Your Audience Wants These 3 Things From Your Next Webinar

Your Audience Wants These 3 Things From Your Next Webinar

Online webinars are an amazing bit of technology that have made doing business a completely different ball game when compared to business strategies in the past. With the invention of the speaker phone in the 1950s, conference calls started to become a popular way of holding meetings when not all parties could be in the same room, but that only took businesses so far.

Now, with the invention of the internet and everyone having a computer with them virtually wherever they go, we have what is known as the virtual event. With a virtual event like an online webinar, you can have the next best thing to having a presentation live in the room. The virtual event market has been growing steadily and should reach $14 billion in 2018. That growth is then expected to increase to $18 billion by 2023.

If you are presenting an online event, you very well might be presenting to anyone, anywhere in the world. This is brilliant for the potential impact of your message, but what about the actual impact of that message? Will it be engaging enough? Will the people who attend your webinars get out of them what you put into them?

First of all, give yourself and your audience enough time to know when your virtual event will be. Three weeks of promotional time should be just about right. Prepare well, but also be aware of your audience. As is the case in any classroom, a great teacher will be aware of what the students are expecting to learn.

Here are three things you might want to consider the next time you prepare a webinar for your audience. If you make sure you are doing these three things, you can rest assured you will be successful.

1.) Make sure your audience feels like they are getting something they haven’t see and heard before.

When people show up for a webinar or any other kind of virtual event, they have taken time out of their day because they are hoping it will be valuable. Are you giving your audience something new or just regurgitating old material they have likely already been exposed to? Share new experiences and provide new tips to do whatever it is they need to do more quickly and efficiently.

2.) Make sure your presentation is engaging and compelling.

The virtual event platform allows you the ability to present your material in a variety of ways. Which ways do you think would be most compelling? Don’t always go for the obvious choice. Make your presentations engaging and compelling with more than just simple slides and dry narration.

3.) Make sure your folks can ask questions and see it again.

One of the biggest mistakes presenters make is assuming they are the only ones that should be talking throughout the event. There is a time for presentation mode, of course, but with the technology available, getting the audience involved in at least a QandA session will help them feel valued and that they are having their needs met. Sometimes, direct input from your audience might be necessary. You never know just when that one person’s input could change everything.

Also, make sure you are doing what 94% of webinar hosts are doing: recording the event for later. Many people have to leave early or can’t make it the first time around. Recording the event for later allows you to reach a larger crowd in the end.