Webinar Presentation: Tips for Winning Over Attendees

Last updated on September 14th, 2024

Hosting a webinar is no easy feat, especially when covering a complex topic that must be presented to viewers in the simplest way to help them understand each point. To do that, you need to design a winning webinar presentation with all the essential information and the proper slide decks.

Therefore, to help you create an engaging webinar slide deck, we have explained what a webinar is, its purpose, and some important tips for a successful webinar presentation.

What is a Webinar Presentation?

A webinar presentation is a virtual conference, an online event, or even a seminar that takes place online. It is a pre-recorded or most often live conference that is presented online for participants to learn about a specific topic.

In a webinar presentation, the presenter or a group of presenters discuss their know-how about the topic and enable participants to learn or gain awareness about something that can be of benefit to them.

The virtual event can be in the form of a workshop, a lecture, or a discussion by industry experts, professionals, teachers, or any other qualified individual that knows the ins and outs of a particular topic.

What is the purpose of a Webinar?

A webinar is hosted for a particular goal that could be:

Lead Generation
Increase Sales
Inspire Audience
Establish Trust
Build Brand Awareness
Interact with Participants
Impart Knowledge

Webinar presentations enable businesses to reach a wide clientele base globally. It increases the authority of recognized experts, as they engage with the target audience. They are not only cost-effective but also dynamically help businesses reach more people, generate profitable leads, and increase conversions.

What is the difference between a Video Presentation and a Webinar?

You might think that a webinar and a video presentation are the same with both of them being hosted online and having a presenter sharing information for their audience. However, both of these are distinct from each other with respect to interaction.

A Webinar presentation offers live interaction of the audience with the presenter, whereas a normal video presentation doesn’t. The key factor is engagement here. With webinars, presenters can engage and interact more with the audience, rather than just showing a video of them talking about something.

A typical webinar deck template often contains four things in its outline:

A story for inspiration (establishes authority and credibility of the presenter)
The main body of the webinar (this includes the slide deck plus the discussion)
Live Q&A section (this is where the main interaction takes place)
Call-to-Action (lets the Audience know what the next steps are)

Tips for a Successful Webinar Presentation

How to create a winning webinar presentation with PowerPoint? Webinars need to be memorable in order to be a success. Here are a few tips that you can use to host a successful webinar presentation.

1. Extensively Research your Subject Matter

The first step is to choose a topic and research it extensively to be able to present it to the audience in a way that relates to your objectives, what you offer, and also the participant’s interest. Ask yourself who will be attending your webinar, what are their problems, and how you can help them solve their issues to clarify your topic.

2. Plan the Topic Outline

After knowing about your topic in-depth, you need to plan the outline or sequence of your slide deck. Determine what comes first, and what follows in a logical way so it helps your audience connect with your message. The flow of your webinar presentation should be easy to comprehend for the audience according to their level.

3. Use a Webinar Presentation Template

Designing winning templates for a successful webinar presentation can be complicated, especially when you have so much time. Delving into the design aspect could cost you a lot of time and make it a hassle for you to determine which design would look best. To avoid the trouble, you can use a professional webinar presentation template (or if the wallet does not allow it, then choose from a variety of free webinar presentation templates), make a few tweaks to it to match your brand, and have a ready-to-go live webinar slide deck in a matter of minutes.

4. Test the Technology Before Going Live

A successful webinar presentation needs to be free of any technical difficulties since it is a live seminar, and any interruption will cause a reduction in audience engagement. Test all your tech devices, including the microphone, camera, and lights before you host your virtual event.

Another key aspect is the presentation background, deciding whether you will be using a green screen or Chroma key, a virtual background, or simply the background at your home to stream your webinar. Make sure it is free of unnecessary clutter, there’s no noise in the background as well.

Lastly, another important factor is the software you will use to host your virtual seminar. There are a ton of webinar hosting software that can be used to go live with your webinar presentation, but you need to pick one that aligns with your goals for it to be a success.

5. Begin with Introduction and Overview

Introduce Your Expertise and Experience

The introduction for your webinar can be as simple as your title slide, but you also need to introduce yourself, your experience, and your expertise to establish your authority. List relevant credentials to state your credibility and experience on the subject matter. This enables the audience to trust you and listen attentively to what you have to say on the topic.

Pro Tip: To introduce yourself, you can use one of the About me slides available.

Add Testimonials and Social Proofs

Besides your credentials, social proofs are necessary to maintain your authority on the topic. Add relevant testimonials from your employers, customers, and clients to enable the audience to trust your insights and increase engagement.

Provide an Overview of the Webinar

Providing an overview of your webinar will help your audience follow the flow of your webinar presentation. The layout of your webinar matters for discussing complex topics and the audience should be aware of what comes next throughout your presentation to grasp the core topics and stay on track with you till the end.

Prompt your Audience to Interact

Making an interactive webinar presentation increases the chances of engaging your target audience. When creating your webinar slide deck, insert special slides with which the audience can interact. You can ask questions, conduct polls in your live PowerPoint presentation, add a quiz, or add an activity for the participants to learn more about your topic. PowerPoint games also aim for interactive presentations.

Some webinar software also has a chatbox feature, where you can ask the audience to type in their questions or answers to the questions you ask. This will make your webinar presentation more memorable as the participants interact with you and have their queries resolved instantly.

Add Graphs and Charts for Presenting Statistics

Visualize statistics, data, and figures in your webinar presentation so your audience can understand the relation between the figures easily. Use graphs, charts, and tables to show the data and reinforce your points with more clarity. Graphs can help visualize the trends more easily, evaluate the figures, and gain valuable insights.

Leave Room for a Live Q&A Session

A webinar’s key difference from an online video is the interaction it offers between the presenter and the participants. And the best way to interact with the audience is to hold a live Q&A session. Solving queries of your webinar presentation audience will enable them to remember you and gain the value you offer. If the attendees still have any queries unresolved by the end of your virtual seminar, they would not return for more.

Besides leaving room for a Q&A session at the end of the webinar, you can also give the participants time in between after explaining a core concept, so they can be engaged throughout the webinar. Addressing their questions in between will help them grasp your message easily and will establish your credibility as a presenter as well.

Conclude with a Call to Action

The key to a successful webinar is a clear call to action. The audience should know what are the next steps for them to know more, participate, buy your product, or invest in your service. It could be as simple as downloading a whitepaper, an ebook, signing up for a free trial, or even a newsletter. Make it clear for the attendants to understand, show the value of what they get from it and let them know the problem it solves for them.

Final Thoughts

A webinar presentation can help businesses to build their brand, expand their clientele, form partnerships, gain subscriptions as well as generate profitable leads.

Just like a normal presentation, a webinar also needs a strong start and a bold finish to be successful. If the audience doesn’t get the right information at the start about the presenter, their trust would not be built and thus they would lose interest.

Similarly at the end of the webinar is concluded with no Q&A session, the participants would still have questions in their minds unresolved, which would lead to unclosed deals, low ROI, and an uninterested audience.

Apart from the Q&A, a strong call to action will result in closed sales, and enable you to capture leads. If no specific action plan is presented, the webinar will be of no use to the audience. You can also use a poll or a survey at the end of your virtual event to ask the audience what they plan to do next and was the webinar worth their time, so you can plan your next webinar accordingly.