How to Host a Successful Webinar, an Ultimate Guide (Paid & Free Webinar) . 2024

Are you an influencer, educator, instructor, coach, or business looking to grow your target audience get leads and gaining authority in your space?

Creating a webinar event which you’re hosting can be a great accompaniment to your brand. In fact, market research shows that 30% of webinar attendees become quality leads by way of followers, fans, clients and customers.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

Hosting a Success of webinar depends on the webinar hosting platform that you choose.
Hosting webinar involves seven step; choosing the webinar software, market and promotion, pre-launch test, presentation, engagement, closing and post-webinar follow-up.
Pre and post webinar are just as important as hosting the webinar itself. Having a high converting landing page as well as follow-up post-webinar email can help you converting your visitors and attendees into qualifying leads.

Starting your first webinar sounds complex, but we are going to break it down for you so you can learn how to create and host an amazing webinar yourself.

Here we are going to show you a complete guide to host a live webinar presentation and create a great webinar experience.

We’ll take you from start to finish from choosing your webinar platform to create and host a webinar to running a webinar and prepare your audience for future webinars.

What is a Webinar Host?

The webinar host is the person who facilitates the whole online event, it is the person who welcomes the attendees of the webinar, and introduces the guest speakers.

The webinar host responsibility includes:

Ensuring the guest speakers, presenters and audience are looked after throughout the event.

Makes sure that every segment of the event runs smoothly.
Assist in both backend and frontend task to make the event a success.

The host sometime have a few additional responsibilities as well, such as making your webinar slide deck, sending reminder emails, scheduling your webinar and showing speakers how to use the webinar platform.

Why Host a Webinar?

Webinars is an easy and affordable marketing tool for you to generating interest and leads that helps to promote your product or service, demonstrate your product, create connections with your audience and easily engage with your audience at “real-time” through a live chat box.

However webinar can comes in different forms:

Live webinar: All webinar events are happening at real-time.

Automated or evergreen webinar: A pre-recorded webinar is on autopilot replaying a webinar recording.
Just-In-Time webinar: An automated webinar start a few minutes after webinar registration making it just-in-time.
On-Demand webinar: Attendees can access the webinar content at anytime with most flexibility.

When it comes to webinar conversion rate as your marketing tool, webinar have a high conversion rate of 73% of B2B webinar and 20-40% of B2C attendees to become qualified leads.

How to Host a Successful Webinar?

Hosting successful webinars, requires you to have the right webinar tools which allows you to create a webinar landing page to enable webinar registration, promote webinar, host webinars, broadcast webinar to various social media platforms, record webinar and finally follow-up with your audience.

While it seems like there are a lot of things you’ll need to do to host a live webinar, it can actually be quite fun if you follow these steps.

1. Choosing the Best Webinar Platform

Before you can host a webinar, you’ll need to choose a webinar platform where it is able to deliver your webinar to your target audience in the format that you want.

There are so many webinar software out there so you want to ensure you use the right one for the best chances of success.

Dedicated Webinar Platforms

Webinar platforms are platforms that offers not only the basic features to create and host a webinar, but also the advanced features to make the live webinar a success.

If your goal is solely focusing on webinar, it is advisable to choose a dedicated webinar platform to create and host your webinar. When choosing the right webinar tool to set up a webinar, consider using webinar software that offers these features:

Presentation tools

A dedicated URL
Webinar registration form
Registration page that is customizable

Browser access
Cloud recording
Seamless integration

Easy-to-use interface
Analytics post webinar

With hundreds of webinar platforms in the market, it is hard to find the right one for you, thus I’ve create a handpicked list of the best webinar software platforms for you to get started.

However, if you are unsure what to pick, you can try webinar platform like Livestorm, it is a free webinar platform with all the different premium webinar features.

Simply create a free account and you can try out the various features at no risk.

It is one of the most popular on-demand webinar software which not only allows you to host your webinar but to customize your webinar landing page for people to sign up to your webinar.

Platforms That Offers Webinar Features

These are platforms with limited webinar features as it is not dedicated to creating and hosting webinars, but instead that focuses on creating and selling online courses and digital products.

