In today's ever-evolving digital landscape, hosting webinars has become increasingly important and popular. Webinars have proven to be a powerful tool in expanding reach, fostering engagement, and driving tangible results, irrespective of geographical boundaries. However, becoming a webinar host might seem like a daunting task, especially if you do not have much experience. In this post, we will explain how to prepare and host successful webinars, so that your audience loves you and wants more!
In this article, we'll go over your roles as a host and help you plan each stage of your online events effectively. You'll learn about useful tools and how to organize your work to save time. You'll also find out about some of the best ideas to use when hosting a webinar. Keep reading to find out how easy and rewarding it can be to host a webinar!
Webinar hosting – a tough task!
The process of creating a webinar used to require a substantial amount of technical knowledge and complex setups that could take hours to fine tune and test before going live. This process is no longer needed with the use of a reliable service that allows you to host a webinar with very little technical knowledge and optimal results.
But how to host? Today, we are going to provide a guide that will show you the steps you need to take in order to host a successful webinar.
First of all, who is a webinar host?
The webinar host is the person who runs the webinar. As a host, you usually start the event, introduce any speakers, and lead a live Q&A session at the end. The webinar host is responsible for managing and overseeing the webinar. This person is the driving force behind the event, tasked with a diverse range of responsibilities to ensure the smooth running of the virtual seminar. What are the responsibilities of a webinar host?
As a webinar host, you're typically responsible for several things:
- initiating the webinar,
- introducing guest speakers,
- facilitating a live question and answer session at the end,
- encouraging audience participation.
The webinar host is usually the main person you see at the event. They welcome everyone who joins and keep them interested. Therefore, they need to know a lot about the topic of the webinar and be able to handle any surprises that might come up.
They're responsible for explaining how to use interactive components like polls or chat, and troubleshooting any technical issues.
What are the qualities of a successful webinar host?
A successful host has strong communication and technical skills, they are detail-oriented, highly organized, and can reassure their audience even when unexpected issues arise. They have the ability to balance the needs of the speaker, the audience, and the organizers.
To be successful, the webinar host should be:
- An expert in their chosen topic
- A good organizer
- An enthusiastic, open minded person
- Good at technology
As a webinar host, your role involves clearly presenting to the audience the agenda for the webinar, outlining what they can anticipate over the course of the session. You should also have a comprehensive understanding of the functionality of the platform that you are using, including:
- Managing the Q&A section,
- Introducing the speakers,
- Engaging with the audience,
- Facilitating attendee requests to join the stage.
This way, the audience can fully participate in the event and enjoy the webinar experience.
How to host a webinar – a step by step guide
To make your webinar stand out, it's essential to follow certain steps before, during, and after the session. Even though every online event is unique, you can use this list as a simple project plan or guide for all your future webinars. Concentrating on these points will likely lead to a more successful webinar.
First of all, you should take care of the technical issues
You'll need a device with a webcam and microphone, a stable internet connection and an account with a webinar platform like LiveWebinar.
LiveWebinar allows you to host your webinars with many other great features, and it’s one of the best platforms for those who are looking to start hosting webinars. Creating an account is quick and easy - you can be up and running in minutes!
Select your software
Currently, there are plenty of options for webinar software that can be used to run webinars. While it can be overwhelming to find the right fit, keep in mind what you plan to do with your webinars and how you want to organize the event.
LiveWebinar is an all-in-one, browser-based webinar software that lets you easily organize, host and promote webinars. This platform lets you create highly engaging webinars and interact with your audience using features such as:
- Polls and tests,
- Interactive quizzes,
- Whiteboards,
- Breakout rooms,
- Translated chats.
With no necessary downloads or plugins, LiveWebinar is more than capable of hosting your next, great webinar. To learn more, go to www.livewebinar.com.
How to prepare a webinar with LiveWebinar?
Choose a webinar type
With LiveWebinar you can organize different types of webinars:
- Regular webinars – planned for a specific time and date.
- Instant meetings – when you choose this option, a new webinar room will be automatically scheduled, with default settings. You can immediately invite participants to the meeting.
- Evergreen events – automated webinars, created with the use of the earlier prepared content. They can be repeated automatically without the live presence of the host.
Create a presenter
You can create at least one presenter profile for any live webinar you plan to conduct. This usually includes their name, contact info, a profile photo and a short bio. It’s important to make sure that the short bio is compelling and convincing as this is something that can easily help attract people to your webinar events.
