3: Webinar Best Practice – Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday are the best days for a Webinar! Choose a time that your entire audience will be able to tune in and focus. For example, 1pm PST would be a good time for a Webinar because the participants on the West Coast will be able to participate after their lunch; East Coast participants will be able to participate towards the end of their work day; participants in other countries (depending on where they are located) will be able to participate after their dinner time. Also, it’s recommended to send out up to 5 spread out emails to participants notifying them about the webinar…here is the suggested time frame: One week before, 2 days before…the day of the Webinar…the day after…2-3 days after.
Step 4: Support – Have somebody there to support you – someone to help you during your webinar who can monitor the chat and recording your webinar, help you with any technical issues…if you are the only person available consider hiring a Virtual Assistant for the day!
Step 5: Follow Up – Make sure to follow up with the participants!