Thinking of hosting a webinar?  Well, if you haven’t produced one before on your own, then make sure you have a good amount of time to prepare.  Webinars can really be divided into three categories: planning, marketing and production.  Each section is just as important as the next.  This post will attempt to break down all three sections and provide a brief detailed description for each. 

First, let’s take a step back.  What is the purpose of your webinar?  Education? Marketing?  Informative or Team Building?  This is a critical question that needs to be asked from the outset.  It will determine the direction your entire production will take. 

As you plan your webinar, think of the questions in the above paragraph?  Make sure you know the exact reason you are holding this event.  It is important to know who your audience will be and thus allow you to know what the dialogue should be during the event.  Each webinar has a particular message- making sure you convey that message and answer any hanging questions is critical for your event to be considered a success.  Next, you have to know who will be the voices speaking for your organization: Your own staff?  Industry experts?  Happy clients or customers?  Make sure that everyone knows the message and stays on it.  Scripting will help with this, but will also require the skill of a writer.  If you do proceed without a script, make sure you go through a few dry runs before going live.

Next, you need to make sure that people are actually going to see your broadcast.  Market it! You have to begin marketing your event in advance of its broadcast.  Whether you will just play the webinar live or post it for on-demand re-broadcast, you need to make sure your audience is aware of it.  Send emails to current or potential clients.  Post a notice on your website.  Announce it on your phone calls while people are waiting to speak to someone.  The more people who are aware of it, the greater the success it will be.

Finally, you have to actually produce it for people to watch.  There are several options in this area.  You can purchase a program which allows you to produce your own events in-house, but stills leaves you with a heavy tech burden.  You can have an intern research and attempt to produce on your own (not necessarily recommended).  Or you can hire an outside company to produce and handle post-production/ posting to server so your attendees can view.  Some companies can actually handle all three steps for you; it all depends on your budget and end goal.

We would be happy to discuss how a webinar can help your business.  Contact us with questions you may have or if you need an extra hand in production: 646-519-2451  or sales@wprny.com