Get tried and true advice from a top marketing company on how to host a webinar.

Throughout this past year, one of our initiatives has been to increase the number of training and tangible resources available to our valued clients. From success guides to e-books to webinars—we’ve created a comprehensive Resource Library of content.

While writing an email marketing guide requires hours of brainstorming, writing, and editing, the delivery—sharing it online—is relatively simple. However, a webinar’s success is based on its delivery and performance. Fortunately, hosting bimonthly webinars has required us to jump headfirst into the unknown, and to discover a few tips and tricks along the way.

Practice makes perfect

There’s no escaping the fact that a webinar is a speech. Just because you’re behind a computer screen doesn’t mean that you should be practicing any less. Hundreds of listeners tune in to our webinars, so being unprepared simply isn’t an option.

During the weeks leading up to the webinar, we schedule numerous dry runs. These practice sessions help the presenter understand the material and reveal what is working and what needs revising. It’s one thing to put together a slide and think about a point—it’s a different ballgame to talk through that point out loud.

The shorter, the better

We can’t stress this enough: during the hectic work week, no one has the time (or desire) to devote hours to a webinar. Aim to keep your full presentation, including questions, to under an hour. People signed up to learn, not to hear you ramble.

Another thing to keep in mind is that people only remember around 10% of what they hear a week later, but over 40% if they write it down. Try to structure your webinar to have specific action items that the listener will be able to document and implement.

Back to the sales basics

In sales, it’s not what you say but how you say it. The same is true for a webinar. It’s easy for a listener to lose interest if you aren’t pulling them into your presentation. Being passionate about what you’re teaching will lead to increased engagement. Your listeners want to be inspired to take action.

If you don’t feel passionate about the subject matter, you might not be familiar enough with the topic. Step back, and drill down even deeper to determine what you should be presenting. Your listeners will certainly appreciate it.

Press record

Thanks to webinar hosting platforms, you don’t have to be a video pro to record a webinar. We not only record our practice runs to help better prepare for the day, but we also record and then share with attendees the live presentation.

Your listeners will be thrilled when they receive an email containing the recording to reference its takeaways. They’ll also be pleased that they can share a recording with their coworkers. In addition, YouTube is the perfect platform to host the recording, and it can increase your engagement and help establish you as a thought leader.

Hosting a webinar doesn’t have to be a daunting task. In fact, with a little trial and error, it can position you as a subject matter expert and keep your pipeline full of leads.