Unpack It: 7 Steps to Effective Webinar Prep

Webinars are an effective and strategic way to grow your audience and your business. But, because there are a lot of moving pieces, getting started can be overwhelming.

So, let’s unpack your webinar prep and put those pieces in good order.

1. Establish a topic and basic outline

Before you can complete any additional tasks, you have to know what you want to talk about.

Take some time to establish your primary topic and goals for the webinar. Then, draft a basic outline of what you plan to cover.

This doesn’t need to be a full and complete inventory yet. And in fact, getting too granular at this stage can be distracting. The goal here should be a bullet point type list with some detail that covers the basics of what you plan to discuss.

2. Establish the tech you want to use

Once you’ve decided your primary topic and objectives, decide on the tech setup you want to use.

It is essential here not to run out and buy a bunch of fancy, expensive tools too soon. Instead, do your research and find the right tool for your objectives. There are tons of options so don’t hesitate to ask for help. There are great experts out there, like Lysa Greer of Fresh Take Production, who can help!

Many offer varying levels of support so if you simply want advice you can certainly get it. And, if you want to outsource the whole process, you can do that too.

Pro-tip: When deciding on your tech solution, consider whether a support person would be helpful during your live webinar. It can be useful to have a dedicated person manning the chat for instance. They can focus on helping audience members with tech issues and answer basic questions so you can focus on the content. This person can also collect questions for any Q&A period as well as provide you with important feedback on things like audio, screen sharing, and slides.

3. Draft and create the sign-up pages

If you want folks to attend, you have to have a way for them to sign up.

You’ll generally want a landing page that allows people to opt in and receive emails from you. Your landing page will describe the topic and goal of the webinar in a way that speaks to your ideal audience. Having this information available will help improve conversions and sign ups.

You’ll also want a thank you page that provides specific details and instructions for your attendees. This is an important page in both the signup process and in getting people to attend the webinar.

4. Confirmation and Reminder Sequence

You want to set up an immediate confirmation with all the details for the webinar as well as a reminder sequence for the days (or even weeks) preceding the webinar.

Generally, you’ll want a mix of added value and reminder content. Both will help encourage signups to attend the webinar live.

Keep your emails consistent and concise while always engaging your readers. There’s no perfect formula for what the emails should include but consider this timeline:

  • Week before
  • Day before
  • Morning of
  • Hour before
  • 15 minutes before
  • Starting now

5. Promote your webinar

Once you have established the tech and created your sign-up pages & follow-up sequence, it’s time to promote!

Again, you have lots of options to consider here. But, take some time to decide how you want to promote and then get started.

Some common ways to promote are:

  • Invites to your current list
  • Paid promotion via Facebook ads
  • Other types of paid promotion
  • Guest posts
  • Podcasts
  • Blog posts
  • Social media
  • Personal invites
  • Ask people to share with their audiences, etc.

6. Finalize Your Content & Practice

Depending on your preferences, you’ll want to finish off your outline and prep your content.

This could include a detailed outline for you to present from and/or slides.

Once you finish the content, practice to your comfort level. Some people want to do many complete run throughs while others want to do only one.

But, it’s important to do at least one run through so you can establish your timeline and to check for any major content holes.

This is also a great time to practice your tech. Get conformable with starting your webinar, sharing your webcam, sharing your screen or the slides, and the audio setup.

If you’ve decided to do a recording, be sure you know how to start and stop it – and where the recording will save to.

7. Decide and create your follow up content

No matter how strong your webinar content is, you’ll need a follow-up sequence. You can even choose whether or not your sequence delivers the recording of the webinar.

But, you will definitely have a follow up goal for your attendees. Your sequence will want to further explain the features and benefits plus reminders of any special timelines they need to consider.

Pro-tip: Even if you opt not to send a recording out, consider recording the content for other purposes. You may want to use the webinar to set up an evergreen funnel, for instance. Or, you may want to repurpose it for bonus content, course content or other marketing content.

So there you have it – 7 steps to effectively prep for your webinar!

With proper prep, your webinar will help you grow your audience and achieve other goals, like filling courses and programs, selling products, or simply educating your audience.