How To Create A Webinar Series

Over the past year, webinar content has further grown in popularity and is now one of the top sources of content and learning. Webinars have been particularly sought after within the digital marketing industry as an opportunity to further topical learning and connect with industry colleagues in a fun, informative and conversation focused environment.

 

At Absolute Digital Media, we have made developing a webinar series one of our agency goals for 2021 and are well on our way to delivering an industry specific webinar every month. So, how did we make this happen?

It’s all well and goof finding a hosting provider like Zoom or Webinar Ninja and just pressing record and rolling with it – but that’s not going to get you very far. So, beyond the technical side of things, here are my top tips on how to create a webinar strategy and implement a new webinar series.

Table of Contents

• Organisation & Team Work
• Establish A Webinar Format
• Plan Visuals
• Pick The Right Date & Time
• Webinar Promotion

 

1. Organisation & Team Work

First things first, you need to establish your webinar team. There’s a lot of work that goes into a webinar, both behind the scenes and on camera so you need to have a well skilled team in charge of different areas. For example:

The Strategist

The strategist, planner, content creator or organiser – whatever you want to call them! This is the person in charge of developing the content for the webinar and monitoring the overall strategy, promotion and running of the webinar series.

The Presenter(s)

The showbiz people – or not – but the people who are presenting the webinar or the experts on show delivering their thoughts, insights and knowledge on the chosen subject. They look after the running of the actual webinar and ensure the event is interesting and well guided.

Assistant(s)

It’s a good idea to have a team, or staff member, on hand to support the wider webinar team, especially on ‘live’ day! An assistant can help monitoring questions that come through during the webinar, respond to social media posts about the webinar, be on hand to answer additional questions and be the eyes of the audience to ensure what viewers are watching is polished and technically sound.

 

 

2. Establish A Webinar Format

Now you’ve got your team, you can start to build your webinar strategy, and the most important step here is establishing the webinar format you want to follow. This doesn’t have to be the same for every single webinar within your series, but it’s good to get an idea of what webinar styles you want to produce and then you can present the different formats to your audience so they know what to expect from your webinar every time they tune in.

Here are the main three webinar formats you can choose from:

Single Speaker

Does what it says on the tin, one person takes to the stage to communicate directly with the attendees. They will showcase the content in the webinar, control the topics and show their expertise on a certain topic. This works best for niche webinar topics or when tips are being shared from an expert to a budding audience.

Interview or Q&A

Normally a two-person set up where there is a presenter and then a speaker discussing questions around a topic, this can also include live Q&As from the audience as the presenter can monitor incoming questions and put them to the expert.

Panel Discussion

A panel webinar will have several speakers with expertise within a predetermined topic. A panel discussion will need a presenter or moderator to direct the flow of questions and ensure everyone can speak, but overall, a panel discussion allows for a more fluid conversation.

3. Plan Visuals

If you’re creating a series of webinars rather than a on off event, it’s a good idea to create a visual asset which will tie all the webinars into one to showcase the series offering. For example, our Absolute Digital Media webinar is called WTF WFH and includes the same branding style and logo across each webinar visuals and in our promotional material.

When it comes to planning the visuals for each individual webinar, it’s important to keep the slides (if used) clear and to the point. Remember, a webinar is a chance to listen to a speaker and learn from a presenter so you don’t want your audience to be bombarded with lots of text on a slide which distracts from the presenter delivering their expertise.

Use visual aids such as images, graphics, graphs or key words and phrases to highlight any key deliverables the presenter wants the audience to remember, but don’t overload the audience with lots of different visual content.

Where a visual aid is important is in your introductory and conclusion slides as these can be used to direct your audience to further information or social links where they can find the speaker or organisation online to further the conversation.

4. Pick The Right Date & Time

Getting the webinar date and time correct will go a long way to ensuring your target audience will attend. Firstly, establish a good time of day for a webinar for your industry, are you providing a lunch and learn opportunity mid-afternoon or is the 5-6 slot better to target the end of the day where professionals might be more available.

Consider conducting a bit of social listening or put a pole on social media to see which time suit people best so you can find the best time for attendees.

Next, it’s time to choose a date! Bear in mind that industry focused webinars tend to perform well during the middle of the week. From here, you need to check what’s happening in your own industry and ensure you’re not clashing with another event to find the perfect date.

 

 

5. Webinar Promotion

And finally, before ‘lights, camera, action’ you need to get an audience ready, so it’s time to get your promotion game rolling. The most webinar sign ups come from social media promotion so this is the best place to target to get your webinar out there.

Who run the world? Girls! 💞

We’re SO excited to introduce the second episode of #WTFWFH, featuring our very own ladies!

We’re continuing to empower women within the marketing industry and drive change this #InternationalWomensDay 💥

Sign up free 👉🏻 https://t.co/y0PXyNMVnB pic.twitter.com/dWV1QzqkmQ

— Absolute Digital Media (@AbsoluteDMedia) February 23, 2021

Using the visual assets you’ve already created, schedule a range of social posts across a range of channels directing people to sign up for your new webinar.

You can also utilise your website and email marketing channels as additional promotion lines for your webinar. For example, why not create a blog about your upcoming webinar and the expert you’re going to showcase, you could then pop this and a sign-up link in an email campaign to send out to all your current contacts. Whatever channel you chose, utilise it to the full and get the word out there!

Check out a recording of our latest webinar where the women of Absolute Digital Media discuss breaking into the digital industry, navigating the space and defining your expertise:

For more information, or to enquire about our digital marketing services, speak to one of the Absolute Digital Media team today on 0800 088 600.