It’s 2020, and many people have caught on to how effective webinars are in building an
engaged, motivated list of prospects to market to. But does that mean the market is saturated
and webinars are no longer as effective? It depends.
Webinars may not stand out just for their novelty anymore, and that means if you’re producing
middle-of-the-road webinars, you may not see the results you once might have. However, great
webinars can still produce great results.
Here are a few tips to help make sure your webinar stands head and shoulders above the rest.
Pick a topic your audience is dying to know about.
What questions do you get asked again and again? What are the hot topics in your industry that
you see discussed over and over on social media? What’s foremost on your customers’ minds?
Make a list of five or ten topic ideas based on what your audience is talking about. Then put out
a survey to people on your list to determine which topic they’d be most interested in. This is a
quick, easy and evidence-based way of picking a topic that will get attention.
Motivate your audience through emotion.
People are motivated by a lot of emotions: desire to succeed, desire to belong to an in-group, a
sense of shared values—even fear.
How can you leverage emotion in shaping the content and marketing of your webinar? And how
can you play on that emotion in writing the copy? Both will work in tandem to get people
clicking on your link and signing up for your event.
Think about your format.
These days, a talking-head-and-PowerPoint-presentation format rarely makes waves. It can still
work, if your platform is huge and your topic is extremely timely. But you may have to think
beyond it.
There are lots of other ways to produce your content. Think well-designed graphics, interactive
elements, a well-known co-host, or a live-panel Q&A. Think about your strengths as a presenter
and the resources you have.
The bottom line is that there are always many things competing for your audience’s attention
and it’s easy to lose them. Webinars that go beyond the bare-bones format have a better
chance at keeping the audience’s attention.
Time it right.
There have been may articles written about the best time to schedule a webinar. According to
GoToMeeting, the best day of the week is toward the middle: Tuesdays, Wednesdays and
Thursdays are preferred days. As for time, think early but not too early, like 11 AM.
Some of this will depend on your audience’s industry, time zone and other factors—there isn’t
really a one-size-fits-all answer. It may take some analytics on your part to determine the best
time for your audience.
Webinars are still one of the most effective methods out there for building a brand and
engaging an audience. Make sure your topic is high interest, leverage emotions in your
marketing, choose a format to hold people’s attention and stack the decks in your favor by
scheduling at the optimal time. If you can do all these things, your webinar will be more likely
to succeed.
