What is a webinar? Webinars are the original virtual event. Held online, utilised as a demand generation tool for marketers, they stood alone online. Not anymore. A lead generation tool with a wide reach, webinar programmes have come leaps and bounds as the explosion of virtual events has created a need for technological advancement, increased levels of interactivity, and heightened production value.
It’s an age of digital disruption, one that is helping planners and marketers alike reimagine the webinar format and reevaluate how they utilise webinar programmes to make the biggest impact. Webinars are a necessary part of your total event programme and ready to be reimagined.
It’s time to rethink your strategy and tools to meet the heightened expectations attendees have for virtual engagement. This ultimate guide to webinars will help you break down webinar basics as well as offer tips to improve your current webinar programmes.
In this post, we'll cover:
- What is a Webinar?
- Planning a Webinar
- Marketing Your Webinar
- Building Your Webinar Using Virtual Event Software
- Closing the Loop After the Webinar
- Webinars: A Necessary Part of Your Total Event Programme
What is a Webinar?
A webinar is an online event lasting 30-60 minutes held primarily to generate leads and educate or train attendees. They have long been used as an effective way to expand a brand’s reach, establish a company as a thought leader in the industry, and engage with prospects and customers through an accessible platform.
Our current remote work-life has increased attendance at webinars exponentially, but even before, webinars were a great tool that didn’t ask for much from attendees (other than a little of their time and a simple form fill).
In the past, webinars were a flat and passive experience for attendees. There was little branding, low interactivity, and production value was practically nonexistent. It was an episodic, online broadcast. And while they worked well, as technology has improved, so have expectations.
Now, webinars can range from a single speaker to a panel, product demo to open forum. There are many ways to create content, and with the rise in virtual event software, more ways than ever to engage with attendees. After all, engagement is key.
Types of Webinars
A webinar serves many purposes. With a short window to engage attendees, webinars must have a clear intention. Below are a few reasons to hold webinars.
- How-to content that breaks down simple concepts
- Education on trends in the industry
- Introduction to a product
- Cement yourself as a thought leader
- Internal training for employees and leadership
- Professional development for those in the industry
- Lead generation tool to generate interest in a product
- Provide access to leaders in the industry
- Allow customers and prospects to ask questions on a topic
Planning a Webinar
Though webinars are everywhere, not all are good. It takes careful planning to create a successful webinar. From content to engagement, webinars must be created with the attendee in mind. And they must utilise great virtual event tech.
Figure Out the Purpose of Your Webinar
It’s a simple question, but one that can easily get overlooked. What is the purpose of your webinar? The answer to this question guides everything else – content creation, the tech needed, how you interact – and follow up with - with attendees. An important thing to remember is that all events have two purposes. The first is about what you want the attendee to get out of the experience. The second, what you want to get out of the experience. Webinars are multifaceted – webinars boost your profits and engage attendees.
Webinars work because they’re accessible. They don’t take an enormous time commitment, are often free, and getting to the venue is as simple as clicking a link. That’s why webinars are a wonderful lead generation tool. With the right form fill you can find out key information about your attendees that can later be used to set them off on their attendee journey to engage with more content or get them in front of sales. The webinar content defines their level of intent and can start their buyer’s journey or acts as an additional data point in their profile.
Set Goals for Your Webinar
Once you have your purpose, you can set goals for your webinar. Whether this is your first or hundredth webinar, you need a benchmark on which to track success. The best goals are based on the past. If you regularly get 100 registrations, make the goal of increasing that number by 20%. If you often get many registrations, but low attendance, set a goal for attendance. Because webinars use technology at every stage, there is no end to what you can track and improve upon.
Think about your attendee touchpoints. Set goals for email marketing campaigns, social media, time on the webinar event website, form fills, attendance, view time, and, of course, survey results after the event. Data is powerful. It shouldn’t be feared, rather analysed and learned from, and used to set new goals.
