10 Ways to Make Your Next Webinar Better

These suggestions will make a real difference

Webinars can be so much better than they usually are.

I’ve participated in a lot of webinars and presented a number myself. I’ve viewed plenty of mediocre webinars and seen a few really good ones. What makes the difference? I have some suggestions for you.

1. Audio basics: Crisp and clear

The quality of your audio makes a bigger difference than you might think. Suboptimal audio can be a distraction and damage your credibility, and your company’s.

Never use a cell phone or speakerphone for audio. If possible, use computer-connected audio and a headset mic, which will bypass the inferior audio of phone networks, keep the mic close to your mouth, and decrease room reverb.

At least use a landline phone with a connected headset.

2. Content basics: Focus on a few points

Why are you presenting a webinar? What results do you want? For most webinars — not necessarily all — you probably want people to remember what you present, for longer than a day. That means you can’t just “spray and pray.” Before you start building your presentation, I suggest that you pick three to five things you really want your audience to retain. These can be concepts, facts, or messaging. Design your entire presentation around these. You’ll probably end up presenting less total content than you ideally would want. But your audience will more likely retain those key points longer.

Remember, you care about your content much more than your audience does. What does your audience most want to know? What do you most need to tell them?

Related suggestion: If your webinar has a marketing purpose, keep your pitches brief and low-key. Make sure your webinar is mostly an educational experience for attendees. When people feel you are genuinely helping them, they’ll be more receptive to your marketing. They’ll trust you more. They’ll be more interested in attending your next webinar.

3. PowerPoint basics: Bullet points vs. beauty

If you’re using PowerPoint slides, complete your slides several days in advance. Allow time for you and others to review and critique what you’ve prepared. Allow time to actually rehearse.

Keep slide animations simple. Some people in your audience will have crappy Internet connections, and an intricate animation can end up simply being a distraction for much of your audience.

Everyone agrees that a sequence of slides packed with bullet points is so totally uncool these days. Yet that’s still the quick-and-dirty-sorry-I’m-rushed default for many webinars.

Spend time on Shutterstock or wherever you get your website graphics, and find a few images that reflect or dramatize your key concepts, facts, or messaging. Then overlay each image with a big headline stating that point. Do another round for your secondary information. If your subject is a physical product, of course, you’ll have beautiful images of that. If the product is software, crop the software images to highlight the point being made by a given slide. All of this will take serious time.

For slides that still need to display a list of bullet points, make each point as brief as possible, reflecting in shortened form the words you speak. Don’t duplicate your talking points; abbreviate them. That way the on-screen text will complement — not compete with — your speaking.

4. Script your first couple of minutes

Especially if you’re new at presenting, script your talking points for the start of your webinar, and rehearse your script. This will help give you a crisp beginning. Even if you don’t use the script, the process of writing will help you feel more calm and confident.

5. Never go long

Never go past your advertised duration. You’ll look less professional. You’ll be inconveniencing those attendees who stick around till the end. A good share of your audience will miss the all-important last few minutes.

Having said this, it is okay to end early.

6. Do polls for engagement, not data

Plan to have polls. But don’t expect these polls to provide “valuable data.” Design your polls to engage the audience, to draw them into participating instead of passively observing. Pick questions that will engage attendees, partly because they’ll want to see how other attendees respond. You can also use poll questions to steer the direction of your webinar at selected junctures. Does your audience want more info about X or about Y?

7. Invite questions, more than once

Allow time for multiple Q&A breaks. Don’t wait until the end.

It’s ideal if you have a second person who monitors and prepares answers for questions. It’s best when this partner — an equal expert on the subject of the webinar — can answer a subset of the questions orally — that is, the questions likely to interest most attendees. Then your partner can answer other questions in writing.

Be ready to say that you might not answer all the questions during the webinar, but will certainly get back via email to anyone who asked a question. This also allows you time to craft answers to “sensitive” questions, where you’ll want review by other team members before providing a response.

8. Give them something to remember you by

Create a downloadable PDF that will remind people of your key points after the webinar is over. It can be a single page. Encourage them more than once to download it. I’m surprised this is not yet standard practice for virtually every webinar.

9. Enjoy yourself

I’m serious. The principle here is similar to the adage about smiling when you speak over the phone because your smile communicates even though people can’t see you. If you enjoy presenting the webinar, every person attending is more likely to resonate with your enjoyment. Remind yourself about the cool info and ideas you are giving them. Remember how these things can make a difference in their lives, not just in their heads. Remember that they’ll actually appreciate hearing what you provide.

It is enjoyable when you know you are helping people. It is enjoyable when you genuinely engage people with your polls and answers to their questions.

10. Follow this guy: Ken Molay

Ken Molay knows more about webinars than anyone else I’ve ever seen. Subscribe to his webinar blog:

Having said this, he may or may not agree with the points I’ve made here. He’s not responsible for my opinions. He’s simply a great resource on webinars.