The Top 9 Steps To An Effective Webinar

Webinars are becoming the most popular way to deliver content and information in 2022. Everyone has been jumping onto the idea of webinars and attendees are able to choose from many! This has made event planners learn how to create their own or level up their webinars and other virtual events skills. 

Although it is easy to throw content online, it isn’t always easy to make it into something great. That’s why we have put together our top 9 steps for planning and creating an effective webinar in 2022. 

Determine The Main Objectives Of Your Webinar

What are the reasons you are wanting to host a webinar? Why choose to do this via a webinar? These reasons could include looking to increase revenue, brand awareness, more customers or all of the above. Determining these questions will help you to define your target audience as well as most of the steps you will need to take below.

Define Who You Are Trying To Reach

With any type of event, you want to have a strategy for reaching your audience. But the first thing you need to know is who that audience will be for your webinar. Getting really specific will help you find the best type of audience for the content you will be sharing during your webinar. 

Pick A Date, Time & The Length Of Your Webinar

This may seem like the easiest part of planning your webinar, however choosing these can affect who, when, and how many people will ultimately be attending your webinar. Depending on who you are targeting, most people will be busy during the standard work hours. Although companies host webinars during work hours, there are times to consider the best and worst times. 

Around the hours of 10 am to 11 am and 1 pm to 3 pm seems to be the best times to host your webinar. You will want to consider and respect your attendee’s lunch break since all of their attention (hopefully) will be on your webinar! If you are planning to have international attendees, it is respectful and ideal for them as well. 

Choose The Right Platform

Although your mind might go to Zoom, Google Hangouts or Microsoft Teams, there are other options for your webinar that may be better suited for your content and/or attendees. Consider other virtual meeting and event platforms. Virtual platforms, like VX, Powered by Impact AV Solutions, can offer you an easier way for registration, engagement and have higher streaming quality than others. 

Create Your Agenda

The most fun part about your webinar is creating your agenda! Deciding which topics you will be covering, which speakers you want to include and putting together the details of the webinar is one of the most important parts of putting together your webinar (for obvious reasons)! 

Make sure to have dedicated times for an introduction, speakers, a wrap-up, Q&A and any other features you are wanting to include in your webinar agenda. 

Create Your Webinar Landing Page

The landing page is where your attendees will be going for all of the details of your webinar as well as where they will be signing up from. It is the first place they will decide if they will be attending, meaning that this is where you want to put effort into. 

Making it look pretty is important for attendees, but creating a landing page that is user-friendly will ultimately make or break your attendee’s choice to attend, no one likes a frustrating website! 

Don’t forget to include on your landing page the: 

• Agenda
• Speakers and their bios, as well as their headshots/photos
• Date and time of your webinar 
• Headlines and description
• Call to action (button for signing up etc.) 

Promote Your Webinar As Much As Possible!

Promote, promote, promote! This is just as important as the rest of the above steps. If you want people to show up and see all of your hard work, you will need to promote and advertise your webinar as much as possible. 

Check out our blog where we get into How To Successfully Promote Your Virtual or Hybrid Event to get into the specific ways you can do this for your webinar. 

Practice In The Meantime

Everything is ready to go, this is the time to practice! As we all know and have experienced in the last couple of years, practicing and checking your technology is extremely important! 

Some items to check off below that may be important: 

• Ask your speakers if they would like to come on for a run-through  
• Test webinar links
• Test microphones and speakers
• Make sure you have strong wifi
• Check lighting and cameras
• Look over and practice the content you have prepared
• Test sharing slides
• Check if Q&A boxes work
• Make sure you are recording the webinar when live

And any other features that may need to be tested, just in case!  

Have A Great Webinar! 

Now is your time to shine! It is important to follow up with your attendees post-webinar. If you recorded the webinar, having it available for people who may not have been able to attend is a great way to show that they are just as important and can still see the webinar even though they may not have been able to attend. 

Start Planning Your Next Experience!

Talk to our team to learn more about these options, or visit our Virtual Venues page for more options. Start planning your virtual event! Contact us today or request a demo of our virtual platform.