We all know that webinars can be effective, efficient and realize a high ROI.  But how can we make sure that happens more often than not?

At WorkSmart, we run a good amount of webinars every week for various organizations, small businesses, and entrepreneurs. Because of our focus on constant improvement, our ‘recommendation rate’ has been 94% (recommendation rate is based upon how many participants would ‘recommend this webinar to others’).

We’ve come to learn a great deal about running a successful webinar, so we’re teaming up with the team at eduFire to offer a ‘webinar about webinars’ on Thursday, October 29th at 3PM EST.

The webinar is entitled 10 Steps to Running a KNOCKOUT Webinar and it will cover some of the most important tips on successful webinar production and promotion.

In preparation for any webinar, a great deal of work must be accomplished.  It is very important to our organization that the content is relevant, succinct, and well-presented.

I wanted to give our blog readers a sample of the tips that will be discussed in our eduFire broadcast.

The Top 10 Best Practices for How to Organize a Webinar

1. Fail to Plan … Plan to Fail. We’ve all heard the adage before.  With webinars, it couldn’t be any more of a true statement.  Webinars are quite different that traditional, in person speeches, and they require a different type of preparation.  We can’t see you, unless you incorporate video into your webinar (which most people do not).
2. Smile while you speak! Say something right now without smiling (for instance, “Hello my name is John Doe, welcome to the webinar”).  Now, say the same thing with a big smile on your face.  Do you hear how different it sounds?   This difference is incredibly noticeable on webinars, so turn that frown upside down!
3. Safety measures.  I like to say that when ‘Murphy’ came up with Murphy’s Law, he was mainly referring to webinars.  Things will go wrong.  The question is: how will you handle it?  Will you freak out and over apologize to your audience (PLEASE don’t over apologize) OR will you handle it professionally?  Always have music ready to play in case of emergency, and ALWAYS practice and test with dry runs.
4. Testing Testing, 1, 2, 3. Practice may not always make ‘perfect’, but it definitely doesn’t hurt.  Over time, you may not have to practice as much as you did when you first started, but I feel that you can always be improving your performance.  It may seem like a silly exercise, but try speaking in front of a mirror.  Smile when you talk.  Do you sound interesting?  Do you have a command over your content?
5. Powerpoint Essentials.  Speaking of content, spend a good deal of time designing and developing your PowerPoint (or Keynote) presentation.  Don’t overcrowd your slides. Do use bullets.  Don’t use paragraphs. Do use a mixture of text and imagery.  Don’t regurgitate a script.
6. Engage with Polls. We can gauge how attentive our audience is during webinars and we know that polls can increase attentiveness significantly.  Plan to incorporate at least 3 polls throughout your webinar.  However, be careful of too much ‘dead air’ while you are gathering results.
7. Improve your sound. Because we can’t see you, your voice is critical to the success of the webinar.  Sound excited and passionate.  Don’t speak too fast.  Remember to pause… Remember to breathe! Try to art-ic-u-late and en-un-ci-ate your words.  Try not to be monotone by changing your pitch.  Remove your ‘ums’, ‘uhs’, and ‘ya-knows’.  Ya know??
8. Add in the personal touch with stories and humor.  A big part of successful webinars lies in the content that is beyond the presentation.  Fill in your PowerPoint slides with good stories.  Don’t be afraid to laugh at yourself and have self-humility.
9. Choose your technology. You’ve got several options when running webinars.  There are many webinar software options out there, but you also want to consider whether or not to use VOIP or telephone, speakerphone or a headset, etc.  The best way to choose your technology?  Test your options and see which works best.
10. Don’t forget about Q&A! I feel the question and answer portion of a webinar is one of the most important.  Encourage participation by requesting questions throughout your webinar.  If you are the only speaker, I recommend having an MC, or Q&A aggregator who can help in running the Q&A section.  Keep your answers between 30-60 seconds so you can cover a good amount of questions and refer to participants by their first name if you can.

What tips do you have for running a great webinar?

Tagged as: best practices, webinar