Conducting online seminars. How to organize a webinar - complete instructions
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For those who want to organize a webinar without the help of the support service, we have compiled detailed instructions.
Using our platform as an example, we tell you how to conduct a webinar yourself.
- Registration on the platform and preparation of the webinar
Register on the platform to conduct it - without this step, you will not be able to create and conduct an online webinar.
By standard form By registering, you will receive an unlimited time demo account with full functionality.
If there are not enough opportunities free account, switch to a paid plan.
- Security basics
Confirm your registration via email. This way we will make sure that you are the one who started using the service and will keep your data safe.
- Don't ignore the training webinar
After confirming your email, you will be taken to the demo webinar page with tips.
The Webipanda bot will tell you the main functions and help you understand the webinar interface at the first stage.
- First webinar
After Webipanda's prompts, you will be taken to the webinar menu.
To create a new online webinar, click on the “Schedule webinar” button.
- Lesson information
Change the name, date, time, time zone and duration of the webinar.
You can also set your own cover photo. For example, with your brand logo.
- Description of the webinar
In the field under the title, write a few sentences about what your webinar will be about.
- Presenters
Fill in the information about the presenter and upload his portrait photo. In the “Position” field, tell us about your achievements, if necessary.
There are usually two presenters at a webinar: a moderator and an expert.
You can add a second presenter by clicking the “Add presenter” button.
- Uploading files: presentation, video, surveys and tests
Upload your presentation, documents, photos and videos in advance.
When the webinar starts, the files will be at your fingertips in the management drop-down menu.
- Navigation tags
Set webinar tags - they will help you quickly find the desired event in the list among the others.
- Additional settings
Set the webinar entry settings: free entry or registration form for participants.
Free entrance
The participant goes to the webinar using an individual link from the email and is immediately taken to the webinar room.Registration form
If you are promoting a webinar in marketing channels, it is better to use a registration form. This way you will find out user contacts and be able to get feedback and new contacts in the database. - Reminders for participants
Set webinar reminders for participants: You can schedule one, two, or three emails before the event and one after.
The chain often works: a letter a day, two hours, 15 minutes before the webinar. The next day, participants receive a link to the recording of the lesson and presentation.
- Invitation of participants
Participants can be added and invited different ways:
- By email addresses manually,
- import a file with addresses and names into the platform,
- from address book in your personal account.
- Own link
- Preview webinar pages
See how the activity page will appear to the participant.
If you want to learn more about how to technically organize a webinar, sign up for a free training webinar. We will tell you about the additional functions of the platform and the possibilities of different tariffs.
In this article I will show you how to organize from scratch, with your own hands and (most importantly) completely free. Let's start with the very basics and gradually move on to more complex things.
Setting a webinar goal
Before you start organizing a webinar, you need to ask yourself a simple question - what is the purpose of the webinar? From here we will dance with you. Personally, I have always maintained and maintain that a webinar can only have two goals - to sell something or teach something. Very often, beginning webinarists confuse these two goals.
For example, a future speaker may tell me - I want to hold a webinar to show people the capabilities of my program. I want to teach them how to use my program effectively. In such a situation, he sincerely believes that the purpose of the webinar is education. In fact, the main goal of the webinar is to promote (read “sell”) its software. Training is simply a way of promoting and selling.
What do you need for a webinar?
If this is your first webinar, then you probably think that this is a very difficult task, and it requires a lot of money and even more effort. In fact, the webinar can be held for free. As for strength, here's everything you need to host a webinar:
- Webinar platform
- Audience
- Webinar plan
Let's start with the simplest thing.
There are a lot of different services and programs for conducting webinars. They differ from each other in functionality, cost and some other little things. We will compare paid webinar platforms next time, in another article. Now I will recommend you Google hangout. This is a free and very powerful service from Google that will allow you to conduct an unlimited number of webinars for any number of people. In this case, you don’t even need to have your own website. You will conduct your webinar directly through YouTube in real time. This service has changed a lot. So you can't ignore it.
In order to use the hangout, you just need to register with Google+. After this, you will see a selection menu on the left (the so-called “Ribbon”). The “Hangouts” we are interested in will be there.
You will be able to choose either “Video Meetings” or “Live Broadcast”. Video meetings are more like group calls on Skype. There you can chat with multiple people in real time via video.
If you need to host a webinar on large group people, then select “Live broadcast”. The hangout has a huge number of functions. We will look at how to conduct a webinar via hangout in another article – “Webinar on YouTube”.
