The effectiveness of webinars depends on the level of interest from the audience.

What makes a webinar interactive?

The main mistake many speakers make is organizing their speech like a lecture where they simply convey information and don’t worry about the engagement and interaction of their listeners. They talk too much and don’t interact with the listeners. This way, it won’t be possible to keep the attendees interested.

However, it is more reasonable to show fewer data and be more mindful of your audience to make a webinar interactive and exciting.

In this regard, you can follow several principles and take several actions to make listeners more curious and interested.

1. Frequent Changes

Human nature is very prone to get bored easily and quickly. This trend is especially pronounced in recent years. The more content we get, the less time people dedicate to processing it.

The brain needs novelty to stay sharp. This is why speakers should make frequent changes in their presentation. For example, a speaker may just alternate formats such as following a lecture by a discussion, survey, etc.

But it’s good to keep the rule of a “golden middle.” Changing slides or format too frequently may be irritating and inefficient, as the listeners will find it hard to follow the speaker’s line of thought. As a result, viewers will quickly lose interest.

When it comes to the way that you’re presenting, there’s plenty of ways that will make your webinar more engaging. You can try to change the rhythm and pace when you’re talking to the attendees. It will make people who are listening to you more engaged. It’s less likely that they will get bored. Remember not to become theatrical – it should seem natural. It’s essential for people who attend any event to see that the host is well-prepared and interested in the topic. If you want to add even more, have in mind that people love stories. So you can add a couple of anecdotes from your life.

Keep learning:

• Preparing the First Webinar. Short Guide
• Holding Webinars: Complete Preparation Guide
• 10 Tips to Keep Visitor Attention During Webinar

2. Exercises and Challenges

People accept information better if they are actively engaged in the process. Exercises that challenge the audience are an excellent way of making a webinar interactive and interesting.

Challenges activate the brain and increase its perceptiveness. What’s more, people digest information in practice better, i.e., based on a simulated situation.

The challenge does not have to be significant: you do not want to stress out your participants. Educators on Coursera would usually include a small test every 5-10 minutes to check if people are paying attention. You can adopt the same approach in your live webinar.

When doing exercises and meeting challenges accordingly with the demonstrated material, listeners are more likely to understand and adopt new ideas. As a consequence, the defined goal of a webinar is more probable to be achieved.

3. Questions (Surveys and Polls, etc)

It’s a great idea to ask questions and even make a survey or a poll for the audience. Here is why questions matter.

They help speakers find out the impressions of their listeners

It’s essential to know the listeners’ opinions about the information provided and adjust the flow of a webinar accordingly. If your viewers say they are bored, perhaps it’s time to tell them a personal anecdote or show a funny picture.

They improve overall communication between speakers and listeners

Let’s say you hold a webinar about coding. It’s a complex topic, and it’s only natural for people to feel overwhelmed and confused. If you don’t take timely measures, you may lose your audience altogether.

So it only makes sense to pause your presentation regularly and ask your participants if they need any help.

It’s also a good idea to invite a moderator who can help you single out your viewers’ most frequent questions and concerns.

They help recapture attention and bolster engagement

The traditional way to engage your audience and recapture their attention would be an ice-breaker. You can ask general questions such as where they are from or if they prefer tea or coffee and make more industry-specific queries.

Try addressing one person in particular. This will make your webinar room feel more like a real classroom since by singling out one participant, you let your viewers know that you can see and hear them.

Thus, they will be less tempted to look at their Instagram every now and then, as now they feel like they can be caught.

In addition, by talking to your participants directly, you decrease the emotional distance between you and your audience, boosting engagement. Try not to use phrases used by many hosts, for example, if attendees have any questions. Instead, talk to them directly, ask relevant questions. It’s also worth trying to create a relationship between you and the attendees. Ask for their opinion, allowing them to speak on the microphone (if the group is small). It will make them feel like they’re important to you, which will make your webinars more attractive.

You could also try to provoke your attendees. What does it mean? Try to say something that will catch the listeners off guard; for example, in five years, smartphones will substitute computers which is certainly not true. Then, you can ask them what they think about it and, thanks to that, make the attendees more active and engaged.

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4. Music

There is no doubt that speakers should take certain actions to improve listeners’ attention to increase the overall efficiency of webinars. Music is one of the most effective tools in terms of raising productivity and activating the brain.

Moreover, music is a great way to make a little time-out or calm a situation (for example, in case of heated discussions).

An appropriate piece of music may make the atmosphere of an online meeting more comfortable, informal, and friendly. In addition, it creates associations and contributes to a better perception of the information.

