Free webinars are excellent tools for online educators when it comes to getting more and more leads, building authority and raising awareness about your online school. Thanks to webinars, you can also:
- Build an online school brand easily
- Make potential students get to know about you
- Get a wider reach
- Increase the trust factor towards your online school
Ready to start planning, creating and hosting your webinar? Follow these steps and host free webinars that will get you hundreds of leads.
Are Webinars Still Used Today ?
If we are being short - yes! Webinars are online seminars that have hosts, presenters, presentations, and audiences. The main difference between these two is that unlike seminars, webinars are held only online and all the interaction between the presenter and the audience is online.
- And why are businesses, especially in the educational industry still hosting webinars?
- Besides being an excellent sales tool, webinars help you connect with your students and potential students on a deeper level.
- On the other hand, your students receive great value without leaving the comfort of their location.
- And the greatest advantage is that you are able to get high quality and hot leads. People who register for taking part in your webinar, provide their email addresses. So, you get a ton of contact information from people who are interested in the sphere and may become potential leads.
How to create and host successful webinars
Here is what you need to do to plan and create your first educational webinar before, during and after you go live:
- Step 1: Choose a topic that has high demand
- Step 2: Set a catchy title
- Step 3: Choose your webinar format
- Step 4: Decide where you are going to host your webinar
- Step 5: Plan the date and time
- Step 6: Plan the key subtopics, content & presentation
- Step 7: Launch the landing page
- Step 8: Promote the webinar
- Step 9: Work on your presentation skills
- Step 10: Send the recording and follow up
Now let’s get deeper into each of these steps.
#1 Choose a high-demand topic
Your goal: Ensure your potential students are currently interested in the topic you host the webinar about and your webinar will be a great value in solving their problem.
The most critical point of the whole webinar planning and creating process is the choice of the topic. A topic that you can provide the greatest value in and your students are interested at the moment makes a perfect start!
- List down some topic ideas you are an expert in
- Search for the general topic in search engines to check the demand. You can use tools such as Google Keywords Planner & Google Trends or organize different polls and ask your learners directly.
- Make sure the topic also aligns with your sales goals
Another option is to consider the analytical reports and learn what pages (content) are much visited. Do not forget to check out the competitors and make sure you offer something unique.
Tip: Do not choose a general topic, like “Digital marketing”. First, you will not be able to cover Digital marketing in just one webinar. Secondly, your audience will probably not know what to expect, and what they can achieve by the end of the webinar. So, your topic should be a little more specific. Is that SEO, Social media marketing, Email marketing?
The next step will specify the topic even more!
#2 Set a catchy title
Your goal: Attract as many potential students as possible with a title that reflects their problem and promises a solution.
They say do not judge a book by its cover. But students are definitely going to judge your webinar by its title. It’s what makes the first impression and prompts your students how your webinar is going to aid them before they can read any description.
Reading this heading line, students should immediately realize that they are going to get a solution for their problem.
Tip: While choosing catchy words try to avoid too many fancy words. Remember, that simplicity is key.
Here is your checklist to writing catchy titles for your online course webinars.
✔ Choose power words. These are mainly action verbs or adjectives that arouse interest. Example words include: ease, master, boost, reveal, discover, guaranteed, trending, significantly, etc.
✔ Highlight the benefits. State what the attendees will learn or what skills they will improve.
✔ Keep it short and concise. The shorter and to-the-point it is, the more memorable it will be.
✔ Present is as a question (optional). Questions are more likely to make the attendees seek the answer by participating in your webinar.
✔ Use numbers, if applicable. If there are any numbers, include them in your title, such as 5 strategies, 10 tips, by 25%, etc.
✔ Optimize for SEO. Do not forget to include any relevant keywords the future attendees would use to possibly search for the solution your webinar provides.
A nice example that incorporates most of these points is Amy Porterfield’s webinar masterclass, entitled “Inbox Money: How To Monetize An Email List In 4 Easy Steps”.
#3 Choose the Format of the Webinar
Your goal: Analyze and see which format better fits your webinar goals and which can offer the most value to your attendees.
Having decided on the topic of your upcoming webinar, you should choose the format. Some of the most common webinar formats include the following:
- Single Expert Presenter. An expert shares insight or tips on the chosen topic.
- Dual Presenters. Two people act s speakers during the webinar. Accordingly, the level of engagement increases, and it becomes easier to educate the audience, sharing more information.
- Panel. Like a live panel, you get a chance to host a group of experts discussing a specific topic.
- Q&A Webinar. Such a format of the webinar is a great opportunity to maximize the engagement of attendees. An expert (or a panel) is reliable for answering the questions the audience asks through a chat or social media.
- Interview Webinar. Having a popular influencer as a guest speaker is a great way to boost attendance and build your authority. All you need is to be ready for the extra work of influencer outreach.