When choosing goals, don’t forget to think about your stakeholders. What do they want to see? Do they care how long an attendee watches the webinar, or do they care about how many leads are sent to sales and what the quality of those leads is? Often, your internal stakeholders, from leadership to marketing, to planning, to tech, all care about something different. Articulate stakeholder needs and use them to guide your goals.
Build Engaging Webinar Content
Your content is everything. This step will take the longest, but if done right, your content will be worth it. Not only do webinars engage in the moment, but they can be used after the fact on-demand, or be repurposed into eBooks, infographics, and blog posts. Forbes even has 12 commandments for hosting a great webinar.
Find the Right Topic
A great webinar starts with great content. What do your customers, prospects, employees, and those in the industry want to see? What products is your organisation trying to drum up interest for? Once you have an initial idea, then you can refine it. You have your purpose, now you need to create a topic that will match your purpose. Want to educate? A how-to webinar will go over well. Trying to spark discussion in the industry? Start thinking of expert speakers to bring in for a Q&A.
The right topic can only be chosen when you have an audience in mind. Who is this webinar for? The topic you choose should interest potential attendees and align with a pain point they need to be solved.
Pick Your Webinar Content Format
This is where content creation gets interesting. Virtual event tech has grown leaps and bounds in the last year. You no longer have to put up with a pre-recorded webinar built of simple slides, no video element, and no live Q&A. You have options!
Popular Webinar Formats:
- One speaker
- Multiple speakers
- Panel discussion with moderator
- Live Q&A with moderator
- Interview led by a moderator
Choose the Right Date
While a webinar can be thrown together quickly, the best ones take preparation, especially if you’re planning to market the webinar. A strategic email marketing campaign cannot be thrown together at the drop of a hat. When choosing a time and date for your webinar, first consider your webinar process. How long will it take to find a speaker, build the event, create a marketing campaign, and so on?
With an idea of how long it will take to execute, it’s time to open the calendar. Go as many weeks in advance as it will take to build the webinar. Webinars that take place on Tuesday, Wednesday, or Thursday see higher registration than those on Monday or Friday (and much higher than those on the weekend).
If your webinar is global, consider that when choosing the time. Otherwise, choose 11:00 am or 1:00-2:00 pm as your start time. Attendees are unlikely to attend a webinar early in the morning, during lunch, or late at night.
Most importantly, be aware of holidays or special events. If you decide to plan a webinar on a government holiday, there is a good chance you will have very few registrations. Remember, attendees want times that are convenient and don’t take away too much time from their lives.
Choose a Relevant Title
Many companies have their own terminology and are used to phrasing things in a specific way. But that doesn’t mean attendees speak the same language. As you refine your webinar topic, look to SEO keywords to guide the way. You’ll want to create an engaging title that will show up in search, one that explains what the webinar is about.
How to pick a title that will show up in search
- Find trending keywords using Google Trends and keyword tools
- Think about industry terms
- Utilise keywords in the title
- Keep the title short and keyword focused
- Make sure the title properly conveys the topic of the webinar
- Test a few titles with others in the company to see which resonates
Find the Perfect Speaker, Speakers, or a Moderator
The webinar speaker is a major draw of a webinar. Whether you choose to have one speaker, multiple speakers, or include a moderator, the decision should be made with thoughtful consideration. You’ll want to choose an expert on the topic. From there, a well-known speaker can draw in more registrants. Use your speaker as a tool to create the best webinar possible. Without an engaging speaker, you won’t see as many registrations or high attendee engagement during a session.
Choosing a group of speakers can be a challenge, but can also help to vary the webinar format. A team of speakers that is well-practiced at switching back and forth and sharing their thoughts on topics they excel at can help to keep attendees engaged.
A moderator can be used when there are many speakers or if the webinar is a Q&A or an interview. A moderator should be thoughtful, able to think on the fly, and good at keeping the conversation moving. If you’re doing a live Q&A, your moderator will need to understand how your virtual event tech works so they can pull questions from the audience.
