Copyright 2008 AccuConference
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How to Plan, Setup, and Execute a Successful Webinar
Table of Contents
Introduction ................................................................................................................... 1
I. Plan a Successful Webinar ........................................................................................ 2
a. When should you use a webinar? ............................................................................. 3
b. Which type of webinar to use? ................................................................................. 4
i. Conference call .............................................................................................. 4
ii. Conference call w/web capabilities .................................................................. 5
iii. Video conference ........................................................................................... 7
c. Picking the day and time ......................................................................................... 8
d. How to get the word out ......................................................................................... 9
e. Webinar options ..................................................................................................... 11
i. External help or Do it yourself? ....................................................................... 11
ii. Lecture Mode ................................................................................................ 13
iii. Recording ..................................................................................................... 14
iv. Extras to make the webinar special ................................................................. 15
f. Other details to think about .................................................................................... 16
2.Setup a Successful Webinar .....................................................................................
a. Technical preparations ...........................................................................................
b. Meeting preparations ............................................................................................
c. Hosting preparations .............................................................................................
d. Testing, testing, testing ..........................................................................................
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3. Execute a Successful Webinar ................................................................................. 26
a. Last minute details ................................................................................................ 27
How to Plan, Setup, and Execute a Successful Webinar
b. What to do in the “Green Room” ..............................................................................
c. Beginning the webinar ...........................................................................................
i. Greetings and introductions ...........................................................................
ii. Agenda overview .........................................................................................
iii.Ice breakers .................................................................................................
d. During the webinar ................................................................................................
i. Time management .......................................................................................
ii. Maintaining audience attention ....................................................................
iii.Managing polls, chats, and Q&A ....................................................................
iv. Getting your message across .........................................................................
1. During conference calls .............................................................................
2. With web conferences ...............................................................................
3. Using video conferencing ...........................................................................
e. Concluding the webinar .........................................................................................
i. Wrapping up the webinar ..............................................................................
ii. Thanks and acknowledgments .......................................................................
iii. Using the end to make more beginnings .........................................................
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4. Going Beyond a Successful Webinar ........................................................................
a. Saving time and money ..........................................................................................
b. Better management through webinars ....................................................................
c. Increase sales ........................................................................................................
i. Webinar as a marketing tool ..........................................................................
ii. Generate leads .............................................................................................
iii. Converting leads to sales ...............................................................................
iv. Establishing rapport .....................................................................................
v. Generating referrals ......................................................................................
d. Taking business further ..........................................................................................
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Introduction
Meetings have been around for almost all of recorded human history.
The only things that have changed over the years are more options on
how to meet and, of course, what we talk about. Webinars are meetings
at their most basic, but it is how they let you meet that makes them
special. Webinars shine when the meeting participants are not in the
same country, state, city, or even in the same room. They allow you to
convey information almost as good – and in some cases better – than a
face-to-face meeting.
Technology has gotten us to the point that setting up and having a
webinar is easy and intuitive. However, there are many ways to improve
your meetings that go far beyond technology. In this eBook, we will take
an in depth look at the before, during, and after of a webinar, as well
as any tips that can improve the webinar experience for you or your
participants.
The purpose of all this is to provide you with an all encompassing guide
in the hopes that every webinar you host will be a successful one.
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1. Plan a Successful Webinar
Remember the 5 P’s: Prior Planning Prevents Poor Performance. This can
be especially true for webinars. Think about the amazing technology that
allows you to speak, look at, or share information with many people, in
real-time, at the same time. This technology has been designed to provide
a smooth, easy-to-use experience, but behind the simple clicks to start
a webinar, there’s a lot going on. Looking past the technology, you still
have basic meeting mechanics to prepare for. Remember that the more
planning you do beforehand, the smoother your webinar will run.
a. When should you use a webinar?
The reasons to use a webinar can be quite straightforward, such as
all your participants are in other states. Another great reason is to
save money. Think about it; how much travel cost could be saved by
a one hour webinar?
Webinars can open up communications between departments and
branches. If it is easy and convenient to get in touch with colleagues,
then more interaction will take place. A webinar is perfect for quick,
impromptu meetings, especially when there’s more information
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than is appropriate to put into an email. When a problem arises, it
is easy to get all of the necessary people into a call, so as to quickly
resolve the issue.
If you need to disseminate information to a large amount of people,
a webinar can make it a snap. You can have hundreds of people dial
into a conference call to hear you. You can have large video screens
setup in meeting rooms across the world with everyone seeing your
speech at the same time. What if you want to share or reuse your
presentation? You can record a webinar and let as many people as
you want call in to listen to it long after the meeting has been over.
b. Which type of webinar to use?
A webinar is not just a phone call with more than two people. It’s
also a video conference, a PowerPoint presentation, a record and
call-in event, desktop sharing, white boarding, instant polls, chats,
and/or instant messaging. You have many options to choose from,
so the task at hand is to pick the best form of a webinar to suit your
meeting.
i. Conference call
Conference calls are like a telephone call in that they are audioonly meetings. However, they go far beyond the phone – or even
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a three-way call – with their ability to connect between as many
people as you like. But there’s so much more. Conference calls can
be recorded. You can download the recording later for whatever
use you need, or make it available for playback for anyone who
missed the original conference.
You can imagine having so many people on one line would create
a wall of noise, but that is taken care of. Conference calls can be
put into a lecture mode where everyone but the speaker and
moderators are muted. If there are any questions, the participants
can hit a button on their phone to put themselves into a Q&A
queue. The participants get to ask their question one at a time
and your call is kept from a barrage of sound.
Some guidelines to choose a conference call for your meeting:
• Your meeting will have a lot of people.
