Webinars are nowadays widely used by a variety of organisations for different reasons; some for training, lectures, educational purposes, marketing, events, and a lot more. It is just like today, where every event can be possible online and organisations are trying to help themselves by utilising the best features of the webinar platform. But still, there are some hosts who sacrifice. Make their webinar catchy and engaging. In other words, the poor user interface of the online webinar platform where they are hosting the event and the lack of appealing slides, scripts, or activities to make the audience engaged could be the primary reasons.
Nothing to worry about. Here we are with many tips to help you out in this situation. Below are some excellent tips to make your webinar catchy and engaging while using the features of the best webinar platforms.
Effective Guide to Make Your Webinar Captivating & Engaging
1. Utilize the feature of polls.
The webinar industry is apathetic. Only 15% use polls. This is a missed opportunity, not just to gather valuable information from attendees but for them to be able to participate in and experience the webinar. Ask the audience to participate before the webinar begins with your registration forms. Before the event, determine your audience’s interests and what questions or misconceptions regarding your subject matter are present. Then, make use of this information to begin an open discussion during the live session. Make sure you incorporate polls into your presentation materials. Polling questions are more exciting and get greater response rates when they are relevant to your subject, especially when you share the results with your audience and incorporate them into the discussion. The poll question can easily be placed in the event if you use an interactive webinar platform. Otherwise, there are a few webinar services that do not provide such features.
2. Lights, Camera, Action! Engage with the camera while you talk.
Consider the ways that your video feed/webcam could be better or different. Think about lighting, the camera’s angle, and the degree to which you interact with your camera. Beware of being in a room, watching a webcam on a laptop (like the majority of webinars). Try to leverage the functionality of virtual webinar platforms that provide a great experience to connect cameras, which showcase the host in a nice way.
3. Break out of the mould, and be unique in the format of webinars.
A lot of technical webinars follow the format of a lecture that is didactic and is followed by a live Q&A. Try to change things up with automated webinar features like frequent short breaks to answer questions from the audience, utilising polls or a live voting tool and trying out different presentation mediums (video to showcase the equipment and processes, screen sharing for tutorials on software, whiteboards for live diagrams and ideas).
Include short, informative videos throughout your online webinar to keep it lively. Even webinars that use a webcam aren’t always engaging in the event that all the presenter does is stare at the lens and then read. Innovative use of short videos will make viewers feel the feeling of being in the moment.
4. Chat is a chat function that allows you to allow for discussion.
To create a highly interactive webinar, choose interactive webinar platforms that offer adding chat as a feature and having the presenter answer and reply to questions in real time. Utilise a panel discussion format, including non-speakers, as your Q&A session for engaging discourse post-presentation.
5. You can plan more than a simple webinar!
Make a list of the methods you plan to utilise to host the on-demand webinar. Consider ways to reuse or adapt material from the webinar in different ways. Examples include an online summary of the highlights of the presentation and short video clips that illustrate fundamental concepts or even a brief podcast interview with the presenters running in the same way.
6. Make your webinar an educational experience.
Create your webinars as an event, a summit, or a series of events. Discuss how the combination of knowledge and content will be valuable and take your audience on an educational experience. Not just that, but the best way to make your webinar experience worthwhile is to stick to or use webinar services that offer a lot of customization as per the needs of your audience and webinar topics.
7. Go beyond a simple PowerPoint presentation.
A webinar is more than just slides. The ability to customise the environment and resources is what differentiates an interactive atmosphere from one that could make you snore. Well, there is no doubt that PowerPoint presentations are helpful for making the webinar engaging, but adding some creative forms of slides, which consist of infographics, video experiences, and graphics, is more appealing to the attendees than just a slide. Try to include this in your next webinar and see the results.
8. Make your audience aware of clearly defined calls to move.
Plan your strategic CTAs and then provide an eloquent “next step” for your attendees and registrants.
9. Create an interactive advertising campaign.
Develop your marketing communications strategy. Make sure you don’t use the same invitations to your webinar throughout the promotion. Make adjustments to your marketing communications plan to concentrate on the presentation as well as the presenters and what type of work they’re performing and the type of experience they will get, the information they get to know, the exclusive access available only to attendees, etc.
10. Utilize feedback from the audience to improve the quality of future webinars.
Get feedback from attendees using an after-event survey easily through the use of an automated webinar. Do not just ask participants to evaluate the presentation, but also pose questions to guide the content plan you’re using: “What topics would you like to learn more about in the future?” “What sections were most interesting or valuable to your work?” The most important point here is to look over the feedback and suggestions of your attendees and incorporate the suggestions into your presentations going forward. You can continue to refine your methods.
