Do you feel that you have valuable information to share with your customers and prospects that just won’t work in text format?
Or maybe you know about some breaking news happening within your industry that your customers might appreciate knowing firsthand.
Are you live at an event that might change how business is done within your niche?
If you answered yes to any of the three questions above, you might want to consider hosting your own webinar for customers and prospects. In addition to allowing you to be on the cutting edge of news or change, a webinar allows you to interact with your customers in a brand new way that presents a more personable image.
Like a virtual conference where you’re the keynote speaker, you can establish your credibility and connect with customers and prospects from around the globe. Best of all, you won’t have to leave your office.
Hosting your own webinar doesn’t have to cost a lot unless you decide to pay for more advanced services. Those worried about the technical aspect can relax. If you have a working web cam, speakers, and a microphone, then you can easily host your own webinar.
Prepare for Your Webinar
By following these tips to you will be prepared and ready to go on the day of your webinar.
If you’ll be treating your event more like a conference, then make sure you send out a notice about your event a few days in advance. Then, the day of the conference, send out one final reminder.
Make sure you account for time zone differences. For instance, if you live on the West Coast in the United States but the majority of your customer base is located in Japan, then you’ll want to use the time that will be best for your customers. But for those customers who can’t make the webinar, you can record it so they can still access the information later. You should always provide a time and date converter link.
After you’ve chosen the best time for your event, make a few notes about what you’d like to say. Don’t write it out word for word. Just try taking down a few bullet points to help you stay on track during your presentation.
Don’t take questions until the presentation is over. Some people have complained that webinars become diluted by customer interaction and they had to leave before the presentation was completed.
Finally, before hosting your event, find a few friends and do a test run to ensure all of your technology works correctly and you can be heard and seen clearly. Now is the time to troubleshoot for annoying bugs or problems that you don’t want to discover the day of your webinar.
After all of the hard work above it’s time to set up your platform to present. I suggest using Zoom as your platform. Most of the world knows how to use Zoom after the pandemic. Using the steps below you’ll be up and running within minutes.
Here’s a step-by-step guide on how to host a webinar on Zoom:
Step 1: Create a Zoom account. If you don’t already have one, you can create a free account on the Zoom website.
Step 2: Schedule your webinar. Once you’re logged in, click on the “Schedule a Meeting” button on your Zoom dashboard. Enter the date, time, and other details of your webinar, and select the webinar option.
Step 3: Customize your settings. You can choose to enable or disable various settings, such as video and audio options, screen sharing, and registration requirements.
Step 4: Promote your webinar. Use social media, email, and other marketing channels to promote your webinar and encourage people to register.
Step 5: Prepare your content. Create a presentation or other content to share during your webinar. You can upload your presentation to Zoom and share it with attendees during the webinar.
Step 6: Practice and test your equipment. Make sure your microphone, camera, and other equipment are working properly before the webinar. You can use Zoom’s test meeting feature to check your audio and video settings.
Step 7: Host your webinar. Start your webinar on time and be prepared to share your content and engage with your attendees. You can use Zoom’s chat feature to answer questions and interact with attendees.
Step 8: Follow up with attendees. After the webinar, follow up with attendees to thank them for attending and provide additional resources or information.
That’s it! With these simple steps, you can host a successful webinar on Zoom and share your expertise with a wide audience.