Virtual Presenter and Speaker Tips and Tricks
Presenting virtually isn’t easy. Set your speakers, and your webinar, up for success by providing speakers with the following information about tips and tricks.
Rehearse
Your body language translates on camera and if you are not prepared is it extremely amplified. It will be very clear who has rehearsed and who has not. Take the appropriate time to rehearse your script and presentation flow alone, as well as with fellow presenters. A Q&A or interview will be more relaxed, but look at the questions ahead of time and formulate an outline of your answer.
Presenter Essentials
Script outline or PPT Script, remote IT support, personal laptop, additional microphone and lighting equipment, reliable internet
Remote Script
If you have notes or a script, keep the digital or printed document on a stand at eye height close to your camera. If this is not possible, keep the text in front of you below the camera. Try to memorise notes as much as possible so you maintain direct eye contact with the viewer.
If you and a fellow presenter are both speaking together remotely, it is recommended to work out of the same document so you can follow along when not speaking.
Attire
Think carefully about your clothing. Be comfortable in what you wear. If you have a pale background, wear something with color and vice versa. Avoid highly patterned fabrics (distorts on camera), all black or all white (camera accentuates contrast).
Makeup
Depending on the lighting you may need to add some light makeup. Neutral, muted shades are recommended.
Eyeglasses
If you wear glasses, check for reflection in the lenses and change position accordingly. Take extra steps with the angle of your shot if you wear progressive lenses or bifocals. If you are required to read text on the screen through the lower part of your lenses, your head will tilt back creating an unattractive camera angle.
Camera Framing
The position of your camera and seating is very important. Take time to assess your options before rehearsal and try to establish a position so that you are correctly framed and centered in the image.
Lighting
Please use a lot of front light to shine on your face. Use a ring light and place the ring light directly above and behind your webcam
Background
Personalised space is good, but it should not be cluttered. It is suggested to add colour to your background or use a virtual branded background.
Audio
Place your microphone anywhere from 8 to 12 inches away from your face. You may need to play with the distance to get the microphone to sound optimal. Test audio beforehand.
Body Language
Avoid waving your hands or gesticulating at all. Avoid touching your face. Avoid leaning forward into the camera.
Webinar Content Takeaways
Here is a quick list of best practices.
- 60 minutes or less
- Schedule for Midweek at 11 am or 2 pm
- Pick a title that is SEO optimised
- Make sure the presentation is branded
- Follow presentation best practices
- Vary formats during the presentation
- Engage attendees with Q&A, chat, and surveys
- Break long sessions into a webinar series
- Provide speakers with instruction or tech
Marketing Your Webinar
Marketing your webinar is the next step. Without promotion, you won’t have registrants and without registrants, you won’t have attendees. Webinar success depends on marketing. There are a few must-have elements of webinar marketing. First, an event website where attendees can register. Second, an email marketing campaign. Third, additional promotion like social media and paid ads.
Webinar Event Website
Your event website can be as simple as a webinar landing page or as complicated as your creativity and technology allow. But the key to any webinar website is registration and key event information. The webinar website is the home base for attendees. It’s where they learn more about the event, are convinced to attend, and where they fill out a form to attend.
New to website design? Check out Event Website Design 101.
As virtual events rise in popularity, the cost model for webinars has changed. In the past, webinars were largely free, the only cost was filling out a form. Now, there are certain events, depending on the popularity of the speaker and the value of information, that do charge for attendance. To figure out if you should charge, consider the cost of your event versus what you’ll get in return, as well as what is standard for the industry, you’re in.
Email Marketing Campaign
Email is a quick and easy way to spread the word about your event. Pull contact lists from your database based on your defined audience. Then, start promoting! In a traditional webinar campaign, you’ll send multiple emails. As you go, you can track open rates, click-through rates, and track registrations. Email is easy to change, so watch the data and if it looks like something isn’t working – change it!
As for your emails, build emails that aren’t too text-heavy and utilise great visuals. When writing a subject line, keep it short and engaging. The goal of these emails is to drive the recipient to the webinar website. Be creative and have fun with these. Think about what would make you open an email as you write them.
