Webinars are a powerful marketing and training tool but there are some key things you should know before undertaking such an event. Here are some three tips that will help you organise and plan your first webinar.
- Preparation
- Privacy
- Practice
Preparation
The first tip is about preparation. If you are running a webinar, you should prepare you presentation in advance and make sure your presentation message matches the needs of your audience. For example, there is no point giving technical information if your audience is not technical and just wants to understand the big picture of your message.
Be prepared by making sure you have set the right date for webinar. You should set your alarm to prewarn you that the the webinar will be starting shortly. Its amazing how many times you can caught up in the day to day stuff and lose track of the time. There is nothing worse than leaving your audience waiting.
Conversely, add in a time zone converter when people are invited to register for the event so that people in different time zones can easily work out when the webinar is scheduled. This will help increase the participation rate of your webinar.
You can also be prepared by making sure your laptop battery is fully charged and you have enough bandwith on your Internet connection to successfully run the webinar without interruption.
Privacy
Make sure you use two monitors during the webinar so you don’t display any information that you might want to keep private such as password lists, personal information and any websites you are working on that you may want to keep private.
You can use one screen to log into personal accounts and then drag that screen to the other monitor once you are logged in and demonstrate what you are doing to your audience. Having two screens also means that you will be able to make sure that your webinar is actually working and you can watch it in action.
The other area related to privacy is to ensure you clear your browser history if you are demonstrating something on in the Internet. The main reason for this is that you could have been working on a client or your own website and you may want to keep this detail private for commercial reasons such as avoiding people copying your work.
In addition to clearing your browser and using two screens, you should also make sure you hang up properly after the webinar. It is amazing how many people hang on to the end of the webinar and if you do not hang up properly, then there is a risk that you may say something after the event that you will regret.
Practice
Make sure you have reviewed all your notes and practiced your presentation. Webinars are strange in that it feels like you are talking to yourself and that nobody is there listening to you. This can be a strange feeling to overcome so practice talking to yourself and do the presentation before hand to prevent any last minute nerves.
If you make a few mistakes, don’t worry. Remember that even the most experienced have stuff ups but if you know some of the traps, you may be able to take some steps to avoid it.
James Schramko a successful Internet Marketer who runs weekly webinars has even more useful tips on how to run a webinar.
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