• Some or all of your participants cannot get to a computer
• You need a quick, simple meeting.
ii. Conference call w/web capabilities
Nothing makes a meeting or presentation better than the use
of pictures or other graphics. Whether it is a graph, a map,
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someone’s picture, or whatever, the ability to integrate visual
aids is sometimes a must. Especially with a conference call, webbased materials can really add a lot.
The most common use of web capabilities is the PowerPoint
presentation. While you speak, your participants can easily follow
you by watching your PowerPoint flip by on their computers.
If you have ever used PowerPoint before, you know that you
can include pictures, graphs, bullet points, and other meeting
enhancements.
But you can do so much more. There may be a time when you
are trying to describe a website, but with a web-capable meeting,
you can simply bring your browser into view. Then everyone can
watch as you navigate your way to your point. You are not just
limited to your internet browser. You can share Microsoft Word
or Excel. You can even share your whole desktop if you’d like.
There are a few other enhancements that a web-capable
conference call offers, namely whiteboard collaborations. This is
a blank white page that everyone can type or draw upon. You can
also ask a question in poll form which includes answers for your
participants to choose from. This allows you to get input quickly
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on specific questions. For questions you may not have thought
about, take advantage of the chat system. On one side of the web
collaboration page is a list of participants and a chat window.
Here your people can ask questions and get answers without
disrupting the flow of your presentation.
Here are some reasons to include web capabilities in your
conference call:
• All of your participants have access to a computer
• You want to use a PowerPoint in your presentation
• You want to share Microsoft Office files
• You need to collaborate and would like to use a whiteboard
• You would like to handle questions with the Q&A queue
• Polling your participants would enhance your meeting
iii. Video conference
If you are interested in taking your conference calls to new heights,
you can’t go any higher – at the current level of technology – than
with a video conference. Adding video to your conference call
adds a new connection to your virtual meeting. You can see a
person’s body language, their mood, and general disposition. A
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video conference allows you to look your participants in the eye,
or have a presence in their meeting room.
During a video conference, your screen is filled up with the faces
of your participants. You can tell who is getting your message,
who might have a question, and who is sleeping. You are not
limited to just small groups of people for video conferences. For
larger groups, you may not be able to see everyone individually,
but they can all see you. Without doing anything, you can take
your presentation out of a virtual meeting room to a virtual
auditorium. You don’t have to stop there! You can reach even
more people if you have a projector or large screen TV at one or
more locations. Then you will only need one computer, but fill
the room with people watching your video self.
With video conferencing, you get all of the web conferencing
features included. So not only can you and your participants see
and speak with each other, you can also share and collaborate as
if in the same room.
c. Picking the day and time
Choosing when to have a virtual meeting is not too different from
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scheduling a face-to-face meeting. All of the same pros and cons are
there to consider, with the notable exception of travel time to and
from the meeting. If you plan on scheduling a regular meeting, some
general things to consider are:
•Unless the meeting is to orient your people for the week, avoid
Mondays; especially if you are meeting with clients.
•Avoid Friday meetings if you are looking for a high participant
turnout. Many people will be busy finishing up work for the week,
or leaving early.
•Webinars right after lunch can be tough on your participants.
They may be sluggish and less responsive than usual.
•Plan for meetings set right before lunch to always end on time.
There may also be a higher level of distracted participants as their
hunger grows.
d. How to get the word out
It’s one thing to hold a webinar, but if you want others to come
you have to let them know about it. A common method to invite
participants is email. While this is by far the easiest method, the
average person in inundated by emails throughout the day and there
is the possibility that your invite could get lost.
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To help avoid this from happening, keep the email short with a boldtype title in the subject bar and on the first line. Give them the basics:
who, what, when, why and leave it at that. Any other information
specific to the webinar should be added as an attachment. If you can
add an Outlook Calendar item to the email, this will not only help to
call attention to your email, but also facilitate getting the person to
join your webinar.
An interesting idea is to use party or event planning sites such as
evite. These sites help you create a custom invitation page with lists
of people who were invited, who accepted and who didn’t. It also
sends out invitation emails that stand out in an inbox.
Registration pages are an excellent idea to handle many participants,
especially if they are clients or potential customers. A registration
page is basically an internet form where people fill out their
information to receive the webinar dial-in number and conference
code. Of course you still have to email, phone, or advertise to get
people to go to the registration page. If you think a registration page
might work for you, keep these things in mind:
•A registration page can collect a lot of information in a short
amount of time.
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•The participants will be giving you contact and business
information in exchange for the webinar.
•Signing up for a webinar helps to facilitate the entry of your
participants when they join in.
e. Webinar options
A webinar could be something totally new to some participants.
The following options will not only set your meeting apart, but
give participants a memorable experience. Consider these options
as opportunities to make a statement through your meeting, while
making your participants feel valued and appreciated.
i.External help or Do It Yourself
A wonderful thing about webinars is that you can easily set
one up and run it by yourself at a moment’s notice. This can be
especially useful for impromptu, short, or informal meetings.
However, there can be times when a helping hand makes all the
difference.
When you first sign up to a webinar service, they will gladly talk
you through the features and give some pointers on how to have
a great experience every time. Even though the technical side of
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running a webinar isn’t difficult, especially if it is your first time,
you may want an operator to sit in with you. You could have the
operator simply be there just in case, or you could have them run
things while you get acquainted with the process for next time.
Meetings in general can be a complex dance. You may be watching
the time, taking questions, and making sure your guest speaker
stays on track. Using an operator during these times can free you
up to keep an overall guiding hand on the meeting. An operator
can provide an introduction and conclusion. They can monitor
sound levels, watch for participants with too much background
noise, and keep tabs on the participant list. An operator can be
invaluable to run the Q&A part of your webinar. They will watch
the question queue, mute and unmute as needed, and encourage
questioners when it’s their turn.
