Although I’m a huge fan of webinar. I’ve had some amazing success with them in the past, I want to be clear about one thing…
You shouldn’t just create and host webinars out of the blue. They take a considerable amount of time, effort, planning, promotion, and content creation to pull off.
Don’t get me wrong…
Hosting gotowebinars can be a valuable asset when it comes to boosting audience engagement, generating qualified leads, and closing sales.
However, there’s a time and place for everything. Before you decide when to host a webinar, you need to think about where your business is at the moment and what goal you want to accomplish with the webinar.
If the topic you want to cover on the webinar aligns with your current business goals, then go for it! If not, it might be better to concentrate your efforts on other content types. Yo can choose content such as writing new blog posts or creating a lead magnet.
So, when is the best time to host a webinar?
Let’s take a look…
Best Time Day And Time To Host A Gotowebinar Backed By Webinar Statistics
According to a study done by on24.com for webinar best practices concluded the following diagram below.
In the US, the best days of the week to host a webinar are generally Wednesday or Thursday. If you expect a coast-to-coast audience, the best time to host a webinar tends to be 11am PT/2pm ET, which avoids lunch and commute hours for most attendees.
How To Host A Webinar And Webinar Best Practices 2018
Live webinars are great because they allow your target audience to actively participate in the conversation.
They allow you to directly connect with your audience and give them an opportunity to voice their opinions. They also get clarification and immediately get answers to their questions.
You’re also getting valuable insights on their biggest challenges & pain points, which will inevitably prove useful for creating content and advertising campaigns in the future, or even structuring new offers.
By hosting a webinar on a specific topic and encouraging interaction, you’ll create a buzz around that topic. Getting people talking about your solution (product or service) a particular problem your audience is facing.
Furthermore, webinars can help you form a stronger relationship with your prospects. Not to mention positioning yourself as an expert and a leader in their eyes and gain their trust.
That’s why webinars are a great way to introduce people to your business, raise brand awareness, and build credibility.
How to Design a Webinar to Engage Your Audience from Beginning to End
Step #1. You Can Hold A Meaningful Q&A Session
Are you getting a lot of questions from your target audience regarding a certain topic?
Instead of replying to each of them individually or simply directing them to the Q&A section of your website, you can host a webinar and provide the answers through a live Q&A session.
If you’re planning on covering a complex topic on the webinar, your audience will greatly appreciate the fact that they are able to ask questions throughout the presentation, and get immediate answers.
Step #2. The Audience Requires A Detailed Explanation
Sometimes, your audience might find one of your products or services slightly confusing. Most of the time this happens after they read about it on one of your website pages.
While you can go out of your way to create a detailed step-by-step guide that explains how the audience can solve a particular problem using your solution.
You will have a much higher impact explaining it directly to them on a short webinar.
That way, you don’t have to blindly guess what it is they find confusing, but can ask your audience directly.
You can provide answers to their questions, clear the confusion and clearly convey the benefits of your product or service.
Step #3. You Have An Expert At Your Disposal
If you can reach out and convince a renowned expert to invest an hour of their time to join you on the presentation. You can definitely go for it.
Your webinar, just like any other piece of content needs to provide massive value to your target audience. Rest assured that your audience will recognize and appreciate the effort needed to get an expert on board. They will see that your providing them with the valuable information first-hand.
However, one thing to keep in mind is that…You and your team will have to do most of the heavy lifting for this partnership to be a success.
You’ll need to have a presentation, slides, and script ready, and only ask the expert to share their thoughts and experiences on the topic you’re covering on the webinar.
When You Shouldn’t Host A Webinar And How Long Should A Webinar Last?
Like I mentioned at the beginning of the post, depending on the topic you want to cover, webinars might not be the go-to type of content for.
Certain topics justify taking an hour or two of your schedule to attend a webinar, while others can be sufficiently explained through a simple blog post you can read in 5 minutes.
The average webinar is around 45 minutes, with some presentations going up to 60 minutes and beyond. Speakers normally present for 30 minutes then leave 10-15 minutes at the end to answer audience questions.
So everything depends on the topic you plan to cover. Imagine if I covered this exact same topic on an hour-long webinar. Would you sit through the entire presentation to learn when you should host a webinar?
My guess is – probably not.
What I’m saying is that if a certain topic doesn’t require an hour to explain, it’s better to rely on a different type of content, which requires less time and effort to create (like a blog post, Infographic, free PDf, etc.), but still gets your message across.
Are Webinars Interactive?
A webinar’s strong suit is the ability to have the audience interact with you and the content you’re presenting.
If, however, your content amounts to huge chunks of texts on the slides or a heavy educational piece, you might want to reconsider delivering it through a webinar.Your audience needs to be engaged and attentive throughout the entire presentation, and boring content simply won’t do the trick.
It might still hold a ton of useful information, in which case you’re better off presenting it as a written piece people can go through at their own pace.
You’re Targeting A Global Audience
Webinars require people to tune in at the exact time and date, in order to join the presentation. Over the past years video has become a dominant force among internet users (you can see the stats by statista.com below). This is why a lot of entrepreneurs do not hesitate to present and promote their product or content via gotowebinars.
Unless you’re running automated webinars, it’s next-to-impossible to figure out a time that would work for people in all the different time zones.
If the majority of your target audience is in the U.S. for example, then you’ll have no trouble determining the most convenient time for them.
For the audience at different geographic locations, that couldn’t attend the webinar due to the time difference, you can host a webinar replay which they can watch whenever they have an hour or two to spare.
Or, you can even repurpose the webinar content and turn it into a resource that your audience can download and consume at any given point in time.
Conclusion On How To Host A Webinar
There are a few questions you can ask yourself to determine whether it’s a good idea to host a webinar on a specific topic.
First, you need to take a closer look at the topic itself, and see if it justifies spending the time and resources necessary to create a webinar around it.
Then, try and look at the topic and the content you’re planning on creating through your audience’s eyes. Can they interact with it?
Will they find it valuable and entertaining?
Is there enough content to keep them occupied for an entire hour?
Finally, think about the goal you want to accomplish and where your business is at the moment.
Sometimes, it pays off to invest your marketing efforts elsewhere. This allows you to hold off on hosting the webinar, until the right opportunity presents your content or offer.
Want to learn how to leverage the full potential of webinars to grow your business and scale your profits?
Then I invite you to join our Webinar Marketing Specialist Certification Program.
The program is designed to empower aspiring entrepreneurs, business owners, and other marketing professionals with knowledge and help you develop the skills to create powerful webinar campaigns that reliably generate qualified leads & predictably drive sales.
About The Author
Your Millionaire Mentor, Shaqir Hussyin
Shaqir Hussyin is the founder and CEO of WealthAcademy.com & Funnels.com, nicknamed the “Backpack Millionaire”. He’s invested $350,000 into his own education and training. Whilst traveling to 100+ countries, Shaqir has built over 10+ million dollar brands and attracted over 500,000+ subscribers.
You can check out his signature program which is now available at: Max Income System; 14 Simple Steps To Making Your First Income Online
Shaqir is also a highly sought-after speaker and direct response “Sales Funnels” global leader whose work has impacted over 100,000 businesses in 65 different countries. Connect with Shaqir on Instagram, YouTube, LinkedIn& FB Group.
