nars: An overview with many examples

Online gathering is a popular way for people to connect with one another, regardless of their geographical location.

This is true regardless of whether you are chatting in Slack or with your coworkers.

The shift to online events was accelerated by the pandemic. They are still very common and they continue to be strong.

A webinar is a particularly relevant online event for marketers and brands.

What is a webinar? How can you host a webinar? What are some examples of successful webinars? This guide will provide all the information you need.

What is a webinar?

A webinar is an online seminar. (Web + seminar = webinar.)

You probably picture many speakers giving industry news, innovations and education to a live audience at an in-person seminar.

A webinar is essentially the same thing, but it’s all done online simultaneously.

• From the comfort of their homes, the audience can watch live speakers and presentations on a specific topic or theme.
• The audience can interact with the presenter via interactive elements such as polls or surveys, and they can ask questions during and after the presentations.
• Brands record webinars and offer replays to people who can’t make it live.

Hosting a webinar is a great idea.

There are many reasons webinars should be part of your brand’s repertoire. If done right, webinars can bring you all these benefits.

• Build trust with your audience Webinars are a great way to share your expertise and build trust by having direct interactions with your audience.
• Attract new prospects: Webinars are an attractive option for many people. With a little promotion, potential leads will find your webinar, sign up, and then be referred to you.
• Build buzz around your brand – Online events such as webinars are great at creating buzz and talk about the host: your brand.
• Showcase your products/services Webinars are a great way to show how your products/services can be used to engage an audience.
• Increase conversions – Demonstrating your knowledge and trust through webinars can help you convert more leads into customers.

A well-produced, well-written webinar can help you bring the right buyers to your virtual door.

• According to DemandGen’s Content Preferences Survey, webinars are the most preferred type content for professionals in B2B.
• According to a BrightTALK survey, 91% prefer webinars to articles, whitepapers and blog posts.
• Webinars can be a great way to promote brands in all verticals, including financial services, consulting and SaaS.

Here are some best practices for hosting and putting together a webinar

These best practices will help you host a webinar, or add a monthly or weekly webinar to your content.

1. Make sure you use the right webinar technology

Without software, it’s impossible to run a smooth webinar.

There are many great webinar platforms that offer the right features at a reasonable price.

You’ll need to think about your budget and how many people you would like to host the event. Also consider recording options (for later repurposing webinar content) and interactive options (such as polls and live surveys during presentations).

Here are some options for webinar software to get you started:

• Zoom – Everyone’s favorite meeting software can host larger webinars. It offers tracking and reporting, CRM integration and interactive features such as chatting and reactions.
• GoToWebinar – This option offers a wide range of tools for planning, designing, presenting and analysing your webinar.
• eWebinar is the best option if you want to host an evergreen webinar that can be accessed on-demand, but still contains live/interactive elements.

2. Select a topic

It is a smart idea to choose one topic that will be the focus of your webinar. This helps keep your event focused and makes it clear to attendees.

A webinar that is only one-speaker should be chosen. Avoid broad topics such as “personal finance planning” and “search engine optimization”

These topics are too vast to be covered in one hour. Instead, pick a deeper topic such as “financial planning and new parents” or “SEO/your site content.”

You may want to include multiple speakers, presentations or sessions at your event. Each session should explore different aspects of the main topic.

Consider the importance of your topic to your target audience. What information would they be interested in? What information would they need?

Topic research can be used to answer these questions. This includes polling your audience via social media and checking out the topics that your competitors are covering in their content. You could also do keyword research on a topic, which will show you how many people are searching it up.

Consider how you can make the topic interactive and interesting. People who attend webinars don’t want boring lectures but want to learn, ultimately.

3. Pick a presenter or speaker (or a group of speakers)

The success of your webinar depends on the choice of the right presenter.

A presenter who is credible on the topic will be comfortable speaking in front people. You can choose from within your company or outside.

You could invite an industry expert or influencer to speak on the topic.

For webinars, it is sometimes more beneficial to invite multiple experts. A team within the company might present together, or experts from different brands could meet virtually to discuss.

4. Choose a format that makes sense

Your webinar format options are endless. You can choose the best format for your topic and how many speakers you want to use.

These are the most popular formats:

• Product demo – Show your audience how a product works, or how to accomplish a task using a product.
• Q&A – Host a question-and-answer session in which the audience can ask an expert or a group of experts questions about a particular topic.
• One presenter A single expert who presents information, research and insights on a particular topic. This could be a tutorial, or a “how to” topic.
• Multiple presenters – This is the same concept of a single presenter webinar but two or more experts share the “stage”. They present information.
• Interview A host interviews a guest speaker on a particular topic. A Q&A session with the expert may follow.
• Panel – A discussion group consisting of experts on a particular topic.
• Case study – This conglomeration of interviews and single presenter webinars is called the “case study”. Interview the client by presenting a case study about a client’s success with your brand.

