Webinars are online seminars. These aren’t just presentations; they’re discussions about topics at hand. More specifically, webinars can be classroom lectures, workshops, video presentations, events, training sessions, and more, delivered and hosted online using one of many webinar software providers. 

What are webinars useful and favored nowadays (even more so since Covid transformed the workplace)? 

Because they are great vehicles for sharing information in real-time, presenters can share and receive information with their audience. Engaging and interactive webinars are the opposite of traditional one-way lectures that tend to put audience members to sleep. 

Presenters need to share content of all types (other presentations, videos, documents, voice notes, infographics, and more). Webinars allow them to share these materials easily from anywhere in the world, with as many viewers as required. 

This isn’t to say that every use of a webinar is business-related. Parties, connecting with loved ones far away for big family reunions … webinar uses are only limited by your imagination.

If talking to your audience matters (and it always does), then webinars are for you. 

History of Webinars

The history of webinars begins at the end of the 1980s. Before the current internet’s complex communication, the first chat was Internet Relay Chat. These capabilities for communication improved with the introduction of PictureTel in 1995. Users could text, transfer files and even share screens via remote access. 

• NetMeeting: This Microsoft application allowed video conferencing as early as May of 1996, prior to Yahoo and AOL Instant Messenger. Users had to directly dial using an IP address, but this was the earliest piece of software for webinars available on a wide scale, as it was bundled with both Internet Explorer 3 and 4. 
• PlaceWare: Developed by Xerox PARC, Microsoft acquired it in 2003 and sold it as their core product Live Meeting. Users could create presentations and have as many as thousands attend from all over the globe. But there were other features, private chat communication, and audience polling, and any attendee could also be given presenter permissions. 

In 1998 the term webinar was registered by Eric R. Korb. Although later challenged in court, InterCall currently owns the name. Webinars expanded after this to Cisco, who created WebEx with a 1k person capacity, and then additional independent providers: MyOwnConference, ClickWebinar, GoToWebinar, and perhaps the most well-known, GoToMeeting. 

Now many free webinar software options exist, ideally for beginners who are learning to master the medium. They convert up to paying customers once they reach a level of proficiency that necessitates more complex features.

What are the types of webinar formats?

1. Slide deck presentations
2. Whiteboard
3. Text
4. Pre-recorded
5. Live video
6. Surveys and polls

What can webinars help you with?

• Generate leads for your business
• Train new and existing employees optimally
• Onboard new customers to your product line
• Create an engaging demo for your product
• Increase your level of authority across your niche
• Expand your audience’s education level of your offer

The logistics of seminars make them untenable for all but the most established professional speakers, and talented up-and-comers. Not having to rent out all the space and equipment (and lodging and meals) associated with hosting in-person events opens up the floodgates for speakers of all types, skill levels, audience development stages, and more. 

Earn More Money

Most webinar hosts start off with free webinars. It helps build an audience quickly with engaging, long-form content. But after your audience is built, it’s time to monetize that audience in a careful, caring way that always puts reputation first. 

• Do you have high-value content? Free content is one thing, but paid requires a new level of value. Listen to your audience, create content and a tech stack, use a ticketing platform to create demand, offer handouts and free content to boost signups, and always promote your next webinar so conversions will become that much easier (eventually, you won’t have to always find new viewers).
• Increase Influence and Authority: You can’t do this unless you have reach and visibility. Authority is earned over time, and you have to start somewhere. But to give you a boost while you’re still building your authority, you can invite established players in your niche to speak during your webinar.
• Repurpose Webinar Content Across Platforms: Coming up with new content for your brand is tough, but if you just repurpose it from your platforms, you’ll do extremely well. As you talk and naturally brainstorm, you’ll create ideas you wouldn’t have otherwise. Break it up into pieces and dispatch it with HootSuite and you’re done. 
• Cut Costs: Cut the cord, cut the connection to your local hotel ballrooms, and go online. 
• Hidden Opportunities for Promotion: Within your webinar you can get creative and bury promotions that feel relevant and add value. 
• Increase Audience Engagement: Give your audience opportunities to engage beyond a comment box or a one-way interaction with your website. 
• Sell Yourself as a Niche Expert: Focus on the niches that need specialists, then convert more leads due to dealing with highly qualified leads. 
• Nurture Quality Leads: For those who don’t want to buy, they can catch your webinars until they are ready. 

