Not every webinar is made equal. Some webinars dazzle, bringing in 73% lead generation and some get lost in the bottomless pit of internet information. But that won’t happen to you or your webinar, not if you keep reading.

In this article, we’ll make sure you have all the tips to guarantee your webinar is a hit and not a miss. We’ll outline the top 7 mistakes on your webinar planning checklist that may well be holding you back from becoming a webinar star. So keep reading to learn more about webinar best practices. 

‍Mistake 1: You’re choosing a webinar topic that isn’t truly valuable 

You’re most likely familiar with the power of a good webinar, but perhaps you’re a little unsure about how to most effectively harness a webinar’s lead generation power for your business. Your first instinct may be to host a webinar that sells your services or products, but let us tell you why that's more of a webinar no-no.

When attendees join your webinar, they’re trading their time for value you’re promising to provide. Sales pitches, while proper in a boardroom full of well-nurtured leads, are not that valuable for attendees. Webinar attendees are often nearer the top of your marketing funnel, so webinars are your space to make a meaningful brand impression and keep potential leads coming back. After all, there's really no point for a webinar that isn't useful or engaging to attendees. 

Now you may be wondering, what makes a webinar valuable? This can be quite subjective, but try to think of your favourite webinars and the most popular types of webinars, ones that are great at engaging audiences and are made to inform attendees. The same concept applies to your webinars, too. Webinars should inform and entertain audiences, which is likely why the most popular type of webinar is an educational one. 

According to industry studies, educational webinars have an attendance rate of 60%. Of these attendees, 50% of them prefer demons (hello lead generation) and approximately 50% prefer technical and support-related webinars. 

But just because your webinar shouldn’t be all about sales, doesn't mean you can't throw some CTAs in there. One way to mix educational webinars with lead nurturing is to create demand with exclusivity. What about offering exclusive discounts, content, and sneak peeks of future projects. This creates onward funnel activity while adding another layer of value for attendees. 

With that in mind, it’s also important to note that people sign up for webinars that cater to their passions or interests. One study found that 27% of people polled signed up for webinars that teach them more about a passion or hobby, while 24% said they signed up for webinars that entertain them. 

That last bit is key because if you want your attendees to keep coming back it's not just about what you’re sharing with them - it’s also how you deliver your webinar. 

‍Mistake 2: You’re doing too much

We know it's exciting to jump into the webinar world, and you want to share your expertise with all your attendees but it’s important you don’t pursue too many goals at once. Webinar planning starts with knowing the goal of your webinar. Everything else grows from that foundation. 

Webinars are a wonderful marketing tool for onboarding, customer education, lead generation, and lead nurturing - but no webinar can be all these things at once. We know it's tempting to try and maximise your webinar audience by throwing all your marketing strategies at them at once. But the problem is that none of it will stick. 

We recommend using your audience exposure to drive just one of your marketing strategies from start to finish, rather than biting off more than you chew. By narrowing your focus you can enhance your brand experience by showing off your market expertise and creating meaningful relationships with specific customer segments. 

This makes nurturing qualified leads that music easier for your marketing team.That brings us to your next big webinar planning mistake…

‍MIstake 3: You’re not seeing the big (marketing) picture

Webinars are an excellent tool in your marketing strategy toolbox, but they share that space with a bunch of other marketing gadgets. If you know what audience segment you’re going for, it's important to align your webinar with the exact action you want your target audience to take. 

One of the reasons it's so important to narrow the focus of your webinar is because each webinar can fall on a different part of your customer journey. You want to know if your webinar is at the top of the funnel, and if so how you can utilise your webinar to encourage downward funnel activity. For example, an educational webinar may act as a customer awareness tool. While a product demo may nurture the middle stage of the customer journey, consideration. 

A webinar for the last stage of the funnel may be focused on a Q&A session where your prospect has a chance to ask any last questions about your product or services. It's also an amazing opportunity to encourage your prospect to get to know your brand holistically, which is vital for any long term business relationship. 

‍MIstake 4: Branding is key, but you’re probably not branding enough

Did you know that consistent branding has been shown to grow revenue from 10% to 20% across different business industries? Branding is a major focus and cost for any company so if you’re not branding all your content, you’re missing out on high returns. 

That's because branding creates a unified and holistic brand identity, which creates personal connections with customers' trust.

Branding your content enhances your brand experience as a whole and creates a lasting relationship with attendees.

With all the ways webinars encourage lead generation make sure you don’t overlook the power of branding. Consistent branding across a company platform has been shown to increase revenue by 23%, so really what excuse is there to not brand your webinar? 

When you’re looking to brand your webinar lookout for platforms that have these key features: 

• Ability to use brand colours
• Integrate brand logos
• Personalised landing pages
• Customisable backgrounds

You also want a webinar platform that lets you take your branding one step further by having integrated CTAs, so your branded content can continue to reach attendees. This includes email sign-ups, resource downloads and other onward funnel journey tools. Branding every aspect of your webinar makes your marketing efforts work harder. 

If you’re ready to brand your own webinar, or if you're curious to learn more about why we’re so passionate about webinar branding, check out our article ‘The importance of branding your webinars’.

