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How to Present a Webinar: 12 Tips to a Powerful Presentation
Webinars are a powerful way to display your knowledge and authority, so it’s no surprise the webinar industry is expected to grow to $800 million by 2023. It’s no surprise 89% of survey respondents report that webinars are their most effective channel for generating qualified leads.
You’ve got around 30 minutes to an hour to captivate your audience and leave them with a fruitful, lasting experience. When done well, webinars are incredibly effective—both for sharing valuable information and building your authority as an expert in your field.
If you’ve ever observed a great webinar, you know what it’s like for someone to make it look easy. But delivering a stellar webinar presentation doesn’t come without practice. Even the greatest authority in a given field must thoughtfully prepare in order to provide their best delivery.
At Rally Point Webinars, we know what goes into a great webinar. So we’ve put together the following advice to steer you in the right direction. When it’s time to stream your first live webinar, you’ll be armed with the best methods to confidently display your authority.
Webinar Presentation Tips #1-4
Tip #1: Tell Them What to Expect—Then Deliver
Even your best audience has the potential to lose focus or simply get distracted. When learning how to present a webinar, one of the best things to keep their attention from start to finish is to contextualize your webinar from the beginning.
When people know what they should expect to learn, they prepare mentally for key takeaways from your presentation and stay tuned in.
Once you’ve introduced yourself, briefly let them know:
- What you’re going to share
- Why you’re sharing it
- What they will learn
- What they should be able to do with the information they learn
Giving a mental checklist will help them know what their expectations should be.
Tip #2: Practice with a Willing Audience
No matter how confident you are in your material, run through your presentation with colleagues or anyone you trust to give knowledgeable and honest feedback. Are you talking too slow? Too fast? What sections are getting too technical?
Practicing in front of the right people can help you know the right time to include a personal story, and whether any of your supporting materials could be shaved down or added to.
Tip #3: Make Great Notes—But Only As a Guide
You need to create a great script you can follow. But remember: This is your area of expertise, so you don’t want to spend the next 40 minutes just reading off the page.
Finalize your notes with bullet points, so you have a clear guide on what to say, trusting yourself to put everything into your own words. Draw from your experiences, and let your bullets be your guide.
A stellar script is crucial for any event, but it’s even more critical if you’re presenting an audio-only
pre-recorded webinar. Those live or die based on the strength of the script and the quality of the production.
Tip #4: Rehearse. Then, Rehearse Some More
When you rehearse, you should run through your presentation with all the technical processes included, not just the actual speech. Think of rehearsal as a practice run of the whole event, including streaming and using your webinar platform.
Rally Point Webinars goes through rehearsals with our clients, staying with them at every step to make sure we work out any changes, fixes, or last-minute edits in a dry run—instead of regretting not doing so when it’s too late to practice. (Of course, sometimes things change, and last-minute edits are necessary; don’t worry, we can handle those too.)
You get the best results from rehearsing close to when you will launch your webinar but leaving enough time to make changes and rehearse more if needed.
Webinar Presentation Tips #5-8
Tip #5: Personalize Your Presentation—No One Else Is You
You want your audience to absorb and retain what you share—holding their attention from start to finish.
You want to offer viewers something unique they won’t get anywhere else. The great news is you can accomplish both simply by being yourself.
Your personal perspective is unique: use it to your advantage. Share your journey with stories and anecdotes. People respond well when presenters are genuine, so weaving some of yourself into your delivery paints a picture for them to remember.
Tip #6: Test Your Tech Before Going Live
One of the many benefits of having a technical team like Rally Point as your webinar partner is the simple fact that technical things are bound to go wrong. But if you’re going it alone, be mindful: whenever technology is involved, it’s good to be a little obsessive about triple-checking everything before you go live. This is just a partial list of things to check:
- Make sure your streaming camera is on and using the settings you want.
- Check that your slides and other supporting materials are loaded and working properly.
- Check your microphone to make sure it’s on and sounds correct.
- Double-check your internet connection.
- Make sure you’re signed in to any apps and streaming services involved in your presentation.
Tip #7: Have a Backup Plan If Your Internet Fails
Despite your best efforts to be prepared, last-minute hiccups can catch anyone off guard. Learning how to present a webinar means knowing what to do if something goes wrong. You can get everything perfect, but if your internet becomes unreliable or goes out completely, your audience will never know what they’re missing.
Anything you can do to have a backup plan will leave a positive impression while ensuring
people can still walk away learning what they came for. Ruminate on the following contingency plans for your internet woes:
- If possible, have a backup service like a wifi hotspot ready to switch over.