If you’ve successfully hosted webinars, you know that they can generate well-qualified leads for your business and give you room to show the value you add to your industry.

It takes a lot of work to post quality content consistently to Facebook, Zoom, Vimeo, YouTube, and others. Many end up settling for their current leads because content creation is so hard, even when outsourcing to a freelancer. 

But engagement—likes, subscribes, comments—doesn’t equal monetization. How do you create revenue from all the work that goes into your webinar efforts?

Below are five proven solutions, but always keep in mind: lack of customer understanding is something no consultant, software or product can ameliorate.

1. Analyze past webinars according to feedback

When a webinar goes well, or bombs, you need to know why. Like a coach watching old reels, you need to analyze what went right or wrong. 

Maybe you don’t know what went right or wrong, but you can still investigate. 

Once you figure out what you did right, you’ll be able to do more of it in an effort to monetize. Which ideas and topics particularly resonate with your audience? Send them a survey to find out. Just make sure that you ask the right type of questions. You get the most feedback with open-ended questions, but that does mean you’ll need to have the time to sort through it all. 

Twitter polls are also extremely helpful. High in engagement, you can ask about any aspect of your webinar and learn more in a very short period of time. 

Talking to your customers allows you to define exactly what will monetize your webinar effectively over time. Most business owners make assumptions about their content marketing and their webinar presentations. These might be right or wrong, but it’s faster just to ask your customers.

Ex: What is the number one thing I can do (or keep doing) to get you to sign up for a paid webinar?

2. Is your webinar production quality top-notch?

Your audience will like the same topics over and over, so once you see the trends and identify which ones matter most, you can focus on improving the quality of your webinars 

• Tech: While it’s okay to get started using just a smartphone, to really gain traction, you’ll need a good camera and full control over your image via the most robust application. You can use apps the pros use, like FiLMiC Pro, or you can get a camera that is extremely user-friendly (though it will cost considerably more). Microphones are also essential—people need to hear you clearly, each and every word. Video quality can take a reduction and people will still watch your webinar, but if they can’t understand what you just said, they’ll sign out or mute you altogether. 
• Content writing: Do you need to hire some copywriters to help you with webinar fleshing-out? Don’t leave it all up to yourself, and don’t assume tech will solve all your problems. Sometimes you just need to make your content better than the next webinar’s content. This does not mean you make your webinar scripted, but that you get feedback on where you could expand your webinar, and where your missed presentation opportunities lie. 
• Next-level tech: Green screens, light kits, and professional video editing software. 

3. Generate increased demand with the urgency of an advanced ticketing platform.

Cutting-edge tools don’t just help you produce a better webinar—they help you sell that webinar to your audience.  

Ticketing platforms allow you to inflate perceived webinar value. Remember that your customers fit into different segments: some want more and some want less, and are willing to pay accordingly. 

Why deny someone the most affordable option, a recorded version of the webinar? By the same token, why deny the full-service customer who wants the VIP Package?

• Registration Platforms like Eventbrite: These make tiered ticketing options, signing up and changing registration simple. 
• Multiple Ticket Types: Separate your audience into different package levels, then create packages accordingly. If you don’t know your customers well enough or want to test introducing a new package idea, create surveys and get feedback. 
• Discount Codes: Being able to reward webinar attendees for things like signing up early will set you apart. 

4. Increase webinar success by offering free content, handouts, and templates. 

You’ve got to become a resource in order to get inbound leads. That means giving away value for free, with the understanding that enough of it will come back around to you in the form of purchases. 

Consider offering something tangible to all your webinar attendees. This can be as simple as an Excel template that has a downloadable handout of exercises that allow them to apply their newfound knowledge. 

