There is more to a successful webinar than just a great presenter and his attentive audience. It all starts with careful planning, followed by proper execution to keep audiences engaged and interested, while providing value even after a scheduled presentation.
In order to maximize the possibilities of a successful webinar, you should be aware of and avoid these 10 common webinar mistakes:
(1) Not sending email notifications for your webinar
One way to achieve a successful, high-attendance webinar is by sending notification emails at least seven days prior. You can send one email a day starting at day one, then on the day of the webinar itself you can send a few notification emails. Others do it like a countdown to the event – sending an email per hour starting at five hours before the scheduled webinar, for example.
Don’t worry about annoying your attendees. In fact, most people want to be reminded because they have things to do. So, prepare those notification emails and schedule them accordingly to maximize on attendees.
(2) Not optimizing webinar landing pages
Integrating tools and features like social media buttons or links can help increase the audience reach of your webinars. People who see your landing page can instantly share it to a friend with a click of a mouse.
(3) Using a boring, generic webinar console
A bland, generic webinar console doesn’t do much for your brand and doesn’t keep audiences engaged even if you do have great content to present. Create a good-looking webinar console to establish your brand and improve interest and engagement of audiences.
(4) Not involving your audience in the conversation
Interactivity is more important today as it creates good relationships between businesses and customers. Webinars are no longer a one-way presentation as there are tools and features that let attendees communicate and participate. You can use polls, surveys, Q&A, and social media to involve your audience.
(5) Torturing your audience with endless amount of texts
Slide presentations with endless amount of texts will turn off your audience. It’s much better to use compelling texts coupled with great storytelling to keep audiences engaged.
(6) Selling your product or service
A webinar is an event where people come and learn about information they need in order to help them make business decisions. Keep your audience interested by providing a good presentation that’s chock-full of valuable information. Avoid making pitches about the product or service you’re selling.
(7) Poor audio quality
Make sure to test your audio equipment several times within the week of your presentation and a few hours prior. You don’t want your audience to leave in the middle of your presentation.
(8) Disregarding your audience’s time
The length of your webinars will have a direct impact on your audience’s schedules. Making sure that you have great content doesn’t equate to a full hour presentation. If you can present it in less than thirty minutes, then do so. Stick with your schedule as well. A one hour webinar should stop when one hour is over.
(9) Not having an on-demand webinar strategy
Having an on-demand webinar doesn’t diminish the value of the initial webinar. It can be a very valuable lead generation tool once you archive the event and make it available for more viewers to learn from.
(10) Not focusing on better leads and opportunities
While it’s easier to treat leads from your webinar equally, it doesn’t really help in terms of identifying the best opportunities. Use basic criteria in scoring leads to help you find the low-hanging fruits. Maximize on webinar interactivity to enhance the quality your lead score.
Avoid these mistakes and improve your webinar strategy to help your audience and to reap the benefits in the long run.