- Whether it’s a colleague, professional moderator, or even just a friend who’s good with tech—have someone you can text if you’re losing your internet signal.
- Your support person should be in a completely separate location to double your chances of continuing interaction.
- Give your assistant administrative access to your live stream, so they can notify your audience if there’s a problem.
- Provide your attendees with a copy of your slides. If your connection issue is temporary, you can bounce right back without missing a step.
People are understanding when they see your effort to remedy the situation. Having a good backup plan is the best way to recover while still giving your audience the information they came for.
Tip #8: Engage Your Audience
The best way to make sure your audience follows you throughout your journey is to get them actively engaged. Fortunately, webinars are synonymous with having the right tools at hand to interact with your audience. These are just a sample of our webinar presentation tips for consistently captivating your audience:
- Conduct polls throughout the flow of your webinar.
- Have the audience follow along with interactive worksheets.
- Integrate music into the event.
- Share brief videos in between groupings of slides throughout your presentation.
- Consider including multiple speakers to add different voices and variety.
- Include breakout rooms or networking sessions.
- Ask for people to share their thoughts and questions in live chat.
- Have a moderator watch comments in your chat, and take brief moments to see how everyone is following along.
- Hold a live Q&A in live chat when you’re finished speaking.
Webinar Presentation Tips #9-12
Tip #9: Make the Best Use of Your Slide Presentation
People respond well to visuals, which means you’re doing more than just displaying the words that align with your presentation. The following are three ways to use your slides to enhance your presentation.
- Don’t get too wordy: A lot of your slides might just contain words, but the visuals are still important. Don’t try to squeeze too much information into a single slide. Breaking information up into several slides with plenty of white space makes it easier for your audience to focus on every detail.
- Use pictures in place of a thousand words: Sometimes a single image fills in the rest of the story better than words alone. Think of ways you can break up the rhythm of your presentation with a reflective image, an interjection of humor, or something that activates input from the audience.
- Use other visuals to communicate your message: Your slides don’t have to simply parrot your words. You can illustrate points with graphs, flowcharts, and diagrams. Being dynamic with how you use slides can deepen everyone’s understanding while keeping them entertained.
Tip #10: Familiarize Yourself with the Webinar Platform Beforehand
If you’re planning to stream your own webinar or only enlist the help of a colleague, make sure you’re overly familiar with the software you’re using. Practice going through the features you’re going to use more than once. Be sure about the following features well before you go live:
- Know how to transition from sharing your screen to showing your camera.
- Know where to find the microphone mute button.
- Practice changing layouts and introducing/removing any content elements you want to use.
- Learn how to keep an eye on your live chat.
- Make a note of where your timer will be.
- Practice clicking through your slide presentation, including using the pointer or drawing functionality.
Tip #11: Know How to Handle Your Nerves
Some of the most prolific people in history get extremely nervous before speaking or performing. You may have nerves of steel—at least when speaking in a familiar environment. But if this is your first live webinar, the truth is you don’t know how you’ll feel until it’s showtime.
Nothing can send someone on a downward spiral quicker than blanking out or having their first panic attack. Make no mistake—if your presentation is worth sharing with an audience, it’s worth knowing how to handle your nerves.
Try some or all of the following to get calm, cool, and collected:
- Keep a picture of your spouse, kids, or favorite pet in view. Having a visual on your loved ones can bring comfort and help you quickly regain your confidence.
- Take deep breaths and calm yourself before you go live.
- If there are particularly tricky or technical parts of your presentation that you’re worried about, pre-record them and play them at the right time.
- If you’re nervous about interacting during live Q&A, your webinar support can help by planting questions in case your nerves get the best of you.
Tip #12: Always Include Your Brand
Never turn down an opportunity to brand your event. Rally Point Webinars customizes every element of each webinar for our clients—from registration to logo placement to virtual room design. You can include your branding on your slides and supporting material, email confirmations, and more. We even offer private event labeling, so you’re not vying for attention with another brand.
Rally Point Knows Webinars
With 15+ years of helping presenters deliver their best webinars, we'll be with you every step of they way.
Map out your presentation
Craft a timeline of interactive elements
Prepare your audio and video
Rehearse the entire process with you
Host and moderate the live event
Get in touch with Rally Point Webinars today, so we can help you present flawless webinars.
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Rally Point Webinars
770 E Main St.
Suite 406
Lehi, UT 84043
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