- Product Demonstration. This is perfect for promoting a product.
#4 Decide where you are going to host your webinar
Your goal: Choose a platform and tool that will help you host the webinars efficiently.
In order to conduct the webinar successfully, you need to have a good platform. There are so many options available, each with their advantages and disadvantages. Some platforms include:
Tip: When you will be about to start the webinar, make sure your computer has an internet connection, your webcam is clear and functions well, your webinar software is ready and the audio quality is good.
Then you can tap that record button to start recording your webinar.
Using an online teaching platform
If you are already using an online teaching platform like Uteach there would be no need to think about webinar software. With an online teaching platform you can not only host webinars, but also to sell online courses, organize live lessons, run a blog, create tests, offer certificates, etc.
Uteach is such a platform where you may organize the whole process. If your webinars are continual, you may even create a timetable and all the separate events will be automatically scheduled at the fixed time. It integrates well with other video conferencing platforms, and the attendees can join your webinar directly from your website with just one click.
Your personal platform will also help to track the website visitors and get data about their behavior on the platform. If you want to try Uteach for free, or book a free demo and learn about all the functionalities.
#5 Plan the date and time
Your goal: Choose the date and time most suitable for your audience to include as many people as possible in your session.
The date and time of the webinar should be set in advance when you publish information about the upcoming event. You should set it, taking into account the preferable days and time of the day for your target audience (at least the majority of the potential attendees).
This will help the interested people fix the time and consider whether or not they may join it. If there is a limited number of attendees, they should book the online seat in advance.
Tip: LiveWebinar mentions that the best days to organize and host webinars is the midweek, including Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday. And, as you can already guess, the worst day to organize the webinars are Saturdays and Sundays. As for the time, the best hours to host the webinar include from 10 a.m to 1 p.m.
Of course, a lot depends on your attendees’ timezone.
#6 Prepare the content and the presentation
Your goal: Plan how you will deliver the content and information to ensure clear communication, keep the participants interested and engaged.
If you are going to create an engaging presentation, prepare it in advance.
First, you should get started with an outline of your webinar presentation. It may include the introduction part, your personal experience and stories, case studies, your course offerings, questions & answers and the conclusion part.
You can write the script of the webinar, if you like. As your outline is ready you can come to design the slides.
Include all the points from your topic that you want to highlight with this visual material.
There are a number of tools you can use to create your electronic presentations, such as
Now let’s do some math.
The ideal number of how many slides your webinar presentation should have is around 30 slides. Try to allocate around 2 minutes for each slide. This way your webinar will last around 60 minutes. You can dedicate the first 5-7 minutes to greet the attendees and introduce your topic. The main topic will take around 38-45 minutes. Do not forget to dedicate 10-13 minutes to questions and answers.
Tip 1: Do not overload your electronic presentation with huge chunks of text. You can have heavy slides if you really need them, but it’s always a good idea to highlight only the main points.
Tip 2 : Pay attention to the colors, style, and language. The slides should follow your brand image, visual elements, colors, and style.
#7 Launch your webinar landing page
Your goal: Create an ideal place where the webinar attendees will be directed and learn more about your webinar.
Your webinar landing page is a web page, where the visitors may find all the information related to the upcoming webinar. Being one of the main channels for webinar promotion, It encourages your future attendees to register.
To have an informative and compelling landing page:
✔ Include your webinar’s optimized name as the main heading
✔ Highlight the benefits they will get and mention all the points that are going to be discussed
✔ Provide details, like about the host, speaker(s), date and time, etc.
✔ Mention contact information, so that the visitors get in touch in case they have any questions.
Being another important component of your webinar landing page, CTAs help you to boost registrations. is the So place them strategically across the page to encourage the interested students to register and take the next action.
In addition to your webinar landing page copy, the visuals like images and videos are of great importance. So, choose these elements wisely.
Webinar Landing Page Example
A nice example of such a landing page is Emy Porterfield’s webinar-masterclass page.
What she did well:
- The headline reflects the benefit and is set as a question.
- The copy is short and concise.
- Headlines, subheadlines have a visual hierarchy.
- Promises a free bonus.
- Registration steps are clearly pictured.
- A testimonial is included.
- Key benefits are nicely stated.
- The visuals evoke positive emotions.
- The colors are consistent.
#8 Promote the Webinar on Different Platforms
Your goal: Reach as many people as possible by sharing your webinar invitation through various channels.
When the landing page of the webinar is ready on your website, it is high time for you to share it on different channels to reach as many people as possible.
- Share posts and updates on social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and Instagram. You can even create events on Facebook and LinkedIn to reach more people. When sharing posts you can also use relevant hashtags to be found more easily.
