What is a Webinar? How does an Online Seminar work? What are the Benefits of a Webinar? How to Make Webinars Successful? We tell you all the secrets so that you understand what these types of meetings are.

What is a webinar?

A webinar is a specialized online meeting to deal with a technical topic with a training nature, where you want to encourage interactivity between speakers and attendees. A webinar is the combination of the words web + seminar, basically being an online seminar, webinar, or webinar.

Webinars are usually live, since the interactivity is much more natural than in a video. A link is also usually passed for its recorded broadcast, with a link to a form to answer questions if there are any and/or to encourage interaction between speakers and attendees.

The barriers between a webinar, a conference, a workshop, or a course are becoming more diffuse, since there are online tools that allow us to carry out all these types of training meetings, simply by activating utilities.

Although it does not appear in the definition of a webinar, most of these types of online meetings allow free registration. Online paid seminars are really in the minority today.

How does a webinar work?

A webinar must have a specific place, date, and time, established in advance. Being live and wanting to encourage interactivity, it is the same as a date.

The webinar room is the virtual place where the webinar takes place and where registered users must arrive. Normally, attendees must provide their names and email in order to register for the event. Minutes before it, the organizer sends a virtual link to the webinar address, so that they can access it with their credentials.

The webinar presenter himself can act as the organizer, but usually, there is a person who controls attendance, assigns turns to speak, and ensures the smooth running of the meeting.

As it is an online seminar, the speaker usually uses a webcam, and a microphone and shares his desktop to see his image, the presentation, diagrams, videos… On the other hand, the attendees use their speakers and screens much more, so as not to lose detail of the formation.

Benefits of a webinar

The benefits of the webinar are very evident as a content strategy, minimizing the disadvantages if it is carried out with a good organization.

Some advantages of webinars are:

• We can interact directly with a target audience interested in the subject, in real-time, and with maximum proximity.
  The speaker has great attention from the attendees. Video is the format with the most engagement for training.
• We have the data of the attendees for a later remarketing .
• The training can be enjoyed live and/or recorded on video.
• We can use multiple marketing strategies to fill the room with qualified attendees.
• Webinars bring popularity and authority to the speaker and host. They are one of the main digital marketing strategies to enhance profiles.
• Social networks can be used to increase the impact of the content, once the webinar has been delivered, as well as publication on the organizer’s website or channel.
• It is an increasingly used tool for sales, due to its great power of convocation and commercial persuasion.

How to do a webinar?

A webinar is online training, so at least we must make sure that we have a room according to the needs and that the speaker has the necessary equipment (computer, webcam, microphone, and a moderately reliable internet connection).

Because an online seminar needs attendees who are interested in the topic, some planning is in order for it to be successful. The usual thing is to announce it a month in advance to get a good audience.

We are going to recommend a series of tips to achieve success when conducting a webinar.

webinar platform

The platform for the webinar room can be specific or general. The organizer must choose the one that he thinks best suits the format. Specific rooms have tools designed to optimize interaction in an orderly manner.

Some general platforms are direct on YouTube, Twitch, Facebook, and Twitter… and some specific ones are Zoom, Google Hangouts, Webinarjam, WeBex, GoToWebinar…

Webinar theme

We must never lose sight of the thematic, speaker, and target audience triangle. If any of the three fail, critiques can begin even before the seminar room opens.

If the webinar has commercial content, it must be notified in advance. It should not be forgotten that the worst assistant is the one who feels cheated or frustrated by the content.

Webinar date and time

It is convenient to choose the date one month before the celebration of the event. This gives time to perfect the presentation and get good attendees.

Be careful choosing business hours and holidays. You also have to look at what other events are taking place at the same time and on the same date.

A change of time or date can be an indication of poor organization.

Webinar landing page

A good landing page with the webinar data is the best way to ensure a good audience. All the above data: theme, date, and platform must be clearly specified.

The registration form should be as short as possible, without missing a single piece of information. If possible, you should notify several Call To Action (calls to action) that go to the form, during the explanation on the landing page.

It is essential to remember that for the registration form we have to comply with the regulations of the General Data Protection Regulation (RGPD), collecting the express consent of the user and informing them about the treatment that we will make of their personal data. Likewise, if in the future we want to send you a newsletter or publicity for upcoming webinars, we also have to expressly obtain this consent as required by the RGPD.

webinar broadcast

To have a good number of attendees to a webinar, they must be able to find out. It is time to use both inbound strategies (earned and therefore free broadcast) and outbound strategies (paying for broadcast).

The usual thing is to use social networks, email marketing, social ads, and search ads. Let us remember that in outbound strategies we will be able to control much better who the messages reach.

Some days before and in the previous hours, we should contact the attendees by email, to remind them of the event. You have to try to maximize live attendance. In the same way, you can contact us by email to show the recording of the video seminar.

webinar script

The webinar should have a welcome, an introduction, a beginning, a middle, an end, and a closing. The organizer must decide when attendees can participate.

It should start with a welcome and introduction by the organizer. Subsequently, the speaker will begin with his talk and at the end, the organizer must take control again. Most questions and interactions may be allowed at that time.

The usual thing is that the duration of the webinar is less than 60 minutes, or at least that this is the maximum presentation time. It is very complicated to have more attention time from the attendees.