The important steps to take before hosting your first webinar
Launching a webinar for the first time might seem daunting and like a project that should not be taken lightly. However as with all things great and small if you give it careful thought, deliberation, and focus, all of which involve time, you should be able to come up with something great! And the cool thing is once you have done your webinar you will want to come back for more.
Most of the points we will discuss in the post is commonsense advice! But read on. As said putting together a webinar seems daunting, but it’s not out season if this is your first time! With some simple preparation, you can figure out how to successfully present your message.
In this article, we’ll share 5 important things you need to start doing before going live with your first webinar. These steps will ensure you’re focusing on members of the audience and meeting your business objectives, even if these 5 tips don’t cover everything. Building a successful webinar takes a lot of time and expertise — and that’s where we come in!
When you host a webinar, you should always do these five things. They might be considered your ‘prep work and must-dos’ for each event.
5 pointers for your first webinar
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What is the goal you want to achieve with your first webinar?
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What is your webinar about?
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Why should people attend the webinar?
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Who will benefit from attending the webinar
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How will the attendees take action after attending the webinar
What do you want to achieve with your webinar
Most webinars are used either to gain new clients or to retain and upsell existing clients. For your first webinar it is a good idea to have conversations with your sales team to determine where the opportunities are.
What type of goals or KPI’s can you use:
- Minimum number of attendees
- How many call to actions do you want to have?
- Sales requests
- White paper downloads
- Polls or other interactions used
- Or any other metric or call to action you find interesting for your company
- Do you want to become a thought leader in your company’s area of expertise?
What is your webinar about?
When you’re starting your first webinar, picking a relevant topic is very important. The topic and title alone will determine if someone is interested in your subject and if they’d learn anything from the content — and will hopefully attend. Think about your target audience and who would be the best fit for your webinars. What topics are meaningful to them? How can you help them excel at their job or make their lives easier? If they’re able to take something away from your webinar, then you’ve succeeded.
Why should people attend your webinar?
If you’re organizing a webinar, don’t take a promotional approach. Avoid making the webinar all about your company or trying to sell your product. An informative and engaging presentation is always more interesting to participants than one that’s sales-focused or product-centric.
Who will benefit from attending the webinar?
When you’re deciding on a webinar topic, it’s important to think about your goals. What are your primary objectives? Usually when webinars are put on, they’re for the speaker’s benefit as well. The webinar should be for those attending as well. When you come up with a webinar topic, your first thought should be: what topic would be beneficial and helpful to attendees?
How will the attendees take action after attending the webinar?
After your first webinar, it’s a good time to also survey your registrants what next topic they’re interested in. This will help you plan and build a consistent schedule for your webinars. The content will come from your prospects — make sure you keep those ears open and listen! Once you understand your business needs, you can survey and research topics to help you select what’s best. At this point, you should have a list of potential topics or pain points to choose from. Take a step back to review them, and see if any are missing that ought to be included.