Webinar Hosting 101: How To Set Up A Webinar

With trade shows canceled across the globe in response to COVID-19, many marketers are looking for new ways to reach their customers and generate new leads. One of the best ways is by hosting a webinar. However, if you’ve never hosted a webinar before, this idea can sound a little daunting. In this article, we cover the very basics of planning a webinar.

Start With An Idea

Schedule a meeting with your team. Make sure to include those who interface with your customers regularly like your customer service or sales teams. Also include members of your product development team Talk about what questions and comments come up the most. Discuss your latest products and projects. As you go through these items, keep a list of topic ideas that could be engaging. Then you can either narrow it down to one topic or use them all for a series.

Decide On Your Format

There are a couple of different ways to format a webinar including:

● Single presenter

● Interview

● Moderated panel discussion

● Q&A with the audience

You can also do a mixture of both. Once you’ve decided your format, then you will need to look into the technical pieces like microphones, video cameras, and streaming platforms. Make sure to have backups in case of equipment failure. There are so many great resources for hosting webinars. There are entire platforms dedicated to hosting webinars and some are even free.

Create Some Visuals For Your Webinar

Visuals help make your webinar look polished and act as guides for both your presenters and audience. It’s a good idea to start the conference with an introductory page that features your logo, the names of the presenters, and the topic that will be covered. Then make some visual elements that work with your topic like bar graphs of statistics or images of the product. You’ll also want to be mindful of your backdrop, Consider using some of your marketing pieces like a backdrop wall or pop-up banners. This will help set the stage for the discussion.

Once you’ve got all of these pieces planned, schedule a run through. This will help you identify any areas that need improvement or any bugs that need to be worked out before you take it live. Once all of these pieces are in place, you can begin marketing your webinar. At Lighthouse Exhibits we understand the challenges faced by marketing teams during pandemic and are here for support and advice to help keep your business thriving during this time.