Webinars continue to be a valuable marketing and informational tool for companies around the world. They save money for companies that use them for promotion and brand building and they offer the invaluable benefit of global reach.
Furthermore, they enable two-way conversation, helping to clarify any questions or concerns from those within the audience. Webinars can also attract large crowds – specifically those that target the customer – and so companies do not need to spend as much time and effort pursuing their target audience.
Given how valuable webinars can be, it is important to run your webinar smoothly and effectively. Virtual assistants are relatively inexpensive to outsource and hiring those who are experts at all aspects of running a webinar can be an invaluable asset. Do not try to take on the webinar by yourself, as this often leads to unanticipated problems that can lead to frustration from the audience and can hinder webinar goals.
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5 Ways That A Webinar Assistant Can Help
An assistant for your webinar is well worth it. Here’s why:
1. Clarify Participants’ Software Concerns
Without fail, first-time webinar participants always have questions about how the software works, from logging in, to turning on their microphone, to getting their video screen to work. Having an assistant to create a how-to guide or a video to explain to the audience how to do these things will be invaluable.
This can really help with audience conversion because many people may shy away from attending because they are concerned about dealing with high tech platforms. The assistant can manage any questions they may have as to that process. This can really be helpful is preventing as many issues as possible during the actual event for a smooth presentation.
2. Easily Combat Technical Issues
Technical problems seem to happen at the most inopportune times, and they tend to be a little more complex than you anticipate. Having an assistant ‘on call’ to fix technical issues – and any other problems on the back end – is a must. Too many webinars have failed due to the inability of the host to fix a problem. People will wait for a little while, but if it takes to long to fix the problem, they will log off of the webinar and resume other responsibilities. In addition, there is nothing worse than the presenter having to deal with such issues because it can easily cause him or her to lose focus from the presentation itself, something that can hinder the whole event and cause undue and unnecessary stress.
3. Moderate Q&A Session
Question and answer sessions are an important part of a webinar, as they provide an opportunity for the participants to ask questions or express concern about the information presented.
Since webinars are time limited, the Q&A can easily get out of control and interfere with that time management and this is where an assistant can be an invaluable asset. Using an assistant to moderate questions from the audience offers several benefits. He or she can choose questions that will be given to the presenter to answer during the live event, filter out duplicates, and save those that were not answered for future use, such as for the presenter to answer in a follow up email. The assistant can manage questions based on a preset time and format (as determined by the presenter) and then sift and organize them accordingly.
Participants often get frustrated when the moderator does not keep the conversation focused and keep the schedule on time. Finding an assistant who is a skilled moderator will truly add value to your webinar presentation.
4. Project Professionalism
Using an assistant to moderate questions, support the audiences’ needs, and jump in to fix technical problems will add an air of professionalism to your presentation. You will come across as very organized and prepared. Furthermore, it may make your company appear larger, with extra staff members to support presentations and deal with IT issues.
5. Allows The Presenter Time To Focus On The Content
One of the most important benefits of an assistant is it allows the presenter time to focus on the most important aspect of the webinar, and that is the content and the presentation itself. With all the technical and moderator issues being handled by a competent assistant, the presenter can dedicate their time and energy to the creation of and actual presentation of the content, which, after all, is the most important aspect of any webinar.
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