How to run your own webinar – Part 2 | On The Day

In my last blog post I shared tips for setting up and marketing your webinar. In this final part of the webinar blog series I want to share some of the lessons I have learned about running the event on the day itself.

If you’ve attended my one day Presentation Secrets event you’ll know I highly recommend webinars to really get your speaking business off the ground.

Nowadays I run webinars every week; either for coaching calls, my weekly catch up calls with my team or to promote upcoming events.

I’ve made plenty of mistakes in the past and so by sharing the lessons I have learned with you today, you will be better prepared from the outset.

Do a dummy rehearsal

Once you’ve become more proficient at running webinars you won’t necessarily need to rehearse but for your early events I recommend you do a dry run a day or two before the live event. Ask a few friends to sit in and act as participants and ask questions…you can always ask for their feedback too.

Why?

• You get to practice speaking your presentation out loud. Make sure it all flows smoothly and you’re happy with how your slides appear on the screen
• You can check you have allowed enough time. For an hour long webinar, I usually time my presentation to last for about 45 minutes which provides for a 15 minute Q&A at the end. The Q&A time is important because it gives you the chance to respond to any objections which may be preventing sales.
• Get familiar with the technical aspects. This is great for you and your buddy to familiarise yourself with the control panel, responding to questions and to check all of your settings are working ok. It is far better to have something go wrong in a rehearsal if you can avoid the same issue affecting your live broadcast.

You need a buddy

When I first started running webinars I thought it would be easy enough to manage on my own. The reality is that there is so much going on during the webinar, that it becomes distracting for you when you’re trying to deliver your presentation.

So I recommend appointing an organiser to help you. The presenter is the person talking (you) but you can have up to five organisers on the call with you who can take care of

Questions:

Throughout the webinar people will be sending you questions using the chat box. Your organiser can sift through the messages, respond to anything general and pick out the ones for you to answer in the call.

Tell your buddy when you can be interrupted as there is no benefit to having a buddy who will be constantly distracting you. Perhaps have a silent code between you if you are in the same room that lets them know you can be approached.

Technical problems

In most webinars I run I will receive a message from a participant who is experiencing difficulties with their audio settings…they can see my screen but can’t hear me speaking.

Now, there is one very important lesson I learned early on: If you receive this message from one or two people, then the chances are they have either not switched their speakers on, not increased the volume or they have accidently muted the session. In these cases, have your buddy reply advising them to check their own settings. The problem is at their end.

If there was a technical problem at your end, you would receive lots of these messages. In the early days I made the mistake of stopping the webinar believing I had a fault on my webinar setup when in fact it was only an issue for a minority.

So, make sure your buddy is aware of how many people are on the call in relation to the number experiencing technical difficulties…then you will have a perspective on the extent of the issue.

Record the webinar

Having a recording of your webinar is beneficial for a couple of reasons. Firstly it provides you with the opportunity to listen to the recording to assess how it went from the perspective of your viewers.

But it also becomes a tangible product for you…perhaps a free download to build your list or maybe a bonus to add value to a future coaching program or product sale…or both!

Relax

Running a webinar can be so much fun so really embrace the experience and relish the opportunity to connect with your audience. Having a buddy around to help will take the pressure off enabling you to just go with the flow.

Enjoy!

Have you found this mini series helpful? What did you do for your first webinar? It would be really great if you can share your own tips and experiences in the comments box to help other members of the community.

If you’d like to attend Presentation Secrets, we are over half way through the tour of Australia now but the remaining two dates still have a few tickets available. Go here for more details and to book

ADELAIDE 19th March

SYDNEY 21st March

Presentation Secrets will be in the UK in May for several dates in London. Tickets aren’t on sale just yet but go here to pre register and be the first to hear when places are relased.