Operators can assist prior the conference as well. You have
the option of having operators answer the phone when your
participants call in. Not only is this a professional touch, it
also serves to facilitate and expedite getting your participants
into the webinar. Moreover, the operators can get contact and
other information for you directly from the participants before
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allowing them to join the conference. These operators can help
with the integrity of your webinar too. When the participants call
in, operators can compare codes, names, or other information
against pre-made lists. If the person calling in is not someone
you want in the conference, then they will not be able to join the
webinar.
ii.Lecture Mode
An important feature of any webinar is the lecture mode. This
simple toggle allows you to have a conference with as many
people as you like, but without overwhelming background noise.
When you go into Lecture Mode, all of the participant lines are
muted -- in a way that they cannot unmute themselves -- leaving
the host and speakers to talk freely and be heard by everyone.
While in Lecture Mode, a participant can press some buttons on
their telephone keypad which puts them in a special Q&A queue
that is visible on the Live Call screen of the host or operator.
When the host or operator chooses, they can press a button and
the first person in the queue is unmuted and free to speak. When
they are done, the host or operator can press the same button
again and the participant is muted while the next participant is
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unmuted. If you take the call out of Lecture Mode, all lines are
unmuted at the same time and everyone is free to speak.
Deciding whether or not to use Lecture Mode is not a difficult
decision. If you have ten or fewer people on the call, then Lecture
Mode might not be needed. More than ten, simply for sound
quality, it is recommended that you use Lecture Mode.
iii. Recording
Recording your conference is as easy as pressing a button. If
can be even easier if you select to have all of your conferences
automatically recorded. Once a recorded conference has ended,
the recordings are available almost instantly in your account
section of your webinar provider’s website. There you can listen
to it, download it, or even have it transcribed. If you download it,
you can upload it to your website, or email it to whomever you
like.
Another interesting aspect of recordings is the dial-in playback.
What this feature does is allow you to make your recordings
available to people who call in when they can. If you recorded
a conference that some people missed, all they have to do is use
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the codes for the original conference and hear what went on. You
can even distribute the conference codes to people other than
the ones you originally invited, so that they can hear it as well.
iv. Extras to make the webinar special
Making your webinar stand out from other meetings can be
simple. This is especially true if your audience hasn’t been to
many webinars, as the very meeting itself will be something out
of the ordinary. Aside from this, there are many other ideas that
can help you.
One such idea involves a guest speaker. Even though you are
in charge of the meeting, this doesn’t mean you have to be the
only one on center stage. Guest speakers can include an industry
expert, a motivational speaker, your immediate boss or someone
even higher in your company, or even the most knowledgeable
of your participants. They don’t even particularly need to be
involved in the main subject of the meeting, but could simply be
there to talk for a while about teamwork or inspiration.
Another idea of outside help is the professional Compere or Master
of Ceremonies. With a webinar, an MC can be from anywhere and
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is able to run your meeting with style, professionalism, and in
some cases, a bit of comedy. It all depends on what you think
would best augment your webinar. MCs don’t have to know
anything about the subject matter of the meeting. All they need
is an agenda, some guidelines, and specifics on what kind of
meeting you want. Then you just turn them loose allowing you
to stay behind the scenes and keep an eye on the meeting in
general.
f.Other details to think about
Running your business is a balance of time, money, people, and
resources - and a webinar is no different. If you first identify what
kind of meeting you need, you will be able to better choose which
kind of webinar best fits your needs. The most obvious reason for
this is to not spend any more money than you have to, but there are
other factors to consider: your participants’ equipment for example,
or their locations, or even how much time they can give you.
You want to host a webinar, not just because you want to, but to
serve a purpose. So when you think about how best to achieve that
purpose, all of the other details – including the ones for the webinar
– will fall neatly into place.
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2. Setup a Successful Webinar
You have gone through the details and planned extensively for a successful
webinar, now you have to get ready for it. Preparation for anything serves
many purposes. It helps you to get acquainted with what you are doing. It
can highlight potential problems that can be overcome before they have a
chance to ruin something. Preparation gets you ready for what is to come.
Webinars are no different. They require most of the normal preparation
you would do for a face-to-face meeting, but also with some technical
aspects that need consideration. Even so, these items can be simple to
take care of and as with all preparations, can help guarantee success.
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a. Technical preparations
Depending on what kind of webinar you choose to have, technical
preparations can differ. However, for all webinars, the phone part
will be the same (even though there isn’t much to prepare for). One
idea is for yourself and your participants to use a landline. Landlines
are a better choice than cell phones in terms of sound quality and
reliability. Telephone headsets are recommended for comfort and
ease of use, and you should make sure your headset is in good
working order. If you choose to use a wireless handset with your
landline, check to make sure it is fully charged before the webinar.
If you are doing a video conference, a major component is software.
This isn’t as large an obstacle as it may sound. When you first click
on the provided link for the video conference, an install wizard will
come up. All that is necessary then is to follow the prompts and the
programming will take care of the rest. The software will download
and install itself fairly quickly, but it is still a good idea to do this
process before the webinar. This way, if there are any problems,
they can be taken care of then and not as you are trying to start your
meeting.
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Another major component of a video conference is the webcam.
Like the video conferencing software, setting up a webcam is fairly
simple. There still could be some issues, especially if you have never
used that particular webcam, or any webcam with your computer.
Hook up your webcam and make sure you get a good picture. Adjust
the settings as needed, check its position, and use it briefly with the
video conferencing software to ensure its compatibility.
Technical preparations for a webinar are not difficult or time
consuming, but are essential to save time and avoid problems during
your meeting. If you do have any issues, talk with your webinar
provider. They will be happy to help you get set up.
b. Meeting preparations
Preparing for the meeting goes beyond looking over your notes.
