If you’ve read my previous posts before you know how much I advocate developing content that solves people’s problems for successful inbound marketing – lots of content. Webinars are great pieces of content because they not only solve people’s problems in real-time, but they can easily be repurposed and used as video assets on your website. People can also ask real-time questions and get immediate feedback.
If you’re going to produce webinars I recommend doing them monthly at a minimum. If you can swing it try to do two or more per month. This isn’t as difficult as it sounds. You can easily repurpose most presentations to focus on various prudent verticals. Your decision to do so will depend on your ability to promote to those verticals however.
Your presentation is the core of the webinar. No one wants to listen to a bunch of fluff. Take time when developing your presentation and make sure it is relevant, up-to-date, reliable, valuable and helpful. At the same time though, be careful not to make your presentation too advanced or simple. You want your presentation to be as meaningful to the greatest amount of people you can. The only exception is if you are targeting “advanced” or “beginner” prospects.
Don’t get too upset if a few guests lambast your presentation. I’ve done dozens of presentations and webinars and for most I’ve left questionnaires or emailed polls in order to solicit feedback. What I’ve found is that about 15% of guests will be of the “advanced” variety and 15% will be of the “beginner” variety. I rarely do webinars or presentations specifically for advanced guests, but have been known to do the “beginners” variety. When I do however, I make sure to promote it as such.
When giving a seminar or speech it is always a good idea to practice. That’s pretty obvious, but because you are using technology to broadcast your presentation practicing is not optional. You have to practice, because there are too many things that could go wrong. I also recommend that you have a moderator handle questions and always keep a cheat sheet next to your work station that explains some of the basics of the user interface you’re using for your webinar.
I don’t really have a preference as to which technology platform to use, but every webinar I’ve ever done with one exception was via GoToWebinar. You’ll definitely want to acquire a computer headset and make sure you do a complete dry run with “fake” guests and a moderator while the video record button is on. That way, you’ll know in advanced if there are any issues and you'll be able to watch your presentation on video.
I hope the above helps you in producing your webinars. Stay tuned for tomorrow's post where we'll look at ways to promote your webinar in order to maximize lead generation.
