In case you haven't realised yet, webinars are here to stay!
To be honest, they've been fairly important for many years already, but now I think it's fair to say that the masses are finally convinced in the value they can bring to the marketing funnel.
There is one big caveat to this, which is that they have to be done well. With that in mind, keep scrolling to see my 10 things to avoid when doing a webinar. This is slightly different to a previous post of mine, titled 'Five steps to webinar greatness'.
Here are those 10 things to avoid:
The one-week email promotion - According to some data compiled by ON24, 42% of those who sign up to a webinar do so more than eight days in advance. So, don't spend so long concentrating on the event itself that you forget to invite half the potential audience
Long registration forms - keep it simple, don't ask for too much information. Just get them in with a simple name and email address, maybe a company name to help qualify their potential and then you can always gather additional information afterwards
A dull webinar room - the webinar console has to compete with so many other distractions popping up on the day, so make it engaging - use colours, images & graphics to make it stand out
Leaving your audience out of the conversation - there are so many ways to engage an audience these days; whether it's a simple Q&A, a poll, an interactive game, or even engaging them before the event day itself by asking them for input
Slides with lots of text - the audience have come to listen to a specific person deliver the content , not read a slide. The slide content should be something to stimulate the eyes, it shouldn't stand alone as a bit of content itself. A handout can be made available for download afterwards, which could be more extensive than the actual slides used, something that can stand for itself without a verbal delivery
Selling - don't be overtly promotional about your products. Educate and provide answers and opinions to frequently asked questions or hot topics. If the opportunity arises where a product is the solution, then drop it in, otherwise you can always leave this for a follow up
Bad audio - use a good quality microphone, pick a small room with less echo and away from external noise. No one has time to listen through audio struggles
Not respecting your audiences time - start on time, do not exceed the advertised length, allow sufficient time for Q&A and don't be afraid to end early if the presentation and questions are complete
Not having an on-demand strategy - people are used to engaging in content when they want and how they want. In fact some people sign up to a live event knowing full-well they are not going to attend it, but accept that the common play is that they'll get an email afterwards with a link to watch a recording, so don't disappoint
Not having a follow-up strategy - everyones follow-up will not be the same. You could do it using various criteria, as well as various delivery mechanisms; whether they attended or not, based on certain responses to polls during the event, based on questions asked during the event, based on length of time they stayed on for and so much more. You don't have to do every possibility, just pick the ones that make sense with your customer segmentation and designed journeys