There are many little details to consider, and while each may only
take a moment, they can be invaluable to prepare for. First of all,
where are you located during the conference? You should choose a
quiet location where you can be sure you will not be interrupted.
Keeping distractions at bay could be as simple as shutting a door,
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but you also want to prepare for the unanticipated. For example, if
you are doing the webinar from your home, you should keep in mind
that your kids could burst in, or your dog might suddenly bark at a
noise down the street. Some things you just can’t avoid, but you can
know where your mute button is and be ready to use it if need be.
For a video conference, location is important, but also what is in that
location. What exactly can the camera see? Is your desk cluttered?
Your participants will see what you show them, so think about what
messages about you the camera will convey. A clean and neat working
area says good things. Another thought is that while a picture on your
desk might be hilarious to you, it could be misconstrued by someone
else.
What about your background? You should have a neutral background
behind you without anything on the walls. If there is something on
the wall that you can’t do anything about, try to position your camera
so that your head is by itself when compared to the background. How
you dress is another thing to consider on video. For the best view
of you, avoid wearing all dark or all light colors. You should avoid
complex patterns as well. Try to wear solid color pastels, or mix solid
darks with lights.
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c. Hosting preparations
As the host of your webinar, you are responsible for so many things.
From the moment you send out invites, be prepared to answer
questions about the schedule, technical aspects of the webinar, and
agenda items, just to name a few. While some forethought will take
care of these questions, there are other things you can do as a host to
prepare for your webinar.
First and perhaps most important is a solid agenda. This list not only
tells what you will be meeting about, but why, and how, and the time
allotted. A good agenda is detailed and scheduled to the minute.
It will be referenced, not only by yourself, but by your participants
before and during the webinar. The agenda will help keep your
meeting on track, and provide cues to you and your speakers when it
is time to wrap things up.
Introductions
Agenda
icebreakers
go
time
Q&A
Polls / chat
-15 minutes
Last minute
details
pre-conference
meeting & presentation
(possible breaks / Q & A)
wrap up
action items
final thanks
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Take your time when building the agenda. You should have two
versions: one for yourself and one for the participants – with less
details of course. On your agenda you should include:
• Time at the beginning for people joining in late
• Time for greetings, introductions, and icebreakers
• As little time margins for your speakers as you can fit
• Time for breaks
• Generous Q&A time
• Alternatives to fill up extra Q&A time, should you have the need
As indicated above, the agenda isn’t just for your benefit. Once
completed, create a sparse version with time indicators to send out
to your participants. This will not only help them prepare for the
meeting, it will also get their minds ready for questions and help
them stay focused throughout the meeting.
Speaking of questions, when preparing for your webinar, you
should envision some of the questions that your participants will
have. Imagine what they will ask and then answer them aloud. Take
notes during your answers and review them. Did you say what you
wanted to say? Do your answers truly convey the information your
participants will need?
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Finally, keep close at hand contact information of your webinar
provider, your guest speakers and cohosts, as well as any participants
you particularly want to attend the webinar. You probably won’t need
the info, but if you do, there will be many other things going on and
you’ll be grateful that looking for a way to contact someone will be
an easy task.
d. Testing, testing, testing
A simple guarantee to a good webinar is to predict and overcome any
issues before your actual meeting. The best way to do this is to recruit
a friend and test your setup. This can include both of you calling in
to talk, running your webcams, or even playing Tic-Tac-Toe on the
webinar whiteboard.
When you both have joined a conference call, talk to each other in
loud and soft tones to get a feel for sound quality and sound levels.
Find and use the personal mute button until you can do it quickly
and easily. Familiarize yourself with the call controls. Take the call
in and out of pre-conference. Mute and unmute yourself and your
friend. Have them put themselves in the Q&A queue and practice
taking their questions.
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A video conference will have controls for both the sound and audio,
but are easy to use nonetheless. Take your time to test out each
function and play around with it. Utilize the video quality controls to
make sure you look your best. Take turns with your friend to gesture
and speak into the camera to get a feel for what looks good and what
doesn’t. Keep going until you are comfortable with what you see.
Practice speaking until you can talk while mostly looking into the
webcam.
Web conference features and controls are not too different from
conference calls or video conferences, but you should test them
anyway. Start a whiteboard and play a game. Play with the controls
until you can easily save, wipe clean, or augment what you’ve drawn.
Start the desktop sharing and get feedback from your friend. Work
on a document or spreadsheet together. You will see many familiar
things, but during a web conference, things are a little different.
If you know about the controls and particulars of a webinar in
advance, your meetings will run much smoother. As always, while
you are testing your webinar, if you have any questions or issues,
now is the best time to speak with your webinar provider.
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3. Execute a Successful Webinar
From the minutes before you leave pre-conference to when you finally say
good-bye, webinars can be exciting and a bit draining – just like in a faceto-face meeting. There are details to see to, participants to worry about,
and a schedule to keep. But if you have done a good job preparing, you
can not only stay on top of it all, but have a great webinar as well!
a.Last minute details
In the time right before your webinar, you might worry about many
things, but your preparations will have taken care of all that. What
you can do is look over your notes and the agenda and spend some
time looking after yourself. The fifteen minutes before a webinar
is really the only spot where you can start double checking your
preparations. Are the co-hosts and speakers getting into the webinar
alright? Is the video coming on? These kinds of questions can be
researched and answered quickly. Once satisfied that all is well, it’s
time for you to join your webinar.
b. What to do in the “Green Room”
For most webinars, you will want to use pre-conference, or the “green
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room.” After your participants have called in and loaded programs,
they will be placed on hold. However, you, your co-hosts, guest
speakers, and anyone else you choose will automatically be placed
into pre-conference.