If you are looking to build an online school, providing online education, building a digital ecommerce platform, together with the option to create and host a live webinar, you can choose an online course platform with webinar capabilities.

Check out this list of the top online course platforms that you maybe interested that have the ability to host webinar together with other features.

And if you are an instructor or a teacher, these platforms can be a great place to start: LearnWorlds, Podia and Yondo. They not only give you the ability to sell online courses and digital downloads but they also have fantastic webinar features.

2. Webinar Promotion and Advertising

Marketing is going to be another key aspect in ensuring the success of your webinar. Of course, you should do an email campaign, post a blog about it on your site and plaster it all over social media. But, you should also seek out a wider audience if your goal is to attract as many people as possible.

The traditional way is to make flyers to you put out in the public sphere, tell the people in your personal life about it and get your current fans to invite their friends.

However, there are more effective ways you can market your live webinar events.

The best way to promote your webinar is through email marketing and through social media channels, these give a more personal touch to your audience making them more likely to join your webinar.

And to do so, you’ll need to create a highly converting landing page for registrations on your website or using the top webinar platforms offering customizable landing page and registration page.

Promote Through Email

You can use email marketing tools like GetResponse and Active Campaign to promote to your email list on your upcoming webinar.

These automation tools send out email sequence to your audience making them more likely to response to you and increase the signup rate to your webinar.

Social media channels are places where you engages with your audience regularly, making your audience more receptive of what you want to say, and more likely to participate on events such as webinars organized by you.

Social media channels such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and LinkedIn allows you to create targeted ads to expend your audience whom might be interested in your webinar topic.

These channels also offers people to register through the forms you linked to the ads allowing you to increase the number of registrant to your live webinar event.

Landing Page or Sales Page

ThinkiFic Trends Webinar — ThinkiFic eLearning Trends Webinar

Creating a professional landing page helps you convert your visitors into leads where they can signup to your webinar or take any other form of actions you want.

A landing page is sometimes also called as a sales page, it generally includes the following:

Clear unique selling proposition (USP) that your webinar offers.
Interesting hero shot that capture the attention of your visitors that landed on your landing page.

Compelling benefits that is highly relevant to your targeted audience.
Strong social proof such as testimonies, presenter bio profiles, presenter’s qualifications.
Strong call to action (CTA) where it will prompt your visitors to register for your webinar events throughout the landing page.

Your call-to-action needs to be the one most important action which you want your visitors to do.

Do not ask for too many actions or it will lead to decision paralysis which leads to no action being taken.

3. Pre-Launch and Test Runs

Once you have everything organized, promoted and registrations coming in, you want to do a few dry runs before the webinar. At the very least, you want to do one test run.

During your test run, you want to ensure your equipment works seamlessly and you can check how everything looks. This includes your own appearance during the mock webinar event.

Therefore, when doing any practice session, wear everything you intend to for the actual webinar as well as all the webinar materials you will be using during the webinar. This includes things such as:

Clothing, jewelry, eyeglasses, hair adornments, makeup and any other personal ornamentation you will be wearing for the event.

Backdrop, internet connection and the location of where you are going to hold your webinar.
Digital devices, such as cameras, mic, speakers, screens and backstage support for the event.
Videos and supporting multimedia you will be using during the webinar.

Call-to-actions, activities, potential questions that might be asked during your webinar.

4. Starting the Official Webinar

When you sign on to begin your webinar for the real deal, turn the record button on and make sure it’s working. Keep your audience at front and center at all times and be sure you watch the clock. Ensure you and your audience is having fun while keeping to the schedule of the presentation.

Do a sound check either before or during your welcome to iron out glitches and failures before getting into the meat of the webinar.

Lastly, make a check before you start you webinar and make sure you don’t forget to record your webinar, so you can repurpose your webinar in the future.

5. Engaging the Audience

Live presentation is all about engaging your audience. Get to know your audience throughout the presentation by asking your audience questions, questions related to:

Understanding what are the pain points of the audience so you can understand your target audience better.

Understanding why they are interested in attending the live webinar you are hosting and will they be interesting if they are coming to your next webinar event.
Frequently asked questions that your audience may ask related to your webinar content.
Ask your audience to perform the call to action at the end of the webinar so you can capture leads, and signups.

