10 Best Practices for Webinar Hosting

Hosting webinars for your company is a great opportunity to connect with attendees in an interactive and engaging manner which can either offer educational or inspirational materials. Webinars can be used for lead generation purposes or for offering customer service information.

Here are 10 things what every business needs to know about hosting webinars and online meetings for your clients and customers:

1. Share your Company’s Story. Let the attendees know more about your company’s roots and how you got started. It’s a great way to start the webinar by setting the tone for an open forum discussion or conversation and introduce your company’s values or mission statement.
2. Record the Webinar. Since webinars are live, some people may not be able to attend it during the scheduled time and date. It’s always best to record the webinar and offer it to those that were unable to attend by posting it on your company’s website or YouTube channel. Not only will be useful for those that couldn’t attend but its great content to share via social media networks afterwards.
3. Images are King! Most webinars are performed alongside a power point presentation so it’s best to include thought-provoking and interesting images with each slide. The images you choose to include should help convey your message and highlight the story or information you are communicating with your audience.
4. Live Website Demos. Seeing is believing! If you are promoting a product or service then doing an interactive live demo of your company’s website is a great way to showcase to your attendees exactly what you are referring to. It also helps to keep your audience engaged by interchanging between your power point and a live demo.
5. Offer Flexible Dates and Times for your Customers. Since most of a company’s customers are global, you have to be mindful when booking a time and date that fits everyone’s schedule. Try to accommodate as many of your customers as you can by offering an array of different times and date for your upcoming webinars.
6. Book Special Guests. Offering experts in your industry an opportunity to host a webinar for your company is a chance to share knowledge and expertise that you wouldn’t be able to provide. In exchange for sharing their content, offer to promote the guest speaker’s products, services or website information during the webinar for additional exposure.
7. Practice, Practice, Practice! Since a webinar is a live production, you should always come prepared and well-rehearsed. You don’t want to stumble on your words or completely draw a blank. It’s handy to have a script created prior to your webinar so you have something to reference upon, if need be.
8. Warning: Some Acting is Required. Most webinars typically go for an hour long in length, which can be a long time to keep your attendees engaged. When speaking always have a smile on your face. You’re attendees will be able to hear this in your tone and feel more connected to your presentation.
9. Promote on Social Media. Once you have created and scheduled your webinar, use social media networks, such as Facebook, Linked and Twitter to promote your webinar for additional exposure and gain more sign ups. Ask your social media community to share the webinar information with their friends or followers.
10. No Cost Involved. Webinars should typically be free to sign up and attend. Sometimes, they may be only offered to select customers but they are always free to attend. Webinars should be used as an educational tool for your customers and offering it free of charge will only increase the attendees that want to learn about your company.

Have you participated in a webinar before? Share your experience below!