This “conference before the conference” is a chance for you and the
others to go over last minute details, discuss strategies, or simply talk,
all while in privacy away from your participants who are listening to
hold music. It’s a great opportunity to come together as a group to get
in sync and present a smooth, cohesive webinar to the attendees.
You can leave pre-conference whenever you like, and more
importantly, if you need to go back in for whatever reason, that
option is available too.
c.Beginning the webinar
While everything you do as a host will impact your webinar, arguably
the most crucial point in a webinar is the first five minutes. This
is the time where you set the tone for the meeting, get everyone
comfortable, and get things going. It’s a time of excitement and
awkwardness that can be handled easily with some input from you.
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i. Greetings and introductions
You’ve just taken yourself out of preconference, the participant
hold music disappears, and everything is silent. If you are using
an operator for the call, this is the point where they announce
the conference, remind everyone that the recording is on, lecture
mode is on, or any other details you specify. After that, they turn
it over to you.
Whether you have an operator or not it’s your first words that
begin the conference. A cheerful, “Welcome everyone!” is a
good way to begin. In your opening remarks, you should remind
everyone why they are here and who will be speaking to them.
You should let them know that questions will be at the end, or
that you will pause occasionally for questions.
For video conferences, remember to look as much into the
webcam as possible. This will give each participant the feeling that
you are looking right at them. Do your best to appear at ease and
if your hands are in view, refrain from fidgeting. If you plan to use
a PowerPoint presentation, make sure you include a beginning/
introduction slide at the start. This will give your participants
something other than the PowerPoint slide summary to look at
until you are ready to do the slide show.
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ii. Agenda overview
After the initial greetings and introductions, it’s time to go over the
agenda. This is important even if you have distributed the agenda
to your participants. They may have lost their copy, or don’t have
it handy. Mainly though, the reason to go over the agenda is to
ground the meeting and express that there is a plan and you are
not here to waste anyone’s time.
The run- through of the agenda doesn’t need to be a big ordeal.
Simply go over who will be talking about what, in what order,
and for how long. Don’t forget to point out break periods. The
reason for doing this is to help the participants stay attuned to
the meeting. They are less apt to get lost if they know where they
are and what’s coming next.
This is also why you should do a quick summary of what’s left of
the agenda after each speaker or section of the meeting. Again
this is to help keep your participants orientated and paying
attention to your message.
iii.Ice breakers
Especially if your meeting is with a small group of people – or
even a small group of speakers in front of a big audience – ice
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breakers are an excellent way to get people to relax so they can
pay better attention to what’s going on. The beginning of a
webinar can be awkward, but with a good attitude from you and
some little exercises, your meeting can move on smoothly. The
time spent getting people comfortable could be seen as a waste,
but becomes invaluable compared to the ease at which people
are then able to listen and respond to your message.
Some good general ice breakers are:
• Fact or Fiction - This is where all participants write down two
things true about themselves and one false. Taking turns, each
reads their three things and the group decides which is not
true. Not only does this shake things up a bit, but it also helps
people get to know each other.
•Free Association – First give the group a topic or word, then
give them a minute or two to write down anything that comes
to mind that is associated with the original idea. This one can
be useful if tailored to your main points of the webinar and can
get people thinking about what will be talked about later.
•Deserted Island – Tell everyone to write down what they would
take to a deserted island. Give them a minute or so, then go
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around and tell each person they can have only three things on
the list and ask them what they are. Give them thirty seconds.
This is good for finding out people’s thinking processes,
especially in a time crunch.
• First or Worst – Go around and ask each person to tell their first
or worst job. This helps to spark conversation and have fun
commenting on things they have done.
•Nametags – When sending out invites, give each participant
the name of someone else in the webinar. Then go to each and
let them speak about “who they are.” This is a great opportunity
for people to speak well of others and maybe poke a little fun.
Video conferences open up a whole new visual dynamic in
webinars. This can cause some people to be nervous on camera,
even if they would be fine face-to-face. Video conference ice
breakers should be more visual in nature of course. Here are two
good ones:
•Ball Pass – When inviting everyone to the meeting, ask that they
have a tennis ball handy. Have everyone put the ball behind the
camera or computer. Then call out someone’s name and gently
bounce your ball past the camera. The person whose name was
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called should reach forward and pick up their ball. The person
with the ball should say a few things about themselves, then
call out a name and bounce their ball out of view.
•Charades – This is an old game played in a new way. In turn,
email or IM each person a person’s name, a place, or a thing
and let them act it out over the webcam. You can also make the
theme of the things to be guessed have something to do with
the purpose of your meeting.
d.During the webinar
You have greeted everyone, done some icebreakers, and introduced
the speakers. Even if you don’t have a role until the end, your work
is still just getting started. There are several things you need to keep
track of, not to mention everything else you need to be ready to do if
the occasion arises.
i. Time management
The schedule might just be the most important part of a webinar.
You don’t have unlimited time usually, but probably a lot of stuff
to cover. You don’t want to leave anything important out, but you
also don’t want to take too much time. Ending on time is especially
crucial when dealing with customers or potential clients. You
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have made a promise of sorts when you told them the timeline
of your meeting and you don’t want to break that promise at the
end. If you do go over the time you originally allotted, participants
who have rearranged schedules to attend your meeting may feel
especially put out and quite possibly will not return for your next
meeting. Likewise, any participant – client, employee, or friend
– could become despondent if the meeting runs long and has no
end in sight. You stand to lose their attention and enthusiasm,
now and in future meetings.
A well run meeting is one that is on time. Doing so lets the
participant know that you feel their time is valuable and you
don’t want to waste it. And they will appreciate this. But even the
best scheduled webinar can get derailed; it’s how you get it back
on track that matters.
There are several hot potential derailment spots to be aware of.
