Webinar Engagement Strategies: Prep, Present, Interact, & Convert

Using a script for your automated webinar is a great way to keep things on track, but you also need to consider how to make the content more engaging if you want to see conversions after your presentation. Incorporating webinar engagement strategies into the planning and execution of your live or automated webinar will ensure that it brings in the right audience and turns them into leads.

We’ve compiled 20 webinar engagement strategies and broken them down into 4 different categories: preparation, presentation, interactions, and conversion. This article will teach you how to create an engaging webinar by covering the following:

• 6 webinar engagement strategies for preparing & setting up your webinar
• 4 strategies for how to make an interesting webinar presentation
• 6 ways to integrate webinar interactions to optimize engagement
• 4 webinar conversion strategies to get attendees to take action

Before we get into how to host an engaging webinar, let’s dive into how proper preparation and set up for your webinar can improve engagement from the start. When you’re ready, check out how eWebinar can help you create an automated webinar using these tips.

6 webinar engagement strategies for preparing & setting up your webinar

To give yourself the best chance at increasing your webinar engagement, you have to make sure your webinar is found by the right audience and your attendees will choose to stay. These are some engagement strategies for effectively preparing your webinar.

1. Make sure your presentation is visibly and audibly captivating

Creating an appealing presentation is a crucial part in maintaining retention. Your hosts should speak in an upbeat and natural way to keep your attendees from becoming bored. You'll also want to make sure your slides are aesthetically pleasing with readable text and a thoughtful design.

Creating an appealing presentation is a crucial part in maintaining retention. Your hosts should speak in an upbeat and natural way to keep your attendees from becoming bored. You'll also want to make sure your slides are aesthetically pleasing with readable text and a thoughtful design.

2. Do a tech check beforehand

After you’ve invested in the software and hardware needed to record your webinar, it's really important to make sure everything works as it should. If you're doing a live webinar, sign on at least 20 minutes early to make sure everything is working properly. If your webinar is automated using a video and an evergreen webinar software, you can skip this step.

3. Market your webinar accordingly

Appealing to the right audience for your webinars is key to its success. Treat your webinar registration page as a landing page, since this is your first impression when marketing your event.

The title should be clear and compelling, and it should let people know in a few points what they’re going to learn in the webinar. If you have a special guest you think your attendees would enjoy seeing, amplify their profile.

4. Choose the webinar platform that’s right for you

There are many webinar platforms out there, each with their own set of differences. Do your research into your platform options and look into their features. This will help you understand your chosen platform's capabilities and all the interactive possibilities for your presentation. If you’re using a new platform, make sure you test it a few times before launching to your audience for the first time.

5. Simplify registration

An easy registration process is crucial for building your audience. The fewer steps required to register, the more likely your potential registrants are to commit to adding your webinar to their schedules. A lengthy registration process can be overwhelming and have them second guessing their attendance.

6. Align with your brand

Webinars are a great way to introduce people to your brand. Find a webinar platform with customizable and branding features for your registration page, and be sure to include any relevant branding in your presentation. This will help your attendees develop a true impression of you and what you offer.

4 strategies for how to make an interesting webinar presentation

Your presentation itself needs to grab your attendees’ attention and provide a personable and valuable experience for them. Here are some tips to help you create an interesting presentation.

1. Schedule interactions throughout

Where in your webinar your interactions (such as polls, questions, downloads, tips, and offers) happen is just as important as having them. Plan out your webinar so that different interactions are spread out and they occur during relevant points in your presentation. Bringing attention to the first few interactions and giving attendees time to take action on them can help engagement for the rest of the webinar.

2. Introduce yourself and personally welcome attendees to your webinar

A great way to begin the webinar is to introduce yourself and, if applicable, introduce the moderator. Also make sure to welcome all the attendees. This helps create a human connection and build credibility heading into the presentation. If your webinar platform allows it, you can also use the welcome feature to greet each of your participants by name through text.

3. Be natural and authentic

Webinars are not supposed to be high-production TV shows (although they can be professionally produced if you’re creating automated content). Most webinars are more casual and conversational as the host gives their presentation. While it’s important to practice and plan for the content, it’s more important that you’re comfortable with the presentation and your talking points so attendees won’t feel nervous with you.

No presentation is perfect, so your webinar doesn't need to be either. Don’t be afraid to say the wrong thing. You can always say it again, and people are very forgiving and appreciative of someone who’s real and isn’t afraid to mess up. Even if your webinar is pre-recorded, it's okay to leave little slip-ups in your speech. Attendees like to see their hosts behaving as real people. Be you!

