Webinars are unequivocally one of the most powerful weapons in the digital space right now with 60% of marketers using them as a content marketing tool.
According to recent research in April 2020, the areas in which marketers are increasing investment include virtual events (78%), web content (72%), webinars (67%), social media (66%), blog content (57%), and video production (50%).
With our events industry on hold temporarily due to the global pandemic, the benefits of well executed webinars present a new tactical opportunity for businesses. They can be significant (and inexpensive) revenue drivers for your business right now. Webinars are a space for your business to provide free content, so that your audience can learn from you and then, ideally, take the next step and sign up to work with you. Win-win!
Don’t be alarmed. Hosting a webinar isn’t just for the tech-savvy and it doesn’t have to be scary for complete beginners either.
Here are our tips on how to develop a successful webinar.
1. Choose Your Webinar Title Smartly
It’s always better to choose a specific topic that has a great search potential instead of general topics. Focusing on a niche strategy and forming your topic heading on it would attract more sign-ups for your webinar. You have to attract those in your target audience who will most likely convert into buyers. For example, your webinar is more likely to be successful if you name it something like “5 Tips for Successful Webinars” instead of “Webinar Basics”.
2. Know Your Target Audience
Your webinar is not meant for everyone. You need to precisely define your target audience and then promote your webinar to them. Regardless of how exceptional your webinar content is; you won’t be able to please everyone by broadly covering any topic.
Don’t aim to teach everyone everything. Teach specific people in a specific industry that would enable them to specialise in one specific thing. This will make your content more valuable for your audience, and therefore make them more likely to attend another webinar your organisation hosts in the future.
3. Ensure Consistent Engagement
Studies suggest that webinars that go beyond an hour get boring and too short webinars don’t allow you to address your topic and answer questions thoroughly.
The ideal webinar length is between 40-50 minutes, but it can vary according to the format you’ve chosen and your topic. At the moment with so much content being delivered online we suggest a shorter session of around 20 – 30 minutes is ideal. It’s common for the audience to get distracted in a webinar from time to time.
Ensure your webinar is a good mixture of interesting points and attention-grabbing gadgets like visuals like videos, surprising facts, polls or questions. You should also ensure that your voice is loud and rhythmic enough to keep the audience engaged. Don’t be afraid to fluctuate your tone and try to sound as authentic and confident as possible.
4. Promoting Your Webinar
To achieve a large attendance, you have to promote your webinar. You can promote it on your social media channels or create a hashtag that will encourage more people to join it. You can also create a small video that shares the insights of the webinar and let people see what they can expect. Share it via your channels on Linkedin, so that your network can share it with their network.
5. Assess Your Efforts
To make your next webinar even more successful, always evaluate your performance. You can analyse your webinar’s success by using in-platform metrics.Incorporating audience feedback can also help you make your next webinar more successful.
Don’t forget to follow up! Remember the objective you set for hosting the webinar and ensure you connect with your audience post event with copies of your presentation, further information or perhaps a blog post answering any questions you didn’t get to during the session.
For more information on Nectar Creative Communications and how we can help create a successful webinar for your organisation, please visit our website or contact us via email, or phone 1300 878 815.