How to Host a Webinar: Everything You Need to Know For Your First Webinar

Webinars are a magical thing.

I was INCREDIBLY nervous before I threw my first one but I’m hooked. And have throw one or two since then.

How much time do you really need to prepare for a webinar? I’ve pulled them off in 2 weeks but I would give yourself a minimum of 4 weeks when working through your first one.

Let’s break down everything you need to know before you host a webinar for the first time.

Before the Webinar

First, decide on the purpose of your webinar.

Will you simply use it to build your list?

Or will you use it promote the launch of something?

Determining the purpose of your webinar can really help focus your approach & content.

Second, make sure to set realistic expectations.

Although webinar registration pages can convert as high as 70+% from view to registrant, actual attendance can be much lower.

You can expect at most 42% of your webinar registrants to actually attend your webinar. (Source: ON24)

Of course, your mileage may vary

Once your expectations are in check, it’s time to start planning your communication schedule.

Your Communication Schedule

There’s a LOT you can do communication-wise for your webinar. And when it comes to marketing the heck out of the thing, you really want to check out Lewis Howe’s Webinar Marketing book, Ultimate Webinar Marketing Guide (affiliate).

At the very least, you need to send out some emails about your webinar.

Here is a list of emails I recommend creating and sending for your first webinar:

• Hey! I’ve got a shiny new webinar coming up!
  What it is: The announcement that your webinar is happening. Includes a registration link.
  Who to send it to: Your entire list.
  When to send it: 7-10 days before your webinar is happening. (This is longer than I used to say because of the whole Gmail Promotional Inbox and it’s affect on when people open emails – INSERT LINK)
• Thanks for registering for my shiny new webinar!
  What it is: A thank you email to anyone who registers for your webinar. Sometimes it’s fun to a include a clicktotweet to get your registrants to share the webinar with their peeps (be sure the clicktotweet includes the link to your webinar registration page)
  Who to send it to: webinar registrants
  When to send it: As they register. If you can’t set this up to auto-send, I’ve simply sent out a thank you email 5 days before the webinar is happening.
• Hey! Did you see I’ve got a shiny new webinar happening?
  What it is: A follow up email to those who didn’t open your first announcement. Includes registration link.
  Who to send it to: Your entire list minus those who opened your first email.
  When to send it: 3-4 days after your first email
• Don’t forget your webinar is happening!
  What it is: A reminder email about your webinar. Can include a clicktotweet or a link to a survey/form for them to submit questions ahead of time.
  Who to send it to: Webinar registrants.
  When to send it: 2 days before your webinar is happening
• What are you doing in your inbox?
  What it is: A reminder day-of email. Includes instructions for how to access the webinar (often something along the lines of look for the email with the subject “….” otherwise – try to sign up again here (insert registration link)
  Who to send it to: Webinar registrants
  When to send it: 15-30 minutes before the webinar start time
• Thanks for attending the webinar!
  What it is: A thanks for attending email that also includes a link to sales page if promoting a product/services. Can include link to recording if you offered one.
  Who to send it to: Those who attended your webinar (your webinar platform should be able to tell you who actually attended)
  When to send it: Within 24 hours of the conclusion of your webinar
• Hey! You missed the webinar
  What it is: A thanks for registering but looks like you missed it webinar. Includes link to recording if you offered one. Details on any offering you announced on the webinar.
  When to send it: Within 24 hours of the conclusion of your webinar.

…to name a few

In addition to these, scheduling a few tweets and Facebook posts about your webinar can help spread the word outside of just your list.

The Webinar Registration Page

This is your landing page for your webinar – where you’ll send all of your people to sign up.

Depending on your setup, this may be a page you create on your site or you may send them directly to a page that your webinar platform created for you.

Part of this process includes considering a somewhat technical item – whether or not your email service provider will play well with the webinar platform of your choice. Some questions to consider:

• Can I export a list of registrants from my webinar platform?
• If I export a list of registrants, will my email service provider let me import those to add them to my list?
• Can I simply link my email service provider with my webinar platform to auto-import these emails?

The answers to these questions will help you determine whether you’ll have people register directly via your webinar platform or if you’ll have them signup via your email service provider and then send them an email to register via your webinar platform as well.

Whichever you decide to do – IF you plan on adding your webinar attendee emails to your main email list, be sure to disclose this on your registration page – otherwise, it just might not be legal to do so. (Note: check with your own lawyer on this because I am definitely not one!)

Easy ways to create webinar landing pages on your own site include:

• OptimizePress
• LeadPages

Some elements to include on your webinar registration page:

• The Title
• The Date
• The Time (in multiple timezones – I’ve yet to meet someone who can do timezone math off the top of their head)
• 3 teaser bullets of what they’ll learn
• Disclosure that they’ll be added to your list (if they will be)
• Registration button

…at a bare minimum.

If you’re looking for other ideas of what to include on your webinar registration page, check out some of the templates that LeadPages offers. You don’t have to use LeadPages to get a few ideas of the types of content you might want to include on your own registration page.

The Tech Side of Things

Whether you decide to go with MeetingBurner (affiliate) or GoToWebinar or another platform, you simply CANNOT do your first webinar without first doing a run-through of the tech bits.

Each provider is going to have its own tutorial of what button does what but here are a few general bits of tech advice:

An Assistant.