Invitation to the webinar
This is where it gets a little more complicated. Gathering people for a webinar is not a matter of five minutes. You will need at least 3-4 days to post invitations. However, I do not recommend announcing the webinar more than 7 days before it takes place. Otherwise, your registered listeners may simply forget about it during this time.
To gather people for a webinar, it is not enough to simply post a link to your planned live broadcast in a hangout. Firstly, not everyone is registered with Google Plus. And secondly, you need to be able to remind people a couple of times that you are hosting a webinar. Even with reminders, no more than 35% of registered participants will come. And without reminders, you generally risk being left with nothing (that is, in an empty webinar room).
Registration for the webinar
The best way to remind people about the webinar is to: e-mail. You can collect emails of webinar participants for free either through the Justclick.ru service (you can also create a webinar registration page there), or through another service from Google - Google Forms.
I will write you detailed instructions on how to use Justclick a little later. Now let's look at how to gather participants through Google Forms.
You are already registered with Google Plus, so you don’t need to register anywhere else. Go to the page of all services from Google and select “Google Drive” -> “Create” -> “More” -> “Google Forms”.
In field " New form» enter the name of your webinar. In the “Description” field there is a little more detail about who this webinar is for and what benefits it will provide to participants. Next, create the first field of the form – “Your name”. The second field of the form is “Your email”.
Select “text” as the question type. You can also change the theme of the form to make it look more interesting. Don't forget to check the "Make this question required" checkbox for the "Your email" field. The name may not be required.
You can also allow users to change their data after filling it out (if they suddenly made a mistake when entering data).
I recommend that you change the message that the user receives after filling out the form. First of all, go to the "Add-ons" menu and install free application"Form notifications". This simple add-on will notify you when someone registers for a webinar and will also send a notification to the specified email of the person who filled out the form. In the form settings you can specify:
- After what number of registrations will I send you a notification?
- What question does the participant's email request (so that the application knows where to send the notification)
- What notification text should be sent to the participant?
I recommend setting the subject line of the notification to “Congratulations on registering for the webinar.” In the body of the notification, indicate again when and what time the webinar will take place, and also briefly describe why this webinar should not be missed under any circumstances.
Additionally, change the static notification after registering for the webinar. To do this, at the bottom of the question editing page, find the “Answer recorded” field. Change to “Congratulations on registering for the webinar. See you online!” (or something like that).
Now your form is finally loaded in order to collect emails from webinar participants. In Google Form responses, you can copy all the collected emails and add them to the direct meeting settings in the hangout. You can now automatically send webinar reminders to registered participants.
Webinar promotion
If you want to use webinars for your information business, I recommend that you first read the article “” (will open in a new tab). You may not have to promote your webinar yourself right now. But if you’ve already decided for yourself, then start posting a link to your registration form wherever you can.
- Try to use everything to promote your webinar.
- Post the link on your VKontakte wall and share it with your friends.
- Find thematic communities on VKontakte and try to publish the webinar announcement there (on the community wall or in a special topic, if there is one).
- Ask participants to like and repost so your invitation can be shared via .
These simple techniques will allow you to gather your first small audience, completely free or very inexpensive.
Webinar plan
Now it’s time to think - what and how to say at our webinar? The average webinar duration is 90 minutes. During this time, you can manage to say about 16,000 words. This is 48 pages of text (!) Under no circumstances should you try to speak “impromptu”. You must know absolutely exactly what you will say. Otherwise, your speech will be boring, you will make a lot of pauses, and your speech rate will be slow. Don’t be surprised if everyone in the audience has left long before the end of your webinar.
I have a whole step-by-step instruction, what and how to say at a webinar so that people are interested and so that they end up buying what you offer.
Let me remind you that we do not always sell something for money. At a webinar, we can promote demo versions of our program, invite people to register somewhere, or simply spread some idea.
The main thing is to have a specific result of your performance in numbers, and not just “everyone seemed to like it.” Use ours to estimate how much income you can expect.
Here you can find. And in this article I will give you the main points that you should pay attention to.
1. Trust
If you are promoting or selling something, then the audience should first of all see you as an expert, that is, a person who can be trusted in this particular issue. Therefore, at the beginning of the webinar you need to tell us what successes you have achieved in this field. You can watch it to sound more convincing.
2. Value
You need to clearly and clearly explain to people the benefits and value of what you are selling during the webinar. Especially if you want to charge money for it. Listeners should see that your offer is worth many times more than your asking price. Basically, you should be “creating value” throughout the webinar. In the body of the webinar, you should provide the main content, constantly emphasizing how much value (in money or time) it brings to your prospects.
