Are you looking to host a webinar using Zoom? This article lists the top 10 professional tips for successfully running a webinar on Zoom in 2022. Whether you are just getting started with Zoom or you are a power-user, you will definitely find this article helpful.
1. Make sure you have a paid license for Zoom
First and most importantly, you need to have a version of Zoom that allows for you to have enough guests join your meeting and no time limit for the session. This is very important as it will impact the ability for you to host the session and invite people.
Zoom provides the options for setting up either a meeting or a webinar. The functionally of each is a bit different, but in this case the webinar version will provide a professional look, limiting the speakers as the only people visible on the screen. The webinar version of Zoom also doesn’t show attendees who else is in the webinar and how many people are attending. All of that is hidden and Q&A features allow for attendees to interact with the hosts.
2. Prepare presenters ahead of time in a test session
It’s super important to prep your presenters ahead of your Zoom webinar. Test and adjust lighting, backgrounds, sound make sure each presenter is comfortable with their setup. The same testing should be applied to the technology. Make sure your presenters know how to operate Zoom.
The best way to do this is to ask your presenters to join a ‘test-run’ session a day before the actual event to prepare.
3. Configure the Zoom settings in advance of the event
Zoom’s webinar version has advanced settings not found in the standard meeting version that you can use to customize the meeting experience for the attendees.
To maximize audience engagement and professionalism enable these features:
- Make sure to enable the Q&A upvote feature
- Tun on the auto-download the chat + Q&A feature so the discussion that happens during the event in achieved and saved.
- Set up the participants’ view to mirror the host’s view so a moderator can be a non-visible panelist and observe the webinar.
- The day of the webinar add another panelist/speaker as a co-host in the case that there are technical errors etc.
4. Greet your presenters ahead of time in the Zoom webinar lobby
For the utmost professional experience and one that will reflect positively on your brand, you’ll want to greet your presenters when they arrive in a virtual lobby before they enter the webinar.
So before the actual webinar begins, have the presenters meet the other panelist, test the technology, lighting and become adjusted and comfortable before starting the presentation. This will provide a more professional and polished feel to your Zoom webinar, since the panelists will be warmed up before going on-air.
5. Make sure to have a webinar support team behind the scenes
If you are planning a Zoom webinar where you anticipate a large amount of attendees then it’s important to make sure you have backup support behind the scenes. This type of help will allow you to focus on delivering a stellar performance.
For large webinars we suggest the following support team:
- Host and live content moderator
- Live tech, resident Zoom expert and IT support
- Chat moderator for Q&A
6. Create a custom branded background for all presenters
A company or event branded, custom Zoom virtual background will add tons of professionalism to your webinar. Consider creating one virtual background and have your presenters use it. Make sure to configure the virtual background when you prep for the webinar.
7. Setup a way to communicate with your webinar support team during the live event
Chat apps such as Slack and Google Chat are perfect tools for communicating in real-time with internal teams during your Zoom webinar. You can discuss technical issues, queues and talking points and any other notes, behind the scenes as the live webinar plays out.
8. Set yourself up for a successful Question & Answer (Q&A) session
One of the key ingredients to a successful Zoom webinar is engaging with your attendees in the real-time chat. This can sometimes be confusing with Zoom and as presenter’s view does not reflect what participants see. Make sure you are keeping track of questions as they come in. A large volume of feedback can easily be lost in the scroll.
9. Take questions and feedback live to boost audience engagement
An easy way to connect with your audience is by directing them to submit their questions through out the event and upvote questions they find to be most valuable. By doing this you can select the top questions with the highest number of votes to answer and the audience will have selected them. Sharing this with the audience will make it fun and engaging.
10. Have a strong post webinar follow up plan and experience for attendees
With all webinars and digital events its important to maximize the engagement while the event is taking place, while at the same time having a solid call-to-action for attendees and future audiences that may view your event content. With that said, make sure to record your webinar and make it available to attendees within 24-hours of the event. It’s also valuable to repurpose webinars for lead generation and other digital marketing initiatives.
In conclusion, we hope these pro tips are helpful and look forward to bringing you more helpful Zoom webinar tips in the future. For now check out some of the related Zoom tips from the experts below.