An email marketing campaign isn’t one email – it’s a series. Here is a list of the typical emails in a basic webinar email marketing campaign, as well as when the emails are sent based on the webinar date.
Basic Email Marketing Campaign Email Timeline
- Invite 1: One month before the webinar date
- Invite 2: Two weeks before the webinar date
- Final Invite Reminder: One week before the webinar date
- You’re Registered: Sent when an attendee registers
- Reminder for Registered Attendees and How to Join: One day before
- Thank You for Attending Follow-up and Survey: Sent after the webinar
- No Show Email: Sent after the webinar
Email Marketing Automation
An email marketing campaign requires the right tools for the job. No one expects you to send a staggering number of emails manually – that would take forever! This is where marketing automation is your best friend. With an event marketing tool, you’re able to integrate with marketing automation systems and track relationships with prospects and customers. Not only that, you’re able to automate the email process, scheduling emails, and tracking data with ease.
Social Media Webinar Promotion
Social media continues to be the cheapest form of promotion with the potential to have the widest reach. Create posts to promote your webinars. Social media is a place where you can get creative and have fun. Another way to promote is to enlist brand ambassadors or tap others in the industry to share your webinar. Just remember, the more eyes see a post, the higher chance it will lead to registrations.
Digital Paid Ad Webinar Promotion
A slightly more costly solution, digital ads can be effective in promoting your webinar. Create ads that rely on visuals and clearly state what is being promoted. Digital ads come with data. You’re able to track effectiveness easily. If they don’t work or aren’t worth the cost, it’s easy to change your strategy.
Finding Sponsors
While sponsorship is a must for larger events, it isn’t always considered for webinars. However, virtual event sponsorship can help provide speakers, increase promotion, and defray the costs for simple trade of services, ads, or branding throughout the webinar, or a contact list after the event. Consider teaming up with sponsors for a single webinar or a series.
Building Your Webinar Using Virtual Event Software
We’ve gone through building content and promotion, now it’s time to get into the nuts and bolts of your webinar. Once you know the content you plan to create, you can determine your tech needs. Whether you have virtual event software or not, it’s always good to take a moment and assess your needs.
Decide on a Webinar Format
There are various webinar formats to choose from. While you’ve chosen your content format, you still need to answer a few basic technical questions. Will the webinar be live? Will it be pre-recorded?
Here are a few webinar formats to take into consideration:
- Live Video: The webinar occurs in real-time. Doing a webinar live can be more challenging as there is no room for mistakes, but it also allows more options for attendee engagement through live Q&A or responding to comments in chat.
- Simu-live: This is a webinar that is mostly recorded ahead of time, but the presenter jumps on to answer questions in real-time at the end. It can allow you to put more into the production value of the overall presentation.
- Pre-recorded: This is a webinar that is recorded ahead of time so that attendees are logging on to watch a video. This format allows you to push right to on-demand.
- Whiteboard: A creative way to express concepts, whiteboard webinars draw out concepts and points made by speakers in real-time. It’s a great way to keep attendees tuned in.
Must-Have Webinar Features
Watching a screen for an hour (unless that screen is playing your newest Netflix binge) can be boring. Why is it so hard to keep attendees engaged? Whether our attention spans are getting shorter or the world is getting noisier, the best way to keep attendees interested during your webinar is to engage them. From high-quality production to chat features, here are a few webinar features that will help improve the viewing experience.
Embedded Video
Display embedded video live streams or recorded videos within the virtual session for a seamless virtual attendee experience.
Live Q&A
Attendees can submit questions to presenters within the live Q&A chatbot for an additional layer of interactivity. Q&A allows attendees to engage with the event and impact the experience.
Session Chat
Session participants can connect directly within the session detail page. This is a great way to encourage networking, raise questions, and highlight great points made during the webinar.
