Are you considering hosting your first webinar? If so, you’re likely excited about the prospect of reaching a large audience and sharing your message with the world. But before you get too carried away, it’s important to take a step back and plan out your presentation. In this blog post, we’ll give you some practical advice to help make sure your first webinar is a success.
As a solo practitioner or entrepreneur, you want to be able to grow your practice so it can sustain itself. One of the best ways of doing this is through seminars and webinars, where you can establish your credibility and expertise in your field and connect with your ideal clients. In my fitness training business, the only marketing tactic that consistently brought in new clients was public speaking.
This isn’t just some theory I came up with. This is practical advice from years of doing public speaking, webinars, and seminars. So whether it’s your first webinar, your second, or your third, you should always be striving to get better. There are certain things you need to be doing to make sure you’re absolutely ROCKIN’ your webinars.
1. Make sure you’re not doing it on the fly.
If you don’t have your scripting all set up in terms of what you want to say and when you want to say it, then it’s not going to go over very well.
You want to make sure you are on track with your scripting so people will take the next step. It might be a phone conversation with you or purchasing your program right off the webinar. Don’t do it on the fly and just make up something as you go. Make sure you have an outline and you know exactly what you’re going to say.
2. A picture is worth a thousand words.
Something I see all the time that makes no sense to me is speakers using slides with words, and lots of it! It’s almost like death by PowerPoint.
You want to have a picture, not just a bunch of words. Remember, a picture is worth a thousand words. So why not have a good image of what you want to get across to your audience?
Look at it this way: With all the words they need to read WHILE you are talking, their attention will be over the place. People often read the text as if it were speech and listen for the meaning behind each word. The problem with this approach is that you can miss important clues by focusing on what’s being said without also noting where these statements are coming from.
You surely want them to be listening to you while they’re looking at an image and getting this image in their head without having to read a lot of text.
3. Test your video and audio.
Make it a point that you have good video and audio. Test them out.
If you have not tested the technology is working, whether with someone or by yourself, then you are going to get nervous if something goes wrong. You should always be prepared for the possibility of things going wrong.
- What if the audio goes out?
- What if something happens while I am recording and the video stops working?
- What if the PowerPoint presentation is the wrong one?
You get yourself in a situation like this and most likely, you’ll get a mini panic attack. Make sure you’ve practiced enough for when situations like these aren’t going to throw you, that you know how to correct the error.
The more prepared you are, the better it’s going to be.
Webinars are a great way to connect with others, but not if you can’t hear what the presenter has been saying. It’s frustrating and embarrassing for everyone involved. It’s just plain awkward. To make matters worse, you see all these people drop off the webinar because now they’ve maybe lost interest or attention considering the presenter can’t seem to have it all together.
4. Tell a story.
Tell a story for your first webinar. Whether it’s your own story (absolutely recommended) or another’s. Start working on your personal story, then integrate it into your webinar so people get to know, like, and trust you a lot better.
Client testimonial stories work too. They’re a great way to highlight your company’s successes and build customer confidence.
When potential customers see other clients have had success with your product or service, it builds confidence that your company can provide them with what they need. Testimonial stories are an excellent way to showcase this type of third-party validation.
You want to make sure you are relating your story of how people have been helped by the results of what YOU do.
Webinars are a great way to build trust and authority with your audience. They also provide an opportunity for you to get up close and personal with potential customers. But if you want them to be effective, they need to be well-planned and executed flawlessly. By following the tips we’ve shared in this post, you can ensure that your webinar is successful both in terms of engaging your audience and generating leads or sales. Are you ready to host your first webinar? If so, contact us today and we’ll help make sure it goes off without a hitch!
Are you feeling inspired to host your webinar? Plan and get personalized tips. Schedule an impact call today! We can chat about your specific goals and help put together a plan that takes advantage of everything webinars have to offer.
