7 tips on how to run an engaging webinar for your tech business

In a world run by innovation and technology, the digital age has provided an abundance of tools for businesses. It is now easier for companies to interact with their prospects and clients, and market themselves. Creating and maintaining relationships with actual and potential customers has been a crucial challenge of digital marketing, with social media platforms for example, but also email marketing campaigns.

One of the most used and reused digital marketing tools is, by far, the Webinar.

Running a webinar often feels like speaking to a wall. You are completely alone and you don’t know what your participants think or what they feel. Are they enjoying it or are they doing chores around the house? And while talking, you’re wondering: “Are people even listening to what I’m saying?”.

It may sound hard to believe but hosting a webinar is way harder than speaking to a live audience.

In order to help you nail your webinar, here are some tried and tested tips on how to host a webinar and make it a success.

1. Get Ready

– Use many visuals: The major difference between a live presentation and a webinar is the importance of your visuals. During a presentation, if there is no visual slide, the attention of your audience will be focused on you. However, in a webinar, if there is no visual or if you have the same one for a lengthened time, you will end up losing their attention.

– Have a clock: You should keep a clock next to you to manage your time. Know how much time you can allocate to each slide, and more importantly, to the Q&A part.

– Turn off your phone: Ensuring that your phone is off or on the silent mode will keep your presentation safe from any distraction. Don’t forget to also turn off your computer’s apps, otherwise, you could receive a notification that will be seen by your audience.

2. Log in early to prepare everything

– Give yourself at least 15 minutes to get everything ready. Log in to your webinar platform, open your presentation and test the platform, be sure you know how to use it correctly. Check your mic and verify your presentation (how it appears on the live screen).

– When everything is ready, do not hesitate to launch the webinar and comment on the situation: check how many people are already connected and let them know if you are waiting for a few more to join.

3. Greet your participants

When all of the participants are connected, hit the ground running your webinar with a warm greeting and thank them for joining. You can greet them more personally if you know where they are calling from (ex: “Hello to Stockholm”).

4. Introduce your content

Once you greeted your participants, introduce briefly your webinar. Give a little context to your attendees so they know exactly what is going to be discussed. That will help them navigate through your content. You can summarize this in a few bullet points and make it your opening slide.

5. Keep an eye on the comment section

During your presentation, regularly check the chatbox to not miss any comment. This way, you will be sure that your attendees follow your presentation and do not misunderstand anything.

Moreover, answer the questions that are directly relevant to the content you are currently covering.

Those are the kind of interactions that will make your webinar engaging, and so, successful.

6. Ask for feedback

At the end of your presentation, you can ask for feedbacks by presenting a simple survey. Making it short and straight to the point will make it faster for the attendees to fill out, and easier for you to understand how you can improve. To get more responses, don’t forget to encourage your participants to complete it right away.

(example: “Any suggestion?”; “Please rate this webinar from 1 to 5”; “Did you find this part complete enough?”)

Background photo created by creativeart – www.freepik.com

7. “Let’s keep in touch”

Do not hesitate to provide your participants with a way to get in touch with you. Share your contact info like your professional email or even your LinkedIn profile.

Then, you can close the webinar presentation.

Using these techniques will help you run a more enjoyable and engaging webinar. Do not hesitate to give us feedbacks after using those tips.

Article written by Tatiana Ugolini