Webinars are definitely a hot new technology; And if you’re a speaker, trainer, thought leader, or other info-entrepreneur, it’s a “must-know” skill rather than a “good-to-know” skill.

Unfortunately, most people are not using them yet, and even those who are using them are not using them effectively. Here’s a typical example of how I saw on a blog about e-learning and webinars:

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

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

1. Solve their problems.

This is the most important advice I can give you. It doesn’t matter if you have screeching audio, poor slides, a slow internet connection, or anything else. If you know your audience’s questions, challenges, and problems, and 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 interesting of all; And conversely, even the most fluid and elegant presentation will fail if you’re not addressing your issues.

2. Get them to do something soon.

Ask them to do something at the beginning of their presentation. This forces them to take notice, engages them early on, 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. You don’t have to involve them sharing anything personal, in fact you shouldn’t, because it’s too early in the presentation for them to share it with others, but you should get them involved by doing something.

3. Energy change

As with any presentation, design energy-shifting segments 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 “think time”;
• Show a list and ask them to mentally choose their top 3 priorities;
• Ask live questions;
• Please answer the submitted questions ahead of time;
• Give it to a guest presenter;
• Ask someone in the audience to share a story or case study (ask for their permission in advance);
• Switch from a slideshow to a web page or some other software;
• Use the webinar’s whiteboard feature to draw your diagrams during the webinar, rather than simply showing a slide showing the entire 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 unpleasant in a webinar than a presenter struggling with technology. Unfortunately, this happens a lot. So get well!

It is not necessary to master all the technology the first time. Your first webinar could be just a PowerPoint presentation. Next time, you can add interactive polls. The next could include switching to a web browser or other application. 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 save a lot of time. Your audience doesn’t have to waste time traveling to one location, fighting traffic, finding a place to park, loitering before the event starts, and doing it all again at the end. They have high expectations that you 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, technological problems 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: persuade, inform, educate, or inspire. Most webinars fall into the “inform” or “educate” category, not “persuade” or “inspire”. Your assistants 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 main goal, unless that’s really 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 about these goals at the beginning of the webinar, or maybe even in the promotional material.

7. Get started before you are ready.

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

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

Don’t do your first high-stakes webinars. Start with small groups, not large audiences. Offer free webinars first, before you start collecting 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 fast becoming a key delivery method for experts to connect the world with their material.