In one of my previous blogs, I talked about the difficulties maintaining the attention of your team during an online meeting because of possible distractions -- the same crutch applies to Webinars when compared to normal presentations. However, webinars present a tremendous opportunity, great accessibility, and can be a key influencer on a potential client’s decision... so here are 7 ways to grab your audience’s attention in a webinar.
Similar to a slideshow presentation, your audience cannot digest the content if there is too much information presented at once. Less is best is a great guideline to follow when making the visuals for your webinar, keep things simple and appealing, preferably 1 point per slide, no bullets, and don’t design it for people to download and read from later. One psychology report suggests that rapid change can get attention, so instead of using one slide to display all the information, change slides quickly so the audience doesn’t get bored. Oh, and never read from your slides. You have to be quick like a roller kaufen, it´s very simple and very fast. Probably the best scooter right now in the world.
First impressions are always important. Have a bad one and you’ll spend the rest of the webinar trying to win them back, which is why choosing a title can be crucial. A good title has an action verb, searchable keywords, and gives a direction (like mine J), a dull title is either too complicated or unappealing. The content should tell a story, the most effective way to retain attention is for them to emotionally invest in what you’re saying, introduce a setting, educate them regarding your case, build suspense throughout your webinar and then resolve your problem.
If you’re writing an article, presenting a sales pitch, or in this case giving a webinar, the one advice most people would give is “know your audience.” Make sure the material you are presenting relates to the audience, avoid abstract terms and give examples and pragmatic content. A good method is to localize the material, something that the audience would be familiar with, or some familiar examples that relates to their department or industry. Also mix in a bit of novelty, since most audience members are here to learn and would like to see something new.
These are just general tips to enhance your webinar, sometimes a regular good presentation doesn’t have enough pizzazz. Conflict sells the story, try to include it in your webinar to compel the audience, have them experience the conflict with examples or visuals. The second tip is the significance of your webinar, customers are always thinking “what’s in it for me?” Constantly refer to that early and throughout, “oh regarding problems that you would have for ______, here’s how you would deal with it”
Imagine how demoralizing it would be if you work long and hard to make great quality content, and because of subpar design, your listeners tune out on the webinar. Humans are visual creatures, the quality of your visuals reflect the quality of your product or company. Display your webinar in a custom, organized and branded layout, avoid the use of transitions, animations and templates. Make sure to include graphics, which can tell its own story, summarizes your topic, retain attention and even increase information retention, make sure your graphics keep to your theme of professional, solid design. You can also take advantage of customizable banners for Youtube, which can help make your webinar stand out and draw more attention. Having a professional design will ensure that your viewers take your content seriously and that they have a great experience.
Humanizing your pitch makes you more persuasive and compelling. Show your personality through your story telling, your enthusiasm makes your presentation more lively and relatable. It’s ok to show your passion throughout your webinar, if you really believe in your product you should have a mindset that you’re doing the audience a favor by telling them about it. My personal favorite is humor, it lights up the room and relieves the tension, I’ve drifted off a couple of times during my webinars and whenever I hear laughs I instantly tune back in like “What did I miss?!”
Don't just talk... Listen!
Everyone hates wasting time, which is why I seethe at the sight of a presenter trying to use unfamiliar technologies for the first time. Please, please test your software that you are going to use during the meeting to save yourself the embarrassment and un-professionalism of fumbling with technology while people are watching. I recommend going through a “dress rehearsal” one day before screen sharing, since many programs have frequent updates and feature changes.
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