Webinars are an essential part of any business’ activities these days but can seem intimidating to execute. With these 10 powerful webinar tips for presenters, you will host engaging and memorable virtual presentations!

As times call for the increased movement of large events to virtual platforms, businesses are no longer strangers to hosting webinars, or web conferences, involving tens, hundreds, sometimes even thousands of guests online. This blog post walks you through 10 practical webinar tips for presenters to consider when preparing webinars.

The Challenges for Webinar Presenters

As we all know, attending online conferences can sometimes be a bore. Attendees find it just as hard to focus on the screen and person presenting as hosts do, keeping their audience entertained and engaged. 

In a world oversaturated with cyber presentations, how do you keep your audience from dozing off? Beyond that, how do you manage to hold their attention and give them a memorable experience? We explore these questions below as we walk you through the top 10 tips to create good, no – great webinars as a presenter. 

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Top 10 Webinar Tips for Presenters

1. Find original content themes and ideas

It’s crucial that you do your research before presenting a webinar and come prepared with some originality. Sometimes, it can be hard to come up with a totally novel concept or idea to present. But if you play your cards right and prepare well enough, you can be sure to have at least one or two elements or insights that haven’t been said before.

Including insightful facts or a funny and entertaining anecdote adds some personality and exclusivity. A tiny spark can go a long way in giving your attendees something they’ll remember afterward.

2. Be passionate, energetic, and personal

There’s not much worse than a presenter who doesn’t sell what they’re presenting themselves. Displaying passion and energy towards the topic you’re introducing will significantly help keep your audience invested in what you have to say. It helps build your authority with the audience and shows them you’re knowledgeable about what you’re taking the time to present. 

Adding a personal touch can also prove very successful in creating a sense of personability with your audience, which helps keep them engaged and intrigued by what you have to say. Of course, a fun little anecdote works. But adding a picture of yourself at the start of the presentation, alongside a quick intro into who you are and how the topic relates to you, can break down that wall between you and your audience. 

3. Create more targeted content 

We’ve spoken about making your presentation personal somehow as part of these webinar tips for presenters. Still, it’s equally important that your content relates to your audience. Researching your audience and their demographic, psychographic, and behavioral details can help you prepare a webinar presentation that relates to them. In addition, more targeted content will keep your guests genuinely interested in the topic. 

4. Build a multimedia presentation

Simple, oratory presentations are a thing of the past. Instead, multimedia presentations help present your message and information in an aesthetically engaging way. For example, adding tables or charts is a much more effective method of presenting numbers and statistics. Just as adding pictures and videos to your PowerPoint slides can make all the difference in bringing that extra element of visual captivation. 

ManyCam offers tools that allow you to do all this and more with a simple user interface, so you don’t have to worry about overcomplicating things for yourself.

5. Utilize tools to increase audience interaction (Q+A and Polls)

One sure-fire way webinar presenters can keep their audience listening (and awake) is to actually engage them. It can be boring to sit still through a whole presentation where you’re not speaking or moving in some way. So, it’s essential to utilize different tricks and tools that will have your audience join the conversation. 

Including polls and asking questions at different intervals throughout the presentation can add some liveliness to a stale, lecture-style webinar. You’re sure to keep your audience awake and engaged. It can also help break down the walls between presenter and guests and make them feel as though they should be equally as invested in this presentation as you are.

6. Be fully prepared for any issues that may arise

We all understand that though we live in an era where everything is seemingly streamlined and made to be efficient, technical difficulties can and do still arise. Though your audience can be understanding, it will still kill a presentation to have to sit through a presenter taking way too long to deal with technical difficulties. 

It’s super important to ensure you think ahead and be proactive about any issues that may arise. For instance, make sure you have a backup of your presentation somewhere, or even make sure you have a backup laptop! Everything you can think of that could go wrong should have a solution ready to go if need be. In addition, your audience will appreciate that you thought ahead and didn’t waste their time.

7. Make sure your slides are visually pleasing 

We spoke before about the importance of multimedia slides as a way of keeping your audience intrigued, but less can be more in this age of information overload. 

If your slides contain too much information or visual stimulation, it can be distracting and even detrimental to your message. Make sure you have enough white space in your slides so as not to overwhelm your audience with visuals. To take it a step further, ensure your slides are not an eye-sore to look at!

8. Make your slides available to print out  

Offering your audience the option to print out your slides, and have a physical copy of them, can help in multiple ways. First off – your guests can have something to sift through if they get antsy or start to lose focus. The printout is the best way to direct their focus back to the presentation.

If you move too quickly through specific points, having a copy of the slides can help your attendees have something to refer back to. It’s a great resource to have if they are particularly intrigued by a certain topic. It can also boost the chances of them asking questions or further engaging with your presentation! 

It can also help to keep your presentation fresh in their minds and allow them something to refer back to after your presentation is over. 

9. Keep your eye on the time

No one likes a presentation that drags on forever. Keep a clock nearby so that you can track how long you’ve been talking and when you should start wrapping things up. 

Keeping it short and sweet – as much as possible – is the way to go!

10. PRACTICE! 

The most powerful webinar tip for presenters of all is to practice, practice, practice! This point brings together most tips on this list. Preparation is key when presenting a video conference or delivering a webinar.

You want to try and anticipate everything as much as possible. Here are a few things to keep in mind:

• Have a set run-through time
• Prepare questions and discussion points
• Pull all the possible information you may need in advance

Your audience will appreciate a well-prepared presentation, and you can focus on holding their attention and hosting an informative and innovative webinar session.

Final Thoughts on Webinar Tips for Presenters

In conclusion, you shouldn’t feel too intimidated at the thought of hosting a webinar or virtual conference, as long as you take into account all the points mentioned here and make sure you’re prepared to the best of your ability. 

You may even find that you breezed right through it and actually enjoyed hosting the webinar. Effective and engaging webinars can help build your brand in the eyes of your customers, so make sure you take full advantage of the opportunity!