These are small gestures, so why do many pros neglect them? Because they don’t think it’ll make a difference, or they don’t have the time, swamped by the day-to-day.

You can restrict who accesses these links so that only paid registrants get through. Keep in mind this note on tech:

• Your tech stack will determine how you offer digital assets to subscribers. Registration platforms tackle these challenges too: easily add links to a Dropbox file or Google Doc.

5. Promote your next paid webinar at the end of your current webinar. 

Customers need calls to action, and they need tie-ins to remember to make certain moves. 

At the end of your current webinar, promote the next one. You have the undivided attention of your audience, and a certain percentage of them are totally on board for another webinar … if they know about it and remember to sign up and actually attend. 

Offering a discount code for attending multiple webinars in a row is one great idea to boost next webinar sales now. 

1. NXwebinar
   

NXWebinar does a great job preparing an audience for a webinar, also known as guided training and seminars in terms of relationship to the audience. This software has tools that enable students to collaborate with a high degree of effectiveness within the online classroom. 

Additional features include: 

• Reading the digital body language (using analytical data) of your audience to help improve your delivery.
• Keep discussions on track by setting up multiple “topic chats” (embracing this feature put Slack on the map).
• Deliver your message more effectively with teaching aids, whiteboards and breakout sessions. 

2. Loom

Most people have heard of Loom by now. It’s a screen recording app that stores videos online. It makes replying to projects simple, cutting down on email time (or chat time), and increasing clarity via being able to show people what you’re talking about on-screen. Currently, they have at least 14 million active users, even releasing a candle in their online shop earlier in 2022 with the scent canceled meetings. 

• Let recipients access your recordings via a simple link on Loom without any passwords or login nonsense. 
• Instead of only recording a screen or a webcam, speakers can do both, creating a richer experience for viewers. 
• When your team, or your audience, is attending a webinar, they need to be able to interact in a non-intrusive manner. Time-stamped comments, emoji expressions, and other interaction options can be added to your videos. 

3. ClickMeeting

ClickMeeting is a single tool incorporating video conferencing and webinars. Start small and then grow to 5k attendees with ClickMeeting’s impressive capacity and scaling abilities. 

If you really want to get the most out of this software then use it specifically for classroom-style presentations and training sessions.

• Presenter information, file delivery, and agenda layouts, all able to be added to fully customizable waiting rooms. 
• Polls, whiteboards, additional rooms—a full suite of webinar tools. 
• Use the ClickMeeting mobile apps to join and deliver webinars on the go. 

3. WebinarJam

Small business owners love WebinarJam. It has tons of tools from every aspect of webinar perfection and delivers it all in an easy-to-use interface. 

• Follow up easily with missed registrants of the live recording with the automatic recording function. 
• Add as many as six co-presenters and collaborate easily for a higher-quality presentation.
• Templates you can shape to your brand. 
• Carry your brand through each part of your presentation and setup with customizable templates. 

4. Accelevents

This software is for those who truly want to take webinars to the next level. Sometimes you just get really popular and need the support of tens of thousands of attendees to be delivered flawlessly by your webinar platform. Drive your growth, get top of mind, and create memorable online events easily manageable from one dashboard.

• 100,000-attendee capacity
• Analytics that take your insight beyond with lead reports and engagement data
• Unleash breakout sessions and build communities fast 

5. WebinarNinja

Customers don’t just show up and buy or not. They go on a journey, and if your support along the way has gaps, they fall through them, and into the pocket of a competitor who does a better job communicating. 

Don’t let that happen. 

Optimize the customer journey with WebinarNinja. Where are your customers in the funnel? WebinarNinja focuses on this question and uses webinars to address it. Based on where a customer is in the funnel (about to buy / just noticing they have a problem), solutions can be customized within the webinar world. 

• Add a Facebook Ad tracking pixel to your webinar attendees to link the data and see who converts off a Facebook page or ad. 
• Offer premium content at gated thresholds for customers willing to pay. 
• Integration with most CRMs for improved ad tracking. 
• Convert customers during the webinar, no matter where they browse, instead of waiting for them to remember you and buy later. 