5. Make a compelling presentation

Webinars offer a great opportunity to be creative in how you present and display information to your viewers.

• Slides – Creating a slide deck that can be shown alongside the presenters is a great way to keep them interested and engaged. This is especially true if slides are creative, entertaining, or useful in understanding the topic. You can also download the slides deck from some brands after the webinar.
• Video – Short videos or animations can be a great way to highlight key points. You can look beyond your industry to relate your topic with pop culture, music and TV characters.
• Screenshare – Demonstrating some software? How to teach attendees how to use a computer for completing a task? You can share your screen live.
• Demo – To demo products, point your camera at the product to show it in action.

6. Take your time and prepare

When it comes to webinars, there are many moving parts. Software and tech, budget and presenters are all important considerations. Slide decks, branding, promotion, and other factors will also be important.

You’ll likely have many hands involved so it’s important to allow everyone enough time to complete their tasks.

3 to 6 weeks are required by organizers of small webinar events in order to promote their event. Large webinar organizers reported a need for more than six weeks.

These timelines are important to remember when you plan and schedule the webinar. You and your team need enough time to accomplish the task.

7. Promote your webinar

Without promotion, nobody will hear about your webinar. Spread the word via social media and on your website. Your subscribers can be notified via email about the event and invited to sign up.

All of these promotions should tell your audience the value of attending your webinar, and how it will solve a specific problem or question.

• Social media – Create a post across all channels about your webinar, including the topic and presenters, as well as when, where, and how to register/attend. This post should be shared frequently in the weeks leading to the webinar.
• Website – Create a landing page for registration on your website where people can register. Also, create a blog post sharing details about the webinar. In your blog post, and on social media, link to the landing page.
• Emails – Send emails to your subscribers letting them know about the webinar, and reminding them to register. Include a link to your registration landing page.

8. Practice your presentation and make sure you test your equipment/tech

A Markletic survey found that most attendees to virtual events report poor connections and audio as their biggest complaints. This is closely followed by bad cameras and messy backgrounds.

Annoyances such as these can make it less likely your attendees will stay or gain any value from your webinar.

How can you plan for equipment failures or flubs? Practice.

Do a practice run-through of the webinar with all participants a few days before it takes place. Test equipment. Test audio. Check connections. Verify your background.

It’s a great opportunity to practice your presentations and iron out any kinks. This will ensure that your speakers are ready, the slides are clear, and everyone knows what to do when it goes live.

Here are 5 examples of companies that do webinars in the right way

These brands have successfully used webinars to increase brand awareness, nurture audiences, increase conversions and attract new customers.

Notion

Notion, a SaaS company, hosts weekly webinars centered around their product – a workspace/docs/spreadsheet/page-builder hybrid for teams, businesses, and individuals.

Each webinar focuses on Notion’s capabilitiess, and the latest updates from its developers. Many share demos and tutorials about Notion for various use cases.

All past webinars of Notion are also available for download after the live presentation. Simply sign up to access them. You can find all of them on a page dedicated to their website.

ELB Learning

ELB Learning provides tools for online learning that are useful to instructional designers and course creators.

The webinars are hosted by experts from their team and focus on learning designer career and skill development.

U.S. Bank

U.S. Bank offers a complete library of webinars that fall under the umbrella personal finance management.

Topics for the webinar include “Protect yourself and your loved ones against elder fraud”, “Insider tips to student debt” and “Should I buy now or pay later?”

Reed Words

Reed Words, an U.K. copywriting agency conducted weekly webinars to explore topics that would help brands find and express their voice.

This session featured a panel of experts from their teams discussing building a brand voice. The audience was then able to ask questions.

Sephora

Sephora, the dominant makeup retailer in malls all over the world, hosts regular live webinars featuring influencers and brand ambassadors whose products can be purchased in-store.

Recently, for example, NARS’ regional director hosted a webinar showing customers how to use NARS products to create different makeup looks.

These webinars are not free. Instead, Sephora customers use their loyalty points (earned through making purchases) to register. Attendees also receive free gifts, such as deluxe samples or automatic giveaway entries.

Sephora’s webinars are like special events. Registration fills up quickly after events are posted.

Webinars can be dynamic and full of potential.

The technology has advanced to the point that online webinars or virtual events are just as valuable and engaging as those held in person.

Your webinar could be your best investment in content for the year if you plan it well, create it carefully, and promote it effectively.

Once you are proficient in hosting and producing webinars, you will be able to create them frequently to engage customers, increase conversions and build your brand authority online.

Don’t forget recording your live webinar to reuse the content later. Replays of webinars can be just as useful for nurturing leads. If you plan well, you can get more value from that content.

You should now have the basics of hosting your first webinar. Don’t panic. Get your team involved and start planning. This is what you’ve got.

Search Engine Land first published the post Webinars – A complete guide with examples.