Interested in learning about how to create or present amazing webinars? Well, you're in the right place! Below is a list of our top 25 tips on everything you need to know about hosting your own webinar series, ranging from strategy, outreach, planning, topics, marketing, presenting and more!
1. Know Your Audience
Before planning your webinar series, you need to understand who will actually be attending these webinars. Go ahead and ask yourself the following questions:
Who do I want attending these webinars?
What keeps them up at night?
Why would they attend a webinar?
What are their goals?
What can I offer them?
We're serious - ask yourself these questions. We'll wait.
Understanding the answers to these questions is your first step to hosting a successful webinar that's hyper-focused on what your audience is looking for. With the right topic, your overall attendance will go through the roof.
2. Make it "Top-of-Funnel"
Think about it - when you're browsing around the internet and see an ad or webinar about a specific product or service, do you get excited? Probably not. You have a better chance of getting excited and registering for a webinar if it's about a specific topic or skill you want to learn more about, rather than some "digital car salesman" tactic of someone going through a slideshow on why they want you to buy their product or service.
The digital world works just like the real world. We don't want people throwing price tags and products left and right in our faces. We want to learn and see things that interests us.
With that being said, determine what interesting topic your audience wants to learn more about, and create a webinar that's focused on teaching your audience something, rather than selling something to them. You can of course include a mention of your product or service at the end of the presentation, but by teaching your audience something you're essentially gaining trust with them and building a relationship. Plus, you can always follow-up with them after the webinar with the webinar replay and more bottom-of-funnel tactics, such as scheduling a free demo or trial.
3. Finding Great Speakers
Just because you are hosting a webinar series doesn't mean you have to be the one presenting the content. One of the best ways to increase brand awareness within your industry is by associating your brand with well-known thought leaders in your industry. Plus, in many cases, these thought leaders will do it for free and actually be honored that you'd invited them! It's a win-win, you both gain overall awareness, you get free content, and you gain more trust within your industry by the association of your brand and the individual(s) presenting.
It can all start with a simple LinkedIn message and seeing where it goes!
4. Use a Life-Changing Title
Wow! Life-changing? Must be legit. In order to stand out from all of the other webinars out there, you need a title that will really grab attention. For example, let's pretend you're hosting a webinar about paid social media campaigns. Here's a few fun ideas to get people to pay attention:
How to Drive 200% More Leads Through Social Media
Learn How to Double Your Leads Through Social Media
The Secret Sauce for Social Media Campaigns
Getting the Most Out of Your Social Media Channels
Three Steps to Driving Profit With Social Media Campaigns
You get the idea - tell the world what they'll get out of your webinar if they attend it. I know "life-changing" is a big word, but on a serious note, you need to tell your audience why it's so important to attend your webinar - and then deliver the value.
5. Get It On Your Website
Your registration page for the webinar should live directly on your company's website. If this isn't already in your plans, then do what you have to do to make it happen.
The reason this is so important is because you'll be driving a lot of traffic to this landing page, and the chances of all those people clicking this registration link to "explore" your website dramatically increases if they're already within the site itself. Plus, don't worry about out-dated content. Once the webinar is completed, you can edit the landing page with a form-fill asking visitors to provide their contact information in exchange for the webinar replay. This allows you token generate leads once your webinar is over and done with.
6. Think About Schedules
When it comes down to things, we're all busy. Especially during working hours, is typically when you'll be hosting these webinars. You need to find a time that is acceptable for your target audience. Even if they love the topic and speaker(s), if they can't make it due to a timing issue, they're not going to show up - that's just a fact. Also, for all of you global brands out there, keep in mind that there are many time zones out there, which means you need to find the "sweet spot" when it comes to schedules. What we've found is that these "sweet spots" are typically
7. It's All About Technology
So you're starting to figure out what the webinar will be about, who will present the information, who you want there, and when it will be...but what platform are you going to use? Many people assume you can throw it all together last minute, but in reality you need everything planned out well ahead of time to have a clean, stress-free webinar experience.
When choosing a webinar platform, you need to ask yourself a range of questions, such as...
Can I afford this platform with the budget I have?
Does this include the specific features I need for the experience I want to provide?
Is there a limit on the number of attendees that can join the webinar?
Will the webinar be automatically recorded?
Will the platform automatically send calendar invites and reminders to those that register?
These are the questions you want to ask. Once you have your answers, you should be able to choose the perfect platform.
Helpful Tip: We've seen a lot of success with GoToWebinar.
8. Content, Content, Content. Did We Mention Content?
Once your webinar is over, it's not truly over. You now have endless possibilities to turn that new, fresh MP4 content into a range of unique pieces of content. Here's some ideas:
Written blog about the highlights from the webinar (w/ replay link)
Bite-sized videos (30s - 90s) with highlights from the webinar that drives viewers to your website.
Endless social media posts that call-out specifics that were mentioned within the webinar (can use video content or still-shots for creatives).
An eBook that focuses on the topics that were covered in the webinar.
You get the idea. Once your webinar is completed, it opens the door for some new content ideas, ultimately leading to more ways you can generate relevant leads. The grind doesn't stop!
9. The Follow-Up
One of the most important things for your webinar series will be how you continue to move these new leads down the sales funnel. Chances are that after your first webinar you'll have a handful of fresh, new leads that just learned something from one of your top-of-funnel webinars.
Now you need to keep the conversation going.
The best way to keep this conversation going is to follow-up with them a day or two after the webinar with the full webinar recording (that you publish on your website to drive more traffic and SEO value), and then open the door to more opportunities. You can include a range of additional call-to-actions in this email to keep the conversation going, such as the following:
A free demo or trial of your product or service.
A sneak-peek at your next webinar (with the registration link).
A coupon for your product or service.
The option to sign-up for your newsletter.
Links to previous webinars that they might find interesting.
Additional blogs or content related to the topic of the webinar to learn more.
You can have fun with this - figure out what your potential customer wants...then deliver it.
Interested in learning more about setting up your own webinar series? Let us help!