How to Prepare for Your First Webinar

Delivering your first webinar for a large online audience is a very exciting thing. Even though I hosted my first one more than two years ago, I still remember it like it was yesterday. My hands were shaking, and so many thoughts ran through my head, like “What if I say something wrong?” and “What if I can’t answer a question?” Then I conducted my second webinar, the third…and at a certain point, I suddenly realized that I already delivered more than 500. It became so natural that if someone were to wake me up in the middle of the night, I’m pretty sure that I’d deliver a great session.

In this article, I’ll share the essential advice that I wish I received prior to my first webinar. Of course, it won’t be a substitute for real experience, but I hope that my advice will help you be more confident during your first webinar and improve for your subsequent ones.

Be an expert in your subject

It might seem pretty obvious, but to deliver a good session, you need to know the topic you’re going to cover very well. Having a strong grasp of your topic can sometimes compensate for a lack of confidence, but not vice versa. Even if you’re an excellent presenter, obvious mistakes and wrong facts would be very noticeable for the audience. And the second you lose their trust, you lose their attention.

So, come prepared. Read and re-read the materials, double-check all the facts, and have all the necessary sources at hand so you can share them if needed. Also, it’s a good idea to have some additional cards up your sleeves to handle tricky questions from the audience. Try not to provide any vague or useless responses to questions you don’t know the answers to. It’s better to say that you’ll need to double-check and follow up with the attendee after the webinar.

Prepare a consistent story

To make the information you’re planning to present easy to comprehend, it needs to sound consistent. A great way to ensure consistency is to establish a cohesive storyline. It doesn’t need to be complicated; take a simple example related to your topic and brainstorm how to tie it into all the aspects you’re planning to cover for the session.

Also, keep in mind that any good, educational content starts with the basics and then continues to build on that knowledge already introduced to the audience. Never assume that your audience is familiar with something. If you’re not sure, launch a quick poll in the beginning (most webinar solutions have this built-in feature) to get an idea of how many attendees already know the basics and be prepared to make a quick overview if needed..

Prioritize the essential topics

One of the most common mistakes I made when I was just starting to conduct webinars was trying to cover as many aspects of the topic as possible. And when I actually covered every single topic I planned to, I felt proud of myself. But when I opened the webinar report to review feedback, a common review was that the participants didn’t understand what was being discussed, since I went too fast. So, what’s the value of covering so many topics if the audience leaves the session remembering and/or understanding nothing?

I recommend taking a critical look at your webinar outline and script. Think about what’s really important to cover and what can be cut without taking away from the storyline. On top of that, you need to have several things in your final script that can also be cut during the session.

Finally, it’s crucial that you leave enough time for the questions. Sometimes it’s better to sacrifice some of your content to leave more time for questions. Remember, you’re not recording a long tutorial video. You need to give your audience a chance to interact with you!

Conduct at least 3 dry runs

Every time I prepare a webinar on a new topic, I always conduct one or two dry runs. They help me choose a comfortable pace for the session, understand how much time I need to cover all the essential points and gain more confidence.

I strongly recommend doing three or even more dry runs when preparing your very first webinar. Practice in the early stages is essential. You’ll also have a chance to test the slide deck you prepared. You might end up adding more slides or cutting excessive ones. It’s also a good idea to record your dry runs and ask an experienced colleague to provide feedback. All the common mistakes are easily noticeable to an observer, and you’d be able to immediately address them.

Eliminate “ums” and “ahs”

Nothing sounds as bad during a webinar as a never-ending string of “ums” and “ahs.” You’re not the only one who does it — almost every beginner speaker has this problem. I was lucky enough to have an experienced Wriker next to me when I was preparing my first webinar. She advised me to substitute “uhs” with silence. It’s not something that you can just start doing on the fly without any preparation.

Firstly, not everyone notices when they say “uh” between words. So your first task here is to learn to be aware of every “um” and “ah” you say. Secondly (and yes, it does require self-control), start substituting them with silence. At first, it may seem weird or that you’re speaking very slowly. But after several dry runs, you’ll demonstrate a significant improvement in eliminating these filler words.

Have a plan or script in front of you

Some speakers prefer to have a detailed script that they can actually read out loud, while others choose to have a plan (or a detailed outline) that just contains the key bullet points. Regardless of the approach you choose, make sure that you have it in front of you for the webinar. I personally recommend a detailed script, at least for the first few webinars. Eventually, forgetting to bring a script will only be a minor setback, but forgetting it for your first webinar can be disastrous.

Ask a colleague to help with questions and webinar facilitation

By looking at the number of registrants, you can roughly estimate how many attendees you’ll have. After a certain number of sessions, you’ll gather enough data to predict the attendance rate more accurately. However, what you’ll never know in advance is how many questions will be asked during the session. I delivered webinars that had several hundred attendees, and there were so few questions that I had no problem handling them myself. I also had sessions with under a dozen attendees, but I got overwhelmed with so many questions that I actually spent over an hour after the webinar following up on questions that I couldn’t get to.

To prevent this, I recommend inviting one of your colleagues to help you out with the questions. Many webinar platforms allow you to add more than one organizer/presenter, which gives you the opportunity to split the duties: One person (you) is responsible for delivering the session and addressing a certain number of questions at the end, while another person (your colleague) answers questions in the chat, provide links to additional materials that you mention, and provide any additional help that might be needed during the session. Sometimes you may be able to handle everything yourself and not need your colleague’s help. But it’s better to have a helping hand just in case.

Check your software and equipment

The last advice I have for you is to always check the software and equipment you’ll use to deliver a webinar both prior to the session and during. Anything could come up — like a bad internet connection, malfunctioning headset, or forgetting to unmute yourself. I can personally recall at least four times when I already introduced myself, delivered a couple of minutes of the webinar, and then suddenly realized that the attendees could see my screen but not hear me.

I hope that these recommendations will be helpful for you to prepare your first webinar and deliver it. You can also check out some great tips on conducting webinars shared by Kristen Klein from Zoom (link).