Webinars can be an excellent tool to share success stories with potential clients, exchange ideas with industry peers and address the challenges facing your industry. That being said, like any tool, it has to be used effectively to be successful.
Here is a short list of Webinar DOs and DON’Ts that can help you develop your next webinar.
DON’T: Use Catchy — But Irrelevant — Titles
There is nothing more disappointing than expecting the DeLorean and getting an AMC Pacer. Don’t use industry buzz words just because they are hot on the search engines and social media networks.
People want to get what they came for. If your title is not an accurate description of the presentation, you will disappoint your audience and fail to pull in a targeted, niche audience interested in the presentation you actually deliver.
DO: Develop Keyword-rich, Relevant Titles
There is nothing wrong with choosing buzz words that are sure to draw in tons of viewers, but choose relevant words that summarize the topic your webinar will cover.
Managing the expectations of your audience with a good title will help you deliver an informative webinar that is useful to your viewers.
DON’T: Talk in Circles
There is nothing more frustrating for an audience than listening to a long tangent that goes on in circles, but goes nowhere.
For Example:
“We have long-term goals of achieving our objectives and we have put strategies in place that will help us to reach them within a time period that we have previously set for ourselves.”
That statement is about as informative as a beauty queen’s plan to end world hunger and achieve world peace. It provides no tangible information that is useful to the audience. Unfortunately, this is often the type of meaningless jargon used in many webinars — don’t let yours be one of them!
DO: Provide Concrete Explanations
Webinars give you the opportunity to address important issues and provide effective solutions for your viewers. While you don’t have to give away all of your secrets, you have to give them something worthwhile to keep them coming back for more.
DON’T: Exaggerate Success Stories
Don’t make the mistake of saying you caught a 
whale when in reality you caught a guppy. Sure bending the truth makes for a good pitch, but when your audience researches your story and can’t find any facts to back it up; your credibility goes out the window.
In today’s world, it’s far too easy for viewers to open up Google in another tab and research your story on their own, so it’s best to stick to the truth.
DO: Include Factual Success Stories
Don’t shy away from a success story just because your website isn’t ranked at the top of the SERPs.
If you developed an SEO campaign for a new client and helped them jump from the 10th page in the SERPs to the 5th in only a couple of months, then by all means include it. Just don’t make it out to be something it’s not.
The truth is far more compelling than a lie that can be easily discredited.
Follow these guidelines and you will have a great opportunity to share success stories with potential clients, exchange ideas with industry peers and address the many challenges facing your industry.
