Category: Running a Webinar

Learn how to run amazing, interactive webinars. From choosing the right webinar software, to ways to drive engagement on the site.

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Running a Webinar

Ultimate Event Tech List for 2021

Planning an event involves a lot of effort and resources – but having the right tech on your side can make things easier. This guide will cover the ultimate tech list for 2021, broken down into categories ranging from event marketing and booking to virtual event platforms!

Event Marketing

Event marketing tech tools can help you improve your messaging, content, and outreach before an event. Implementing this software allows you to streamline promotions for events, conferences, and trade shows. They even integrate with CRM platforms to ensure that you can maximize engagement!

Cvent

If you’re looking for software that simplifies every aspect of event marketing, consider Cvent! It doesn’t matter if you are hosting a virtual conference or an in-person event – everything you need to engage with your audience and sponsors is right at your fingertips.

Eventbrite

Another popular marketing tool is Eventbrite. You probably recognize the name since it is well-known in the online ticketing and advertising space. The platform is accessible via mobile and setting up event alerts, reminders, and registration options is a breeze.

Other Event Marketing Tech: Constant Contact, InEvent, Eventzilla, Bizzabo, PheedLoop, and Splash.

Lead Retrieval

Part of running a successful event is gathering information about attendees. These are potential leads, after all! These lead retrieval platforms help you automate the data collection process and eliminate unnecessary manual inputs.

Hubilo

Hubilo is one of the top lead retrieval tech solutions in 2021. It allows your brand to engage with your audience while deriving valuable insights from the data you collect. They are a market leader for both hybrid and virtual events, so they can benefit a wide variety of businesses.

Boomset

Boomset is an all-in-one solution that includes everything you need to manage a successful event. Of course, that also includes lead retrieval solutions. The digital business card scanning tech can help you drive prospect generation and improve your bottom line.

Other Lead Retrieval Platforms: iCapture, atEvent, Socio, and Integrate Precision Events.

Event Booking

Event booking systems are just what they sound like – they help your organization simplify setup for conferences, meetings, and more. Most tools include registration processes and payment capabilities to ensure a seamless booking process.

Eventsquid

When budget constraints are concerned, you must use a tool that doesn’t sacrifice functionality for the price. This is where Eventsquid comes in – they offer a booking system that is very flexible but has predictable and reasonable pricing. It includes everything from customized registration to payment processing!

Tripleseat

Another must-have event booking system for venues is Tripleseat. This platform is specifically designed for the needs of restaurants and hotels, so the focus is boosting revenue while simplifying the booking process.

Hospitality event managers everywhere are leveraging this software to manage events, from start to finish!

Other Event Booking Software: Planning Pod, HoneyBook, Arlo, AudienceView, and Event Booking Engines.

Event Check-In

One of the first things your conference attendees must do is check in to your event. You must use the right tech that will speed up this process while also allowing you to collect all the information you need.

Aventri

The Aventri platform allows you to drive real-time engagement and includes robust analytics. It can streamline your check-in process while also giving you feedback about the success of your event!

ThunderTix

Another great check-in solution is ThunderTix. This option caters to music venues and aims to boost efficiency at the box office. It manages everything from reserved seating to concessions, so you can meet all the needs of your attendees.

Other Event Check-In Tech: Showpass, ConferenceAdit, InEvent, and idloom-events.

Conference Intelligence Software

Conference intelligence software is becoming a must-have for event organizers in 2021. This tech enables sales teams to boost their presence at trade shows and conferences by helping them connect with prospects and clients. While some solutions are sold as standalone products, most will integrate with your CRM platform so you can make the most out of the data you collect during your event.

Jifflenow

When it comes to conference intelligence software in a virtual world, Jifflenow is leading the pack. It handles everything from scheduling and event management to analyzing how the meeting went. As a result, you get a seamless event experience that will help you improve in the future.

Aventri

Another global leader in this space is Aventri. This end-to-end solution is driven by data and aims to help your business plan, promote, deliver, and measure all your events. The platform is completely integrated, so everything from marketing and registration to attendee engagement is housed in one software.