With LiveWebinar you have 4 modes to choose from:
- Discussion – perfect for running sessions with a large number of attendees. It lets you create interactions among your guests and let them share their audio and video.
- Presentation – it gives a free hand to the presenter and works best for webinars or online classes. This way you can show ideas and share knowledge with your listeners – in this mode you’re in the central point of the meeting.
- Q&A – it lets you share the benefits of discussing and presenting in one session. With this mode, you’ll be able to give a voice to your participants all while keeping a key role in the meeting.
- Raise Hand – only presenters can talk and the participants can ask for permission to speak.
As a host, you can assign different roles to your participants, you can also control the list of them. For example, you can change someone’s role from attendee to presenter so that they can use the whiteboard, or you can remove them from the room entirely.
To host a webinar you need to:
- Choose a webinar platform like LieWebinar that lets you host live, hybrid, and on-demand webinars.
- Pick a topic and develop the content.
- Invite an expert to speak at your event.
- Set a date and time. Invite attendees.
- Host the webinar.
Schedule your webinar
When scheduling your webinar, the information that’s most necessary will be the name of the webinar and the date and time. Remember to think about time zones if you’re hosting an international webinar. Selecting a time that works for someone in Hawaii and in Italy can be difficult, but running a successful webinar will depend on it. You can also choose to provide an agenda for the event so that your attendees can get a better idea of what they’ll learn remotely. You can read more about the best time to schedule a webinar in our blog post Best time of day and week to host webinars.
Invite participants
Another tip on how to host is about participants. Adding participants to events is a piece of cake, all that you need is their email, paste it into the corresponding field and hit “Send”. With LiveWebinar, you can simply upload a CSV file with a list of the potential participants’ emails and the system will send out invites for you.
Enable the registration form
You can ask each participant to provide specific information in order to be able to gain access to a webinar. Once they register, they will gain access to a custom URL for the event. This is a great way to create a database of people who are interested in your webinars. Read more about registration forms here.
Create a poll or survey
This process is very straightforward, and it allows you to create a large number of questions if you need to get some insight from the people who are going to be attending your webinar.
This is a very powerful tool because it makes the webinar much more engaging for your audience. Surveys and polls make people feel like they are participating and that their opinion and input are of value to you and to your business.
Set up your recording settings
If you’d like to have content to later sell or distribute, you can record your webinar. This is a very important part to configure because it will allow you to set the quality and the framerate depending on your connection speed. You can also configure the layout, language and video bitrate. These configurations will play a major role in the quality of your live video stream.
Check internet connection
If your internet connection is slow, you are going to have to choose the lowest settings to avoid connection issues between you and your webinar audience. It is recommended that you have a good internet speed for both downloads and uploads if you want to achieve the best results.
You may also want to contact your ISP to find out if you can increase the speed for an affordable cost. It's always wise to upgrade your connection in order to have quality videos for your webinars.
Ready to go live
Now, you are ready to go live on the scheduled date. Your event will go live and the number of people who show up is going to be able to gain instant access to it based on the email they received.
You will need to configure your camera and your microphone to ensure that people can hear you once the webinar begins. This is going to be very important if you want to achieve good results. Make sure that you use a computer microphone that works properly and webcam with a good resolution.
How to set up your location
Ready for another tip on how to host? Great! If you decide to start streaming live, you need to make sure that you are in a location where you won’t be interrupted, and no external noises are going to interfere with your session. A good way to do this is to inform people in your home or office not to disturb you for a given period of time.
If you plan on having your smartphone with you, it’s a good idea to turn the sound off and leave the phone somewhere that you can see it, but your audience can’t. This way you can keep an eye on any emergencies if you consider it necessary.
If you feel that you can't avoid interruptions in your location, you may want to consider looking for an alternative place to conduct your webinars. People may see it as unprofessional if you are constantly being interrupted in the middle of a webinar.
How to promote your webinars
The last step in our journey to answer the question of how to host is here to tell you how to promote your webinars.
Mailing lists
One of the ideas is to build a mailing list. A good way to do this is to create a blog that relates to your niche. Make sure you start blogging about content that your target audience is going to find useful. Creating content is just as important as making sure it loads quickly for your site visitors. It's important to back up all your hosted content with the right CDN.
