This article is part of a Virtual Events Insight series paid for by Cvent.

When it comes to webinars, the bar for what your audience expects has been raised. From the initial email invite, to producing the presentation, to the post-show follow-up, marketers must seek to create moments that set your webinars apart and drive deeper engagement.

Here are 5 tips to make your webinars absolutely buzzworthy.

1. Experiment with formats

Is your webinar format interesting to your audience? Knowing your audience and what they are looking for in a webinar is what’s going to get them to show up, lean in, and tell others that you are creating engaging content worth watching. Ask yourself the following format options to see if there is room to shake things up in your program:

• How long should your webinar last? Could a 30-minute webinar the best option?
• Would a short webinar with 10 minutes of hyper-specific content with 10 minutes of Q&A be a good fit?
• What about having small/moderated discussion groups with capped attendance?
• Does your audience prefer panels, hearing directly from your CEO, or something else?
• What about a webinar series? Keep people looking forward to your next related session, and keep them on an on-going engagement journey

2. Brand your space

It may seem simple but a surprising number of people neglect this step — making sure people know where they are and who’s talking to them.

For example, within Cvent Attendee Hub presenters have the capability to set a theme and brand, create a lower thirds banner, as well as place logos within the presentation’s screen using the Cvent Studio.

If your current webinar platform does not have these capabilities there are other things you can do. Set up an LED light in your brand colors, put a branded mug in your background, wear a company shirt that displays the logo, or use a virtual background. Take a minute and think about your personal “set” as webinars have evolved to have more intimacy and authenticity. We’re all at home and are getting a behind-the-scenes look into each other’s lives. Make sure that you are a positive representation of your brand and the people who work with you.

3. Interact with your audience

Another seemingly simple tip, but always worth stating — interact with your audience. Don’t be afraid to jump into the chat, ask questions, or conduct polls. If done well, all these elements can add extra layers of engagement to your presentation.

In-person events have a clear separation between speakers and their audience that virtual events don’t. Chat, Q&A, and polls allow you to be in the moment with people who want to hear from you and create meaningful connections that they will remember for a long time. It’s important to make yourself available as a reliable, relatable resource and break down the walls that keep people from making real, trusting connections with the people behind the brands.

4. Give away great content

By giving away great content you get to:

• Position yourself as resource, thought leader, and industry expert
• Build reciprocity with your audience

Score your attendees engagement and put them on a thoughtful and relevant journey after your webinar; you’ll be more likely to earn their business. Follow up after your webinars by thanking people for attending and offer them not only a recording of the session, but also helpful videos, eBooks, and resources to further their understanding of the topic.

5. Create can’t-miss moments

Though there are plenty of advantages with pre-recording, if your audience is willing to take time out of their day to come and listen, then they are worth showing up for. A consequence of people realizing that more and more webinars are pre-recorded, is that they lose the motivation to login on time or at all. At one point or another, or even at multiple points, we’ve all seen a webinar invite and thought “I’d love to learn more about that, but I’m not going to sit through another hour on Zoom… I’ll sign up and let them send me the recording.” Then of course, we never watch the recording.

There are ways to combat this. Create and promote can’t-miss moments, like a live Q&A with your CEO, a live critique of something submitted by an audience member, a giveaway, access to a free content for showing up, whatever it is, you might start to see an increase in your webinar attendance.

When optimizing your webinar, remember to give yourself time for trial, error, and testing to see what’s working. Nothing is a quick fix and maybe you won’t be buzzworthy overnight, but if you can commit to a new way of thinking, and implement these best practices, the tide will start to turn.

Ready to take your webinars to the next level? Learn more with Cvent’s eBook, Next Level Webinars.

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