When you host a webinar, you can reach a global audience without anyone incurring the expense and time involved in traveling. Webinars also allow you to demonstrate your expertise in your subject matter, serve your audience by delivering value, connect with your audience on a more personal level, and grow your email list. The following is a list of steps to help you successfully host and deliver your own webinar events.
1) Choose your webinar format and topic. Consider these questions:
=> Will your webinar be a Q&A with a guest, will someone interview you, or will you be the sole speaker leading a lecture or interactive discussion?
=> Will it be based on a topic you already speak about or a topic you need to develop?
=> What questions do you hear repeatedly from your target audience?
=> Can you do something unique like hosting an open Q&A with the audience for an hour? Get creative!
2) Decide if the event will be free or paid.
Free webinars allow you to grow your email list by requiring event registration, while paid events can limit the audience size since not everyone will be willing to get out a credit card. This decision should be based on your goals. If you simply want to reach more people and grow your email list, free webinars are the way to go. If you already have an established audience and want to create a new revenue stream, paid webinars will be easier to fill.
3) Write a compelling title and description of the event.
A catchy title helps connect the target audience with your message so it’s essential is grabs attention. The best titles are often prescriptive. For example: “How to Save Big Money on College Tuition” or “10 Ways to Drastically Lower College Tuition Costs.”
The event description should explain the benefits to attendees. How will their lives be improved in some way by attending? Aim for three paragraphs at most, and include three to five bulleted take-aways.
4) Sign up for a webinar hosting service.
We use and recommend Zoom, which is user-friendly and affordable. GoToMeeting.com is another option. Note that Zoom meetings are different than Zoom webinars. A meeting makes all participants visible on screen so it’s more interactive. A webinar is more of a broadcast, and attendees are not seen on screen. If you already have a Zoom meetings account, you will need to sign up for a webinar account separately.
5) Set up a registration page. Zoom offers registration pages within its system, so you can use those for both free and paid events. Free events are easy to set up so just follow the prompts. For a paid event, you will need to integrate your Zoom account with Paypal for payment processing.
If you don’t want to use Zoom’s registration page, another option is to create an account with eventbrite.com, which is an easy-to-use tool for event registration management. There is no charge to manage registration for free events, though they charge a small transaction fee for paid events. Alternatively, you could create registration pages via a paid service like leadpages.net or create a Facebook event.
6) Promote your event in as many places as possible. Promotion can begin a month or more in advance, though you will likely find you get the best response within two weeks of the event, and especially in the days leading up to the event. (People tend to procrastinate!). Here are some promotion opportunities:
=> Create an event on Facebook and promote to your fans and friends. Be sure to include a link to the registration page.
=> Paid ads on Facebook can be a great way to promote an event and generate new registrations.
=> As mentioned previously, you should create an event with Eventbrite. Whether you use their ticketing system or not, this service cross-promotes events and can bring added exposure.
=> Announce your event via all of your social media networks and repeat several times before the event takes place.
=> Send an announcement to your email list and remind subscribers the day before the event.
=> Also post to any other sites where your target audience is located. This can include newsletters, message boards, classifieds, forums, online groups, and any place that can bring exposure for the appropriate audience.
=> Share details in your blog.
=> Create an “Upcoming Events” page on your site. (See our Upcoming Events here.)
=> Ask guest speakers to share with their audiences.
7) Prepare to deliver your event.
If you’ve never hosted an event before, it’s helpful to practice connecting to the event.
Get your lighting, camera and microphone ready and launch a practice session. Share your slides, start the recording, and experiment with the settings. (Note: A live event checklist is included later in this report.)
8) Send participation instructions to all attendees and send them again the day before or day of the event. These frequently get misplaced and will help assure attendees are able to participate.
9) Create a script for your event so that you have a strong opening and closing message. For the opening, welcome people and explain guidelines. Will you take questions during the event or at the end? Let them know what to expect. If you have a guest speaker for your event, you will need their bio to read as an introduction. Try to keep it to a paragraph or less and ask for clarification on names or titles that are hard to pronounce. Keep reading for a sample webinar script included in this report.
10) Consider how you want to handle questions. Allowing questions at any time can disrupt the flow of the event. I recommend muting participants during the presentation and then opening up for questions once or twice during the event or at the end. Zoom offers a Q&A box where participants can type in their questions, which you can read aloud on their behalf.
Continue reading…
Download the full report here (It’s free and includes a sample welcome script, list of equipment needed to host webinars, and a live event checklist!)
