More and more professionals are giving online webinars these days. Though they seem deceptively similar to in-person presentations, webinars present different challenges. The first step to giving an effective webinar presentation is to build and rehearse it for maximum success.
Steps to Creating an effective Webinar presentation
Organize your thoughts. Brainstorm what you want to say, then rearrange your ideas into a more coherent and fluid structure until it looks like a presentation and not just ideas.
Your webinar should be structured like this:
- 45-50 minute presentation
- 10-15 minutes of Q&A
TIP: Stick to a hard 60 minute time limit — this is a good amount of time to keep everyone’s attention and make your point without running long and boring everyone.
Outline your presentation effectively.
- Most webinar platforms offer options for screen sharing or slideshow presentations. Create a Slides or Powerpoint presentation with visuals like you would with an in-person presentation.
- Visuals are key to keeping your audience engaged when your physicality and eye contact is limited or non-existent.
- Spend two minutes introducing yourself and your background at the top of the event. Why should people care about what you have to say?
TIP: Your slideshow should have a picture of you during this part so people can visualize you even better.
- Spend 3-5 minutes summarizing what they can expect to learn in the presentation. This is your sales pitch to convince viewers they want to stick around for the full hour.
- Determine 3-5 core points you wish to cover during the presentation and evenly distribute them across the remaining 40 minutes.
- Plan to spend approximately 7-10 minutes on each point. Numbering each point and allocating specific time to each point helps you balance your presentation and not overtalk on any point.
- Engage your audience frequently, even if the questions are rhetorical. The immediate response isn’t important, but keeping them engaged is. Try to do this with every point.
TIP: Ask them to think about the point you make; share a poll; ask a direct question.
Formulate a good closing. Summarize your presentation again, briefly touching on the point of each of your core points. Explain to viewers where and how they can learn more — a website? Other videos? A book?
Pre-compose 3 to 5 questions. Often audiences need questions to jumpstart their own. These could be basic or more sophisticated, but they should serve as a natural bridge between you finishing your presentation and the audience submitting their questions.
Use your questions to provoke thought from your audience and/or to encourage them to ask follow-ups.
TIP: Coordinate with someone in your virtual audience to have them ask a few initial questions.
Finish the presentation with an incentive. This could be a website to visit, a book you’re promoting, etc.
Rehearse your webinar. Before you actually give your presentation, practice it in its entirety on our own a couple of times before. This will allow you to give a more effective webinar presentation.
TIP: Ask someone to hop on a rehearsal webinar with you and give you pointers for places to improve. They will see things you don’t.
Record the event. This way, you can post the archive on your website or social media. Even better, put the video behind a paywall to capture ongoing leads.
Follow these steps and you can build an engaging, well-structured and effective webinar presentation that can serve you and/or your business for a long time.
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S-FX.com Small Business Solutions is a boutique web design and technology consulting agency geared towards start-up businesses, small businesses and non-profit businesses. We specialize in implementing low cost technology solutions to maximize efficiency and reduce business operating costs.