3. Uniqueness
You must be able to explain why this solution should be taken from you and not from your competitors. This stage is also called “detuning from competitors.” This can be left for the end of the webinar. By this point, your listeners should already understand why they need your solution. Make sure that they don’t leave to compare your solution with analogues on the market, but stay with you.
This is, of course, a very general outline of the webinar. In another article we will walk you through in detail and step by step how to sell at a webinar, but I hope you get the basic idea. If you master these techniques, it will bring you excellent income.
Summary: How to organize a webinar with your own hands and for free
- Create a “live broadcast” in Google Hangout
- Create a registration form in Google Forms
- Post a link to the registration form on social networks
- Ask participants to spread the word about your webinar
- Prepare your webinar plan in advance
- At the beginning of the webinar, you try to inspire maximum confidence in the audience.
- In the main part of the webinar, you provide content and emphasize the value of your offer.
- At the end of the webinar, you differentiate yourself from your competitors
Don’t worry if you don’t manage to make money the first time (or even get anyone to attend the webinar). From time to time you will get better and better. I recommend studying my in-depth articles on each of these points to significantly increase the effectiveness of your webinars.
I hope this article was helpful to you. Don't forget to download my book. There I show you the fastest way from zero to the first million on the Internet (a summary from personal experience over 10 years =)
See you later!
Yours Dmitry Novoselov
Paid or private webinars are ideal for online training and consultation. They are indispensable for teachers, consultants, and trainers who provide their services via the Internet. In this article we will talk about how to conduct a paid webinar.
Preparing a paid private webinar is similar to organizing a free event: the organizer or presenter needs to choose a webinar service, prepare a presentation, create a page for registration of participants, distribute information about the event and check the equipment.
But preparing a closed webinar also has its own characteristics. For example, organizers need to accept payment from participants. In addition, it is worth restricting access to the webinar room so that only those who have paid for participation can attend the event.
How to conduct a paid webinar in MyOwnConference?
It’s worth mentioning right away that the service does not accept money from participants. Therefore, event organizers need to take payment themselves. To do this, you can use special services for accepting payments on the Internet or electronic wallets.
To host a private webinar in MyOwnConference, you need to set a password for the webinar room or create unique links for each participant.
Set password
You can set a password for the webinar room in the control panel. To do this, select “settings”. In the “General” tab, enter the password for the webinar in the appropriate field and save the changes.
Create unique links
Enter the first and last name of the participant or list of participants to invite to the webinar. The name of each participant must be indicated with new line. After completing the input, click the “Generate” button.
If desired, you can limit the duration of the link. That is, the link will only be available during the time period you specify.
Send emails to participants with a password and a unique link
You can send an email to a participant as usual postal service(Gmail, Yahoo, Mail.ru), and with MyOwnConference.
All work with by email on the site is maintained in the control panel, section “My invitations”. You can add participants to whom you want to send email in the “Subscribers” section. The text of the letter is created in the “Messages” column. You can add a signature to the letter, the name and email of the sender in the “Settings” column.
If you have any questions about preparing a paid webinar, please contact us by email.
Or you have already started implementing this tool into your work, but are not getting the expected results. You are probably interested in a number of questions: where to start, when and where to conduct it, how to select interesting and useful content, where to find an audience and how to bring it to the target action...
eTutorium Academy marketers have prepared a small guide for you on organizing webinars. After reading this article, you will have a clear algorithm in your head: from timing and structure, to the nuances of attracting and interacting with the audience.
What is a webinar?
First, let’s define what a webinar is and what the “juice” of using it is.
A webinar is a modern format for holding conferences, presentations, meetings, lectures, trainings, master classes and other events online.
This is an interactive seminar organized using web technologies and communication tools (demonstration of the speaker’s work screen, audio broadcast, voice and text chat, uploading and sharing documents, polls and voting), which allow the presenter to conduct the event at the highest level in close interaction with the audience .
Just as in the case of an in-person seminar, the target audience is formed through registration. At the appointed time, the webinar presenter and his listeners enter a specially organized web room via a link. Here participants can listen to the lecturer, ask questions and receive advice without leaving their workplace or while on a business trip or at home. The presenter, in turn, no longer needs to worry about renting premises, coffee breaks and travel. You can host an online webinar in just a few clicks! Simply put, this is the choice of those who understand the value of time.
