If you know what you’re doing, webinars are a great way to communicate with existing clients and engage new ones.
If you don’t know what you’re doing, they can do more harm than good, damaging your brand and reputation.
As we head into autumn, and with the Budget on 28 October, many advisers, planners, and firms will be thinking about running webinars. So, with the scars from our own mistakes still healing, and the experience of watching hundreds of others, here are 22 quick-fire tips to help you run the perfect webinar.
#1. Think carefully about the date and time
Choose a slot that suits your audience, even if it inconveniences you. Their diary matters more than yours. For B2C webinars, we generally recommend Tuesday, Wednesday, or Thursday at 7 pm. For B2B audiences, use the same days but aim for 10 am.
#2. Use a dedicated webinar platform
Don’t try to save money by running your webinar as one giant meeting. Letting strangers share their cameras, microphones, and screens is asking for trouble. Imagine the worst-case scenario. I’ve seen worse.
#3. Be careful with short webinars
Some advisers and planners believe shorter webinars attract more registrations. We’re not convinced. Brevity sounds appealing, but not if the webinar is too short to deliver genuine value. Focus on value, not an arbitrary running time.
#4. Keep the registration form short
A registration page tells you who’s coming and triggers automated reminders. But only ask for information you genuinely need. Every extra field gives people another reason to abandon the form.
#5. Check your laptop is plugged in and charging
I’ve made this mistake, so trust me: nothing raises a presenter’s heart rate faster than a low-battery warning mid-webinar. Before you start, check that you’re plugged in, switched on, and powering up.
#6. Avoid calls and emails immediately before the webinar
Bad news or a grumpy client is guaranteed to throw you off your stride. Protect the final 30 minutes before you go live. Your inbox will still be there afterwards. Sadly.
#7. If you’re a novice, make time to practise
Don’t wing your first webinar. It’s unfair on your audience and risky for your brand. Rehearse everything: your presentation, the tech, and how you’ll interact with attendees.
#8. Get online 30 minutes before going live
The webinar gods smile on prepared presenters. Use the time to check everyone can see and hear each other, screen sharing works, the chat and Q&A functions behave, and, of course, your laptop is plugged in.
#9. Check what your camera is showing
Lighting, camera angle, and background all affect how professional and trustworthy you appear. If you don’t believe me, rewatch our webinar with Ed Darling. What looks good on one platform might look terrible on another, so always check before going live. Nobody wants a close-up of your nostrils or to see your washing in the background.
#10. Test every link, poll, and download
A broken link at the crucial moment undermines trust and wastes the opportunity you’ve created. Test everything before going live, then test it again. Paranoia is your friend.
#11. Remove on-screen distractions
Close anything that might beep, ping, or pop up while you’re presenting. For the next hour, you have one job: delivering the best possible webinar for your audience. Everything else can wait.
#12. Use the waiting room function
We use Zoom because other platforms seem unnecessarily complicated. Its waiting room lets us complete our final checks, fix any mistakes, and panic quietly before the audience arrives. Just remember to let them in and…
#13. Start your webinar on time
Don’t punish punctual attendees by waiting for latecomers. Start as promised. Anyone joining late will soon catch up and can watch what they missed when you send the recording.
#14. Do the presenting yourself
Don’t outsource the presenting to providers. You’ll position them as the experts, not yourself. Sure, after you’ve run several successful webinars, invite carefully chosen guests. But initially, presenting the webinar yourself will build your reputation.
#15. Always present alongside a host
At Yardstick, I generally present while Dan or Abi hosts. They handle the housekeeping, filter questions, and fix technical problems, leaving me free to concentrate on the easy bit: presenting.
#16. Get to the good stuff quickly
If you’re speaking to a new audience, briefly introduce yourself and establish your credentials. But if you’re still talking about yourself 10 minutes later, don’t be surprised to see attendee numbers dwindle in real time.
#17. Cover “housekeeping” at the start
Attendees need to know how long the webinar will last, whether they’ll receive a recording and how to ask questions. Get your host to cover these points at the start, then move swiftly to the good stuff.
#18. Tell people what you’ll tell them, tell them, then tell them what you told them
It’s one of the oldest presentation tricks in the book because it works. Set expectations, deliver on them, then recap the key points.
#19. Use two calls to action
Some attendees will be ready to book a meeting. Others will simply want more information. Give both groups an obvious next step: a direct call to action, such as a Calendly link, and a transitional one, such as claiming a free guide.
#20. If you’re a guest presenter, try this call to action
You probably won’t receive the attendees’ email addresses, so offer a free giveaway they can claim by emailing you with one word in the subject line. Finish presenting, open your inbox, and start conversations with the people who responded. Thanks to Andy Bounds for this tip. It works like a dream.
#21. Prepare some seeded questions
Nothing ends a webinar on more of a downer than asking for questions and being met with stony silence. Give your host a handful of pre-prepared questions to use if the audience has none.
#22. Your slides aren’t a script
Nothing tells an audience you don’t know your onions faster than reading every word from your slides. Use fewer words and let the slides guide and support you. If your audience wanted to read, they’d have bought a book.
Powerful one-to-many communication
Webinars are a fabulous way to communicate with many people at the same time, but only if you get them right.
Hopefully, these tips will help.
Next week, we’ll explain what you should do after you’ve finished presenting to maximise the benefit of your webinar for both you and your audience.
In the meantime, if you’d like our help organising a webinar (we can do everything except present it for you), please email abi@theyardstickagency.co.uk or call 0115 8965 300 and we’ll arrange a chat.
Finally, if you’d like to see how we put these tips into practice, click here to join our next free webinar at 10 am on Wednesday 23 September, where we’ll explore 10 great habits that’ll turbocharge your marketing.
