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A WEBINAR SELF ASSESSMENT GUIDE

You want to know how good your webinar was. After all, an audience that your company wants to impress just saw it. While the dozens or hundreds of attendees couldn’t see how well the speaker was dressed, they were definitely evaluating certain aspects of your live event.

From the audience’s perspective: How engaging was the content? Was there superior audio quality? Did the visuals complement the presentation? From an internal perspective: How well did you market the webinar? Is your firm ready to follow up with each registrant?

These sorts of questions fall nicely into five categories. Answer the questions in each of the categories below for a sense of where your events sparkle and where they need some shine.

Your event impressed guests one way or the other before it ever started. How the webinar invitations looked, what they said, and when they were sent gave invited guests the material they needed to judge whether your event was relevant, professional, and, ultimately, deserving of their time.

What kind of judgment did guests pass on your event’s marketing? Ask yourself:

MARKETING:

1. “How many email invitations did we send to each contact?”
2. “How many days/hours before the live event did we send each invitation?”
3. “Was our subject line effective? Could we have brainstormed a shorter, clearer, or pluckier one?”
4. “Was the invitation relevant to recipients and did it accurately describe and properly weight the items in our presentation?”
5. “Could the marketing copy have conveyed the same information in fewer words or with greater specificity and appeal?”
6. “Was the email invitation easy to read and attractive?”
7. “Did we send (enough) timely reminders to registrants?”

PRODUCTION:

Your answers to these questions will help you determine whether your webinar marketing could improve its appearance, message, timeliness, and helpfulness.

Most of us have cringed when a microphone blared with feedback during a graduation or have sat through a school play where the kids hadn’t really rehearsed their lines. Your webinar event is live just like those and it’s just as capable of having audio problems or appearing unready—except your audience has no family in the show and has no qualm about leaving early.

How professionally produced was your event? Ask yourself:

1. “Could our attendees clearly listen to our webinar by phone and over the Internet?”
2. “Did our conference line chime every time someone joined or left? Did we keep our attendance numbers private?”
3. “Could our attendees easily find a help line to call us if there was a problem?”
4. “Were the presenters at ease with their presentation, stumbling and uncertain, or reading from a script (while audibly shuffling papers)?”
5. “Did we properly encourage attendees to participate in poll questions and give them enough time do so?”
6. “Did we have a dedicated ‘chatter’ (or two or three) to proactively chat with attendees and promptly reply?”
7. “Was there a backup plan (or two) in case we had technical problems?”

Bottom line: You want to take every measure you can so your audience has a high-quality experience.

SUBSTANCE:

Generally speaking, from the attendees’ perspective, the best webinars leave them better able to perform their jobs. Within the genre of educational presentations—sorry, leave out the slapstick and melodrama—you can have dull, scattershot, impractical, irrelevant content or insightful, topical, timely, engaging content. While your presentation may be a mix, it will ideally fall entirely into the second category.

Ask yourself these questions to see how yours faired:

1. “How many anecdotes or stories did our presentation include?”
2. “How many case studies and real-world examples did our presentation include?”
3. “Have we given attendees practical information they can apply directly to their day-to-day work?”
4. “Was our presenter boring himself or herself at any point during the webinar?”
5. “Did our presentation give the big picture and context as well as the details?”
6. “Did the presentation have a terrific introduction (hook) and powerful conclusion?”
7. “Was this presentation given in a manner that was easiest for the presenter to give or in a way that enabled the audience to best understand and remember the material?”

All of these questions will help you assess the quality of the presentation from the viewers’ standpoint—the one that matters most.

SLIDES

Every webinar has the obligatory PowerPoint slides, which many presenters seemingly create with the enthusiasm and care of a teenager stuck washing the dishes. These slides matter. Exemplary slides complement an oral presentation with a visual dimension. They go beyond typing out the script and illustrate key points with graphs, charts, cartoons, pictures, news clippings, screenshots, quotations, art, animations, and more.

With all that in mind, assess your slide deck by asking:

1. “Do our slides have an attractive template?”
2. “Do our slides avoid spelling out what the presenter is saying (lest the audience read ahead)?”
3. “Do each of our slides have no more than 3-5 lines of bullets or text?”
4. “Have we thought of how to best convey the information in a visual way, via graphs, charts, and with other items, such as those listed above in this article?”
5. “Have we thoroughly copy edited the slides?”
6. “Have we added enough formatting elements, such as fonts, colored bullets, and animations, without going overboard?”
7. “In the end, are our slides pleasing to look at?”

Too many slide presentations repel the eye. Remember the audience will be looking at your slides for 30-60 minutes. If they have the visual appeal of a tax form, your attendees may choose to just listen and go shoe shopping online.

BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT

Webinars cost your company money and take up marketing’s time. Don’t let your attendees waltz in and leave without providing you with anything in return. Specifically, your webinar marketing and live event team can gather certain guest information to position your salespeople for a successful follow-up campaign.

Ask yourself:

1. “Did our registration form request the necessary information? Could we have increased registrations by making the form shorter or easier to complete?”
2. “Did we post a live poll that asked attendees if they would like additional information on the topic?”
3. “Did the topic of our presentation align with our services or products?”
4. “Did the presenter spend at least several minutes at the end sharing what kinds of companies benefit from our services or products, and how?”
5. “Were attendees asked to submit feedback and (quickly) directed to an exit survey?”
6. “Have we collected the live webinar chats for our salespeople to see who had what concerns?”

Webinars do give away expert advice, but they are no charity event. Make sure your team has taken the requisite steps so your sales team can do its job well.

How Did You Do?

Many people want an assessment grade. “Give it to me straight, Doc.” Some questions have right answers: Was your audio quality good? Did you send at least one event reminder? Most of the questions have no right answer. Every company has different goals and different audiences.

If you aren’t satisfied with your answers, brainstorm ways or seek out advice on how to get the answers you want. If you are happy with how you did, consider experimenting or conducting A/B tests to see how you might improve.

In the end, the questions serve as a guide. You have to respond to the questions and decide whether you are happy with the results or want better.