6. WorkCast

WorkCast is the webinar platform for marketers. Obviously, as a niche B2B product, it will only be for some. Marketers have unique needs, from crafting fresh content to offering both on-demand and live webinars. 

• Don’t stress over putting together a live webinar, but do enjoy the benefits that come along with higher levels of engagement from your viewers. 
• Live Q&A sessions or pre-recorded video, or a combination 
• Host without any strings, wires, or plugins. 
• Integrate with most software.

7. Livestorm 

With a tough-sounding name, Livestorm sticks out for its usability. Its creators want you to be able to manage your meetings and webinars from one place. The reporting and engagement features allow businesses to learn, iterate and improve, creating a feedback loop of increasing engagement and, thereby, sales. 

• Remind registrants of the upcoming webinar, or you can follow up after the presentation.
• It’s easy to drive engagement during webinars with so many tools like breakout rooms, virtual backgrounds, timers, emojis, virtual whiteboards, and more.
• Use the analytics dashboard to connect data with other software or export it in .csv. Contact engagement and attendance can be tracked directly. 
• Increase engagement with breakout rooms, virtual background, whiteboards, timers, live answer notifications, emoji reactions, and Q&As. 
• Get more attendees when you remind them of your next webinar. 
• Let people register easily on your custom registration page. 

8. LiveWebinar

LiveWebinar is a powerful, versatile webinar option because it can accommodate the needs of all users. This includes teachers, regular webinar hosts, recruiters or any other user type who needs webinars to communicate online. 

• Breathe life into your webinars with features like breakout rooms, screen sharing with illustrations, tests, polls and more, all via whiteboard. 
• Do you not like how your brand disappears within your webinar software? This lack of branding does not have to be. Customize your window color, fonts, ad banners, background and logo to bring more of your business identity through. 
• No install webinar software. No plugins. No downloads. Works right within your browser. 

9. Demio

Demio is a great webinar platform for both PC and mobile devices with a sleek design and intuitive user interface. It’s an effective live video tool for marketers looking to host live or automated events that can assist in lead and demand generation goals. 

While some webinar software is only available on some hardware, Demio focuses on PC and mobile devices. It has an intuitive user interface and a notably sleek design. Marketers can enhance their demand and lead generation goals by greatly engaging viewers. 

• High level of audience engagement via calls to action, handouts and poll presentations
• Your attendees want to participate, so let them, with access to webcams and mics during the presentation. 
• All while streaming on the Demio platform you can share slide decks and videos with ease. 

10. WebinarGeek

The WebinarGeek platform is an affordable solution for small business owners to attract and convert customers via the webinar medium. 

All within the same platform you can convert and gather customers. Hybrid webinar features, including on-demand and live options, will ensure you’ll get more than the standard broadcasting capabilities out of this software solution. 

• On G2, customer support was very well-rated, which can be hit or miss in the software world. 
• A seamless webinar experience is easier to deliver with great onboarding. 
• Access all your future webinars and on-demand webinars from a single channel.

11. Webinar.net

This company is new but still rates highly on G2. That’s rare for a lot of new software releases, especially in the webinar market. Despite being a new kid on the webinar solution block, customers are clear about why they enjoy the company: 

• Quick broadcasts in five simple steps (under one minute)
• Carry branding colorways through webinar software process allowing clients to pick templates and colors
• No install webinar software: no downloads because the apps are web-based.

12. GoToWebinar

A solid solution that’s been around for a long time, GoToWebinar takes things further by offering all the standards of the industry: automatic recording, engagement tools, comprehensive integrations and the support you need to be a successful presenter.

• Deep and impressive analytics for version after version of solid improvements to your webinar pipeline. 
• Find the sign-up strategy that works best for you via source tracking. 
• 24/7 customer service so that your attendees never

13. Jumbo

There’s always room for improvement in the software world, and Jumbo proves it. Both mobile users and PC users can ensure easy operation of this simplified software. If you’re new to tech, this might be the better option for you, versus something more advanced.

