Are people sticking around for your whole webinar, or are they drifting off part way? With so many webinars and Zoom meetings going on, many people are feeling a sense of “webinar fatigue.” They might feel exhausted at the mere idea of attending yet another webinar. In other cases, your audience members may have been put off by sub-standard webinars they’ve attended in the past. If they feel like they wasted two hours on someone else’s webinar in your niche, then that may well affect how they feel about attending yours. So how can you turn things around? Here are 7 steps to take to avoid webinar fatigue and keep your audience engaged.
Step 1. Plan and Organize Your Webinar Carefully
It’s important to plan your webinar well ahead of time. Think about not only the content but also how to make it most helpful to your audience. For instance, an hour-long webinar might suit them better than a two-hour webinar. You want to organize your content well, too. If you ramble on for ages at the start of your webinar or tell the audience at length about something that really should be a brief sidenote, then you’re going to see your viewer numbers drop dramatically.
Step 2. Choose the Right Time for Your Webinar
What time of day suits your audience best? If you don’t know, then ask them! You might find that evening webinars are difficult for an audience of parents, who’re busy with their kids, but a lunchtime webinar could be perfect. Choosing the right time for your webinar can make a huge difference in how engaged your audience is. The right time of day means they’ll be focused and ready to learn – and they won’t be distracted by lots of other tasks or interruptions.
Step 3. Make Sure All the Technology Involved is Working Well
Have you ever been stuck in a webinar or meeting where someone’s audio was crackly, their video kept freezing, and they couldn’t get to grips with tools like the screen share button? It can be hugely frustrating to be in a meeting where you can’t hear or see the speaker properly, or where things just aren’t working right. Well in advance of your webinar, make sure that your audio is clear, your video is smooth, your internet connection is stable, and you’re confident using all the different features of your webinar software.
Step 4. Use Visually Interesting Slides
Are your slides full of text? It’s easy for your audience to mentally switch off if there’s nothing interesting to look at. Instead of packing your slides with text, use photos, graphs, screenshots, illustrations, or any other images that help enhance your webinar and engage your audience. Incorporate your company branding, too. In general, less is more when it comes to text. Remember, you’ll be talking your audience through everything they need to know: they don’t need to be able to read it all, too. (If you need extra text to keep you on track while you’re talking, put that in the notes to your slides, which won’t be shown in your presentation.)
Step 5. Keep Introductions Short and Get On With the Content
It’s easy to end up spending the first 15 or 20 minutes of a webinar slowly introducing yourself and your topic. While it’s important to give your audience confidence that you know what you’re talking about – and to give them a clear idea of what to expect from your webinar – you don’t want to spend so long on the introduction that people end up leaving. Try to get into your content as quickly as you can. Even if you’re waiting to give everyone a chance to join the webinar, you could share some quick tips right at the start.
Step 6. Include Plenty of Practical Tips and Takeaways
Your webinar should include lots of practical tips and takeaways for your audience. Don’t spend ages on theory or fluff. When people attend a webinar, they’re usually looking for solutions to a problem, and they want you to share your insights and ideas. Obviously, if your webinar is promoting a paid course or product, you won’t want to give away every single tip or idea during the webinar, but you should be offering real value. Otherwise, your audience will simply leave instead of sticking around for your pitch.
Step 7. Give Your Audience Plenty of Opportunities to Interact
One of the great things about webinar technology is that it gives you the chance to run live polls and to get responses in the chat in real-time. Offer opportunities to interact throughout your webinar. That might include asking questions at regular intervals or giving the audience a chance to share their own insights, ideas, or struggles. People are much more engaged when they’re actively doing something, instead of passively sitting back and listening, so interaction is a great way to combat webinar fatigue. Are you ready to create more engaging webinars that draw in a large audience of people who stick around right till the end? Follow the steps above and you’ll be well on your way to creating a stand-out webinar that gets the kind of engagement you want to see.
