Ever had this happen to you? You show up for a mandatory conference and find that the refreshments stink unless you love those chewy hotel candies and prefer water over caffeine-laden drinks. And they seem to crank the air conditioning to high even though it’s November with the threat of flurries. But the best is yet to come; your presenter is the company’s accountant, a bland man who put together fifty slides with fifty bullets on each of them. But wait, is that clipart? Oh, yes, you would rather hear nails scratching a blackboard by this point. And isn’t that kind of Mr. Accountant for reading each and every word on his powerpoint… You pinch yourself to see if you are asleep, but you don’t wake up.
Failing to plan properly for a webinar will leave your audience bored to tears. But unlike physical seminar attendees, your webinar attendees can completely tune you out by clipping their toe nails or, worse, spending the time working on their most mundane, neglected administrative chores.
Keeping your webinar attendees interested and engaged is mandatory if your goal is to host a successful web conference. You can achieve this several ways, but without question the one we discuss here is undoubtedly the most important. If you would like to learn about more tactics, sign up for Quote Stork’s newsletter using our link below.
The most important ingredient to a successful webinar is curiosity. That’s right, curiosity will keep your audience interested and engaged. By maintaining their curiosity from slide to slide, their minds will seek out solutions to the presented problems (instead of solutions to get out of the meeting). And the best part is that your audience will find themselves begging for the next slide, anxious to see what comes next.
There are plenty of ways you can motivate curiosity in your webinars. The easiest way to find tips is to study some of the most popular visual media; the film industry. Successful filmmakers know the importance of keeping the audience’s curiosity level high. Darth Vader comes to mind — Lucas kept us coming back time and again, even after we knew he was Luke’s father. What Happens in Vegas kept us watching because we wanted to see how this one-night-stand would work itself through. Miami Vice — how will Crockett and Tubbs get out of this one? You get the point; a curious audience keeps watching until the end, and you reap the rewards.
To accomplish curiosity, present a problem instead of all five hundred answers. After all, the best managers are those that empower employees to offer the “means” toward the corporate “end.” Of course, the manager usually has a rough roadmap in mind when soliciting advice from employees and the webinar provides a great medium to visually present such a broad roadmap.
As an example, a financial adviser might understand that bearish periods where market valuations are low, the best thing to do is invest. Now, this is an answer and even the most mediocre financial advisor can come up with at least a hundred bullet-point reasons to invest. But instead of providing answers, provide questions. What do you do when gas prices are high? (You only fill partially, or you drive on empty). What do you do when gas prices are low? (You fill up everything, including the lawn mower!). What has Carl Icahn done time and time again? (Taken advantage of cheap companies and flipped them at a gross profit). You get the point — all of these questions point to one answer. Buy low (ahem, today) and sell high (well, about 2 years ago!).
Citrix Online leads the market with their GoToWebinar solution. Through Quote Stork Solutions, enjoy a free trial and an additional $10 off your first payment (if you subscribe). GoToWebinar allows unlimited webinars throughout the month, meaning you can as many clients and employees as you want.