≫ 10 Great Webinar Tips

Great webinars generate qualified sales leads. They take planning, practice and consistent follow through. Here are 10 tips that are sure to work for you.

Plan, Plan, Plan – Create a webinar plan that includes schedules, potential speakers, a registration process, budget, promotion, success metrics and follow through.
Timing is everything – Schedule your webinar when the greatest number of people can come.

If your audience is national, run the webinar in the mid-afternoon.That way, people from all times zones can attend.
Tuesdays and Wednesdays are generally best. People are not just starting or ending their week.

Promote it – If you build it, will they come? It depends. Do they know about it? Do they care?

Study your key audience and develop a targeted marketing strategy.
Test different messages and ad sources. Be creative. See what works.
Activate networks. Word-of-mouth is key, so include an «invite-a-colleague» link in all exchanges with potential attendees.

Webinars don’t happen in a vacuum. Make sure your webinars are integrated into your overall marketing strategy.

Engage your audience – E-mail, the web, to do lists and the phone are just some of the many distractions competing your speakers have to content with

Make sure content is informative and your speakers are interesting.
Get input from your sales team.
Involve all of your marketing staff.

Conduct polls – Don’t miss out on a chanceto ask your audience their opinions. Use your webinar to learn more about your audience and what they care about.

Practice, practice, practice and plan for the worst – Coach your speakers. Presenting at a webinar is very different from presenting in person.

Don’t forget – All speakers need to use land lines with headsets and have a hard copy of their presentation in front of them.

Technology isn’t foolproof. Prepare for all calamities. Schedule at least one run through that covers:
Web conferencing technology
Webinar presentation and timing
Q&A
How to handle a loss of audio or web access

Pick a good conferencing vendor – There are many web conferencing vendors out there. Can yours handle your volume and support you when there’s a problem?

Make the most of registration – Every time someone registers for your event, you have a chance to learn more about their interests and needs. Include different touch points like demos and white paper downloads in all registration emails. Don’t Forget – Automate the registration process as much as possible and make sure your metrics capture what happens.

Respect Your Audience – People take time out of their day because they are interested in solving a problem. Hard sell doesn’t work. Soft sell does.