How to create an engaging webinar

Hands up who’s attended a webinar during lockdown? For many of us they have become a staple feature of the working from home set up.  

It’s no wonder webinars are booming in popularity – with physical face-to-face interactions on pause, they keep industries connected, communicating and, all importantly, doing business.  

But when there are so many webinars to choose from, how do you make yours stand out?  

Why a webinar and what for? 

Lockdown or not, “let’s do a webinar” is not the solution to every marketing issue. What value does your webinar hold and what are you looking to achieve by doing it? 

Think of your audience – why would they want to watch it? Attending an hour-long webinar is a large commitment within people’s business days, so the content needs to appeal and be engaging enough to keep them watching. Done properly, webinars can be a great networking and lead generation tool.  

A good webinar should inspire its viewers and leave them feeling informed and thoughtful. It is the starting point to encourage an action – stimulating further thinking upon the topic, applying the knowledge gained, sharing of the content and encouraging a conversation with a colleague, connection or the person who has delivered the webinar. 

Consider your topic 

The following topics can be delivered well in a webinar format:  

• Sharing expertise, presented as a training exercise or ‘how to’ 
• Opinion and discussion-based topics 
• Discussing a new trend or way of working  
• Thought-leadership 

Webinars are often not the right platform for product launches, sales pitches or if it’s something that is regularly debated and they will have heard before. 

Webinars need to deliver on what they promise – attendees will soon switch off if it’s not what they were expecting and that can be damaging to a brand or individual’s reputation.  

Work on your format 

Slide-based or panel?  

Before launching into creating a beautifully presented slide deck, consider if that’s the right way to go. Slide-based webinars work best when delivered by one or maybe two presenters if they are colleagues. A panel webinar is better suited to discussion only, hosted and led by one key presenter.  

Choosing the right speakers 

Select speakers carefully – they should be leaders within their topic, able to present fluently and confidently, and knowledgeable to answer questions. It’s best if you have heard them speak previously. 

Creating your presentation 

Presentation content should be succinct and visually engaging, serving as a prompt for the presenter and an aide to expand on points they raise, not a script that is simply read out. A private script for the presenter/s to refer to is vital in keeping the webinar on topic and to time. 

Our recent Communicating in a Crisis webinar for tourism businesses in Kent and Hertfordshire used visual examples, strong imagery and infographics to show key stats. Consider how written content could be shown visually, these often become memorable assets. Don’t revert to inserting images and diagrams attendees will have seen time and time again. 

And what about after the webinar? You may wish to provide a ‘leave behind’. We created a toolkit resource to sit alongside our Visit Kent and Visit Hertfordshire webinar, so attendees could practically apply the knowledge they had acquired afterwards.  

View our Communicating in a Crisis webinar here.