P.S. You can watch the full recording of the master class
Below we have made a selection of 7 simple tips, which not all newbie presenters pay attention to. Using these tricks will allow you to quickly turn webinars into a source of constant development, attracting new listeners and expanding your client base.
1. Select the correct date/time for the webinar
Day of the week. Do not schedule a webinar on the weekend (unless this is specific to your audience). But which weekday should you choose? We recommend holding the event any day between Tuesday and Thursday. Everyone knows that Monday is a hard day, and on Friday everyone is mentally inclined to rest.
Times of Day. Here you need to focus solely on your target audience. And before you set the time, ask yourself these questions:
- What exactly does my audience do? This will give you an idea of what time listeners are most often free.
- What is their time zone? It is especially important to determine this if you do not live where the bulk of your target audience is concentrated.
If you have difficulty finding a webinar date and time, ask your potential audience. For example, when announcing an event, create a poll in which you offer 2-3 starting times and ask them to vote.
2. Inform listeners in advance about the date and time of the webinar.
Of course, a webinar is much simpler and quicker to organize than an in-person seminar. But this does not mean that you can notify listeners a day before the scheduled date. We recommend sending out invitations 1 week in advance, followed by a reminder 3 and 1 day before the broadcast. For better effect in some cases this criterion may be increased to 2–3 weeks.
A well-announced event will attract a larger flow of listeners. In the mailing list, indicate the key points of the report, information about the lecturers (experience, diplomas, merits, expertise in relation to the topic), focus on the relevance of the webinar specifically for them.
Here is a clear example of how we inform
their listeners about upcoming master classes
3. Choose a reliable platform for hosting webinars
You need an easy-to-use, intuitive and feature-rich platform... All preparation for the webinar can go down the drain if, in the midst of your presentation, problems suddenly arise with the equipment, problems with the sound, with the demonstration of the presentation, etc.
Today you can find many free online services on the Internet. But, as practice shows, they are characterized by regular failures and instability in their work. The thing is that the technology used to synchronize video and audio is very complex and can cause strong interference. To organize your webinar, it is better to use a high-quality and proven platform. Therefore, take the time to experiment and test each one before launching your full webinar.
The eTutorium Webinar webinar platform is highly reliable and stable. Thanks to the use latest technologies, powerful servers and a secure connection, it works without failures or delays.
4. Launch a webinar promotion campaign
The webinar topic has been approved, goals have been set, the program and content have been prepared, the platform has been selected... What's next? Next, you need to decide how to attract people to the event. Where is the best place to post an announcement of an upcoming event so that potential listeners do not pass it by and register?
But in short, here is a list of the most effective lead gen channels with which you can gather huge audiences for your events:
- Landing page for the event (Landing Page)
- Social media
- Email distribution to your subscriber base
- Partnership programs
- Your website and/or blog
- Thematic forums
- Contextual advertising in Google and Yandex
- Promotional webinars.
5. Create a bright and memorable presentation
Presentations is a powerful tool that sells expertise, ideas, knowledge and experience. And that's a fact! But the problem is that people can no longer be wowed by attractive slides designed in traditional PowerPoint. Listeners are hooked on something original, interactive, dynamic...
So, no “dry” text! Collect visual content: graphs, infographics, pictures, diagrams, numbers, texts, images, and then use one of the services to create presentations. To do this, we recommend that you study the article “TOP 7 services for creating truly cool presentations” and choose the appropriate one.
You might also be interested!
Recently, eTutorium Academy hosted a master class on the topic “Presentation design for NON-designers: how slides will help you enhance the effect of a webinar”. Ekaterina Lezhneva, together with the audience, examined the most common mistakes in presentations, the principles of designing a good slide, and also worked step-by-step through the real presentations of the participants.
6. Run a test run of the webinar
Despite the simplicity of organizing an online event, do not ignore its test launch. This is important for checking the sound, the correct display of presentation slides, the quality of testing, the ability to ask questions, etc. This will take very little time, but this way you will minimize all the risks of technical failures and “overlaps” during your speech.
Download the slides and flip through them, testing everything out additional functions(animation effects, videos and links). Try running a survey or testing. Check out how to turn on, turn off and stop your audio and webcam. Don't forget to make sure the webinar will be recorded.
7. Don’t lose your potential participants
Many trainers, when they start organizing a webinar, have a clear idea of how many people they need to gather. And they persistently pursue this goal by any possible means. But having received the intended number of registrations, they relax and forget about them until the very start of the webinar... And then they are unpleasantly surprised why so few participants came...
