Complete Guide for How to Create a Webinar

#1

Select a topic

Before starting to create a webinar, you’ll need to brainstorm topics. Consider who your audience is, what you want to convey to them, and the kind of value you bring to the table.

Can you offer advice, educate, or motivate your audience in some way? Are you an expert on a specific topic in your field, or do you know others who can offer professional advice about your industry?

For example, if you own a gym, you might host a webinar focused on the latest health and fitness trends. If you’re a financial advisor, you could host a training course about investment strategies. And if you run an eco-friendly clothing boutique, you might host a workshop about green practices.

Whatever you do, avoid hosting a webinar for the sake of hosting a webinar. Give yourself time to develop a topic that will resonate with your audience.

#2

Choose your format

Now that you have your topic, the next step in figuring out how to build a webinar involves deciding on your format. Start by narrowing down the kind of presentation you want to give. For instance, you might decide to host a panel discussion with various guest speakers or lead a masterclass on your own. Other ideas include interviews, training courses, workshops, Q&A sessions, product demonstrations, and more.

#3

Round up a team

Once you determine your format, you can begin rounding up the key players who will help make your webinar a success, such as those who will help facilitate your event, assist you with the technical aspects, design your presentation, and speak during the webinar. Assign each person a role and be sure they understand their responsibilities.

#4

Decide when to host your webinar

It’s important to select a time that’s most convenient for your audience members to attend, especially if you have attendees in different time zones.

According to a recent case study, the best times to host a webinar are Wednesdays and Thursdays, as people are usually most available and eager to join in the middle of the week. As for timing, it’s recommended to host between 10 a.m. and 11 a.m. or 1 p.m. and 2 p.m.— skipping noon as that tends to be lunch hour.

#5

Pick a webinar platform

As you start nailing down the details regarding your webinar, you can select which webinar platform you’ll use to create your webinar from scratch.

Some of the best webinar tools include:

• Zoom
• ClickMeeting
• GoToWebinar
• Demio
• Livestorm
• WebinarJam

Look through webinar examples on each platform until you find one that best aligns with your vision. Also, explore other factors like ease of use, pricing, and special features.

#6

Design your webinar

Now that you’ve selected a webinar platform, you can begin focusing on actually building your webinar. This means determining the flow of your presentation, creating slides, including images or videos, and writing your script.

When navigating how to host a webinar, it helps to begin with an introduction with some background information and a summary of what you’ll present.

Then, you can dive into your material, whether interviewing a guest, showcasing a new product, or discussing a niche topic.

As for your conclusion, many webinar hosts open up the floor for questions or comments from your attendees. You can have your moderator field questions through the live chat or call on audience members.

And finally, most webinars end with a call to action. For example, you might encourage your audience members to join a class, buy a product, or follow your small business on your social media channels.

#7

Practice and troubleshoot your presentation

Once you’ve followed the above steps, put it all into motion and begin practicing your presentation.

In addition to running through the material and focusing on your timing, you’ll want to troubleshoot any technical issues to ensure your presentation runs smoothly. This is a good time to figure out everything about setting up your webinar, from getting your camera ready to implementing moderation capabilities. Also, consider other factors, like whether you’ll want to mute your audience members, offer a live chat feature, or allow audience members to ask questions.

#8

Promote your webinar

With your webinar finalized, it’s time to get the word out about it. Depending on your platform, you may have the option to invite an unlimited number of guests, which means the more, the merrier!

You can use various strategies to promote your webinar, such as sharing the invite on your social media channels, sending an invitation via SMS texts, and including information about it in your newsletter, blog, and landing page. Just be sure to include all the essential details, such as the time, date, and information regarding where and how attendees can register.

For example, you could send an SMS invitation to your subscribers that says, “(Mac Media) Join our Social Media 101 Webinar starring our special guest, marketing guru Liz Ray, on June 15 at 11 a.m. Click the link to register.”

Once your guests register for your webinar, you’ll need to send them a link that provides them with access to your webinar when you go live.

#9

Follow up and request feedback

The work isn’t over just because you’ve finished hosting your webinar. To encourage customer engagement, follow up with your attendees after the event.

This offers a great way to receive feedback and get a temperature check on how your first webinar went. You could send your attendees a poll or questionnaire to help you gauge their interest and see if there are other topics they’d like to see discussed in future webinars. Moreover, you could even offer a special promo to show your gratitude.

For instance, after your webinar, send an SMS text to your attendees with the following message, “(Fitness Haven) Thank you for attending our webinar today! We’re offering you 20% off your next purchase to show our gratitude. Use promocode WEB20.”