4. Deliver value, not just content

The most important thing you have to focus on delivering to your attendees is value. Information itself is not valuable. You have to figure out how to relate the information you’re sharing to how it positively impacts the lives of your attendees. If you can make attendees feel like they are learning throughout your presentation, the likelihood of them staying until the end will increase. You may consider getting help from coaches or companies who can help with your presentation structure and content.

6 ways to integrate webinar interactions to optimize engagement

Many webinar platforms include a variety of interactive features that will help keep your audience’s attention and even help them feel involved. These are some of the interactions you should try to include in your webinar.

1. Encourage conversations in the chat

Your webinar's chat box is where the bulk of your interaction will happen. Encouraging attendees to use the chat throughout your presentation can help you better understand how they engage with your content, and it gives them an opportunity to have their questions answered by the hosts or a moderator.

2. Prompt attendees to hit the like button

If your webinar platform has a thumbs up or reaction feature (similar to the ones on Facebook and Instagram Live), this can be used to show your attendees' approval. Early in your presentation, encourage your attendees to react when they see something they like. This gives them a really easy way to feel involved in the webinar.

3. Emphasize important information

If you share anything important during your webinar, it's important to emphasize it for your attendees. Repeat any information or shareables by posting them in the chat or, if your platform has this feature, you can highlight this information so it stands out as an important tip.

4. Host a Q&A session

Q&As are a great way for attendees to learn more about your product or service, or feel closer to the host. You can achieve this by dedicating a period specifically for answering questions during a live webinar or, if you are using an automated webinar, you can encourage questions during the session through chat.

Make sure you have moderators that are answering questions, if not immediately then within a reasonable time after the webinar ends. For automated webinars, you can also set up live Q&A by sharing a link to a live meeting room that pops up at the end of the automated session, and let people know they can hop in there for a live Q&A if they wish.

5. Ask for feedback

Inviting your attendees to comment on their impressions will help you learn and improve. Make sure to include moments in your presentation where you encourage your audience to leave any comments in the chat and/or answer polls and questions, or you can share a link to a survey at the end of the presentation. If your webinar is long, you can even do a pulse check in the middle and ask how people are doing. Pop up a poll and get a feel for how engaged the audience is at that moment.

6. Enlist an assistant or moderator

One of the downsides to live webinars is the inability to manage chat and Q&A while you’re presenting. Having an assistant present or a moderator on standby allows someone to be available to interact with attendees in the chat as the presentation progresses — free of interruptions.

4 webinar conversion strategies to get attendees to take action

Hosting webinars takes a lot of planning, so you should make sure you’re getting the most out of your efforts by getting your attendees to take action before it ends.

Whether it’s to make a purchase, book a meeting with you, or start a trial, knowing exactly what you want before going in ensures you have the right messaging to guide attendees there, and ensures you ask them to take that action before your webinar ends.

Here are some ways you can get your attendees to take action.

1. Ask your attendees questions

Asking the audience questions is a great way to increase participation and collect data on your attendees. Your goal is to keep the presentation interesting and content valuable to motivate attendees to stay until the end. Asking questions throughout makes the webinar a 2-way experience that is participatory as opposed to a 1-way experience that is strictly observant.

2. Use polls to encourage participation

An easier way for your attendees to participate is by giving them polls to answer. By asking a question within your presentation and using your webinar platform's poll feature, you give your audience a simple way to contribute while also collecting feedback about your product or service and marketing data to better your campaigns. You can do this by asking simple questions like where they heard about your webinar/product, and more.

3. Tease special offers to keep your audience present until the end

People like to be rewarded for their time, so promising a special offer to those who wait until the end is a great strategy to maintain your viewership. Determine what you plan to offer, whether it's a coupon code or other resource, and inform your audience near the beginning to wait until the end for it. You can also create urgency by giving it an expiry, such as 24 hours to claim the offer. Make sure to include the offer in your follow-up emails to attendees.

4. Include a call to action at the end

Hosting a webinar takes a lot of time and effort to prepare, and those efforts will be wasted if you don't provide any next steps so your attendees can further engage with you, your product, or your service. Whatever your call to action is, make sure you do not end the webinar before asking attendees to take action.

If you’re offering a free consultation, share a link to your calendar. If you’re selling a course, share the offer and checkout link. If you’re looking for new customers, share the link to sign up for a trial. Make sure you communicate the value of what you’re offering, and let your attendees know why this creates value for them.

Make sure they know how to contact you if there are questions beyond the webinar. You may want to share your contact information at the end or an email address for your support team.

Now you know all about webinar engagement strategies. You’re ready to prepare and set up your webinar, make an engaging presentation, integrate webinar interactions, and implement conversion strategies. If you’d like to learn more about automated webinars, check out our ultimate guide to automated webinars.

If you’re ready to put these strategies into practice, sign up and try eWebinar free for 14 days and get started.