Webinars have become essential to the modern workplace. They differ from video conferences in that they serve as a means of participation, allowing equal interaction between a single presenter and a large group of participants. Webinars allow many more attendees to join in live events no matter where they are.
Thanks to their outreach webinars are better at capturing the sense of an event for marketing, product demonstrations, training, and other interactive knowledge sharing demonstrations in ways video conferencing cannot.
Webinars are a low-cost method of engaging with a vast number of people and exchanging questions and feedback with them in real time. Having the ability to connect with a large audience at any time opens up numerous possibilities for training your employees, educating your clients, and promoting your brand.
This guide on how to host a webinar will help you to avoid some of the most common issues including:
- Technical issues
- Irrelevant content
- Low attendance
- Unprofessional presentation, and more.
To ensure you provide a professional live event with a large audience, a simple webinar format, relevant and helpful content, and an engaging presentation, consider the following points before getting started!
1. Choose Your Webinar Platform
There are many different options out there for your webinar. The growth of video conferencing has brought an abundance of choices. The decision of which webinar software works best for you should be based on your needs. Common, relevant features include:
- Screen sharing functions. You might need to demonstrate live on your screen.e.
- Slide deck. Your webinar content might include slides. This feature keeps your slide deck organized and broadcasts it to the audience when required.
- Record function. Not everyone can attend live webinars, the record function enables you to share the recordings with them after the webinar. You can also reuse or repurpose your webinar later.
- Text chat. A live text chat can be a good way of allowing audience members to ask questions and add comments without speaking over each other or interrupting the presenter.
- File sharing. For better workflow, you may need to share relevant files during the live event.
- Joining a meeting by phone. If a participant isn’t near a computer, they may find it useful to dial into a webinar using a traditional phone.
- Transcription. You may also want to use professional software or services to transcribe the webinar so that the participants can have the option to read your material live and afterward. This way, they can focus solely on your presentation during the webinar, instead of frantically taking notes. They can also scroll and read the live notes if they missed a section.
With a decent internet connection and a relatively simple setup, most modern video conferencing services will do a good job for webinars. Some workplaces use a specific video conferencing system, such as Microsoft Teams, Google Meet, or Zoom.
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Choose the webinar software that makes sense for you and get familiar with it. Get your invites sent out early to avoid teething problems when colleagues and team members try to log on. Make sure that all attendants have a link and any passwords or specific login instructions well before the meeting is due to start.
You may have to decide between free and paid versions of the software. Zoom, for example, allows one-on-one meetings for free, but meetings of more than two people are time-limited. It doesn’t look professional if Zoom cuts your webinar off prematurely. Paid versions of software add more features, such as cloud recordings and a custom vanity URL.