‍Mistake 5: Not recording your webinar

‍One major way you’re failing to maximise your webinars' value is by not recording them. The time and money you spent making that great webinar content should be used after the event has happened to increase your ROIs. So if you want to make your webinar work even harder, record your webinar.

A recorded webinar is often referred to as an on-demand webinar, a webinar that’s available anytime, anywhere via a link or log in. This type of webinar is flexible and allows for attendees to tune into a webinar after it has happened, making it a great option for attendees who missed out on the live webinar or want to re-watch. 

On-demand webinars happen to be content creation machines.

Video is a powerful content marketing tool, with 93% of marketers saying video has helped them increase their brand awareness.

One of the best ways to boost on-demand webinar video value is to make the value of the webinar timeless.

Webinars about topics that continue to be relevant way after the webinar is first aired are called evergreen webinars. Evergreen webinars can continue to draw in digital consumers and nurture potential leads by offering lasting value. 

One study found that 73% of customers prefer video over text-based articles, infographics or books when learning about a product. S

o product demos, brand introductions or other brand informing on-demand webinars make a wonderful addition to your content catalogue. The power of video is likely why 58% of webinar hosts are already using live and on-demand webinar capture. 

To do this easily and efficiently, plan on using a webinar platform that has built-in recording and storage for your on-demand video. And if you want to learn more about on-demand webinars and how webinars can add to your marketing strategy, check out our article ‘How to grow your content strategy with webinars’.

‍Mistake 6: Not making your webinar engaging or interactive

So this should go without saying, but your audience should enjoy your webinar or at least find it engaging and not boring! One of the best ways for attendees to enjoy themselves and get more out of the webinar is to encourage their participation. 

By encouraging conversation, answering questions and engaging with audience members, webinar hosts make audience members feel a part of the webinar. And audience members learn more by being active participants than passive, in fact, active participation triggers a different part of your brain. 

But participation should be built into your webinar planning. After all, webinars are online seminars, created for two-way engagement between hosts and their audience. As an online stage created or seminar-style engagement most webinar platforms include a bevy of features that make it easy and seamless for host and guest to interact. 

For example, many platforms have chat boxes and incorporate Q&A sessions into their webinar schedule. These two features encourage audiences to engage with each other and the host, setting the stage for a more interactive webinar as a whole. 

Other features like reliable internet connection, high-quality video, live streaming and speaker collaboration ensure that people can engage throughout your webinar. Without the ability to hear or see someone, all your webinar engagement plans go out the window. So make sure you choose a platform that can ensure all these features.

During the webinar, there are tons of ways hosts can engage audience members. Hosts can ask participants to introduce themselves and should share content before the webinar so all participants have something to discuss on the day of the webinar. It also grows the excitement for the day of the webinar. 

We offer loads more tips and tricks to engage with webinars in our article, ‘How to make a webinar interactive and engaging in 2022’, so we’d encourage you to give it a read! 

‍Mistake 7: You’re not following up with your attendees

Last but not least, one of the most common mistakes companies make is that after they've put all this time and effort into hosting an amazing webinar - they don’t follow up. 

We know that most people who sign up for a webinar don't attend (which is totally normal), but that just means you have to appreciate the people who do show up a little more. You should be putting in the extra leg work to strengthen the relationship you have with your attendees. At the very minimum, it's expected you share a recording of your webinar with attendees, but don’t stop there! 

While your attendees may not be ready to click buy just yet, a good follow up post webinar is all you need to further nurture them down the marketing funnel. This includes emails with your content and resources and notes from your presentation alongside your webinar recording. If you want to get creative you can create infographics for data collected at the webinar or even hire an artist to create beautiful notes illustrating everything you covered in your webinar! 

These small touches are sure to leave your attendees with a lasting impression of your webinar - and your brand. No matter what you do though, if you take that extra time to invest in your webinar attendees you will see a high ROI. 

With these webinar best practices you can be sure to avoid the webinar waste basket. By double-checking your webinar planning checklist and paying extra attention to the details we mentioned above you're guaranteed to have a webinar success. 

If you’re webinar-pro reading to better your webinar skills, or a webinar newbie getting ready to host your first webinar, we’d love to help you on your journey. Here at Tame, we offer free personalised demos so you can see if we’re the right platform for your brand and marketing goals. Reach out to us and we can help you every step of the way. 

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Resources:

1. Webinar Care: “39 Webinar Statistics 2022 – Effectiveness, Attendance and All”
2. Tame: “Webinar checklist | Top tips for how to plan your webinar”
3. Hubspot: Pamela Bump - “Why Consumers Sign Up for Webinars [New Data]”
4. Lucidpress: “2021 The State of Brand Consistency”
5. Forbes: “10 Marketing, Web Design & Branding Statistics To Help You Prioritize Business Growth Initiatives”
6. Tame: “The importance of branding your webinars”
7. Wyzowl: “Video Marketing Statistics 2022”
8. Tame: “How to grow your content strategy with webinars”
9. StudentLife Network: “What Type Of Student Are You? Active Participant vs. Passive Observer”
10. Tame: “How to make a webinar interactive and engaging in 2022”