I admit it. There are other people who are just as good
at covering the basics of how to present well online.
Here I won’t waste your time with speaker basics
you can get elsewhere such as "knowing your audience,"
holding rehearsals and preparing your speakers, offering
speaker training, or shutting off phones and external
noises so as to not distract your speakers or audience.
Instead, let's go beyond the basics for nine
tips for powerful webinar presentations.
In doing so many events I've had power outages 15 minute
before the webinar was to start, speakers hanging up on
themselves with the excitement of making a point, deafening
helicopters and sirens and annoying fax machines in the
background, and speaker's spouses logging in as the presenter
and flipping through the slides. They had no idea that
750 people in the audience were seeing the slides.
I expect the unexpected in my webinar presentations.
There are, though, a lot of things you can control with
your speakers for webinar success.
Here are some less common and valuable presentation tips
that may make the difference between creating webinars
that are good and ones that are great.
Nine Webinar Speaker Tips - Beyond the
Basics
Tip #1. It Is Tough to Turn C- Students into
A Students.
The easiest way to a great webinar for a less-than-polished
speaker is to take over an A script delivered by one
of your best speakers. Slam dunk! But recognize that
if you or your speaker is not "a natural,"
then it may be more productive to schedule the event
around the great speaker with their A script.
Tip #2. Script and "Kill" the Introduction
Start fast out of the gate to set the tone for the
rest of the webinar. Demonstrate to your attendees early
on that this is going to be a well run, interesting
webinar – one that delivers on the promises of
the webinar invitation.
Tip #3. Content – The Less You Educate,
the Less You Sell
Can't tell you how many people try to educate the market
for free to drive sales. My response is usually: “I
never feel I have enough of a budget to be in the business
of free education with the hopes of sales.”
If your goal is sales, don’t be afraid to sell
in some or all of your webinars. But, of course,
you want to set expectations and meet them for your
webinar attendees.
Tip #4. Don’t Keep Them Guessing Until
the End by Making Your Promise For Something Good at the
End of your Webinar
You could offer a Q and A, a special offer, or a giveaway
to one lucky attendee. Be sure everyone knows up front
what they'll get at the end.
Tip #5. Pacing, Pacing, Pacing
The most common problem is to go long with less important
information and then have to rush through the important
stuff later.
Take all the time you need with the information that
it's essential for you to get to your attendees. The
other less vital information can fill in the gaps.
Tip #6. Smooth Transitions Between Webinar Speakers
Know it, rehearse it, do it - to keep attendees on
the line. You don't want to lose attendees you've worked
so hard to attract to your webinar because of a flubbed
transition.
Tip #7. Visuals To Support the Audio
We all are guillty of too much MS PowerPoint that we
then feel we need to cover in detail. Usually, your presentation
will be much more effective if you create your audio script
first. Then, produce the visuals that support the audio
script.
Tip #8. Remember to Project to the Audience Through
the Phone
Everybody is different, but I mentally picture my audience
as one person sitting in an office. I carry on a one-way
conversation with him or her.
Tip #9. Offer a Call to Action along with the
Next Steps
Know excactly what next steps you want your audience
to take.
Don’t be bashful about telling them what they
are and encouraging them to act. This "success
rule" of Direct Response Marketing applies here.
