Running a webinar is a tricky job. You are alone on your computer and connected to other people from distant areas through the medium of the internet. You are deprived of the advantages of a live seminar as you are unable to read the body language of your participants and there is no means to know if you have established the desired connection with your audience and whether they are paying attention to your words and engaging in the preferred actions. Hence, we have compiled these 10 proven tips to make your webinar more engaging and catch and retain the attention of your audience.
1. Pre-announce Date and Topic for the Webinar
You can start creating excitement around your webinar by pre-announcing the date and broadcasting the topic on various social media platforms. You could share all the key highlights of the session and even give certain motivation to participate by including certificates or gifts.
At the time of advertisement about your webinar, you can encourage the would-be participants to ask you content-related questions and share with you at a certain platform or email id. You can award the best questions during your session and answer the most popular ones. This would motivate more people to join in the webinar and stay engaged.
2. Pre-Tech Check Prior to Webinar
It is essential to do a pre-tech check prior to your webinar to rule out any glitches at the run time. Log in to the webinar at least 15 minutes before the scheduled start to setup the process. Go to the webinar platform and open the slide deck to ensure that everything is in a working condition. Now wait for the audience to join in and greet them with a soothing music in the background.
3. Keep the Waiting Time Interesting
Make sure that the audience is engaged and interested even in the waiting time. As people start tuning into the webinar, welcome them and if the audience is small, introduce them to one another. You can also single out any special audience and introduce him/her to everyone. Keep a tab on number of joiners and fill the silence through regular comments.
For example, you can say “Right now we have X number of people connected to the webinar. Let’s wait a couple of minutes for the other members to join us and then we can kick start the session.” Once, everyone has joined, greet the audience again and thank them for their time. You can help them jump right into the midst of action by designing an icebreaker poll.
4. Have More Than One Speaker
Having two or more speakers help to hold the attention of the participants and makes the webinar engaging. The delivery exchange between the speakers adds to the freshness of the content and saves it from monotony. Two or more speakers give breathing room to the other speaker(s) and aids in bringing in new perspectives in the dialogue.
5. Make a Study of Your Audience
You can build up an engaging webinar by doing a prior study of your audience. You can find out the expectations and background of the participants so that you can deliver relevant content. You can find out about your audience by doing few polls and setting up different question types such as multiple choice, open text, and rating. For example, you can ask questions like the company where they work, the main goal in attending a webinar, experience with certain product or software, etc.
6. Deliver the Content as per the Audience’s Choice
You can take your webinar a step further by delivering the content as per your audience’s choice. Ask your audience what they want to hear (through poll or vote) and design the webinar accordingly. This way you would target the session according to your audience’s needs and get maximum attention and engagement from them.
For example, at the beginning of the webinar give the choice to your audience to choose any one topic from a selection of three which they want to know more about. Once, the audience has voted a particular topic, you can pick it up for the live session. The only thing is you have to work on all the three topics in advance and be prepared to talk on a single topic in a live session.
7. Divide Your Content into Smaller Sizes
Share a brief agenda of the webinar with your audience before starting the main part. This could be presented as a summary on your opening slide. The structure should be simple so that it is remembered for a longer duration. For example, you could apply the rule of three and break up the content in three equal parts.
Another way to attract attention is to have minimalistic slides. For example, in each slide try to have just a single number, one quote, or a solitary idea to deliver digestible information that do not direct the focus away from your spoken words and onto the written content. Also, don’t forget to regularly interact with your audience to keep them from diverting.
8. Continuously Engage the Participants
It is important to engage the webinar participants regularly to ensure their attention and prevent them from multitasking. Try to have an interactive session after every important content sharing to know their understanding and opinion of the topic. You can give certain challenge or task to activate people’s brains and enhance their perceptiveness. The simulation process allows the data to be digested in a superior manner. The challenge could be a small one and may take just 5 to 10 minutes of the session. You can engage the audience through rating system, multiple choice questions, or any other device.
You can also take an inspiration from the sports commenters and maintain a running commentary on the polls. Keep commenting on the real-time poll results as and when they come in, although maintain a silence when you open the text poll to allow the participants to think and type-in their answers.
9. Include Jokes and Humour
Everyone likes jokes and humour and they boost-up the moods of the listeners. Humour also enhances the atmosphere of the webinar and allow the attendees to relax. It is known to activate brainwork which results in greater productivity. Lastly, humour gives authenticity to your words and help you to better connect with the participants. Hence, by including humour in the session, you can match your wavelength with the attendees.
10. Quiz-up for Greater Attention
Engage your participants with a quiz and add fun to the webinar. The quiz could be hosted at the start of the session to act as an ice-breaker, or at the end to get a grasp of participant’s understanding. You can increase the fun factor by introducing prizes for the best answers.
You can start the quiz by providing a short explanation of the rules of participation. Once started, do a running commentary similar to a sports commentator (mentioned in an earlier point) to keep the audience engaged.
If your webinar is long and you anticipate a lot of questions, then you can also invite your associate or friend to monitor the queries and respond as and when they come in the chatbox.
11. Get Feedback
Close the session with a simple feedback survey to gain insight into the participants’ perceptions of the webinar. Keep the survey short and simple, so that the participants can fill it up with ease. The survey could be activated a couple of minutes before the end of the session. You can liven the atmosphere by playing music in the background
Two minutes before the end, activate the survey and ask your participants to give you their feedback. You can play music in the background so as to fill in the silence.
12. Call to Action
Wind up the webinar with a call to action. Provide different methods to the attendees by which they could maintain contact with you. Do not forget to share your email address and other details with them. Provide them the links to your social media accounts by which they can follow you for additional relevant information. You can also invite them to register for the upcoming webinar. If you have important sources which you think might benefit the participants such as a guide, ebook, blog post, or website, then share with them towards the closing of the session. You can also send these resources in the follow-up emails.