Other Conference Intelligence Software: Cvent, DataFox, Eventory, and Integrate Precision Events.

Event Management

So, you’ve planned your event and marketed it – now what? Once the day of the conference arrives, you need to rely on tech to manage it. Event management solutions are especially helpful for large-scale events like trade shows, festivals, and conferences that require careful monitoring of several moving parts. For example, you will need to keep track of exhibitor registrations, attendee payments, the agenda, and more.

Splash

When you need to create branded experiences that are engaging and optimize conversions, consider Splash. This technology lets you manage events that not only bring in more leads and drive new business but also enhance your relationship with existing clients!

Bizzabo

Bizzabo is designed to help you take charge of your event’s success. It facilitates in-person and virtual experiences by using personalization and intelligent features to boost engagement. With this tech, you can empower your event organizers to use these experiences to drive results.

Other Event Management Solutions: Socio, Bevy, InEvent, Hubilo, and PheedLoop.

Mobile Events App

It’s no secret that mobile events apps are the future of virtual and in-person experiences. Everyone prefers to look at agendas, maps, and other important event information on their mobile devices – so why not use tech that lets you build an app without any complex coding?

CrowdCompass

CrowdCompass is a mobile events app offered by Cvent that allows you to increase engagement and boost ROI. They are the top app developer for tradeshows, conferences, and more since they deliver a comprehensive management solution.

Whova

If you prefer an all-in-one solution that includes mobile app support, check out Whova. This tech provides tools that enhance your marketing and registration capabilities, saving you time and effort. The platform is modern and trendy too!

Other Mobile Event Apps: Hopin, Bizzabo, Eventee, Attendify, and EventMobi.

Virtual Event Platforms

Virtual events have become the new normal due to the global COVID-19 pandemic. Make sure your organization can keep up by investing in a virtual event platform that can facilitate the planning, promotion, and execution of online conferences. Doing this right will ensure that your virtual experiences are just as valuable as those you would hold in person!

6Connex

One of the leading virtual event platforms is 6Connex. The cloud-based tech lets you expand your reach while driving engagement – whether you need a virtual environment or a place to hold webinars, this system has you covered.

Hopin

Hopin is an all-in-one tool designed for virtual events. It can closely replicate the in-person experience by offering receptions, individual sessions, expo areas, and more. These unique spaces deliver different levels of interactions for your speakers and attendees.

Other Virtual Event Platforms: Cvent, Whova, Hubilo, Socio, and EventMobi.

Venue Management

Venue management systems enable companies to rent out their spaces and schedule conferences, meetings, and more. These platforms must facilitate communication with third parties and ensure that invoicing, facility management, and booking runs smoothly.

Tripleseat

If you run a hotel, restaurant, or another venue that can be rented, check out Tripleseat. They help brands of all sizes grow their event businesses and streamline the planning and execution process.

Other Venue Management Tech: Skedda, Planning Pod, Aisle Planner, and Dude Solutions Event Management.

Audience Response Software

Audience response software is how you engage with your attendees and boost interactions. This can include everything from polls and surveys to complete Q&A sessions. The goal is to make things interactive so that you can have a more successful and memorable event!

Quizizz

Are you looking for a way to make your content more immersive and engaging? If so, consider Quizizz – a tech solution that helps you get instant feedback while keeping the interactions fun and competitive.

Mentimeter

Mentimeter can also help you develop interactive presentations that incorporate questions, polls, gifs, and more. This tech is easy to use and is completely free, so try it out for your next lecture or conference.

Other Audience Response Software: Slido, Vevox, Kahoot!, Glisser, Crowdpurr, and Array.

Event Planning

What if you need help planning your event? Event planning tech can help your team determine the logistics for a conference, meeting, or exhibit. Whether you need to allocate resources, come up with a schedule, or track payments, you must use software that can manage it all in one place.

