Webinars are certainly a new technology buzz; And if you’re a speaker, trainer, thought leader, or other infopreneur, they’re a “must know” skill rather than a “good to know” skill.

Unfortunately, most people aren’t using them yet, and even those who are using them aren’t using them effectively. Here is a typical comment I saw on a blog about e-learning and webinars:

“Even though I’ve seen dozens of inspirational or motivational speeches, I can honestly say I’ve never attended a webinar that was better than boring. Hell, I’d even settle for one that made me feel like it was time.” Well spent.”

So why is this a problem? I think it’s because presenters, even experienced presenters, don’t know how to adapt their presentations to the webinar environment. Here are my top seven tips for making your webinars more engaging and effective.

1. Solve your problems.

This is the most important advice I can give you. It doesn’t matter if you have harsh audio, poor slides, a slow internet connection, or anything else. If you know your audience’s questions, challenges, and problems, and you can answer them in the webinar, you can get away with it. That doesn’t mean you should fail at other things, of course. But solving your problems is the most attractive thing of all; And conversely, even the smoothest and most elegant presentation will fail if its problems are not addressed.

2. Get them to do something soon.

Ask them to do something at the beginning of their presentation. This forces them to take note, engages them from the start, and shows that this isn’t just another boring presentation. For example, you could:

• Take an online survey;
• Ask them to draw or write something on a blank sheet of paper;
• Leave part of your brochure blank and ask them to fill it out.

Design something that is easy but attractive. It does not have to imply that they share anything personal; in fact, it shouldn’t, because it’s too early in the presentation for them to share with others, but it should involve them doing something.

3. Change the energy

As with any presentation, design segments that change the energy during the webinar. For example, instead of just talking and showing slides, you could:

• Conduct online surveys;
• Show a video;
• Ask them to write or draw things;
• Stop talking for 30 seconds of “thinking time”;
• Show a list and ask them to mentally choose their top 3 priorities;
• Ask questions live;
• Answer questions submitted in advance;
• Deliver to a guest presenter;
• Ask someone in the audience to share a story or case study (ask their permission in advance);
• Switch from a slideshow to a web page or some other software;
• Use the webinar whiteboard feature to draw your diagrams during the webinar, instead of just showing a slide showing the full diagram.

4. Get comfortable with technology.

Just as there is nothing worse than a presenter in a face-to-face presentation struggling with PowerPoint, there is nothing more off-putting in a webinar than a presenter struggling with technology. Unfortunately, this happens a lot. So get well!

You don’t have to master all the technology the first time. Your first webinar could just be a PowerPoint presentation. Next time, you can add interactive polls. The next could include switching to a web browser or another app. Then you could add a session for group discussion. And so…

5. Start and finish on time.

One of the benefits of webinars is that they are very time efficient. Your audience doesn’t have to spend time traveling to a location, fighting traffic, finding a parking spot, driving around before the event starts, and doing it all over again at the end. They have high expectations that you will respect their time, even more so than in a face-to-face presentation.

So make sure you start on time and finish on time. Sure, tech issues can sometimes slow you down; but if you log in early and try the technology, you won’t slow others down. And there really is no excuse for you guest presenters, interview guests and panelists to be late.

6. Deliver great content.

You may have heard that a presentation can serve one of four purposes: to persuade, inform, educate, or inspire. Most webinars fall into the “inform” or “educate” category, not the “persuade” or “inspire” category. Your attendees hope to hang up at the end with some useful skills or knowledge. You can also persuade, motivate, or inspire them, but don’t make that your primary goal unless you make it very clear to them before they sign up (for example, you’ve clearly advertised it as a sales promotion).

Be clear in your own mind about what you want your audience to learn during the webinar; And tell them these goals right at the beginning of the webinar, or maybe even in promotional material.

7. Start before you are ready.

Webinars can be unsettling and stressful, even for experienced presenters. You can’t see your audience, you have a lot of new technology to manage, audience members themselves may be struggling with the technology, and you don’t have as much control over the “room.”

The only solution to this is practice. You don’t have to throw yourself into the deep end; but if you are not willing to even try the shallow end, you will not learn to swim.

Don’t make your first high-stakes webinar events. Start with small groups, not large audiences. Offer free webinars first, before you start charging money. Get someone else to manage the technology for you. Write a script of what you are going to say.

Do whatever it takes! Webinars are not going away and are quickly becoming a key delivery method for experts to connect the world with their material.