Five Tools to Improve Your Webinar Audience Engagement

When planning out a webinar, you’re often thinking about the content you want to present, how you’re going to tell your story and how to make the presentation look amazing.

But there are more reasons to run a webinar besides simply presenting your content. Your goal is to make connections with people in the industry who are looking for solutions. You want them to engage with you and your content — not just stare at a screen for an hour.

So, what can you do to engage your audience more while broadcasting?

Here are five tips to help boost interactivity and engagement with your webinar audience:

1. Turn on those webcams

In the last few years, there’s been a shift in comfort levels surrounding online meetings. More and more people are willing to turn on their webcams, regardless of their location. In 2023, 78% of webinars presented by the Gardner Business Media family of brands used webcams at least in part if not in full. A common trend is to have webcams on for the introduction and the Q&A session at the end. Plus — based on stats from 2023 — we see an increase in engagement scores calculated by our webinar software. Webcams alone can boost engagement by 2% (from 45% to 47% engagement on average for 2023).

2. Show, don’t just tell

Multimedia content, including videos and GIFs, are a great way to keep your audience’s attention. Showing how the process works can keep them focused and not reading their inbox while they listen in (we’ve all done it, don’t deny it 😊). Content such as composite layers/layup, twin-screw extruders, and CNC machining paths all work well as videos or GIFs. If those aren’t your forte, you could also consider a step-through set up in your presentation that shows the transition between steps. And for those of you who focus on software, we can work with you to do a live demo of your system.

3. Poll your audience

If you’re looking for more information from your live audience or are interested in progressive profiling, polls are a great solution. Polls can help you achieve a knowledge baseline for your audience, gauge how often your audience uses a specific solution, and help gather more data to share later for each user. Using polls as a progressive profiling tool can also help minimize the number of questions you need on your registration form — shorter forms tend to lead to fewer abandonments. We offer a number of formats in our webinar platform; just let us know what you’d like to include.

4. Chat them up

The most under-utilized tool available for webinars is the chat section. Many presenters are hesitant to use the chat feature in our webinars, and it’s perfectly understandable: they can be distracting, there could be crickets or there could be a rock show, and there’s always an underlying concern that a competitor may join and stir the pot. As this tool isn’t used as often, our audiences aren’t accustomed to using it, and are thus typically less interactive — unless you prompt them. Asking about their pain points and getting real-time feedback can be invaluable when a poll just doesn’t fit. We recommend having a chat-focused team member join alongside the presenter to focus on those conversations while the presenter continues to share their knowledge.

5. Share your knowledge beyond the webinar

A webinar only lasts so long, and more often than not you may have way more content that you’d like to present. Handouts are a great way to balance presented content and additional resources. We find that white papers, case studies, learning resources, and testimonials work well — however, you may share anything that you feel would be beneficial to the audience. Our system can support many different types of handouts, so just reach out if you have any questions. Check out our quick guide for the available formats.

Regardless of your comfort level with webinars, using these tips — even if you start by adding just one at a time — is a great way to engage your audience further while sharing your expertise. Next time you plan a webinar, be sure to think about these five tips and see where they might make the best sense in your webinar. While they won’t be applicable every time, they are good cards to have up your sleeve. And if you’re still new to webinars or want to reach a new audience, don’t be afraid to work with a partner that’ll help guide you through the process.

Abby recently presented this content as a webinar. You can watch that webinar on-demand. For more information about webinars, please reach out to Abby Hull.