Best Practices for Webinars

Stephanie Scotti

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These are the responses to my question asking SNN readers for their webinar best practices and lessons learned.

Why do you produce webinars?

7 responses

  • 42.9% - Generate leads/build sales pipeline
  • 28.6% - Establish thought leadership
  • 28.6% - Other
  • 0% - Extend your audience
  • 0% - Grow your audience
  • 0% - Gain feedback from listeners

Do you post slides beforehand?

100% - No

What is the #1 lesson you’ve learned that contributes to the success of your webinars??

  • Follow-up! Whether it is following up on requests or expanding on questions - follow-up is key to engagement! —Teri
  • Keep it educational —Stan Phelps
  • You need a producer, and do a test-run with them beforehand. —Karl Sakas
  • Having good topics of interest —Hank Hoffmeier
  • Preparation matters. Think through your ENTIRE sequence, from email to landing page to follow-ups. And then TEST everything more than once.
  • Provide follow-up to keep the interest.

What tools or techniques do you use to generate engagement/interactivity during a webinar?

  • I always post a slide at the beginning with a question around the topic and ask people to post a written response. Then as others are joining I read the responses and credit the participants for good feedback and insights. —Teri
  • Polls —Stan Phelps
  • Ask questions; do polls. —Karl Sakas
  • Q&A and Polls —Hank Hoffmeier
  • Polls, special offers, asking questions to be answered in the chat window.
  • Have an awesome moderator for chat to prompt questions, and provide polling opportunities.

What would it take to elevate the production of your webinars?

  • I would love to incorporate video — and some pre-work before and after — always looking for more meaningful engagement. —Teri
  • Conversational —Stan Phelps
  • Easier integration with my other systems. —Karl Sakas
  • More practice. —Hank Hoffmeier
  • I’ve got a good rig already: webcam, excellent mic, solid software platform. The next step would be a studio setup with a videocam.
  • Dramatic music!

Please share any other lessons learned or best practices

  • Two speakers are better than one! Energy, energy, energy. Stand if you have to but you’ve got deliver energy and enthusiasm. Don’t forget you are on camera (watch your facial expressions!) —Teri
  • As host, log in 30 minutes early; you can never plan ahead too much. And bring some “filler" questions in case the audience isn’t asking much. —Karl Sakas
  • Sound quality is primary. People will forgive less-than-perfect video, but if they struggle to hear you, they will tune out or disconnect.
  • Please stop reading your slides to people, remember to slow down your speech when you get passionate about something, and connecting to people is the only way they’ll remember the lesson.

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