How to build a killer webinar presentation

...by appealing to your audience and making this

appeal your key metric

Traditional presentation advice is,

Tell ‘em what you’re going

to tell ‘em

Tell ‘em Tell ‘em what you told ‘em

Trouble is, it more often seems like:

Tell ‘em how you’re going to bore ‘em

Bore ‘em Tell ‘em how you bored

them!

To create content that endures, rather than content your audience endures.Ask yourself these questions first.

QUESTION 1:

Who is the target audience for this event?

Can’t answer?Then you’re building a webinar for

yourself. Not your audience.

Start by listing what you understand your audience needs. It doesn’t always take long.

What are your audience’s

learning needs?

What are their business pain

points?

What information do they need right

now?

QUESTION 2:

What do they need first?

Make sure you know where your audience is on the purchasing path before building your webinar.

Tailor your webinar to their needs at the moment.

Are they seeking initial information?

Are they ready for a shake-up?

Do they know what pain you solve?

Are they aware of best practice?

Are they open to new ideas?

QUESTION 3:

Is your title compelling?

Your headline must:

Catch them in the first second

Answer the need you identified

Summarise the benefit

they’ll get from attending

List-style titles (“9 ways to X, 10 reasons to Y”) work

well, as do action words like “Build” and “Create”.

*Oddly, starting list-style titles with an odd number works!

“11 Common Mistakes… and How to Avoid Them”“7 Keys to Success”“5 Best Practices for Product Launches”“Build your Social Media Footprint”“How to Optimize Content Delivery”“How to Drive Webinar Registration”

And “How to”.

QUESTION 4:

Does your content tell a story?

The test of any webinar is whether you can sum it up in a single sentence that demonstrates the change

it delivers.

If you can’t…Then it doesn’t.

Can you say “confused”, “unfocussed”, and “uninformed”?Narrative themes include:

Addressing a specific pain-point

Comparing two (or more) methods,

strategies, or solutions

Solving a common problem

Highlighting best practices for a specific topic

Introducing new concept

QUESTION 5:

Is your presentation structured?

Like any story, good webinars have a beginning, middle, and end.

Set the stage by stating your premise and the issue you’ll address

Deliver the message by going through points

one by one

Summarize the content and tie everything back

to the initial promise

ACT THREE

ACT TWO

ACT ONE

A good rule of thumb is devote

Just like most thriller novels!

20%of time to Act 1,

70%to Act 2

10%to Act 3.

QUESTION 6:

Have you made an outline?

No, you can’t skip this part.

No novelist, screenwriter, poet, or musician ever misses the

planning bit.

Create your empty slide deck and title frame

Add your titles and subtitles at

intervals

Then start drafting content

“within the walls”

And if your content doesn’t fit… that’s the point of making an outline.

QUESTION 7:

Are you creating according to a structure?

Think in bullet points.

The biggest bullets are your big ideas

Within each big idea, break it down into other bullets

Within those bullets, add supporting content

Consider interviews, panel discussions, live demos, video, Q&A

As long as you have a solid outline, you can mix up the webinar format and tell a

good story.

QUESTION 8:

Are you being social?

Choose their own path

through your presentation

Share info during the

presentation

Take part in Question & Answer sessions

Go through it at their own speed and

in their own time

Audiences expect to:

of webinar audiences respond to polls

21%

download resources from a list

12%

ask questions

5%

QUESTION 9:

Is it interactive?

85% of webinars use Q&A tools

22% offer polls

4% collaborate online

38% use social sharing

10% offer surveys

4% engage in chat

QUESTION 10:

Does it look good?

Now comes the fun part.

Making it look professional and sound compelling.

Instead of billions of bullets, give your audience an evocative image

A picture is worth 1,000 words

Leave arrows, bullseyes, smiley faces with their thumbs up where they belong: the 90s.

Avoid cheesy clip art

Pick images that feel natural, unique.

Be choosey about stock photos

A grainy, pixelated product shot makes you look unprofessional.

Use only high-resolution images

A single image and a few bullets are all you need on any slide.

Don’t pack your slides with clutter

Choose colours that are easy-on-the-eye

Use language that focusses on you and we, not I and me

Kill off abstract nouns and passive verbs

Write as you’d speak!

And don’t just make the slides your speech as text. It’s annoying.

QUESTION 11:

Have you looked at it with fresh eyes?

Does the premise come across clearly?

Does it tell a good story?

Does it look clean and professional?

Make sure you’ve delivered not just on your laundry list of points,

But on how you’ve answered audience

expectations.

QUESTION 12:

Have you tested it on someone?

Of your entire presentation.

Don’t worry if he doesn’t tell you where it’s flowing badly...you’ll feel it.

Always, always pull a colleague aside and deliver a rehearsal.

Never present for the first time in front of

your audience.

Would you come away from this webinar with the sense you’d learnt

something useful?If so, congratulations! You’ve just created

your first killer webinar.

Discover more key ways you can communicate with your audience, download:

Collaboration Tools in 2016: An In-Depth Guide For Marketers

Download nowCollaboration Tools

in 2016: An In-Depth

Guide For Marketers

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Collaboration Tools in 2016: An In-Depth Guide For Marketers

Explore

Develop

Transform

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