Top 10 Tips for High Quality Webinars
Apr 6th, 2010 by David Svet
Webinars are now a publishing mainstay. There are plenty of top 10 lists on the mechanics of hosting a webinar. This post isn’t about the mechanics it’s about quality. Why quality? Because supply and demand have long since caught up with the ubiquity of webinars and now we have choices. There are enough high quality webinars available that the bar is set very high. Producing a webinar with low production values will result in far more harm than good. Most attendees won’t stick around past your first faux pas and once they are gone they aren’t coming back. If you hope to build a following in this crowded space you may wish to consider the following:
Do
Be prepared — While no one is sitting in front of you, remember that you are talking to hundreds or thousands of people. It’s worth taking the time to rehearse your presentation. You need to know the material well enough that your delivery is second nature.
Be valuable — Everyone in attendance chose to attend because they have an interest in the content that you promised to deliver. This is a time to under promise and over deliver. You’re far better off having a small band of advocates singing your praises across social media space than having a large crowd of silent colleagues, or worse.
Be smart — There should be several ah-hah moments in your presentation. Webinar value is largely measured by the amount of learning that takes place. If you don’t have anything important to say, don’t have a webinar.
Be entertaining — Prepared, valuable and smart are requirements. Entertainment value keeps them tuned in to your presentation. This is a time for a professionally prepared presentation that has all of the texture, timing and attention to detail to keep attendees riveted to their screens. It’s also a time to use your very best voice talent. A dynamic delivery beats death by Power Point.
Be respectful — Irascible wit is great as long as it’s understood in the correct context. Since you’re meeting most attendees for the first time it’s best to let them get to know your wild side in small doses. It’s also no time to introduce the intern. Your attendees’ time is too important to relegate your webinar to anyone but the A team on their best behavior.
Be intimate — While it’s important to be respectful, it’s also important to be intimate. You are usually addressing the attendees one on one at their desk. Stammering and repeatedly saying uh aren’t something you would do in a one on one conversation. While this is in part being prepared, I think it’s very helpful to speak in a manner that’s conversational and individual. It helps to build rapport.
There are also a few things that you should avoid at all cost.
Don’t
Sell — Nobody registered to give up his or her time to listen to your sales presentation. If you want to give sales presentations, and you should, then do so in an honest manner.
Bait & Switch — A product demo can’t be conveniently tacked onto the first 20 minutes of your webinar either. It’s still a sales presentation. If you want to provide product demos, and again you should, then invite prospects to a product demo. Don’t try to trick people into attending a webinar. They will leave and hate you.
Talk down — While it’s important to be smart and present great, important content, it’s no time to let your ego take the stage. You invited people to learn from you. Be a great host and make sure everyone gets what they want.
Be obtuse — This is a little different than talking down. Sometimes corporate cultures develop an internal language. Rehearsal in front of a foreign audience is a great way to figure out if you are speaking in code.
Be experimental — This is no time to try out a new slide, new joke, or new anything. This is no time to ad lib. Even in the face of total technological breakdown, you need to have plan B ready, rehearsed and deployable. If your best presenter is a shoot from the hip kind of guy, keep him away from your webinar.
I’m sure there is more, but these are some of the errors that come to mind from a lot of the webinars that I’ve seen recently. How about you? What have you walked away from as of late?
Image: http://www.flickr.com/photos/trialsanderrors/ / CC BY 2.0
Very interesting article, great tips! Most important is to be prepared, show value, and most of all be entertaining., maintain the audiences interest on what you’re saying.
Those would be my top 3 choices as well. Mastering those 3 will make it worth everyone’s time to come to the next one or take a call about a product demo.
Nice list, David. Good things to keep in mind. My pet peeve would be this. If you’re going to cut the Q&A short because you have a hard deadline, and answer too few questions, then PLEASE don’t brag up front about how meaningful and wonderful the Q&A will be. It just rubs salt in the wound. #2 would be, why have a hard stop? Why not answer all the worthy questions? #3, don’t pretend you’ll post great answers to the unanswered Q’s on your web site or blog if you’re really just going to slap something quick up with replies like “yep,” “nope” and “interesting question.” All of the above are over-promising and under-delivering. Do the opposite. Lastly, keep the canned commercials for the speakers short. I really don’t care if they went to Cowabunga State to get an undergrad degree in medieval history.
Thanks Steve. You make some really great points about delivering a quality product meeting everyone’s expectations. The fact that you may never see most of the attendees face to face is no excuse for shirking on the deliverables. Make everyone happy and they’ll shout about it. Speaking of making everyone happy, I sure hope we don’t incur the wrath of the Cowabunga State Alumni Association. ;P
Great tips Dave! I’ve been toying with the idea of doing webinars and had backed off after attending several bad ones. Knowledge and entertainment are key - I also like some degree of interaction and ability to contribute.
Thanks for the inspiration!