Since it is a live event, one of the best practices is to prepare a list of questions and answers that might be asked related to the contents of your PowerPoint or slide deck.

6. Ending the Webinar

At the close of the webinar, be sure to turn off the record button and save your webinar recording. Also ensure both your camera and microphone are off to prevent any awkward situations and keep your professional image.

Continue monitoring and watching the comment section even at the end of the webinar broadcast. See what they have to say about the webinar, the kinds of topics they talk about and any other revealing information.

7. Actions Post-Webinar

A day or two after the webinar, send a follow up email to your audience. Repeat what they received from attending and thank them again.

In your follow-up email, include:

Relevant information, links and resources related to the webinar.

Offer your audience a chance to fill out a survey or poll about their experiences during the webinar.
Thank your attendees for their time and tell them about any other upcoming webinars that may interest them.

You also want to review and edit your webinar recording.

Add captions for the webinar recordings.
Edit your webinar into a concise version with all the highlights of your webinar, you can use the clips for future promotions.
Use parts of your webinar to create viral videos to attract newcomers or show others what they missed.

Best webinars offers a webinar experience where your attendees are taken care off even after the webinar ends.

Having your webinar recorded, there are many applications for your video, such as:

Repurpose your webinar as YouTube videos.

Use parts of your webinar as YouTube shorts, Instagram reels or Tik-Tok to gain a following.
Offer recordings of your webinar to new signups to your product or service.

Finally, use the analytics provided by the webinar hosting platform and the survey answers from the audience.

Assess and evaluate the praises and complaints along with any technical difficulties, troubleshooting and other foibles.

What is The Best Day to Host a Webinar?

The best day of the week for webinar is Tuesday through Thursday.

The reason is that the middle of the week is the time when people are most prepared for events that requires high level of focus.

Monday will not be a great day for a webinar as it is the first day of the week after the long weekends.

People are generally not in the mood for events that requires high level of focus.
People are not in the mood to “work” and thus the efficiency of work on Monday is often the lowest.

People needs to follow-up on the items that have pilled up during the weekends and on the last Friday.

Friday will not be a good days for a webinar as it is the end of the work week, and last day of the work.

People are catching up on the different task that is left idle during the week.

People are rushing to complete all the urgent task that is required to be done within the week.
People are looking forward to get out of work and enjoy the weekends.

Tuesday to Thursday are the best time of the week to host a webinar because:

People have settled all their urgent task on Monday is ready mentally for work.
People have “started their engine” and is in the mood to work, thus they are more focused.
People have “extra time” on the Friday to catch up on any pending task, giving them the option to join the webinar during the middle of the week.

What is The Best Time to Host a Webinar?

The best time of the day for webinar is in the morning where, the attendees are highly focused before anything else that comes cloud their mind.

The best time to start a webinar in the morning is between 10am to 12 pm noon.

However, in some cases, you may want to schedule your webinar in the afternoon to cater to your afternoon crowd, as most meeting and critical events are held in the morning.

The best time to start a webinar in the afternoon is from 1pm to 2pm early afternoon.

Depending on your target audience, your audience may only be able to attend your webinar after work, or due to time commitment in the mornings and afternoons. In this case, you may need to host your webinar in the evening.

The best time to start a webinar in the evening is from 7pm to 9pm late evening.

Remember your webinar attendees does comes from different time zones, thus you’ll need to find a time that works for most of your attendees.

Regardless, always avoid the 12pm to 1pm period as it is when people are having lunch and will less likely to attend any webinars.

How to Host a Webinar for Free?

The easiest way to host your webinar for free is by using popular live streaming platforms like YouTube Live or Facebook Live. While it is quite easy to use and offers low barrier to entry for your webinar, it have it’s own sets of drawbacks.

Unlike hosting your live webinars in premium webinar platforms, YouTube Live or Facebook Live don’t offer powerful features like:

Capturing leads and generating sales.
In-webinar call to action with clickable buttons to make a sale or other actions.

Automated webinar that launch recurring webinar which simulates a live webinar.
Pre and post webinar email communications to initiate a call-to-action.
Create hype and awareness of upcoming webinar through email marketing and SMS system.

