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Turn Your Live Event Into an On-Demand Webinar

Turn Your Live Event Into an On-Demand Webinar

You don’t need us to tell you that we live in a technology-driven world. Current technology is constantly evolving while every six months there seems to be some new gadget that everyone is using. So if this is a known fact, then why are marketers not taking advantage of the proven benefits of many technologies at hand?

Webinar technology has evolved immensely over the last ten years and is now a central driver for many business’ marketing strategy. There are dozens of webinar software companies out there in the marketplace that have made it extremely easy to add on-demand video to brands’ repertoire. When you consider the fact that all forms of video see higher engagement rates, coupled with consumers who are more concerned with educating themselves, the benefits reaped by marketers from using webinar technology can be immense.

Although this technology has been around for awhile, it can still be intimidating to host a webinar for the first time. This means it’s important to know how to promote and execute it so that the event will create a boom for your lead generation efforts.

Interact With Your Audience Before the Event

Just as you would promote the event itself, it is important to promote the separate offer of a streamed event to your audience. Although the content will be the same if your audience attends in person or watches it online, the offers themselves have difference benefits. If you are using a social media publishing schedule, it is easy to spread updates through all channels that remind your audience of your upcoming event. Increase updates as the date approaches and even encourage your presenters to promote these posts on their personal channels as well. Reaching target audiences and personal connections is a fool-proof way to promote engagement among your prospects.

Engaging your audience through a webinar dedicated hashtag or posting questions on social media before, during, and after the event creates a buzz around the webinar that can drive traffic to your website and create new leads.

Create an Engaging Slide Deck

Keeping your audience engaged for 30 minutes to an hour during your live event can be a difficult task. Therefore, it’s important to create a visually appealing presentation for viewers to be entertained by while absorbing the content that is being offered.

Watching someone talk to a camera for an extended period can put you to sleep and black paragraphs on white slides is boring. Create exciting visual content doesn’t have to be done in a professional database, you can simply use PowerPoint to keep your audience engaged during your webinar.

Perform a Thorough Test Before Going Live

Especially when running your first live webinar, it is important to test all aspects of using your webinar platform. Having a pre-webinar dry run allows your speakers to practice before doing it live and can iron out any kinks with sharing your screen or switching controls during your presentation. Even the most technologically savvy individual will run into difficulties during the simplest of tasks so it is better to catch any possible glitches in a practice run than experiencing them during the live event.

Create an Informative Landing Page

As stated earlier, consumers prefer to self-educate before making a decision. Therefore, it is important to inform potential leads of the value of your event.

Things to clearly outline on this page are as the who, what, when, where, and why of the event.

  • Who? Provide information about your presenters with brief bios and why they matter for the webinar you plan to hold
  • What? Explain what the webinar is about and some topics that will be covered. Bullet points are the best way to get your point across without giving too much information.
  • When? Provide a date and a time so that people can mark their calendars for the big event.
  • Where? Clearly explain how viewers can access the webinar. This is typically done through links that can be joined 30 minutes prior to the start time.

Why? Express the value of the event to those planning on joining. What will viewers take away from the webinar that they weren’t knowledgeable of before?

Thank You + Reminder Emails and Registration Confirmation

Just as you would do with any other landing page submission, a thank you email is important to ensure that attendees’ registration worked and it can also provide a reminder of the event itself. Including a calendar event within this email for attendees to input into their personal database can provide periodic reminders for your webinar.

A call-to-action to “Add this webinar to your calendar” included in your thank-you and follow-up emails is another option to ensure attendees keep this event on their mind.

Be Aware of Your Space

Live events are typically held in an auditorium or even a small meeting area. This environment is ideal for those attending the meeting but could pose problems for online viewers. Voice echoes and white noise could be picked up on the microphone and the lighting taken in through the recording device can create an unappealing look to your viewers.

This goes back to testing your event before going live and ensuring that the event you are holding is as engaging and appealing to viewers attending the event and those tuning in through a live link.

Although there may be quite a few things to consider when turning your live event into a webinar, there is a huge return on investment for those willing to take on this task. The best part about this platform is that your established social media accounts and email lists are able to support your event and engage your viewers and attendees. Using webinar technology to generate leads and push for more meaningful consumer engagement can be as easy as lights, camera, action.

For more in-depth information on how the webinar process works, this ultimate webinar checklist walks you through pre-webinar steps, tasks, and issues during the event, and follow-ups after the webinar to ensure value, organization, and success before, during, and after the event.

 

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