How to conduct a perfect webinar
At Wrike, we’re serious about webinars. We think of them as both educational and a marketing tool that helps us connect with a range of clients simultaneously. Every month, we conduct more than 60 sessions for everyone from beginners — during which we provide an overview key functionalities — to advanced sessions for more experienced users. But we’re always eager to learn, so we decided to talk about webinars with Kristen Klein . She’s the customer marketing manager at Zoom. It’s regarded as one of the greatest video communications solutions on the market.
Artem: Hi Kristen! Thanks for agreeing to talk to me. I thought it would be a great idea to tap into your expertise and to have a discussion about webinars.
Kristen: Sounds great!
Artem: I’ll jump right in! What would you say is the best way involve people? I’ve experienced a lot of situations where we present our storyline, and everyone is like: “Ok, we can hear you” and that’s all the communication we have with them for the whole webinar.
Kristen: There are a few different things that I think work really well to try to get an audience engaged. One thing we like to do — and we don’t do this during every webinar — is open up an informal chat and ask everyone where they are joining from. That’s an easy thing that everyone can answer and it eases people in.
We also like to use Zoom’s polling feature at the beginning of a session and then maybe one towards the end. This just helps engage attendees and creates a connection. We also encourage everyone to add questions to the Q&A panel right when we start the webinar. That way we’re not waiting until the end and it helps us avoid that silence that can descend when the floor is opened up. If the speaker is comfortable, we’ll pose some of the written questions throughout the webinar.
Artem: That’s really interesting. Could you give me some examples of polls that might work?
Kristen: Sure. For instance, when we host product release webinars we’ll ask something like “How familiar are you with Zoom Rooms?” The answers will range from attendees who are brand new to our conference room solution to those who have this product and want to learn about the new features. Recently we did a webinar about being confident presenting on video and we asked the attendees, “How confident are you on video?” The polls change based on the content, but the goal is to get them engaged in what we’re going to be presenting.
Artem: So basically you’re saying that you get the answers and then you build the communication forward based on the answers provided, right?
Kristen: Absolutely. We show the results to the audience. It is helpful to use this information moving forward in the presentation. We have our general presentation outline and typically stick to that, but based on the results we might tweak our approach. We might dive deeper into a particular idea or concept based on the audience response.
Artem: That’s actually very helpful. I have to be honest, I tried using polls several times, but they didn’t work. I don’t know why and I’ll need to analyze it more! So, if we talk about preparation process for the webinar. what, aside from the script, might be useful to come across as confident and as an expert in the topic? What would you recommend?
Kristen: If you are new to it, or new to being on video, I would recommend that you record yourself and watch it back. Ensure you are looking into the camera, you appear professional, and that there are no distractions around you. Practice and obviously know your content. In preparation, we host a dry run prior to the live event to review the event flow and content.
Artem: Thanks for that! How long do you think an ideal webinar should be?
Kristen: Best practice for our webinars is 30 minutes for content and 15 minutes for Q&A. Total time is about 45 minutes.
Artem: Do you think one presenter or several is better? Because at Wrike we use both approaches. If there’s some simple topic, then I say one speaker is fine. But if it’s a one-time event, I think it’s better to add more presenters. Just to have a second voice. What do you think?
Kristen: We do a combination here. We did a webinar recently around how to host your podcast on Zoom. We had two presenters who went back and forth with content and answering attendee questions, which made it feel more like a conversation. I don’t think that the number of speakers really matters as long as the content and speaker is engaging and is confident over video.
Artem: If we have a very important topic, we usually leave all the questions for the end of the webinar. Just like you said: We dedicate 15, maybe 10 minutes. We don’t interrupt in the middle. What we have found is that when you open it up in the middle, people’s questions can be very specific and can derail the whole session and go off topic. What is your advice here?
Kristen: Because the questions are through the Q&A panel, as the host or presenter you can decide what questions you want to answer. If there is a question that is more detailed or specific, those should be answered at the end of the session. If you are getting questions from attendees asking for clarity around what you are presenting it is important to address those in real time. If you wait until the very end you might lose your audience.
Artem: So following up and answering these questions via email is a good idea?
Kristen: Yes, definitely. If someone isn’t able to get a satisfying answer during the webinar, we do try to take note, and make sure someone follows up with them to help them to resolve that issue. At the end of the day, we want to make sure our customers have a good experience.
Artem: And if after the webinar you receive negative reactions — not technical questions like “the sound was bad” — but something related to content and presenter. So would you also contact those people to try to find out what they didn’t like?
Kristen: Yes, definitely. If we aren’t able to resolve the issue during the webinar we will follow up with that person afterwards to address their concerns.
Artem: I’ve had a lot of situations in which we receive like totally opposing opinions on the same session. So, I download that report and one person might be like “It was very well presented, the speaker maintained a good pace” and “the information was well explained.” But at the same time someone else will say “All the content was too advanced, I was overloaded with terminology.” So any advice on this?
Kristen: The audience’s opinion will vary based on their experience. We often will point attendees to our other training events or webinars if they still have questions or need more training.
Artem: Thanks! One last question. What if the new guy in the office is thrown in the deep end and his or her boss is like: “Ok, tomorrow you will need to present this webinar.” What should this person do?
Kristen: The first thing to do would be to get familiar with the technology. Turn on a practice webinar, go through and make sure you understand how to share content, how to view and answer questions. And then just practice, practice, practice.
Artem: Awesome, thanks so much for talking to me, Kristen!
