Webcast/Webinars have become one of the most cost friendly & efficient way to connect with your peers, customers & partners across the Globe. This Pandemic has changed the way business operates and forced organizations to move to the virtual way of communication. Pharmaceutical & Healthcare sector was not left behind they embraced the technology with open arms to stay connected with the internal teams & external health care professionals.

But, like every other activity, webcast also needs proper planning and good understanding without which it can lead to a major failure.
So, here we are giving you the best practices to follow for your webcasts. Practice it and utilize maximum benefits of webcasting to communicate, engage and educate your audiences and enjoy optimum lead generation.

Pre-Event

Even before you conduct an online event, you need to make the customer or your audience aware about it and all the necessary formalities for smooth functioning. Pre event practices set the mood for successful virtual events.

Our reports suggest that Wednesdays and Thursdays are the best days to host webcasts, with 11 AM being the best time. Another popular time is 10 AM. Both are great for a wide range of time zones, and should avoid most commute times or work hours. Typically, these times avoid conflicts for the greatest number of people.

However, if your audience is solely in United States, then you wouldn’t need to worry about global time zones. Instead, you can focus on planning a time when most people aren’t commuting. For example, early afternoon or after work hours are generally good times.

E-Mailers

• It’s always a good practice to send email invitations to the potential attendees. Create a brief but catchy e-mailer, insisting them to register for the event.
• Keep the registration form short to avoid disinterest.

Send already registered participants:

• Weekly reminders
• “24 hour before” reminders
• “1 hour before” reminders

Connections and Rehearsals

Check the connections and see if there are any issues which might arise. Fix them. We would advise that you should do a rehearsal, if possible, to get an idea of the whole event. Run the test with all the speakers who are joining remotely.

During Live Webcast Event

It’s very crucial that webcast should run smoothly and communication between the two parties must be productive.

Presenters/Speakers

The presenter directs and runs the whole webcast. That’s why he/she should pay attention to following details:

• Presenter should have a pleasing personality. A blend of professional and charming presence improves engagement.
• A little sense of humour goes a long way. It makes communication little formal and more productive.
• Always look into the camera while you talk. This makes audience feel you are talking to them.
• To feel comfortable talking online, you can even do a rehearsal before the event.

Live Streaming

Be it online meetings, web conferencing or any other type of webcasts, without proper streaming technology, it cannot achieve the desired results.

Make sure you have:

• An uninterrupted streaming so that there is no time lag or delay between you and your audience
• A pro- active and efficient streaming partner like StreamOn Technologies.
• A streaming that is supported on all devices i.e., Desktop, Tablet, Mobile

CONTENT IS KING

• The audience is attending the webcast so that they can learn new things. Try and create an engaging content to help them relate to the current world. Ask them questions using Poll feature.
• Try to create a short but effective content. Don’t use just text. Use info graphs or charts to maintain their interest.

Engagement

• The only link between you and your audience is the user interface. Provide useful features and flexible widgets to increase participation.
• Provide Polls, Surveys and Q&A sessions to make an interactive session.
• Invite them to send their inputs through chats and you can also read the best ones during the presentation. This motivates the audience to interact.

Remember, communication is a two-way process. Letting your audience talk is actually contributing to your webcast success.

Social Media

Having social media plugins can exponentially give your webcast a huge reach.

Let your audience share on Facebook, twitter or any other social media what are they attending, to create awareness. This is a free but most effective promotion.

Engage prospects beforehand by adding interactive features in the webcast sign-up page

Our pre-event engagement zone allows you to engage your attendees or prospects well before the live event. You can pick and choose from multiple features such as Ask the expert tile, Event Countdown, Pre-recorded or past video in the video tile, Quick reads or Library, what’s trending and Invite a friend option, Polls and Chat feature for attendees to engage with other participants or speakers. Using these features will help build interest in the attendees and drive them to the event.

Post Event

Closure is one of the most important activities of any business.

Send ‘Thank You’ e-mailers to all the registrants to appreciate their efforts to attend. Also, ask for their feedback about the event. This is very helpful for future webcasts.

Survey participants after the webcast

The only way to get better is to know how you can improve. By sending a post event survey you can collect feedback from the live audience and work upon refining your next webinar. In this survey, you can include your event date, specific questions related to their experience and a topic or a link to the next webinar that you’re hosting as it will help you to drive the registrations for your upcoming event.

Summary

Although webcasting is a well evolved industry today, there are still many areas where it needs improvements to enhance the communication gateway. Following these best practices can smoothen online communication, reduce frustrations and increase loyal customer base