Whew, you’re done with your webinar. Congratulations! Now the real work begins.

You’ve gone this far, don’t quit now
Following up after a webinar is where most companies drop the ball, not realizing how they can turn the event into so much more after it’s done. I would argue the follow-up is the most important piece of webinars. This is where you really get a chance to reach out to your audience, gather feedback and ultimately get those meetings!

After the webinar you’ll get a list of the attendees and non-attendees. To attendees, send a “thank you for attending” e-mail that includes even more value-added content. Use the webinar content and turn it into a blog, online FAQ, podcast, etc., that can be included in your follow-up message. Also be sure to include a clear call to action statement such as doing a one-on-one presentation with people on their team who didn’t have a chance to attend the webinar. Then, follow this e-mail up with a phone call! For non-attendees, send a “sorry we missed you” e-mail that gives a brief overview of what was covered, include insights gained from the polls conducted during the webinar, link to a blog, online FAQ, podcast, etc., and again, include a strong call to action statement.  And, you guessed it, follow up with a phone call.

In both e-mails you can provide a link to the presentation and offer setting up a meeting (a one-on-one presentation). Either way, you can post the presentation on SlideShare to easily share your slides either publically or privately. Once your e-mails are sent and your phone calls are made, take further advantage of your “value-added” pieces. Post your follow-up materials on your Web site and your social media pages, link to them in your e-mail signature and use them in your e-newsletters. Encourage your sales team and others in your company to share it on their personal Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter pages as well.

Finally, poll your audience after the webinar to find out what they thought. What did they like about it? What could have been done better? Most webinar tools offer survey features, but if they don’t, consider using survey tools such as Survey Monkey or Zoomerang. You can use this to improve your webinars as you continue to do them.

Even YOU can create and present successful webinars!
There is a clear difference between webinars that stay with your audience, and those they wish they could forget. By creating a comprehensive plan that accounts for all the details prior to, during and after your webinar, you will set yourself up for success. Use your first few webinars as a learning experience, focusing on your topic, your audience, your presentation and your presentation style. Don’t forget to look at every opportunity to follow-up and qualify the leads coming through your webinars. With lots of practice and a little luck, you’ll have mastered the art of using this online technology to expand your connections with clients and prospects!

I want to encourage you all to try these tips, and send me any feedback or best practices that work best for you and your company.

You’ve gone through your webinar planning, asking yourself the questions you need to ask. Now that you’ve gone through your webinar planning, you are ready to present. Well, almost…

Now is the time to practice and engage
The headline says it all, NOW is your time to practice the webinar and engage your audience. First, you need to get a webinar tool. There are several great tools out there, including Adobe Connect, Go to Webinar and WebEx. The tool you choose is really a matter of preference, required features (polling, auto-registration, operator assistance, etc.) and budget, so do your research.

No matter what webinar tool you use, always do a dry run of the webinar so you get comfortable with the presentation and timing. Even if you are a really great public speaker, webinar presentations are a whole other ball game. A live audience is replaced with your computer screen. If it helps, imagine your computer in its underwear (just kidding). Practice will also help you learn the ins and outs of the webinar tool, test your phone line, and resolve any technical glitches you may have. If possible, involve people on your team (remotely) to provide you feedback. Finally, learn how to open the phone lines to the audience for the Q&A session. By opening the phone lines instead of solely relying on the chat feature, you encourage interaction with your audience.

While creating your presentation, keep in mind these best practices that we’ve learned along the way:

• The number one reason webinar attendees drop off in the first five minutes is because the presentation is too sales oriented. Keep the sales pitch out of the content as much as possible! Save the sales pitch for after the event in your follow-up meetings.
• Aside from a brief introduction to establish credibility, the audience typically doesn’t care about what you can sell to them. This doesn’t mean that you can’t talk about success stories from your clients; it just needs to be presented in an educational way.
• Teach don’t preach. Your webinar should add value to the audience. They want to walk away with insights, knowledge and tips that can help them in their daily jobs, so create your content around this idea.
• Unless the webinar is promoted as a product or service demo, stay away from the temptation, otherwise your webinar may come off as too salesy and you will lose interest.
• Leave enough time (15 minutes or so) for a Q&A session. This way all questions get answered and no one leaves the webinar feeling they weren’t heard.

As for the structure of your presentation, we have found that breaking it up into three parts is the easiest way for your audience to stay attentive and really learn. People digest information better when it’s broken into three’s (hence this blog having three parts!).

1. Introduction (2-3 minutes) — the first section is used to introduce the speaker, describe and set up the topic of the webinar.
2. Presentation/Examples (30 minutes) — this section should be the “meat” of your webinar, providing answers to the issue, solutions and tips. A great way to present this section is the use of lists (like a top 10 list). After you’ve presented your topic, be sure to provide examples. This is where you talk about case studies and success stores to really drive home your point and establish even more credibility.
3. Q&A (15 minutes) — to help prepare for the Q&A session, show people on your team the presentation, what types of questions do they have, what’s missing?
4. Poll Questions (5 minutes) — I know I said there were three steps, which there are, but during the webinar, it’s always a great idea to poll the audience to help keep them engaged throughout. Don’t just poll for polling’s sake, use the information during and after your webinar. Polling allows you to get to know your audience from the outset. You can then start to use this knowledge to customize your content. Most webinar tools have this feature built in and you can see the data instantly. In addition, the results are available after the event which gives you some ammo for follow-up. Very cool, huh?

At the end of your presentation, be sure to promote your next webinar. People will then keep it in the back of their mind and be more apt to register when they receive the next communications. Finally, leave 5 minutes or so in your presentation for buffer time. This will help you overcome timing issues if (and when) technical difficulties happen (and yes they do happen, so its best to build this time in)!

In part 3 of Yes YOU can! How to build and present successful webinars, you’ll learn everything you need to know about following-up after the webinar, which some would say (and I completely agree) is the most important component to achieving your desired ROI.

Catchy headlines anyone?
Three rules when writing webinar headlines that will demand attention

1. The headline should always be benefit-oriented (what will the user gain?), use strong language
2. K.I.S.S. – you know the old adage – keep it simple silly
3. For e-mails, keep the subject line no longer than 50 characters (and that includes spaces too) – this is important for the entire subject line to show up in inboxes/PDA devices

Examples of some successful webinar titles:

• Become the social media guru in your office
• Flip-cam it! Low-cost workshop on low-budget video
• Get in the driver’s seat with Facebook for PR webinar