How to hold a training webinar

How to hold a training webinar

Understanding your webinar hosting platform, planning your training session, and doing a dry run are just some of the ways to hold a winning training webinar.

Maybe you’ve done a few presentations, chaired meetings, and completed a talk or two, but webinars are a different challenge. It’s that much harder to keep participants engaged without the face-to-face interaction, and so extra effort is needed to make your session a success.

Here are our top tips on how to help make sure your next e-learning session runs without a hitch.

Research your audience

Before you begin crafting your webinar training session, consider your audience and discover their needs and expectations. Work out if they have any performance gaps, what kind of goals they are looking to achieve, and how they like to learn new skills.

There’s a good chance your training webinar will need to cater to a variety of needs, so the more you know about them, the better your chances for happy ‘students’.

Consider inviting a guest host

There are times when two heads can be better than one, and if you have access to a colleague or speaker considered an expert in a field relevant to your presentation, then a guest host could give your webinar some added gravitas. If you’re running the webinar as part of a marketing campaign, make sure you promote them along with exactly what they’ll be bringing to the table.

Choose the perfect webinar hosting platform

There’s nothing more frustrating than putting in the hours to create a brilliant training session, only to stumble at the last hurdle due to unreliable technology. Finding the right webinar hosting platform is crucial to your success, so take the time to find one that’s feature-rich and scalable, with the capability to interact and share screens and slides with multiple participants.

Also consider one-click entry (for easy access to your webcast), HD video and audio, and audience engagement features such as polling, surveys, and text chat.

Create your online content

When crafting the content for your online training seminar, it’s recommended you begin by producing a script that features everything you need to include from start to end. Next, you need to condense the information into more succinct and easy-to-digest slides for your audience. Don’t forget to mix up the content, using interesting imagery and insightful graphics to bring your presentation to life.

Choose imagery that accounts for all your audience, as something that seems poignant or entertaining in the UK may be lost on foreign participants. Think about the level of knowledge your audience has and create content that uses terminology to which they can relate. Balance is key – too basic and they’ll roll their eyes, too over-complicated and they’ll switch off.

Do a dummy run

Once you’re happy with the content for your training webinar, it’s time for a dummy run. This will allow you to nail the timing of your session and make sure you’re hitting all the right notes. It also allows you to become familiar with your hosting platform, and gives you a chance to iron out any problems.

Tweaked your seminar accordingly? You might want to invite some team members along for a trial run in exchange for some constructive criticism. Ask them to fill in a survey afterwards to see if your content, presenting, or pacing needs work prior to your training session. Also, don’t forget to allow additional time for any guest speakers, as well as post-training questions from your attendees.

Post-training actions

Once your training webinar has finished, you might want to tell your audience you’ll be sending them the slides or a recorded version of the training. This will allow them to share their learnings within their teams. You might also want to upload your training recording so you or others can send it out to anyone who couldn’t attend.

Don’t forget to ask all participants to fill in a post-training survey, and you can use the feedback to perfect any training you have in the pipeline.

Training webinars are an excellent way to reach out to others on a global scale, and they are a great tool for building your brand when perfectly orchestrated. With some time, effort, and the right technology, you can make your webinar training session stand out from the rest and earn a reputation as an expert in your craft. For more knowledge and business know-how, head over to our main blog page.