According to statistics, the attendance rate for webinars is only 25-30% of the total number of registrations. But you can increase this figure.
What do I need to do?
- Send a thank you letter with confirmation of registration.
Such a letter is a great opportunity to remind about the event. This is an advantageous opportunity to once again inform the date, time and topic of the webinar, as well as tell what a person can expect before, during and after the webinar.
- Send a few helpful emails.
Have you forgotten that 70-75% of those who registered completely forget about the webinar? So don't be afraid to remind them about the upcoming event. At least 2-3 times. And so that your newsletters are not mistaken for an intrusive “selling”, try to dilute them with some valuable content. These could be your original articles, video lectures, recordings of past webinars, etc. The main thing is that the material is imbued with value for your reader and is in harmony with the topic of the upcoming webinar.
Like, for example, in this letter, where we provide a link
to a useful article from an opinion leader
- Send the last 2 reminder emails
These are the last 2 reminder emails that are sent to participants before the webinar itself. It is better to send one of them 1 day before, and the second one hour before the start of the broadcast. In these emails, please indicate the time again, provide the link and details for access to the webinar room.
- Announce the webinar on social networks
Good luck with your webinars and high conversions!
I believe that with the help of high-quality content you can overtake your competitors, gain the trust of the reader and turn him into a grateful client.
It's no secret that one of the the best ways interaction with the audience is holding online conferences or webinars......
This allows you to significantly increase the effectiveness of the project, as well as attract new users.
Very often this function is used for presentations, various trainings, etc.
Until recently, carrying out such events required large financial and time expenditures.
But with the introduction of such a service as HOA (Hangouts on Air), you can now conduct webinars absolutely free.
Why organize a webinar on YouTube: ↓
- direct contact with the audience;
- attracting new viewers;
- answers to pressing questions;
- improves sales (if necessary).
If you are the owner of a popular channel, then you are obliged to hold such events in order to personally communicate with the audience and provide answers to the most pressing questions.
If you want to host a quality webinar, we suggest doing it through the new Hangots application, which is integrated into YouTube.
Here you can show various videos, presentations and much more. You are not required to spend any money, because now you can organize a webinar for free and this is the main advantage.
Hangouts are special software from Google, with which you can chat, instantly share information and broadcast.
You can invite a large number of spectators for your conference.
What is required for the event:↓
- Google Plus and YouTube account;
- installing the Hangouts extension for your browser.
Before starting the webinar, make sure your YouTube account is verified and linked to Google page Plus.
This is very important, because otherwise there will be restrictions on broadcasting.
The Hangouts app can only be installed on Chrome browsers and you can find it in the extension store.
We are preparing a free version - on YouTube
First, you need to go to your YouTube channel and go to the “Video Manager” section, where you select “Events in live».
If your channel does not violate the rules, then you can click “Schedule broadcast”. Here you enter the date and time, after which the event is created.
In this section you need to specify the following parameters: ↓
- webinar;
- choose a time;
- indicate the name;
- check the Google checkboxes;
- select the fast type “Hangouts”.
You must also specify all the necessary data in the “Advanced Settings” section, and then click “Save”.
So, the first stage of organizing our webinar is already over and now we need to check its functionality:
- To do this, you just need to click on “Start Hangouts Meeting”.
- A window will appear with a “Start Broadcast” button in the center and “Show Links” in the lower right corner.
- Using this item, you can send invitation links to your subscribers.
1. To check that the webinar is working on YouTube, you need to go back to “Live Events”, where you select the “Play on watch page” option.
2. After this, a window with a countdown will appear.
3. At the appointed time, you enter the channel, click “Start Event”, see the familiar Hangouts window and click “Start Broadcast”.
Paid options
This is a less popular way to organize webinars, since there are already no less effective methods that are not inferior in functionality.
The eTutorium Webinar application is ideal for such broadcasts.
There is a very flexible tariff system and quite wide functionality: ↓
- there is a built-in chat;
- working with banners, drawing, videos, presentations;
- landing pages;
- sending out invitations;
- desktop demo and much more.
The main advantage of this method is the minimum delay of about 1 second.
Flash is also required.
Again, eTutorium Webinar is a platform for a specific type of event.
For example, selling various products, trainings, holding conferences and presentations.
I'm pleased with the very convenient system for setting up landing pages with big amount ready-made solutions.
Of course, even with Google Hangouts you can achieve significant success, so the choice of application for hosting a webinar is up to you.