The first and perhaps most delicate is towards the end of guest
speakers’ lectures. You asked them to speak at your meeting, but
you don’t want to go over on time. A good way of dealing with this
situation is in the prevention department. During pre-conference,
talk with your speaker and discuss their time allotment. Some
speakers will ask you to give them five or one minute warnings.
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Some prefer you just let them know when to wrap things up. Even
if they have no preference, you have set the stage for letting them
know that you will be stepping in if they go long. This way, they
will not only be prepared, they may even be grateful to you for
helping them not to be seen as long-winded.
The other major derailment hazard is during Q&A. Whether
you are taking the questions or a speaker is, you still need to be
prepared to step in. Most speakers will probably be averse to
cutting someone off as it isn’t their meeting, but they might also
be the one going long. Either way, you need to be ready. If you
have a questioner going long, wait for a lull in the question then
speak up:
•If the questioner is rambling, step in and sum up the question
for the speaker.
•If the questioner keeps asking question after question, you can
jump in and say “thank you for all those questions, but we have
others waiting.” Another idea is to say they have only time for
one question.
•Remember that if a questioner doesn’t respond to hints or
directives, you always have the ability to mute them.
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If your speaker is derailing your Q&A, again wait for a lull:
•If the speaker is going on too long with a question, jump in with
a quick summary tied to a question that only requires a short
answer. Then go to the next question.
•Even if there has only been a question or two answered due to
long answers, announce that there is only time for one more
question. This will help to remind the speaker of the schedule.
After that next question, if there is time, announce you can do
one more. Add one more as needed until time runs out.
ii. Maintaining audience attention
The whole idea of a meeting is to get your point across, but if your
audience’s attention wanders for whatever reason, your message
is lost. So keeping them involved is crucial. If you feel that people
are zoning out, you can pause things to do an impromptu Q&A
session. Not only will this pull people out of their reverie, it might
also bring out thoughts that someone might otherwise have lost.
If you feel that normally your meetings’ attention levels tend to
sag after the beginning, maybe you should include a PowerPoint
presentation in each meeting. You could plan the slides to
correspond with what is going on every ten minutes so that just
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as people might tune out, they have a new image to concentrate
on, pulling them back into the meeting.
Another key to keeping up the attention level is breaks. Even with
limited time, breaks are important. People get tired or distracted,
or they need to use the restroom. It makes you look that much
better when you show that you thought of their comfort ahead of
time.
Good times for breaks are after a speaker has finished or before
the Q&A. This gives your participants time to think about what
they just learned and absorb it. Even a quick two minute break
is enough to keep them engaged and alert. For longer webinars,
a ten minute break every hour and a half will be well received.
People can use the restroom, stretch, look over their notes, or
whatever. When they come back, they are refreshed and ready for
more.
iii. Managing polls, chats, and Q&A
Some features of a webinar you just can’t get in a face-to-face
meeting. Conducting live polls is one of them. Now you can ask
everyone to raise their hand around a conference table, but in
doing so, you interrupt the flow of the meeting. Polls in a webinar
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show up on a sidebar and your participants can click on their
answer, all while keeping up with the meeting. You can also use
a poll to decide which topics to go to next, which ones to go over
again, and which ones to skip.
Instant messaging chat has become a major part of not only our
social lives, but our business lives as well. Shooting off a quick
question to a co-worker on the phone is a great and unobtrusive
way to get information fast. Unfortunately, not everyone has chat,
let alone the same chat engine. This is no problem with webinars
as they have a chat built in. You can use the chat by encouraging
people to type in a question whenever they like. This allows the
speaker to answer questions they feel are appropriate, or broaden
their lecture without missing stride.
The Q&A queue is a main feature of Lecture Mode. If you are
having a basic conference call, it is only through pressing *1 that
your muted participants can let you know they wish to speak. The
primary use of the queue is during Q&A sessions, but you can
also use it throughout the meeting to help get people’s input. For
example, if during a certain part of the meeting you see someone
put themselves into the queue, you can pause briefly to hear what
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they have to say. You can encourage the attendees’ participation
by listening to their comments and taking quick questions using
the queue.
iv. Getting your message across
As stated before, the whole point of a meeting is to get your
message across to your participants. All of your planning and
preparation is to make sure your webinar goes smoothly so that
people can understand what you are presenting to them. From
time management to maintaining their attention, you need to
stay on top of your meeting to get the most of the time shared
with your participants.
1.During conference calls
Staying on track is especially important in conference calls.
Remember, you and your speakers are just voices and if you
get too far down a tangent, your participants will be lost.
Not getting sidetracked is essential along with helping your
participants keep up with periodic agenda updates.
If you have multiple speakers, or are not in Lecture Mode,
you should make sure to announce that people should mute
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themselves when not speaking. This helps to eliminate
background
noise
as
well
as
removes
the
occasional,
accidental or unexpected noises that tend to happen.
When asking a question of a specific person during a
conference call, it is essential that you say their name and give
them a second or two before and after the question. Despite
best intentions, a person’s attention will wander and saying
their name can snap them back. The two to three second
pause is to give them a chance to unmute themselves so they
can respond.
2. With web conferences
Web
conferences
add
so
much
more
to
conferences.
They allow a visual channel to pour information to your
participants. Utilizing as many available features as possible
will drastically help get across your point.
With desktop sharing, you don’t have to describe a website,
you take them there. Have pictures and graphics on hand to
easily illustrate your point. Use graphs to show – not tell – your
participants where things stand and where they are going.
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PowerPoint is an excellent tool for webinars. They keep
people’s attention, convey lots of information, and give
dynamic movement to an otherwise static meeting. With
graphs, have a slide with a position in the past shown, and
show where they are now in the next slide. This gives the
illusion of movement. If you do not have any information to
augment a speaker’s lecture, put a picture of them and a short
bio on a slide to show while they are speaking. This helps
to keep participant attention as well as to help form a bond
between them and the speaker.
