How to host a Webinar

We hear a lot about webinars nowadays. They are, indeed, very useful in lead generation. Hosting a website can be very useful to your business in generating prospects and they are really simple to host. You do not need to be a rocket scientist to host a webinar.

To begin with, a webinar is "web-based seminar." It can be a lecture, a presentation, a workshop or an interactive meeting that is held on the Internet. During a webinar, the attendees watch live feed from their own computers via the Internet. There are many online services that simplify the process so that all you will need to do is plug in your microphone or hook up your Web camera and speak.

So here are 7 simple steps which help you host your first webinar

 1. Prepare for your webinar: To conduct a webinar you must have something worthwhile to share. So the first step is of course to choose a topic for your webinar. It could be the answers to the questions, you need to address your customers, or providing information/demo of a product or you can even invite an industry expert. You also need to choose a speaker and decide a date/time to broadcast your webinar according to your customer’s (attendees) time zone.

 2. Develop your content: Make your outline for your agenda. Prepare your video, slides and presentation notes, you want to use in webinar. Make sure to use a lot of images instead of bullet text to dazzle your attendees. Practice your presentation so that they gauge the right length for the time allotted. And make sure you allot time for Q&A session as well. You can also practice your webinar by using the practice setting on the webinar website.

 3. Choosing a webinar software package: Choose a service provider that works with a variety of operating systems (may be Windows or Mac or Linux), since you cannot be sure which type of operating system your attendees are using. Also, they must provide features like sharing, polling, chat and recording. GoToWebinar and Webex are two popular webinar programs.

 4. Promote your webinar: You cannot host a successful webinar, if you don’t have a sufficient number of attendees. To promote your webinar, you use use social media like Facebook, Twitter etc. You can also send email to your email list or promote it on your website or blog. There are a number of free sites that let you list webinars, like webinarlistings.com and webinarhero.com

 5. Remind your Audience : Some webinar companies allow you to set up reminders that will be sent to you and the participants at different intervals before the webinar date. This is important since you do not want your customers to miss your webinar.

 6. Conduct your webinar: You can start your webinar when you are sure maximum number of your attendees are present. Consider your audience's knowledge of the subject, and share your information as you have planned. Also interact with your attendees, while some webinar programs offer the option for the audience to dial into the conference using voice over internet (VOIP), Others offer real-time chat that you can read while conducting your seminar. Most importantly, if you're planning on recording your presentation, remember to hit that record button.

 7. Follow-up & Review: Send a follow-up e-mail to participants thanking them for their attendance. You can also send a “we missed you” email to registrants who did not attend. Also you can send the link to download your recorded webinar. All these sign-up emails are your prospects, nurture them and you can give them special consideration while promoting your next webinar.

Review all feedback gathered from the webinar. Learn from them to avoid mistakes (if you made any) and get new ideas for your next webinar from them.