Web Analytics (Clicks & Views)
Get page-by-page web analytics with clicks and views to understand what content is being engaged with the most, so you can modify your events programme.
Engagement Scoring
Engagement scoring gives your sales and marketing teams a simple, actionable view of attendee activity for faster and smarter follow-up.
Virtual Attendance Tracking
Track attendance during sessions for governance and enable CE credit tracking. Data from tracking can help marketers and planners understand trends.
Choosing the Right Webinar Technology
You may already have an event marketing and management platform and that platform may even handle virtual events. If so, that’s great! But even if you have a tool that works, take a moment to determine if it does everything you need it to do. Virtual event technology has exploded in the last year and everyday capabilities are improving. As you plan more webinars and more events, keep track of what did and didn’t work tech-wise.
As you look at webinar software, ask yourself the following:
- What resources do you currently have?
- What is your budget?
- What capabilities do you need (Chat, Q&A, production help, etc.)?
- Do you need a total event management and marketing platform?
- Is the software user-friendly?
- Does the tool integrate with the software you already have?
- How many attendees can a room hold?
- Can you have more than one presenter?
- Do you need live, on-demand, or both?
- What data do you need and what data and analytics can the tool provide?
- Are there support resources available?
Still not sure what options are out there? Read Virtual Event Strategy and Execution: Practitioner’s Guide.
Closing the Loop After the Webinar
It’s over! But is it? Of course not. First, you’ll need to follow-up with attendees with a survey to evaluate success. Second, you’ll need to leverage your content. The great thing about a webinar is that content can live long after the broadcast date, gathering more and more visits over time.
Follow-up with Attendees
Don’t let your communication with attendees die after the webinar. While they should be in your CRM, you should follow up with them. The best way to follow-up? Send out a survey. The best time to send a survey is within a day of the webinar while the content is still fresh. Keep the survey short – no longer than 2-5 minutes to fill out – and note the survey length in the email. Your survey is key to uncovering what worked and what didn’t during your webinar.
Leverage Webinar Content for Resources
Hello, content! Now that the webinar is over, you have a new webinar to add to your on-demand catalog. But that shouldn’t be the only place your webinar lives. Webinars are a great source of content, so leverage that content. Depending on the topic and format, think about turning your webinar into an eBook, blog post, or infographic. The more assets you can create from one great piece of content the better. There’s also the option of leveraging content designed for in-person events for your webinars.
Review Data and Analytics from Your Webinar
Remember those goals you set back at the beginning of webinar planning? It’s time to see if you met them. Your event tech should give you the data you need to assess the success of your goals. Gather the data and begin to analyse it.
Data-driven questions to ask after the webinar
- What were email open rates and click-throughs?
- How many registrations did you have?
- How many attendees did you have?
- How many no-shows?
- How long did attendees engage with the content?
- How engaged were attendees (Chat usage, questions asked in Q&A, etc.)?
- What were your post-webinar survey results?
Measure Success and Debrief Team
You’ve got the data, but data is nothing without context. Framing your data around your goals, KPIs, and stakeholder interests will allow you to define success for your event and the company overall. Look more closely at the numbers. Has anything changed drastically from your last webinar to this one? Did you meet your goals?
Identifying success and opportunities requires analysis. You may not have as many registrations as you hoped, but why? Was the day bad for attendees, were there technological issues, was the website as engaging as it could’ve been? Data is step one, understanding it is step two. While you can’t always know for certain why something happened, you can hypothesise and present that explanation to your stakeholders. Then, during your next event, you can test your hypothesis and see if you were correct.
Webinars: A Necessary Part of Your Total Event Programme
Webinars are often lower effort than live, virtual, or hybrid events, but the benefits they provide long-term can be just as impressive. From establishing your organisation as a thought leader to gathering leads, webinars play a big role in your total meeting and events programme. With a great team that combines the expertise of planning and marketing, your event programme can be a huge driver for sales and impact the organisation as a whole. As you build your webinars, do it thoughtfully and strategically, make quality content, and track your success.