Monday.com

Monday.com is a simple interface that allows you to easily manage an event. Your teams can collaborate, integrate with other systems and CRM platforms, customize workflows, and build processes. It’s ideal for planning your next event!

PheedLoop

PheedLoop is another tech option for event planning. It covers everything from registration and mobile app launches to floor plans and automated surveys. This system ensures that you have a true end-to-end management solution.

Other Event Planning Tech: Boomsete, Eventzilla, AllSeated, and Odoo Events.

Now that you’ve organized your event, wondering what you can do with all the amazing content? In comes Milk Video, a tool that will allow you to repurpose all your content into clips for your social media, email, blogs and much more. Check it out here.

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Running a Webinar

Zoom Events: What is it all about?

zoom events

Zoom has just announced that it will be launching a new events platform called Zoom Events. We put together this guide to help you learn more about this new tool and how it can benefit your business!

Zoom Events: The Basics

In October 2020, Zoom released a beta version of a tool called OnZoom. This feature allows users to host events that would traditionally be held in person – as long as they pay for a premium membership. Think fitness classes, theater productions, music lessons, and more!

Unlike traditional zoom meetings and webinars, which are free for users to attend if they have the corresponding meeting ID and password, Zoom Events allows organizations to monetize the platform.

Introducing this technology creates a huge opportunity for hosting interactive virtual conferences and events, considering that online interactions are here to stay. Whether you are a large company looking to host annual all-hands meetings and client conferences, or a small organization that wants to promote cooking classes or fitness events, Zoom Events can help.

It is currently in Beta as OnZoom, but the tool will soon be rebranded into Zoom Events. 

Key Features

You are likely familiar with the benefits of Zoom meetings and webinars. For instance, they allow you to share audio and video with friends, family, colleagues, and more. It allows you to interact virtually so you can stay connected with others around the world!

So, what are the features of Zoom Events, and how are they different?

Zoom Events focuses on being an all-in-one platform that lets you monetize events. Rather than just serving as a meeting platform, this technology allows you to create an entire event hub. 

That means that you can create a branded event page where you can sell tickets, manage registrations and attendees, and access a dashboard to administer the entire event. Incorporating features like breakout rooms will enable you to facilitate multi-track conferences and multi-day events!

You can choose to post your event to a public directory, so a wide audience can learn about your offerings and register to attend your event. Likewise, you can create a private Zoom event for internal purposes. 

During your meeting, concert, or other exhibition, you can foster connections and encourage your attendees to network. Zoom Events will give you insights into how the event was received – it will track statistics that you can use to improve your next conference.

The goal of Zoom Events is to give your organization the tools it needs to launch virtual events in this new era of remote work and communication!

Pricing

Since Zoom Events is coming soon, so the final pricing details will not be clear until it is out of Beta testing. However, we expect that the service will work with any existing paid Zoom license. 

The best way to stay in the loop with when the tool will be released is to sign up for updates from Zoom directly. 

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Running a Webinar

Best Practices for Webinar Follow up

Webinars are a great way to connect with your clients and prospective customers. This guide will teach you the best practices for following up on webinars so that you can improve your email outreach efforts and boost your bottom line! 

The Importance of Follow Up

Before we get into the specifics, it’s essential the importance of having an effective follow-up process. 

Leads generated through webinars take a lot longer to go through the buying cycle, so it’s important to have consistent outreach to move them along. It’s possible that some of them might never become a customer, but your job is to reach out to them after your webinar to encourage them to interact with your brand and eventually convert into a paying customer. 

In other words, webinar follow-up is the best way to book meetings and interact with prospects after an event! 

How to Segment your Audience

The first thing you need to do as you prepare your follow-up strategy is to segment your audience. There’s going to be a group of people who attended and another that did not, but it’s valuable to reach out to both of these segments. 

However, the messaging and outreach style you use will be different depending on whether they attended the webinar or not! You will also need to identify high-value opportunities within those groups of individuals. 

For example, you may have learned that someone who asks a question during your presentation is more likely to set a meeting with you afterward. Prioritize these individuals, And give them more tailored follow-up like a personal phone call! 

