What are the best practices for creating engaging webinar slides and visuals?

1 Know your audience

Before you start creating your slides, you need to understand who your audience is, what their pain points are, and what they want to learn from your webinar. This will help you tailor your content, tone, and style to their needs and expectations. You can use surveys, polls, or social media to gather insights about your audience and segment them by their interests, roles, or goals.

2 Plan your structure

A well-structured webinar will have a clear introduction, body, and conclusion, as well as a strong call to action. You should outline your main points, subpoints, and transitions before you create your slides, and make sure they align with your learning objectives and value proposition. You should also limit your webinar to 30-45 minutes, and avoid cramming too much information or going off-topic.

3 Use simple and consistent design

Your slides and visuals should support your message, not distract from it. Use simple and consistent design elements, such as fonts, colors, backgrounds, and layouts, to create a professional and coherent look. Avoid using too much text, complex charts, or irrelevant images, and use white space, contrast, and alignment to enhance readability and clarity. You can also use templates or tools to create attractive and consistent slides.

4 Add interactivity and engagement

One of the challenges of webinars is to keep your audience engaged and attentive throughout your presentation. You can use various techniques to add interactivity and engagement to your slides and visuals, such as polls, quizzes, questions, stories, anecdotes, or examples. These will help you stimulate interest, feedback, and participation, as well as check for understanding and retention.

5 Use multimedia and animations

Another way to make your slides and visuals more dynamic and appealing is to use multimedia and animations. You can use audio, video, or graphics to illustrate your points, demonstrate your products or services, or showcase your testimonials or case studies. You can also use animations or transitions to highlight key information, create suspense, or show change or progress. However, you should use multimedia and animations sparingly and appropriately, and avoid overloading or confusing your audience.

6 Practice and test

Finally, you should practice and test your slides and visuals before you deliver your webinar. You should rehearse your presentation several times, and get feedback from colleagues or friends. You should also test your slides and visuals on different devices, browsers, and platforms, and make sure they work properly and smoothly. You should also have a backup plan in case of technical issues or interruptions.

7 Here’s what else to consider

This is a space to share examples, stories, or insights that don’t fit into any of the previous sections. What else would you like to add?