Webinars are a great vehicle for providing marketing materials that educate. There are a lot of technical issues that go into creating a great webinar and because we spend so much time trying the get those right, it is easy to overlook the “little things” that can mean a great deal to your audience.
- Speak Up – Make sure the people at the back of the room can hear you. You can’t see the back of the room, but you still need to enunciate and project as if you can. Many of your audience members have older, built in computer speakers that don’t put out a lot of volume. Nothing is worse than stopping to check the comments box of your webinar software to realize that several people cannot hear what you are saying.
- Move your mouse and change your slides slowly – moving quickly and jumping from on side of the screen to another may work fine when you are working one-on-one with a colleague, but it can be distracting, and sometimes disorienting, on a webinar. Depending on internet connection speeds, there may be a delay before they see the slide change or mouse movement. If you are emphasizing a point on a slide they cannot see yet, you are bound to lose your audience.
- Remember, it’s not free – you may not be charging money for your webinar, but your attendees are “paying” with their time and attention. Make sure you are delivering value and be a good cashier – smile and say thank you.
Bonus tip, begin on time – I contemplated not including this one, but more and more I see webinars that start late. I’ve heard some presenters say they delay to allow for folks coming in late – sounds like the beginning of a vicious circle of unproductivity to me.
What are your favorite webinar tips?