It’s interesting that video can generate 12 times more shares (see 12 times more engagement) than text and video combined. It is a content crime not to use this medium in your presentation.

5. Video

Here are some of the ways you can include video in your webinar.

To start a discussion

While theoretical knowledge may be exciting for someone, most people come to a webinar to learn something practical. They want to interact with the new ideas, not just stuff them into their heads. After all, if your participants just wanted to learn something, they could simply open Wikipedia.

Instead of going for hours about the benefits of 3D marketing and augmented reality, you can show a video and provide a practical example of this type of advertising.

You can then ask your viewers to share their thoughts on a given case. Do they have any ideas on how to improve a particular marketing campaign? Position your viewers in an expert role, but do not forget to add your own critique as well.

To test participants

If you are holding a webinar on rhetoric, ask your participants to watch a video and spot the logical fallacies committed by the speaker. Let them type their answers in chat and give a shout-out to those who guessed correctly.

Your participants can listen to the audio and scroll their feed at the same time, which is not the case with video. The video makes your viewers more likely to devote their attention solely to your webinar and interact with you and the others.

Video increases the intractability of your webinars since users are encouraged to watch carefully, do tests and share their opinions on the things just witnessed.

6. Chat

Webinar services almost always include a chat. This is justified since a webinar is more interactive if listeners have a chance to exchange comments and ideas about your webinar. They may share examples from their own experience and ask questions without interrupting the entire process.

Many newbie webinar creators make the mistake of only paying attention to the viewers’ questions. And while those are important, you should also recognize those users who simply share their positive experience with you. This helps build relationships beyond the traditional teacher-student model.

It will also inspire other participants to share their comments and interact with you since they hope for the same acknowledgement.

7. Jokes and Humour

It’s impossible to overvalue humour:

1. A good joke boosts listeners’ mood.
2. It improves the webinar atmosphere and helps each participant relax.
3. It activates brainwork, consequently increasing webinar productivity.

But most importantly, humour adds authenticity to your performance and connects you and your audience on a deeper level.

The encryption theory claims that humour reflects shared experiences, helping people spot the insiders and the outsiders. So if you want to be on the same wavelength with your viewers, try adding some humour into your speech.

8. Two and up to 10 speakers

The influence of various speakers may differ considerably. Some of them talk more emotionally, and some are more logical. If a webinar has two or more speakers, the information is provided from different points of view and in a diverse manner, so speakers complement each other.

Let your speakers have a panel discussion. An engaging dialogue is like a tennis match: your viewers simply won’t be able to look away. However, make sure to moderate it properly since when views clash, a conflict arises.

You may also invite surprise guests to your event. However, this idea comes with a caveat: would you sacrifice marketing for the sake of a quick attention grab? After all, more viewers will sign up for your webinar if you announce interesting speakers in advance.

As you can see, passionate speakers definitely make a webinar interactive, enhance collaboration and teamwork.

9. Competitions and Giveaways

An excellent way to ensure that your participants stay glued to their screens is to organize a small competition or raffle.

Mention that your viewers can take a small test at the end of a webinar and win a prize if they answer all questions correctly. This will encourage them to remain attentive and interact with you and other participants.

The prize does not have to be massive. It can be as simple as a free pass to your next webinar or perhaps a ticket to a personal meeting with you.

10. Personal Stories

It’s okay to be afraid of getting personal with your viewers. However, storytelling is one of the most powerful tools for engagement and interaction, and you should not disregard it completely.

You don’t need to get into gruesome details about your struggles if you are uncomfortable. Reveal what you believe best captures the essence of your brand and personality. Take your viewers on a journey from point A (having a dream) to point B (becoming who you are today).

Such an approach will give your participants an extra incentive to stay engaged and interact with your webinar.

11. Prepare for the Unexpected

Each webinar should be well thought out. Keep in mind that participants differ in their interests and characters. Some think positively, and others are biased and negative.

Therefore, speakers should have several schemes in their reserve to resolve issues during a presentation, answer questions, defuse a situation and make the process interesting for each participant.

All in all, a successful webinar is an interactive webinar. And the key to success is demonstrating a positive attitude to the audience.

Assure them that you care about their opinions. Unsympathetic presenters are never outstanding. Inspire and engage your audience, and you will definitely achieve your webinar goals.

What will make you less stressed is also the good old brainstorming. Think of the questions attendees could ask you during the webinar. Remember that there’s no way to know everything, but if you know what some possible questions are, you’ll get the opportunity to prepare answers.

Remember that knowledge of the topic is essential. You have to be prepared. Don’t read from the card – it won’t engage people, and they will get bored quickly.