• Even for beginners, the interface makes sense and makes you want to launch webinars!
• More deeply engage your audience with content in the form of trivia, polls, breakout sessions, live chat, and more. 
• Any webinar should be focused on white-label formatting to let your brand be front and center. 

14. BigMarker

While the last post pertained to a simple webinar solution, BigMarker is more nuanced: customization king is its name.

It’s a browser-based platform and no downloads are required, which makes signups more frictionless. All webinar solutions integrate, but BigMarker offers many third-party app integrations. 

• Get all the tools you need to grow your audience via measuring, monetizing webinars, promoting your content and more. 
• 10k, members in one webinar? No problem. 
• Unlimited number of presenters, unlimited discussion boundaries. 

15. On24

The do-it-all enterprise platform ON24 includes seminars led by experts, panel forums, external publications, and more. ON24 delivers because of better insight. The company wants to crack customer engagement via video presentations that are packed with features that make the content truly compelling.

• Access past webinars via an engagement hub (good idea for those who take poor notes or had to participate too much to keep track)
• Incorporate analytics into your existing business intelligence software in order to generate improved customer segmentation
• Streaming for huge events without a single glitch. 

16. Riverside

If your business needs a ton of quality and quick real-time audience engagement, look no further than Riverside. Uncompressed audio and 4K video resolution is quite the quality feature to have for a webinar platform. 

• As many as eight people can dive right into engaging conversations
• Let live audience members comment or provide feedback during broadcast
• Stream simultaneously across platforms 

17. Zuddl

Funny name, serious webinar platform you won’t find anywhere else. The buttons, hotspots, widgets and more make it feel like a virtual world inside their webinar. They didn’t want anyone to feel like they were stuck inside another boring webinar, so they built it out completely with the following: 

• Over 50 3D themes pre-built to make for better webinar sessions
• Apps for iOS and Android so attendees can hop on anytime
• Disburse unpaid or paid event passes through automated emails and make custom registration pages using custom email and ticketing tools

18. Zoho Meeting

Host online meetings with real-time audio for free, getting screen sharing, video, and audio all in one, in addition to the following features: 

• Reminder and meeting invite co-branding
• Devices and mediums of all types can dial-in or hop online
• Lock meetings, hand control to different collaborators smoothly, and switch presenters with ease.

19. Freeconferencecall.com

Most webinar platforms that say they are free actually require payment somewhere along the lines (usually to use your favorite feature). But this one is totally free, the entire platform. And it’s a good solution too. It’s only available within a browser, so no downloading is required. 

• 1k guest limit
• Share your presentation materials with the utmost effectiveness by file-sharing and screen-sharing with ease. 
• Never miss a save of a webinar again with one-click recording. 

20. Zoom

Zoom meetings aside, which most people have used, you can also host great webinars on this platform. So many people know how to use Zoom that it’s a good choice because it offers less of a learning curve. Zoom’s video conferencing platform is free for up to 100 people, as well. 

• Live event support dedicated to your needs, including moderation and monitoring
• Background noise suppression, studio effects, virtual backgrounds
• Keeping the focus on the video of a presenter makes it more personal than just a slide deck

Without a lot of experience, you’ll look like a new webinar host unless you follow a few tips to add some quick experience to your side. 

1. Do a tech check by logging in early

You’re going to want to make sure all your tech works by logging in before your actual webinar time. This is probably a habit you already have from meeting calls. There is little worse than starting up the meeting without your sound working, for example. 

Log into your webinar platform, test everything and make sure your slide deck is complete and functional. 

If you’re using an audience interaction platform, you need to make sure that it is ready to perform as well.

2. Make waiting time a breeze

As people enter the webinar and you welcome them, start running a commentary. You don’t want anyone just sitting there waiting in silence, listening to people breathe and cough and click. 

For example: “Okay guys, I see that Sarah and John just joined. That makes fifteen of us. We still have thirteen more we need to join us. Thanks for being patient you guys!