You can also consider any other information you have about the attendees to determine how likely they are to make a purchase. Focusing on those with higher lead rates can help you improve conversion and make the most out of your marketing dollars. 

For lower-priority leads, you can use more passive outreach like emails and periodic messages to monitor their interest levels. 

What Methods Should You Use?

There are many ways that you can follow up with someone after a webinar, including email, LinkedIn, and phone calls. There is no right or wrong way to structure this – and having a multi-touch strategy can actually work in your favor. 

For those high-priority leads, consider a quality touchpoint like a phone call. This will show them that they matter and allow you to personalize your conversation more effectively. 

An email will likely suffice for the individuals that didn’t attend the webinar since that will give you a chance to send them the link to the archived version. 

The best practice is to integrate outbound calls with personalized emails and other direct messages! 

Choosing the Right Timeline

Reaching out to those who did – and did not – attend your webinar in a timely matter is essential to success. You want to wait at least 24 hours so that it doesn’t appear too automated or pushy, but time is of the essence! 

The day after your webinar, you should have a recorded version of the event available to send out as part of your outreach. Remember that these individuals are likely attending many meetings throughout the week, and you don’t want them to forget about the information you gave them. 

By following up while the experience is still fresh in their minds, you have a better chance of engaging with them, gathering feedback, and setting a meeting. 

Similarly, sometimes people will register for a webinar and then forget to attend. Contacting them the day after the meeting will not only remind them about your brand but will also give them an opportunity to review the content. 

Crafting your Message

So, now that you’ve segmented your audience, selected your outreach method, and identified the appropriate timeline, it’s time to craft the messaging! 

When you choose the wording for an email follow-up, try to keep the call to action subtle. Blasting the email with ‘buy now’ or ‘sign up today’ will work against you – just because they attended your webinar (or registered) does not mean that there required to make a purchase.

Instead, the tone should be appreciative and helpful. Thank them for their interest in your webinar and give them an opportunity to ask any questions they might have. 

Try to personalize the email beyond just the first name. Everyone knows you can use a bot to populate that field, so use your targeting strategies to customize it a bit more. This will resonate with your audience and encourage them to engage. 

If you’re still not sure what to write in the follow-up message, simply send them to a landing page that shows key video highlights of the webinar. Milk Video can help you set this up so that you can easily display the most impactful parts of your webinar!

Always include access to the full recording and slides as well – the goal is to give your audience as many resources as possible. 

If you’d like to dive more into the best methods for following up on a webinar, sign up to our event.

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Running a Webinar

The Future of Marketing

What’s the future of marketing? I had the pleasure of speaking with Sina Farzaneh, CEO at Pullpath about the how engagement plays such a crucial role in marketing communications.

Take a listen to this Milk Video clip, and if you’re interested in being interviewed, I’m doing 15 minute calls with marketing and sales leaders around the world. No preparation is needed – just hop on a call, and we’ll milk one of the best moments.

Grab a time:

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Running a Webinar

Everything you need to know about Zoom Webinars

Zoom is the leading cloud platform video communication tool enabling millions of people to stay connected across video and audio conferencing, chats, and webinars. 

A top tool for engaging prospects and customers, Zoom Webinar enables you to reach a larger audience whilst maintaining high standards of communication. Here’s everything you need to know about this popular offering. 

What is a Zoom Webinar?

Zoom webinars allow you to connect live with up to 50,000 people in one go. Putting the presenters and not the presentation front and center, a Zoom webinar allows hosts to connect with their audience in a more personal way. 

With an option to have a number of different presenters and a large body of attendees, it is the perfect solution for businesses and leaders looking to reach their audience virtually. 

Continue reading “Everything you need to know about Zoom Webinars”
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Running a Webinar Zoom Meetings

Zoom Webinar vs Zoom Meeting

When the global pandemic led to stay-at-home orders and worldwide quarantines, businesses everywhere turned to Zoom to stay connected. There are two main ways to use the tool: a webinar or a meeting. So, what’s the difference?

