Webinars started as a way for companies to save money. Instead of flying their valuable resources around the world for seminars or conferences, the information could travel to the experts to apprise them of the latest tools and technologies.
Fast forward to today and webinars have become one of the best marketing and information sharing channels available. It informs customers of new products, educates them about your latest innovations, and allows attendees to engage directly with questions during the session. Keeping up with the latest capabilities and newest webinar platform features can help you increase attendance and participation for your next online presentation.
Latest Webinar Platform Features for Hosts and Attendees
Hosting a successful webinar is very much like doing a presentation in person. It gives attendees visual cues while allowing the presenter to field questions during a live Q&A. As a substitute for in-person meetings and demonstrations, it’s a viable alternative and continues to gain popularity. Recent events like the COVID-19 pandemic have made webinars an essential tool for customer engagement and education.
Here are some of the latest webinar features you can use to optimize your sessions.
1. Ways to Improve Attendee Engagement and Group Participation
The best webinars are interactive and allow attendees to participate or expand further on a topic that another person may have initially discussed. Using features like a live Q&A during your webinar creates the same feeling as a breakout session at a conference. Attendees can use these features to learn from both the presenter and other participants.
Live interactions also enable you to broadcast your brand and personality. These elements are often lost when using just documents or voice communications for your products. If a prospective customer has to go to an FAQ page or send a follow-up email after receiving a product breakdown, it may stifle their enthusiasm about your service offerings. A webinar with active engagement tools can overcome these challenges.
2. Security Settings for a Webinar Session that Protects Attendees
With more people working from home and using their video conferencing tools to engage with colleagues and customers, cyber threats have increased. News reports continue to highlight how certain tools make it easy for hackers to enter and harass attendees, ruining the experience for everyone.
Guaranteeing the security of your attendees and providing engaging content has become equally important during webinars. The latest security features allow you to control who can join your event, limit how they can interact, and keep meeting codes private. These are the best available features to secure any webinar you’re hosting and protect your attendees’ privacy.
3. New Ways to Make It Fun but Still Informative
As with any engagement channel, keeping the content informative is the primary goal during a webinar. This doesn’t mean you can’t make it fun. Running real-time polls and adding a custom company background will help keep your audience engaged and provide a memorable experience.
You can also encourage attendees to use rich chat features or share emojis if they find a certain section or statement interesting. When you reach a portion of the content that requires focus, limiting distractions is possible by blocking chat features in the session.
4. Allowing You to Co-Host Events with Peers
If you need some additional expertise while engaging with attendees, you can host a group presentation as part of your webinar. Even when these experts aren’t in the same office or region, the newest webinar platform features allow you to meet up with other presenters or hosts in a green room before the session starts. You can use this time to strategize, finalize, and coordinate your webinar’s content. If your company has a globally distributed team of expert resources, this is essential especially when you are co-hosting a session and you need to share the latest information with attendees.
5. Providing Analytics and Statistics to Help You Improve
Built-in reporting and analytics tools will help you refine your message and webinar presentation skills. You can evaluate your polls, record quizzes, and see who attended which webinar. Using the data from previous sessions will allow you to improve the content, reach out to attendees who are no longer joining, or just review your performance to improve future webinar events.
Find a Webinar Platform that Supports the Latest Features
Sharing information with existing and prospective customers can be a challenge without the right tools. Finding a platform that provides improved security, greater engagement, and a reliable experience for attendees is essential for hosting a successful webinar.
With evolving features changing the expectations of your attendees, you’ll need to leverage all the newest features available to host your next successful webinar.
Before you schedule your next session, check out the latest webinar features available from Intermedia today.
Kirsten Barta
Kirsten Barta is Sr Marketing Communications Manager at Intermedia
February 3, 2021
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