Another example: Say hello to your attendees and get them interested in the content ahead. In order to wake them up, you need to start asking questions that people actually want to answer. “What did everyone get up to this weekend?” for example, or more work-related: “What frustrates you most about our industry?”

3. Use two speakers to increase overall webinar quality

Each person only has to be on half the time this way, and they can bounce ideas easily for greater insight. 

A single speaker droning on can definitely hurt engagement, and we’ve all suffered through a boring webinar at least once (and probably much more than that). 

With two experienced speakers, nobody needs a script — or even a topic, though most events will provide one. Conversation simply sparks and organic, of-the-moment remarks take shape. 

6. Let your audience select what they want to discuss from a lineup

When it comes time to improve your webinars beyond what’s already considered adequate, you need to let your audience chime in. All the answers lie within them, if you’re patient and considerate enough to listen, then sort through the misguided information to find the nuggets of wisdom only your audience could create. 

For example, at the start of your next webinar, you can run a poll that asks recipients to name their top pain point. Once three were identified, the content of your webinar can be tailored to these problems, giving solid solutions for each one. 

Create a slide in your next deck where you mention all the pain points, so that your audience can check it out and make their selection. 

7. Make your content digestible 

For your opening slide it’s a good idea to frame the entire presentation. While this may sound like basic advice, you’d be surprised how many presentations lack structure. Listeners miss information and fail to make connections a better presentation would engender. Don’t make anything overcomplicated, but instead break your presentation into a three-act structure, if you don’t know where to begin. 

And if you’re having problems with overall structure, it’s likely you’re having problems with framing content on a slide-by-slide basis. 

Less is more. One quote and one bullet point per slide is enough to drive it all home. 

Drive an interaction every 3-5 slides to keep the audience along for the ride. 

8. Keep your audience engaged by re-engaging throughout the webinar. 

Just like a sleepy student in class, people naturally get distracted and need to be reminded—in a way that it’s incentivizing—why they are paying full attention to the webinar at hand. 

A webinar is not a big lecture for a general education course. It’s a dialogue between you and your employees, fan base or customers-to-be who haven’t yet converted. 

Don’t neglect the points you need to make to accomplish your conversion goals, but don’t lose sight of being an entertainer (to the degree that you are engaging).

9. Describe how the poll (or webinar in general) is unfolding

When you’re running live polls, they will naturally drive interaction. But this scenario loops back to a main point of webinar hosting: make a meal of every part of your webinar via narration.

Think of how sportscasters narrate a game. They don’t do this for no reason; they are injecting hype and energy into events that might come off otherwise a bit dry. Like the wrong music at a party.

Allow some time for attendees to respond, and then re-engage them with descriptions about how the poll unfolds. 

11. Always include a Q&A

With a Q&A session at the close of your webinar, you’re gaining out on a ton of conversion and data that can help you grow (and make more of the next webinar). Your participants get to be further involved in your content, and you get more feedback. 

You can either address some of them as they come in or answer them in a separate session (good pay gate opportunity if the questions are premium in nature, but not if they should be answered within the content of the webinar at hand). 

If you don’t pace your question-and-answer session properly, it could feel rushed or too drawn out. Ask your participants to submit any questions they have, then add these to the screen and start answering them according to popularity. Make sure to read out each question so that everyone stays on the same page.

If you get too many questions to answer in the time allotted for the Q&A session, set them aside for a separate session or create a piece of marketing collateral from it.

13. Get feedback on the webinar presentation itself

Besides the Q&A, you still need a feedback survey to find out what attendees thought of your latest webinar. Make the survey brief enough or it won’t get answered. 

It’s easier to just incorporate feedback into the webinar as part of the Q&A, but that’s different from how everyone wants to do it. Some prefer to keep their feedback and performance discussion separate, the way a review would be behind closed doors at work. 

If the silence is awkward at the end of the webinar, you can put on some gentle music and start asking for feedback. 

Respondents might be shy, but shake them up with a prize for best comment or a reminder of their contribution to the business team. 