While it does lacks all these amazing features, it is easy to use and have almost unlimited attendees.

Free Webinar Platform With Premium Features

If you want to host a webinar for free while taking advantage of all amazing features offered by premium webinar software, you can try creating your online webinar session with LiveStorm.

LiveStorm is the best online webinar software platform you can use to create live and automated webinars for free. Simply signup for a free account and start creating your own webinar.

Check out our reviews on the best webinar platforms if you want to see more options for yourself.

How Do You Engage Your Audience During a Webinar?

Regardless of which webinar platform you use, you can get creative, and adopt interesting ways to engage with your audience during a webinar, these often don’t involves advance features offered by premium webinar software platforms:

Ask prompting questions and encourage attendees to share their thoughts or experiences using the live chat feature to connect with your audience real-time.

Include multimedia elements such as videos, slideshows, animations or demonstrations to make the webinar more interesting.
Keep your presentation lively and energetic, more like an online event and less like an online lecture by using a confident and engaging tone keeping your audience engaged.
Provide opportunities for attendees to ask questions, clarify doubts and offer helpful feedbacks throughout the webinar using the live chat feature.

Prior to the webinar ask your potential attendees about the question they have and answer these questions during the live webinar itself.

Most importantly, you want to make the live webinar feels like a two-way communication with the attendees and not just you or the presenter talking through the virtual event.

How Do You Make Your Webinar More Interactive?

Nothing is worst than a boring webinar that last for hours. However, even if you are an new host or presenter, your webinar can be made interesting with features offered by some top webinar platforms.

Depending on the webinar platform you choose, most of the premium webinar software offers you various options to create an interactive webinar experience with your audience, engaging your audience throughout the live webinar:

Use interactive features like polls, surveys, or live chats to encourage participation and connect with your audience real-time.
Include interactive elements like quizzes or games with clickable elements during the webinar to make the webinar more engaging.

Create activities and prompt attendees to ask questions on the live chat itself, and address them during the webinar so that it feels you are talking directly to them.
Start group discussions or create breakout rooms for participants to network and share their insights with each other.
Conduct live Q&A sessions in the middle and at the end of the webinar to provide opportunities for attendees to directly interact with the host.

How Can You Promote Your Webinar?

For webinars, there are many ways you can choose to promote your live events and create a hype for your audience who are attending. Here are some simple ways you can use to promote your webinar:

Leverage on your existing email list and send out targeted invitations to your potential audience.

Use the power of social media platforms such as Facebook, Threads, and Instagram to create engaging posts and sharing them with relevant communities and groups.
Create collaboration with industry influencers or create partnerships with people who can help promote your webinar to their audience.
Create a dedicated landing page which also serves as an sales page on your website with all the details of your webinar and an easy registration process.

Consider to use paid advertising channels, such as Google Ads, Facebook Ads, LinkedIn Ads or other forms of social media paid ads, to reach a wider audience relevant to your niche.

How Webinar Marketing Can Engage Your Audience and Bring You Leads?

Live webinar is a live event where it allows you to engage with your audience at real-time, this helps to build trust between you and your audience. With a webinar, your audience can participate in the discussion and ask questions during the Q&A sessions helping them address any doubts.

Providing massive amount of value to your audience, it helps to convince people to progress down your sales funnel making it a great way to capture leads for your online business. Webinar can be a great marketing tool if you are selling online course, creating memberships sites or even offering services as an instructor, coach or influencer.

Offering free webinars are great way to increase brand awareness to a large audience, while enable lead generation and build up your email list or signups for your products or service.

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Antony C.

Founder & Financial Writer at Income Buddies | Website | Posts by Author

Antony C. is a dividend investor with over 15+ years of investing experience. He’s also the book author of “Start Small, Dream Big“, certified PMP® holder and founder of IncomeBuddies.com (IB). At IB, he share his personal journey and expertise on growing passive income through dividend investing and building online business. Antony has been featured in global news outlet including Yahoo Finance, Nasdaq and Non Fiction Author Association (NFAA).

How to Host a Successful Webinar, an Ultimate Guide (Paid & Free Webinar)

What is a Webinar Host?

Why Host a Webinar?