How to Design a Successful Training Webinar for Your Team

A training webinar can be an excellent resource and is a very popular means of imparting information.

However, there are ways of doing them well and ways of doing them badly.

We’re going to take you through some of the best ways so that you can be sure of getting the most out of your training webinars, and your team will reap the benefit. We’ll start with a definition and a look at the benefits before advising on the best ways to proceed so that your webinars are always wonderful!

What is a training webinar?

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1BiFa91aoLIUTp32AZeAY9pH1UsW3lvNRj1Msy7VHqFA/edit

A training webinar is a specialized kind of webinar that delivers information or guidance to the attendees. Webinars can cover various topics, including new product introductions, customer service methods, sales techniques, or new statutory frameworks.

They can be live or pre-recorded. They’re often delivered by an expert in the field, who will take the attendees through the salient issues at hand. It’s rarely one-way though: it usually includes some form of interactivity such as Q&As or break-out discussion groups.

Webinars rarely replace other instructive techniques, such as in-person training sessions. They tend to be deployed in tandem with them so that the attendees can benefit from a range of different learning opportunities. 

Why use a training webinar?

There are three main advantages to training webinars:

1. Reach

Most people can now easily deal with remote meetings, and it’s becoming the norm. Putting your session online means you can reach people across the business, wherever they’re located.

Obviously, time zones play a part, in that people are not likely to be eager to attend a webinar at 3 am local time, but there are ways you can deal with this.

Remote workers are often more able to deeply focus on their work with fewer interruptions, making it easier for them to participate effectively regardless of their location.

2. Recording

A webinar is eminently recordable—just click on the option, and you’re done. This is then accessible by those who can’t attend the live session, including the 3 a.m. contingent we just mentioned. OK, you can record a live seminar, too, but it will require more of a camera and sound set-up that can capture the in-room experience. 

3. Cost

Unlike the expense involved with transporting, accommodating, and feeding people from around the business to attend in person, a webinar is very inexpensive. A modicum of equipment is required, such as the right webinar software, but that’s about it. 

How to design a training webinar

Let’s now proceed to look at the steps you can take to put together a successful training webinar. 

Test before you go live

Equipment snags can be a major hindrance to learning. You’ll only have a set time to conduct the training webinar, and you don’t want to waste any minutes trying to figure out how, for instance, to implement a break-out session.

So, go through the requirements of the entire webinar, and ensure that everything works (and you know how to work it) before you meet with your attendees. Such considerations are especially important if your webinar concerns technical matters.

If you’re talking about a tech domain but you can't even connect to it, your credibility will suffer.

Be prepared for trouble should it arise by coming up with a backup plan. For instance, if your audio goes down for whatever reason, you’ll be limited to visual only. For this eventuality, it might be a good idea to prepare a PowerPoint presentation. 

Practical considerations

Run through the elements of the webinar and decide what equipment you will need for optimal performance. A key requirement is clear and intelligible audio. For this reason, it’s a good idea to invest in a decent microphone. Head-mounted is a great option.

Try to find a location that is relatively quiet. It doesn’t have to be absolutely silent, but your recording spot does need to be free from noise interruptions, which can be annoying and distracting for your attendees. Consider setting up dedicated audio rooms where participants can engage in focused discussions or practice sessions without distractions.

Give your background some thought, too. Again, keep distracting elements to a minimum. Bookcases are often used, but they’re not always ideal, as attendees can spend a lot of time and energy trying to see what books are featured therein.

So, consider a plain wall or, even better, something related to the topic. For instance, if the training webinar is about virtual call centers, then have an image of an operator behind you. Consider the technical requirements for hosting your webinar, including fast and reliable web hosting services to ensure smooth streaming and minimal downtime for your attendees.

Set goals and objectives

Be clear with yourself what you are trying to achieve with a training webinar. If it’s to impart familiarity with a new process, how are you going to do this? Practical demonstration is often the most effective way to train, so can you do this as part of the webinar?

For example, if your objective is to familiarize the team with a new recruiting CRM software, you might consider demonstrating its features and functionalities in real-time. This hands-on approach can significantly enhance learning and retention among participants.

It’s possible to do it in at least two ways. One is to carry out the process in the form of role-play, perhaps involving another individual to help you. This is useful in areas such as customer service. The other way is to interact with a system or application, with mouse movements and user actions visible on the screen.

Think also about who your target audience is. What level of pre-existing knowledge will they have? If they’re absolute beginners, then you will need to start simple.

If they’re more well-versed, then you won’t want to waste their time on banalities. By thinking about your target audience, you’ll be in a better place to know whether a live webinar will suffice, or if you need to make a recording available to your more far-flung colleagues.

Being able to think through such considerations will assist you in meeting your objectives. 

Engagement techniques

Like any form of communication, it’s worthless if one of the parties does not engage. So, you need to ensure that you’re not just speaking into a void of disinterest. This is an area of special relevance for training webinars, as it can be a little more difficult for a remote speaker to gauge involvement and interest than it is for an audience that is physically in the room.

You need to think about how to grab and keep your attendees’ interest.

Here are a few techniques you can use:

1. Use the right tone

Your tone of voice matters. The right one to use will, to an extent, depend on your target audience. A largely senior demographic will probably not thrill at a webinar delivered solely in rap, for instance. 

In general, you need to use a welcoming and friendly tone. Not too casual though, as this can lead to a feeling that what you have to say is not very important. Visualize a meeting among colleagues who know each other pretty well. Not friends in a bar, but not strangers in court.

Find a conversational tone in between the two and you’ll score with the majority of webinar audiences. 

2. Use visuals

There’s nothing more dull than a solid phalanx of words to have to wade through, especially if you’re dealing with some fairly complex topics. So, break things up wherever you can.

Slides, charts, and graphs are all massively helpful tools at your disposal. Do remember to take people through what you’re showing. What might be obvious to you may not be easy to understand if you’re new to the topic.

Or you may have audience members with vision problems, so be sure to describe what’s being shown.

Some images might be used not for instructional purposes but to break up the text, such as a picture that relates in some way to the subject matter. If the webinar is all about a new product, you might have an image of a customer using it.

Or if the webinar’s about exempt vs non-exempt employees, then you could have contrasting images of a lawyer and a factory worker, for instance.

Whatever images, slides, charts, and graphs you select, ensure you have the relevant rights to use them.

3. Use interactivity

We’ve probably all been in instructional sessions in which we end up relaxing a little too much because very little is required of us. It can be tricky to stay engaged or even awake when there is little engagement. This is why interactivity is crucial. 

However, you don’t want a situation where people feel they can ask questions and engage at will. This way lies chaos and the other attendees will rapidly lose patience with the process. So, there has to be structure surrounding the interactivity.

Examples of this include a clearly demarcated Q&A session, either at the end of the webinar or at set points throughout.

A very useful technique is to employ breakouts, which result in smaller groups of say six or seven employees who can freely exchange information and opinions in an environment that won’t deteriorate into a mass audience mess. 

A key requirement of the breakout method is to have a moderator in each group, who will lead the group in terms of arriving at conclusions that to report back to the webinar at large.   

Conclusion

Webinars can be enormously useful, but they do require a little thought to be done right. We’ve given you some important pointers to introduce into your next training webinar; go through them one by one and you’ll be well set for success.

Lastly, be sure to enjoy it. If you want engagement from your attendees, you should show engagement yourself!