3.Using video conferencing
With video, it is far easier to see if people are engaged,
confused, distracted, interested, or still there. If you see more
than a few looking away, it may be time for a quick break
or Q&A. There are also ways for you personally to connect
through the webcam:
•Maintaining eye contact is very important to bond with
your participants.
•Avoid smiling except for when someone says or does
something good. If you smile only as a reward, basic human
nature will work to earn more smiles.
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•While you talk, utilize the fact that they can see you. Gesture
on important points, or hold up the report you are talking
about. Make sure to move a bit slower than usual to avoid
blurring on their screens.
e. Concluding the webinar
After your speakers have spoken and everyone has asked all their
questions – and especially if time has run out – it’s time to close the
conference. The end can be more than just a “good-bye.” You can use
the remaining time for a good conclusion that will do more than end
the meeting.
i. Wrapping up the webinar
In the last minutes of the meeting, you can sum up what was
talked about and tie it to the main purpose of the meeting. This
helps to cement the points made by you and your speakers. If
assignments or action items were assigned, this is a good time to
quickly go over them as well.
Make sure you have enough time to do a good job of wrapping
things up. Budget about five minutes to give yourself plenty of
time. Two to three minutes before your last five minutes, start
getting the meeting back under your personal control.
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ii. Thanks and Acknowledgments
Normally, thanks will go out at the beginning of a meeting with
a “Thanks again” at the end. Not only is this redundant, you
assume that your participants don’t mind their time being spent
this way. Thank your participants at the beginning of a meeting
and everyone else at the end. This way, if the participants wish,
they can stick around to hear who did what, or they can leave. For
web and video conferences, a good idea is to create a separate
PowerPoint presentation filled with just slides of the people you
want to thank and their names. Start the slideshow five minutes
before your meeting and loop it. That way, your participants have
something to look at while waiting and your people get thanked.
You can run it again at the end as well.
When you thank people, you should mention the speakers, cohosts, and anyone who helped to organize the meeting. While
you’re at the end and thanking people, thank your participants
again. This will make them feel good, but also helps to encourage
them to return to the next meeting.
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iii.Using the end to make more beginnings
It’s been said that when you exit one place, you are simply entering
another. Part of concluding your meeting well is to ensure a
beginning in another meeting. With colleagues and employees,
your emphasis on goals accomplished and the major things to do
next will reinforce this meeting and begin to energize the next.
With clients and potential customers, you can use the conclusion
to get them fired up. Tell them what to do next and what your next
steps are. End on a good note and encourage participants that
there will be more positives in the future.
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4.
Going Beyond
a Successful
Webinar
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Going Beyond a Successful Webinar
4. Going Beyond a Successful Webinar
Webinars are more than just meetings: they are tools to connect you with
your employees, and you with your clients. They allow you to be in places
that would have been next to impossible to get to otherwise. Webinars
offer more options to reach people, opening up vast possibilities over and
above simple talking.
a. Saving time and money
When you decide to do a webinar instead of meeting in person, you
are able to save a lot of time and money. Obviously there are a few
compelling reasons that require you to be somewhere; if you have
to sign something in person, shake someone’s hand, or participate
in a softball game. If you have an out of town meeting, you should
question if its objectives could be accomplished through a webinar.
Think of the average cost of a plane ticket to your destination. Factor
in additional travel to and from the airport. Add hotel and meals,
but don’t forget to measure the work lost while you were traveling.
Now compare that to the average cost of a webinar and the savings
are drastic. Plus, think of all the time spent getting ready, staying in a
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hotel, and traveling. Compare that to dropping what you were doing
ten minutes before a webinar to call in, and going back to work after
you hang up the phone. If out of town meetings are a big portion of
your budget, webinars may be a life saver to your bottom line.
Huge cost and time savers don’t have to be the only reasons to use
a webinar instead of a face-to-face meeting. Local meetings can be
improved upon as well. Even if a meeting is in a building only fifteen
minutes away, you should factor everything involved in getting to
your car, driving, parking, and walking to the meeting. That usually
leads to at least an hour of wasted time… then don’t forget you
have to go back. Multiply that by all of the participants involved
and you stand to lose a day’s worth of man hours. Factor in all the
gasoline involved getting everyone to the meeting and it can get
pretty expensive. Just think of all the pollution that can be avoided
by replacing a local meeting with a webinar – it’s the greenest kind of
meeting available.
b.Better management through webinars
With big companies or even little ones with branches, it can be easy
to lose track of people. Meetings are a good way to keep in touch
with your people, stay current with what they are doing, and keep
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them on the right track. The problem with meetings is that to have
one, you have to stop work. There is also a tendency to use all the
time budgeted, especially if it’s a rare meeting. With webinars, your
employees don’t have to leave their work area. The can just join the
webinar and go right back to work afterwards.
It doesn’t have to just be update meetings. You can use webinars as
an integral part of your work process. If more than two employees
are separated by any kind of distance, there is great temptation to
replace true communication with emails and instant messaging.