- Your next main channel will be email marketing. Create your webinar invitation and send out the details with compelling subject lines and preview texts. You can also send reminder emails when the webinar date is approaching. Just make sure to learn the intricacies of email marketing, including how to warm up your domain, how to set up DMARC, and which words to avoid in your campaigns.
- If you like, you may even run advertising campaigns on social media channels, as well as on search engines. You can use tools such as Ads Manager and Google Ads to promote your webinar.
#9 Work on your presentation skills
Your goal: We are done with all the planning and preparations. Now, we should think about how to deliver the webinar properly.
If you are the one hosting the webinar and acting as a speaker, you should also ensure you are going to deliver the webinar well enough. This is why your presentation skills matter a great deal. So, you should rehearse your presentation multiple times to familiarize yourself with the content and the flow. When the your first webinar starts:
- Enunciate your words and speak at a moderate pace for your audience to follow.
- Pay attention to your tone of voice, so that it is not monotonous.
- Stand or sit up to maintain good posture, which in its turn conveys confidence.
- Follow the time so that you manage to cover all the points and allocate at least 10 minutes for questions.
However, you may not want to be the speaker during your webinar. So, you may as well choose a good speaker. This person may be a college or somebody well known in your market niche - a person who the audience trusts. This person may also be an industry influencer. Make sure to send a speaker invitation letter and ensure that the invited speaker has all the required knowledge and experience in the industry to present a valuable speech worthy for the participants to join the webinar.
#10 The webinar is over. What’s next?
After your live webinar is over you can also present it in a recorded format. Mention that the recording and slides will be sent to attendees during your webinar. And do send the recording within the next 24 hours in a follow up email.
The follow up email is what will finalize the initial goal you set. For example, your goal might be just to educate, or to encourage the attendees to enroll in your next course. That is why include a call-to-action for your webinar participant to do so.
Another good practice is asking for your participants’ feedback. You can create a short survey and send it to all the attendees and see what they liked, what they would like to improve, or would they like to participate in your future webinars.
Gradually, the number of people who are interested in your services will increase. So, you may think about coming up with paid webinars.
Frequently Asked Questions About Organizing And Creating Webinars
Still have questions about how you can run free webinars? We can help you with that!
What does webinar mean?
A webinar is a combination of the words "web" and "seminar." It refers to a live, online presentation, lecture, workshop, or seminar that is conducted over the internet using video conferencing technology. Webinars allow participants to interact with the presenter, ask questions, and engage in discussions.
What is the role of a host in a webinar?
The person scheduling the webinar who facilitates and guides the participants throughout the webinar and manages the process is the host. The responsibilities of the host include troubleshooting technical issues, welcoming the participants, introducing the speaker, keeping the webinar on schedule, encouraging audience participation through polls and questions, etc.
How do I start the webinar?
As you already have the webinar agenda and the script, starting your webinar would not require much effort.
To open your webinar, start with a welcome. You can use opening lines as:
- Welcome, dear participants! I'm thrilled to have you here for [Event/Webinar Name].
- Hello everyone and welcome to today’s webinar
- Hello, [Webinar Name] attendees! Whether you're tuning in from the office, home, or somewhere in between, I'm so glad you could join us for this event."
Then you can share your webinar agenda, define the purpose of your webinar and get started with the content.
How do I attract people to my webinar?
There are several steps you can complete to attract more and more people to your webinar. They include:
- Using social media, email newsletters, and other channels to promote the event.
- Choosing a topic that appeals to your audience the most.
- Offering incentives, such as exclusive content, discounts, guides, and other freebies.
- Placing strategic CTAs on your webinar landing page
- Sending reminder emails before the event starts
Do you need slides for a webinar?
Yes! Your slides play an important role in your webinar. While not mandatory, slides enhance the visual aspect of your webinar. They help illustrate key points, keep participants engaged, and provide a visual structure. So you should use slides sparingly, focusing on visuals that support your speech rather than overwhelming participants with too much information.
What NOT to do in a webinar?
There are several rules you should follow to succeed with your webinar. Here is what you should NOT do.
- Starting the webinar late - Remember, you should join the webinar 10 minutes earlier.
- Keeping it too long - Your webinar should ideally last about 60 minutes.
- Not including a Q&A session - To keep your participants engaged and clarify their questions and doubts dedicate at least 10 minutes for questions and answers.
- Running a webinar without pre-prepared materials.
- Running over time.
Time to host your very first free webinar!
Hosting webinars is a powerful way to connect with audiences, share valuable information, and establish yourself as an authority in your field. By following the main steps outlined in this guide, from selecting compelling topics to engaging participants and managing technical aspects, you can create a successful and impactful webinar.
As technology evolves, so do the tools available for hosting webinars. One of the best tools allowing you to host webinars is Uteach, which has integrations with popular video conferencing tools. Book a demo today to explore all the functionalities and start creating.
Happy hosting!
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