14. Don’t forget the call to action

As discussed earlier, people need to know an action to take. They will need to figure it out for themselves to advance your initiatives. But don’t just ask them to visit your site or sign up for your next webinar … this is your opportunity to provide them with value. 

If you provide them with something free right here, you’ll create a lot of goodwill. Likely goodwill that will be acted on when a solution you provide is needed. 

This would be the wrong time most likely to direct to a paid resource, though if you have a strong audience, you could convert off the basis of well-done webinars. 

Be honest—if you’d been raised with an iPhone, you’d expect more from webinars too, right?

So how can you modernize webinars for a younger audience? Increase engagement and connection in a unique way. This makes webinars more involved to create and host. The trade-off, however, is that webinar audiences of the future will expect high engagement as a minimum. 

You should get ready now, depending on your career timeline. 

1. Unique Content

With most tasks being performed online following Covid, the work day can seem like a blur of Zoom meetings, Google Chats, and Microsoft Team invites. Nothing sets these presentations apart from one another, and that could be a problem for attention spans. 

The emotion, anticipation and excitement of a live event can not be translated into someone’s office or living room, where they are likely focused on rote work tasks (not in a mindset for fun). But if you were to shake these employees (or other organization members) from their expectation of boring webinar content, you’d find they’d almost certainly engage more. 

You have to do something distinctive for your audience. Let’s say you’re migrating software and you have regular meetings about going from Sage 100 to Net for your accounts receivable. Most of these meetings are detail-oriented and involve new processes, which means employees have to work harder. 

One idea would be a competition to win prizes for fastest demonstration of new software features. With prizes that are enticing enough, viewers will be enticed to participate. 

2. Drive to Connect

Connecting means replicating the human connection via a webinar. 

Features like polls and virtual breakout rooms encourage people to interact online, but they still need the spark of human connection. 

Big events are even more fun when they’re part of a work trip, because, compared to the day-to-day grind, it’s something different. 

So how can you still connect despite being apart?

Ask the audience for their participation. Anyone can give you this advice, but what’s important is your spin on it. The better you know your audience, the more likely you should be to craft a custom engagement solution (or solutions) that make people feel like they don’t need to leave their office chair to connect.

3. Go Further & Engage

A standard webinar does not replace being at an event in person. The senses are not stimulated by the sounds, sights, and smells that come from a big, buzzing convention center or banquet hall. 

Seeing the presenter in person. The huge screens. The booming speakers. It gets your blood going. So why haven’t webinars been made more exciting, especially since everyone had to attend them after Covid remotely?

Even the name—webinar—attaches itself to an older time with an older delivery method: in-person, the seminar. Today is a different world where not being in person has become essential and easier, meaning it’s around to stay. 

Let’s recap the main points of our webinar guide for those who only have enough time to read the summary.

• History: Although the first ability to communicate via text occurred in the 1980s between computers, it wasn’t until the 90s that screens could actually be shared en mass. The utility of sharing screens, not only for businesses but public uses as well, like for quick court hearings.
• Benefits: What are the benefits of putting all your customers (or many of them) in one place at the same time, listening to every word you say? Conversion, of course. Some may purchase then, some may need to be nurtured with a free ebook, some may just want to check out the next webinar, and some might want to close the meeting if it lasts any longer. This is fine; poll your audience and find out why each reaction occurs, judge nothing, then fix and tweak later.
• Monetization Methods: There are many ways to monetize a webinar. You could charge for the webinar itself once you become adequately established.
• Best Free Webinar Software: Of course, this is subjective, but we gave you 20 options to choose from, so you at least have a starting place. Remember, with software solutions, you really just have to give each a chance. You can’t know which is right until you use it, often with a paid membership for full functionality.
• Hosting Tips: Hosting a webinar can be nerve-wracking if you’re new, and intriguing solution-wise if you’re experienced in this unique digital medium.
• Young Audience Modifications: Work and webinars will change in the future in terms of the normal shift: more casual, more fun, but still with performance at the forefront.