Or a friend or a family member. Have someone on the other end of your webinar who dials in just like an attendee would to make sure everything you *think* is happening is the happening the way it should.

I like to have this person on gchat or on the phone and often have them email me screenshots of what they’re seeing just so I can be sure.

Sound.

Having poor audio quality – or no audio at all – can really kill your chances of having a successful webinar.

To make sure your audio is top-notch, try a few of these tweaks during your test run(s):

• Use headphones. Not using headphones can sometimes result in your visitors hearing you twice as you speak, your computer speakers broadcast your voice a second time and your microphone picks that up as well. Double voice = no good.
• Microphone. Not all microphones are created equal. Whether you’re using a microphone that plugs in to your phone or to your computer, test a few different options if your sound is less than stellar. What do I use? I use the Blue Microphones Snowball USB Microphone (Textured White) (affiliate) which plugs into my computer. Microphones that have not worked that well for me in the past: cheapo USB headsets and came-with-my-cell-phone earbuds w/mic. Not that your microphone on hand won’t work, just be sure to test
• Background audio. Be sure to plan your webinar during a time where your home/office is quiet. You can’t always control when construction happens on your street but maybe don’t schedule your webinar for the week you’re dogsitting your Aunt Nelly’s 10 dogs

Bonus recommendation for MeetingBurner users:

Meetingburner often requires you to dial-in via a phone line to record your webinar with their built-in recording feature. When I dialed in via my cell phone, I almost always had poor audio quality. If you experience the same, try what I did – dialing in via Google Voice inside Gmail or calling in via a land line. Rule of the game: experiment, experiment, experiment with your tech setup to get the best results.

Screensharing

More than one webinar host has been taken down by a screensharing hiccup. If you are using slides in your webinar, those are slides you’ll have to prepare in another program and simply share your screen within the webinar platform when you want to present them.

Some presentation programs you can use to prepare your slides:

• Microsoft PowerPoint
• OpenOffice Impress (a lot like PowerPoint)
• Prezi (can take a little getting used to)
• Google Doc Presentation

I’m currently using OpenOffice Impress and it works well…. because I’m familiar with the program. Choose a presentation program you’re comfortable with so you have one less technical hurdle on your webinar day.

Screensharing in and of itself should not be that hard but I still recommend test driving it. A few things to watch for when testing out screensharing:

• Are you sharing your entire screen or just the area you want viewers to see? (Bonus recommendation: clear your entire desktop into a “desktop” folder so in case your viewers DO end up seeing more than you wanted, it won’t be anything confidential or embarrassing!)
• Can your attendees see the entire presentation or is part of it cutoff?
• Are you comfortable pausing your screensharing and unpausing? (in case you have to grab a link from somewhere, access another program, troubleshoot, etc.)

If, when you’re live, you hit screensharing snafus, I recommend not spending more than 30 seconds trying to fix it yourself – you’ll simply lose attendees. Instead, go with the flow! Continue to give your presentation but don’t rely on visuals – be a bit more descriptive and utilize things like the ask a question or chat features to keep your attendees engaged.

The Ins and Outs

Make sure you know the ins and outs of your chosen webinar platform.

Before webinar day, do you know…

• How to start your webinar?
• Start recording your webinar? (if you’re offering a recording of your presentation)
• How to use your ask a question or chat features? How to explain how to use those features to your attendees?
• If you have a ‘public’ line that attendees can call into for the audio, how do you mute it so only you can be heard?
• How you’ll share your link to your sales page (if you’re using the presentation to sell a program or product) – inside a chat box? Or simply show an image on screen? (If so, try to keep the link SIMPLE since people will be retyping it to access the page)

Before my first webinar, I scheduled a walk-through with one the associates from the webinar platform I was using to make sure I felt reallllllly comfortable with the program. After that, I probably did about 2-3 run-throughs of my presentation to make sure I knew how everything worked.

If You Have the Means…

If you have more than one computer on hand, I find it incredibly helpful to use a second email address to register for my webinar as an attendee and “attend” my webinar via that second computer while presenting on my primary laptop.

It helps to calm the nerves of making sure that what you’re presenting really is what they’re seeing. One thing to watch out for is the audio on the second computer – don’t want your microphone to pick up the double sound.

After Your Webinar

After you’ve completed your first webinar, first – celebrate! And breathe. You did it! And even if you had tech hiccups – it doesn’t matter – you’ve made it through your first one and you’ll know exactly what tweaks to make for your next one.

Other Resources

Hungry for more tips on running a webinar?

Check out some of these resources:

• Natalie Sisson – 5 Steps to Creating a Webinar That Engages Your Audience and Converts Them Into Customers
• David Siteman Garland – Double Your Webinar Sales
• Lewis Howes Webinar Marketing Book – Ultimate Webinar Marketing Guide (affiliate)

Both David and Lewis’ resources are great for helping you with the CONTENT of your webinar if you’re using it to sell especially.

Now What?

If you liked this guide, share it with your peeps!

Click to tweet: Check out this detailed guide from @lizlockard – How to Host Your First Webinar: EVERYTHING You Need to Know http://bit.ly/firstwebinar

So what do you think? Ready to run your first webinar? Find this post useful? Have anything you’d add to this guide? Let me know in the comments!