Now that most of you have probably selected your webinar platform of choice, and run a webinar or two, there is one element that can vary greatly from one webinar to the next and that is engagement. So how can you control this and what webinar prep can you do to prevent your audience from screen flicking, multitasking or grabbing a quick coffee? View Webinar.
Luli Adeyemo from Best Case Scenario and Therese O’ Dwyer from RDA Sydney sat down with radio presenter Alexi Boyd to discuss how a two week planning window achieved a 100% attention rate and a very low drop off rate during their webinar entitled ‘Remote Working Strategies’ attended by Government, Councils, Universities & Australian businesses.
The key points addressed during their discussion include webinar adaptation, speaker collaboration and key steps to preparation all having a measurable impact on webinar engagement and beyond the webinar itself.
Highlights From Webinar
How can you achieve 100% audience attentiveness during a webinar? Secure an expert moderator – Luli mentions this is probably one of the biggest ingredients to success – an expert moderator who can keep the conversation on track between speakers and deal with questions from the audience. Ensure diversity of speakers and perspectives – This keeps the content engaging and interesting. Build speaker rapport before the webinar – This is probably one area that differs from a live event. Luli suggests a ‘dress rehearsal’ prior to the webinar.“The prep work that is done in developing a rapport between speakers before a webinar is important, there is then a natural element that flows between them”
The right content for the right audience – Therese referenced how they shaped the webinar on issues that they knew their audience wanted to know more about. It was here that Luli used her network to source three of the four speakers for the webinar. One additional valuable asset was the independent research report authored by the moderator and speaker (Tim Sheedy, Principal Advisor, Ecosystm) on the topic of remote working.
The outbound engagement strategy was a success because of the ideal marrying between great content and access to an audience who wanted this content.
Ask participants for questions when registering – another simple engagement game changer was adding a field on the webinar registration form for delegates to submit a question they would like addressed during the webinar itself.
“Participants were asked to submit questions before the webinar, rather than stumbling on the day with questions, the answers were coming quickly from speakers. One really good aspect was also the answering of questions that were asked during the webinar in a follow up email, this was really good.”
Therese also mentions that the post event content that is sent out to audiences was a great way to engage people and to keep them staying on until the end.
The webinar closes off with Luli discussing the adaptability of the events space and how it is evolving in the current climate. She mentions webinars have always been available, but their adoption and use is now on a massive scale. The current situation just showcases to people that webinars deliver the same engagement you get with physical events and it shouldn’t just be used in a crisis.
She also hopes it will drive people to ask the question, why are we doing this webinar, is it necessary? She has noticed that when working with her clients there is a real purpose behind each webinar.
Based on the processes and methodologies used in building RDA Sydney’s webinar a simple blueprint now exists on the ingredients needed (or ‘secret sauce’ as Alexi refers to it) to continually ensure webinar engagement and attentiveness during webinars. Contact us for the blueprint.
Please contact me at luli@bestcasescenario.com.au to discuss if our framework is suitable for you.