What is a Zoom Meeting?

A meeting is the most common option for connecting via Zoom. You have likely chosen this route to video chat with family, friends, and even with your colleagues at work. 

The goal of a Zoom Meeting is to keep things interactive. Although only one person needs to be the host, everyone can participate and share their videos. It is ideal for small to large groups, and can be used for training sessions, interacting with customers, and even sales meetings. 

It is important to note that the entire list of attendees is visible to everyone on a Zoom Meeting.

The host and co-host have special privileges, including the ability to mute or request to unmute all participants. However, everyone else can choose to turn their audio on or off – unless the host turns off that feature.

Additional features include breakout rooms, which allow you to divide the participants into smaller teams to encourage further interaction. 

You can host up to 100 participants on a Zoom Meeting with a free license, but you can increase that number to 1,000 with a paid upgrade!

Zoom Webinar vs. Meeting

A Zoom Webinar is managed a bit differently than the meetings described above. This option is designed for larger events ranging from 100 to 10,000 participants, depending on the license. 

As you can imagine, having up to 10,000 people share their videos and audio could become a bit chaotic. Zoom Webinar remedies this issue by muting the audio and disallowing video sharing for all attendees.

Instead, only the host, co-host, and designated panelists may share! This option works best for large events, such as company-wide presentations or guest speakers. The difference here is that the focus is on what the panelists have to say, rather than creating a place for participants to discuss and collaborate. 

Participants can raise their hands to notify the host that they would like to speak or ask a question. If they choose to do so, the host can unmute their line and invite them to join their audio. 

Similarly, the list of viewers is only visible to the host and panelist. This can help protect the privacy of your clients if you are hosting a virtual customer event. 

The webinar tool is also built to help the host collect participant data, so you can set up a registration requirement where viewers provide their name and email address. You can use this data to send a follow-up email or a survey! Also, if you enable this option, you can send email reminders out before your event. 

Zoom Meetings and Webinars are both great ways to virtually connect, but their purpose is different. Zoom meetings work best for individuals or groups to interact and collaborate, whereas webinars provide a platform for public speakers and presenters to take the stage. 

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Running a Webinar

What is a Webinar

What are webinars?

Popularized in the later end of the 2010’s, webinars (web + seminar) essentially function as live, recorded video presentations in which experts in a given field can relay their knowledge and experience to a wider audience. 

Conversations between you and your audience!

Webinars are meant to function as a conversation between those hosting the session, and those serving as audience members. There isn’t supposed to be a barrier between the host and your audience. Despite the fact that webinars can often have a large audience of 50+, these online sessions maintain a sense of interconnectedness not offered by other platforms. 

Benefits of Webinars:

  • Flexibility: Your webinars can vary in length, opic and purpose allowing you to serve multiple industries and audiences.
  • Generating leads: In a recent study, 73% of marketers cited webinars as the most effective means of generating leads within their industry.
  • Repurposing Content: You can repurpose your webinar content into shorter form content for social media.

Since February of 2020, the usage of webinars has increased by nearly 40%. Quickly, organizations from a variety of industries turned to webinars to simultaneously advocate for the causes in which they center around, while also ensuring that they maintained active relationships with individuals within the industry more generally. 

A few things you should know about webinars:

Technology

There are a plethora of webinar platforms on the market, and even more so since the world went virtual in 2020. Here’s a quick snapshot of a few companies in the space.

Webex – Includes interactive white board feature, easy file sharing, and chat functioning. 

Zoom – includes closed captioning for paid users, hosts up to 100 users on a given link, gives the host full control over screen sharing and microphone settings, and has features available to share your livestream onto other platforms like Facebook and Instagram. 

Goldcast – With Goldcast you get more programming options than other platforms: a customizable main stage, breakout rooms for one-on-ones, roundtable rooms to hop in and out of and the option to customize who accesses what so you can make sure all your attendees are right where they need to be

Livestorm: Allows for interactive polls and surveys to be issued to the audience, has resources on how to host a webinar, and provides analytics regarding your webinar’s performance. 

