If you’re researching how to organize your first webinar, our actionable guide will help you understand which key elements you need to include in your organizing process.
We’ll start with the tools you need, how to announce your event, and other steps you may not think about. If you follow our tips, you’ll not only organize a successful webinar but also satisfy your audience.
Reliable software
The most important step is choosing the right software. You need a reliable tool that can help you manage all your webinars and make sure all your speakers and attendees are satisfied. LiveWebinar has all your needs covered.
It is a web application, meaning you don’t have to bother with downloading & installing setups to your system. This makes it a truly accessible platform and really easy for your attendees and speakers to attend your webinar.
LiveWebinar lets you stream on social media platforms like YouTube, Facebook, and Vimeo. It also offers free recordings and interactive options such as live polls.
The list of benefits is vast, including:
- Chat, surveys, and other ways of communication
- Invitations
- Screen sharing
- Marketing automation
- Integrations
- Recording in Full HD
- Various payment options
- Reports
- Customer support
- Free storage
- Email invitations
The free version allows up to 2 hours of recording, as well as 5 attendees. You can upgrade from $11.99 per month.
Now that you have your tool ready to go, make sure to run a test drive. Ask your team members for help and set up a webinar just for a few of you. That way, you’ll be ready for the real thing when it comes.
Date and time
In order to have a successful webinar, you need to schedule it. In order to do that, you need to find the right time. Since the location isn’t so important for webinars, the timing needs to be perfect.
Depending on the subject, you’ll either want to schedule it for a workday or a weekend, during work hours or later. You need to think about what your target audience is like and how to best fit in their lifestyle.
A well-crafted webinar will be unsuccessful if no one attends. That’s why you need to put a lot of effort into choosing the right time and date.
If you have an international audience, you have to think of holidays, time zones, and cultural differences.
Once you pick your date, make sure there are no competing events that day. Picking a time frame shouldn’t be too complicated. Think about including a break and ensuring your webinar doesn’t last too long.
Speakers
The number of your speakers will largely depend on the topic and the industry you're in. If you’re looking for a friendly discussion, don’t book too many speakers, because they will talk over each other.
Make sure your speakers bring in different points of view on the selected topic. Research your speakers to make sure they work well together.
The speakers will need to know what type of webinar are you hosting:
- A panel discussion
- In-depth interviews with speakers
- An educational webinar
- A webinar series
The more information you give them, the better they can prepare. Make sure your speakers have all the necessary materials so that they can craft interesting presentations.
Topic
In order to conduct a successful webinar, you need to zero in on a single topic. The topic needs to be clear, relevant to your audience, and be interesting enough for people to talk about it for a long time.
Research your topic to make sure it’s fruitful and that there are new things you can bring to the table. If your speakers are repeating the same phrases your attendees have already heard multiple times, you’ll see them leaving the event in real-time.
The best topics are ones that can be looked at from different angles. You want to make sure speakers can talk from experience and bring in different perspectives.
An extra tip is to stay away from divisive topics. They may bring in publicity, but they won’t keep your audience engaged for long. Wait until the dust settles and then approach them from a respectful angle.
Outline of the webinar
Once you pick out your topic and speakers, ask them to share the outline of their speech, just so that you can time everything and make sure to include an exact itinerary for your guests.
That way, they can start the webinar at their leisure and watch the parts that interest them. It will also give your speakers guidance.
The more they repeat their material, the more confidence they’ll feel. Having confident speakers is important, not only for your topic but also for the sake of the webinar flow.
Use the outline to time your breaks, audience questions, and any potential administrative parts.
Presentation slides
The visual form of your presentation is extremely important. That’s why you need to make sure all your speakers have some sort of visual material - slides, videos, infographics.
Without a visual presentation, your webinar will be boring, no matter how engaging your speakers are. Slides help attendees focus on the presentation, which will keep them engaged and interested.
Don’t put too much text on your slides. You need to know your speech by breath instead of relying too much on your presentation.
Share this insight with your speakers as well in order to help them perfect their presentations.
An email introduction
In order to host a successful webinar, you need attendees and in order to gain them, you need to advertise your event to your target audience.
If you have an email list of interested individuals, send them a well-crafted email explaining the event.
If this is not the case for you, start by advertising your webinar on your social media and ask people to register via email.
Social media is great for advertisements because you don’t need a large budget and you can use their analytics to target only people who would be interested in your topic. Once you have the right people in your email list, focus on the quality of your copy.
Your introductory email should answer all the important questions:
- What
- Who
- When
- Where
- How long
Your audience needs to know what kind of a webinar it is, who will be speaking, who the speakers are, when the webinar starts, how long it lasts and where can they register.
It needs to give people enough information to get interested in your event, without giving away too much information or being too long.
An email with the link
Once you establish a base of people interested in your webinar, you need to send them a perfectly timed email with the link and any necessary instructions.
You need to remind them when the webinar is, what should they expect and how long will it be. If it’s going to take a long time, people need to prepare drinks, snacks and reserve the time sloth with their coworkers, family, or roommates.
It wouldn’t be the worst thing to remind your audience of those things. Even though it feels trivial, make sure to mention preparing a glass of water and some snacks.
As we already mentioned, you need to time your email in regards to your audience. If you’re organizing a business-related webinar that’s taking place during work hours, all emails should be sent out during work hours as well.
If you’re hosting a webinar about lifestyle, make sure it’s after work, and likewise, send out emails around the lunch break.
Q&A section
Every webinar needs to end with a Q&A section. After all, webinars are a great way to engage your audience and audience participation should be encouraged.
Make sure to leave enough room for your audience to ask questions. In some cases, you’ll need to monitor the process and stop people from asking the same questions, taking too much time, and such.
The Q&A portion of your webinar should be fun and fast pacing, in order to give everyone a chance to ask their questions. If other segments of the webinar go overtime, you can make up for it in the Q&A segment, however, make sure to at least leave room for 3 questions.
A follow-up email
Once your webinar is done, don’t forget to send out a follow-up email. In it, thank your audience for participating, send them any helpful material you discussed and ask them for any tips or suggestions.
Follow-up emails are important for building a loyal community. It shows your audience that you care about the value they receive from your webinar.
Conclusion
You can never be too prepared and the same goes for webinars. In order to run a successful webinar, you need to follow our guide and focus on the quality of your approach. Keep it in mind when you’re choosing the topic, the speakers, and everything else.
Once your webinar is done, the follow-up emails will tell you what needs changing and what can be improved.