While this works on a basic level, the potential for miscommunication
or omissions are high. To avoid this, you can setup a special webinar
line for certain groups of employees. When a project change is made,
get a person from each affected department into a webinar. They will
get on the same page much faster and may even come up with better
idea, spot a flaw, or solve a problem. They have their whole desk at
their fingertips, and all without the hassle of going to a meeting.
c.Increase Sales
Webinars have great potential for increasing a company’s sales. They
can be used at each step of the process as well as helping to grow a
relationship with your customers. Webinars help a company to stand
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out and make communicating with its customers a new and fresh
experience. It can also bring the company to the customer instead
of making them come to it. A webinar is a great way to distribute
information, but it also can create and nurture relationships.
i. Webinar as a marketing tool
You spend a certain amount of your budget on marketing and
advertising trying to get your company noticed. You can spend
more to advertise a webinar, but why not simply let it piggyback on whatever you have going on? Add an invitation to a
weekly webinar on your invoices, or mention a big webinar on
your newspaper ads. But don’t just have a meeting that people
can attend, make it an experience they won’t want to miss. Try
having a famous guest speaker, or offer a session full of advice on
something they care about. You could even host a webinar about
something that has nothing to do with your company, but still
include yourself at the beginning and end.
ii. Generate leads
Once you get people interested in attending your webinar, you can
turn that interest into leads. Set up a registration page that trades
a code to the conference for some contact and sales information.
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Have operators answer your calls and ask some questions before
letting them into the conference. Not only will you find out who is
interested in what you have to say, you’ll also find out a bit about
them as well.
No matter how you get potential customers into their initial
webinars, you now have the information you need to invite them
to more company-specific webinars.
iii. Converting leads to sales
If you’ve advertised a webinar about your company or products,
guess what; everyone who calls in is a potential customer.
However, if you got their information from other sources – even
previous webinars – you can still utilize those leads for sales.
A webinar is a way to speak with large amounts of people in a
way that still allows for a personal connection. If they call in, they
can still ask a question. With everyone muted, it almost seems
like a private conversation between you and them. With a web
conference, it’s just them in front of their computer listening
intently while viewing your PowerPoint presentation. Video
conferences allow you to talk to them face to face right out of
their monitor.
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A potential customer in your webinar is like a person walking
into your store, but better. You know they have some interest in
what you have to sell, they are motivated enough to come to you,
and you made it easy for them to take that first step. Now all you
have to do is look straight into the webcam and show them your
proposal.
iv.Establishing rapport
We can’t always be there to answer every question our customers
have, but we can make it easier to try. Once you have your
customers, it’s important that they continue to feel they made
the right choice. You can host regular webinars with your current
customers to show that you are still there for them. You can
present them with guest speakers that are knowledgeable in the
industry. You can field their questions and give them answers
on the spot. You can connect with them in a way that is both
personable and easy for everyone involved.
Keeping up the relationship is not the only reason to do
reoccurring webinars. You can also keep your customers up to
date with product changes. If you have additions to the product
line, you can inform them of such and maybe make a few extra
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sales. You can sell something to anyone once, but it takes a
relationship to sell to one person many times.
v. Generating referrals
Word of mouth is a powerful thing. It can make or break a movie,
a restaurant, or a company. If you have a good relationship with a
satisfied customer, then they will have no problems mentioning
you to friends and colleagues. When you next do a webinar for
your customers, include a guest pass for them to give to someone.
Or setup your registration page to include a spot for your clients
to recommend someone to you by entering in their email.
Another idea is the next time you are on a small webinar with
a customer, offer to bring in someone they know who might
be interested as well. If your customers are excited with your
products and your way of doing business, it won’t take but a
little encouragement to get them to share that excitement with
another potential customer.
d. Taking business further
The very core of webinars is making communication easier. This
allows you to do more things in different ways despite long distances.
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Whether it be meeting with a client and experts all around the world,
or simply having a quick chat with managers in five states, webinars
are changing how we do business for the better.
Take the simple recording feature. Alone it provides a way to preserve
and revisit all of your past meetings. This can be very helpful for many
reasons including legal, cohesiveness, or even nostalgia. Recordings
can also be used to lend a hand to clients or employees with hectic
schedules: if they missed the actual webinar, they can dial in later to
hear the recording when it’s convenient for them.
You can go even further with recordings. Why not do a webinar
planned from the ground up to be sold or given to prized clients?
You could sell the recording online, or offer it on a CD complete
with a copy of your PowerPoint presentation, agenda, and electronic
brochure.
Every business is unique and each could find a unique use for
webinars. The trick is to look past a webinar’s obvious use and see in
just how many ways it can improve your communication, your sales,
and your business practices.
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Successful Webinar Checklist
PLAN
Type of webinar
Features
Agenda
o Conference call
oOperator assisted
call in
o Complete
o Web Conference
o Video Conference
oOperator in call
o Guest Speaker
o Registration Page
oLecture Mode
o Recording
o Realistic timeline
oBreaks added
o Q&A time
o Closing remarks
o Version for participants
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Successful Webinar Checklist
Setup
o Agenda sent
o Contact info handy
o Good Notes
oLocation Quiet
o Mute button located
Conference Call
Web Conference
Video Conference
oUse landlines
oInstall webinar software
oInstall/run video
software
o Run web share program
o Webcam installed
o Headsets work
o Wireless battery charged
o Good video in program
oLoad live call screen
oUpload/Test PowerPoint
o Know live
call controls
oUse web share controls
oNeutral background
o Program ready
oNeat, clean area
in view
oOpening view up
oUse video controls
o Good apparel
and colors
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Successful Webinar Checklist
Execute
o Pre-Conference
o Thank participants
o Q&A finish on time
oDiscussed agenda
o Agenda overview
o Closing remarks
o Schedule cues
oIce breakers
o Thank participants
o Greeting
o Speaker Introduction
o Acknowledgments
oIntroduction
o Speaker finish on time
Conference Call
Web Conference
Video Conference
o Sound quality good
o Sound quality good
o Sound quality good
oNo background noise
oNo background noise
oNo background noise
o M u t e d w h e n n o t speaking
o Muted when not
speaking
o M u t e d w h e n n o t speaking
oCorrect PowerPoint
slides at
appropriate times
oE ve r yo n e i n g o o d screen position
oUse of chat window
oE ye c o n t a c t w i t h webcam
oDeliberate motions
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