Sick of delivering the same old webinars? Here are a few tips to spice things up and keep your audience engaged.
1. Pick a “Sticky” Topic
What’s a topic that gets your audience riled up?
Next time you run a webinar, pick a topic that people in your community are passionate about. A topic that incites passion will attract more sign-ups, ensure more people who sign up actually participate and may attract outside media coverage as well.
Some ideas include topics that provide specific solutions to problems that your audience struggles with, or trade secrets that will produce a result that a lot of people in your audience want.
2. Build Excitement In From the First
One way to capture people’s attention is to surprise them.
Some ideas include starting off with a statistic that shocks people, or by challenging a misconception that most people in your audience have. Don’t be afraid to go against accepted norms here; the aim is to challenge complacency.
If you can set the tone by surprising your audience right at the beginning, you’ll have an easier time holding their attention throughout the presentation.
3. Use Engaging Visuals
You can hold people’s attention by focusing on your visual slides. If you’re used to using black text on a white background—or maybe changing up your text color for variety—this may be a welcome change.
This time, stay away from bulleted lists. Instead, use high-quality images that illustrate the point you’re getting across. Incorporate video and animation. Stay away from bullets that just repeat what you’re saying; instead use them to emphasize your message.
4. Make It Interactive
There are lots of ways you can draw your audience in and make them feel involved in your presentation. Real-time polls and surveys are a great way to do this—you can ask for people’s feedback at the beginning, and then use the responses to highlight part of your presentation towards the end.
Other types of interactivity are possible here too. Involve your audience by picking someone’s work to critique during the presentation; answer live questions; or ask questions of your audience in turn.
5. Encourage the Conversation on Social Media
People are easy to distract when they’re attending a webinar—and one place they might be toggling between while at your webinar is social media. So why not use it to your advantage?
Offer specific hashtags they can use when discussing your webinar on social media—and encourage them to post and continue the conversation, even while you’re delivering the webinar.
This will build conversation and interest, and hopefully attract an even larger audience next time.
It’s not always easy to keep producing fun, engaging webinar content time after time—but with a little imagination, it’s definitely possible to shake things up. Try a few of these strategies next time, and hopefully you’ll see a rise in the quality of your webinars.
