Holding Successful Webinars

Providing presentations to customers and prospects via the Internet (Webinars), is a great way to jumpstart your sales by providing information, and even training, on your products and services. More affordable than presenting in person, Webinars are cost-effective, provide a global reach, and are an excellent "offer" for lead generation campaigns. No wonder companies use of Webinars is growing at such an incredible rate.

But delivering a successful Webinar can be a challenge. How can you optimize attendance? What do you need to plan for? Here are some practical "before, during and after" tips to make your Webinars a success.

Before: Planning your Webinar

Select your vendor
Not all Webinar hosting vendors are alike. Choose a company that works with a variety of operating systems, is reliable and scalable. Also, consider vendors experienced in the latest techniques in application sharing, polling, chat and recording features.

In addition to the technical aspects of the service, check if vendors also provide capabilities to help you manage the registration process, as well as to send reminders prior to the event and appropriate messages to attendees and non-attendees.

Consider using a moderator
While it sounds simple that your presenter is going to provide information on a topic they may have talked about hundreds of times, there is going to be a lot going on for one person to manage, especially if the presenter is not familiar with doing online presentations or your particular Webinar vendor.

Ideally this person should be experienced with the presentation application and have some familiarity with the topic. This will enable them to not only handle tasks like introducing the topic and the presenter, but also to act as moderator during the question and answer section. If you are going to be doing regularly scheduled Webinars, you may want to consider someone from your own organization who feels comfortable in front of an audience.

Select dates and times to maximize attendance
Unless your audience is in a single region, you need to consider how to accommodate different time zones. Alternatives include one session that falls within the business day of each time zone, or holding multiple sessions on the same day or different days.

In general, avoid Mondays or Fridays, as these are peak conferencing days and attendance is often lower.

Prepare an exciting presentation
Invite an industry expert, customer or partner to participate. This will stimulate more interest, drive participation and create synergy.

Don't cram too much type or information on your slides. Keep them simple and leave plenty of white space or background.

During: Conducting the Webinar

Practice Webinar etiquette
Join your meeting early and verify that all links and presentations are working. Share a "welcome" slide that says your meeting will be starting shortly.

Before your presentation begins, provide a quick review of housekeeping items, such as how to use the chat feature, or how the Q&A session will be handled.

Have each speaker identify themselves when speaking, and, optionally, add a photo and bio of the speakers.

Avoid "Death by Powerpoint"
The most captivating presentations tend to be multimedia. Include animation, flash, photos, Web demos or other visual aids to make your presentation more interesting.

Engage your audience by including polling questions at key points in your presentation. This will help keep your audience's attention.

Survey attendees before and after the Webinar
Ask qualifying questions during registration. This gives you keen insight into your audience. Use this information to tailor your presentation accordingly.

As people exit the Webinar ask them a short series of follow-up questions to further qualify them. Questions like these can provide timely information for your sales reps:

1. What did you like most about this presentation?
2. How likely are you to use this service?
3. Would you like a sales rep to contact you?

After: Leveraging your investment

Record the Webinar and Q&A session
Post the Webinar on your Web site for future viewing. Build a reference library of past Webinars for your customers and prospects to peruse at their leisure.

Recorded Webinars and their Q&As can also be very helpful in training new employees or reviewing customer input prior to a new product launch, selling event, or internal business strategy session.

Follow-up with every attendee and registrant
Send a follow-up e-mail to participants thanking them for their attendance. Include additional relevant information; invite them to the next Webinar.

Send a "sorry we missed you" e-mail to registrants who did not attend. Nurture these prospects to entice them to attend your next event.

Conduct a post-mortem
Review all feedback gathered from the Webinar. Consider variations in the registration process, presentation, and Q&A process to determine what could make the Webinar even more engaging.

If you have had an opportunity to attend our own Webinars, you know that these tips come from our own real-world experience. If you would like to find out more about holding your own online presentations, please contact Laura Kasman at lkasman@kastechco.com or 215-702-8155.