Newsletters
Having a solid content creation process and being consistent with your content is going to be extremely important because this will help you climb the organic results with your targeted keywords. It’s important that you can have a newsletter opt-in for your visitors.
Social Media
You can also make use of social media for this purpose. Facebook ads happen to be very useful because you can target a very specific audience and you are only going to be paying per click. You can also create a free page on Facebook and start promoting it with friends and family. This is a method that takes much longer, but the results of organic growth are going to be worth the effort. To find even more people, consider creating an affiliate marketing program and giving a small commission to the people who recommend your webinar. Read more about social media in our blogpost: Maximize Your Webinar Reach: The Ultimate Guide to Social Media Live Streaming.
To get people to join your webinar, you need to:
- Create an appealing title for your webinar.
- Grab the potential attendees' attention with the webinar description.
- Discuss subjects that will draw the interest of your intended audience.
- Encourage them to sign up for the webinar.
- Keep them interested in your brand before, during, and even after the event.
To do all this, you should have a marketing plan to help promote your webinar. This should outline the content, schedule, and where you plan to promote your webinar. A good idea is to use a mix of regular social media posts and paid advertisements over a month to get more people and turn them into attendees.
Helpful Tip: From what we’ve seen in webinar marketing, sending out invites to your event on Tuesdays and Wednesdays works best.
At LiveWebinar you can send customizable registration e-mails and create landing pages to help you promote your webinars.
How to start a webinar as a webinar host
Setting up your audience for a successful webinar is as important as welcoming them. Begin the session by outlining the ground rules and the itinerary for the meeting. Follow this sequence:
1. Greet Your Audience
Before sharing your screen, ensure your camera is on. As the presentation kicks off, unmute yourself and express gratitude to everyone for joining. If you're expecting additional participants, inform those present that you'll wait for 3 more minutes to start. During this wait time, engage with the attendees, for example, by asking where they are tuning in from.
2. Lay Down the Ground Rules
Acknowledge those who joined a little later and lay down the basic norms:
- Should the cameras be kept on or off during the session?
- The appropriate time and method to ask questions.
- The expected duration of the webinar.
- Ask if they are expected to take notes or if you will share the information afterwards.
- Remind everyone to maintain respect and politeness during the session.
- Open the floor for any queries before proceeding further.
3. Present the Agenda
Provide a snapshot of what the session encompasses, including the timing for any scheduled breaks. This is also a suitable moment to highlight features such as the Q&A tab, emoji feedback, and the 'raise a hand' option to improve their experience with the webinar platform.
4. Introduce the Speakers
Give a warm introduction to the guest speaker(s) and invite them to commence. Proper pronunciation of their names and a precise professional introduction is crucial. Clarify your role and leave the floor to them.
How to host a webinar in an engaging way?
Engaging your audience during a webinar doesn't have to be tough. Try these tricks:
- Use Live Polls – Make it interactive by asking multiple-choice questions using the polls feature. For instance, you can use it to share fun facts or just to break the ice with a simple question like "How's everyone feeling today?"
- Start with an Icebreaker – Depending on your topic, play a quick game or ask a simple question related to your webinar's subject. For example, you can show a funny picture and ask participants to choose the part they relate to the most.
- Encourage Participation – Invite your audience to ask questions, share thoughts in the chat, or even join the discussion. Active involvement keeps people engaged.
- Add Variety – Use different content types like slides, images, and videos to keep things interesting. Change your style by mixing storytelling, data, and interactive activities.
- Q&A Breaks – Pause for questions at intervals. It helps participants stay focused and clears any doubts.
- Gamify It – Make it fun with quizzes, challenges, or small contests. Gamification adds excitement to your webinar.
By using these tips, you can make your webinars more fun and engaging for your audience.
Conclusion
Congrats, now you know the basic information on how to host a webinar! The level of success you are able to achieve with your webinars is going to depend heavily on the amount of promotion you engage in for this purpose. Actively broadcasting live webinars is going to help you grow and build your reputation.
When it comes to choosing the ideal platform to host your webinars, LiveWebinar stands out as your top choice. Its user-friendly interface, comprehensive feature set, and flexible pricing plans make it the perfect solution for everyone, from individual creators to large enterprises. With LiveWebinar, you're not just hosting webinars; you're creating immersive and engaging experiences that leave a lasting impact on your audience. Take the leap and elevate your webinar game with LiveWebinar today. Your audience, your message, and your success deserve nothing less than the best.