What does a Webinar look like?

Though the format of a webinar is almost entirely malleable to an organization’s need, the typical format consists of a presentation conducted by the hosting company, and followed up by a Q&A style session towards the end of the interview. 

We recommend creating a presentation in the form of a pitch deck. This way, your audience has a visual component to follow along with as you speak to your topic. 

Challenges of a Webinar

The challenges of a webinar are no different than the technological challenges we face when hosting regular online video calls.

The challenges of a webinar typically include technology interruptions such as poor connection, broken microphones, etc. However, with proper ‘dress rehearsals’ prior to the actual event, these issues can quickly be resolved.

Another challenge with webinar may be keeping your audience engaged. This is where we remind you that webinars are not meant to be a “lecture” type situation. Rather, you as the host are responsible for ensuring that your audience is actively interacting with your topic at hand throughout the presentation.

To resolve this potential challenge, we encourage you to ask live questions to your audience, host polls over your platform, and utilize other online features such as whiteboards, surveys, etc. 

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Running a Webinar

10 Strategies for Driving Webinar Engagement

10 Strategies for Driving Engagement on Your Webinar

Let’s face it – everyone is hosting virtual events and webinars right now. A week doesn’t go by where we’re not invited to 5+ different events, and this makes one thing clear for all event and field marketers: the traditional webinar format just isn’t cutting it anymore. So how do you keep your event schedule full while still providing engaging experiences for your audience? How do you drive webinar engagement to make the most of the event you have spent so much time preparing?

Read on to find out our 10 strategies for driving webinar engagement:

Continue reading “10 Strategies for Driving Webinar Engagement”
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Promoting Webinars Repurposing Webinars Running a Webinar

Webinar Checklist: What You Need to Run a Successful Virtual Event

Webinars, webcasts, or virtual events…whatever you want to call them, they are all a lot of work!

In this comprehensive webinar checklist, we look at all the key steps needed to make your life easier in running a successful online event.

Checklist For Pre-Webinar Preparations

  • Planning A Successful Webinar (Preferably 8 weeks prior)
    • Pick a date (mid-week tends to do the best for webinar times)
Best times for webinars, from GotoWebinar’s research.
  • Clarify your target audience (Are you mainly targeting your current clients or prospects?)
  • What stage of the funnel is the webinar content? (eg bottom of the funnel product demonstration).
  • Decide on your webinar goals (eg 50 registrations, 20 attendees, 5 new meetings booked, 2 SQO, 1 Closed Won)
  • Plan who the webinar panelist(s) will be (if needed – adds some complexity)
  • If you haven’t already, decide which webinar platform you want to use (eg Zoom Webinars, Goldcast, On24, Hopin, GotoWebinar, Welcome, Brella)
  • Decide on the length of the webinar (30 minutes to 1 hour is the standard).
  • Confirm the time you want to broadcast. (11am, 1pm or 2pm in your audience’s time zone is a safe bet.)
  • Decide if you will allow time for Q&A or not, and if you do, then prepare questions for the webinar Q&A.


  • Promoting Your Webinar (Preferably 5 weeks prior)
    • Create a landing page to capture registrations. Here are some things to include on your landing page:
      • Spend time thinking about your title
      • Create a short and succinct description of the event
      • (optional) Add a Hashtag. This is more common with one-off Summits.
      • Create a Registration Form. Best practice is to limit the amount of fields so as not to add too much friction to the signup process
      • Write out the speaker details and bios
      • If applicable, add sponsor logos
      • Build a Thank you page, which allows an attendee to add the event to a calendar.
      • Have an automated email go out after registration with the calendar details (some webinar platforms have this as an automatic function, or you can customize your own one).
An example of a clean and crisp promotional image for a webinar
An image used to promote LingoLive’s webinar on Linkedin.
Continue reading “Webinar Checklist: What You Need to Run a Successful Virtual Event”