How to Make Webinar Content More Memorable for Your Audience

As a marketer, no matter what industry you work in — whether it’s life science, food, or medical device — your end goal is the same: to create a stronger connection with potential customers and improve awareness of your brand.

To create a connection, you need to keep your audience engaged and in order to do this, you need to make sure your content is memorable and interesting.

In this webinar production tips and marketing blog post, we will discuss tips and tricks on how to create meaningful content that your audience will remember long after your webinar.

Avoid Jargon

When starting your presentation, use words that are simple and concise and avoid overwhelming your audience with industry-related jargon. If you have a value proposition, be sure to make it clear. When explaining what your agenda is, trade text for a visually stimulating timeline with photos or icons to help break down the points you will be making throughout your webinar.

Tell a Story

Although a webinar is meant to be educational, it’s easy to overwhelm your audience with statistics and data-driven information. Instead, try and find a balance between informing your audience while also entertaining them. A good way to do this is by providing a corresponding anecdote that helps to recapitulate data-heavy aspects of your content. Telling a short personal or indirect story in conjunction with the facts you present helps build a personal connection with your audience and therefore could enhance the memorableness of your webinar.

Ditch the Script

When hosting a webinar, it’s important to avoid bogging down your content with endless facts and details that could run the risk of losing your audience in the process. In order to create memorable content that resonates well with your viewers, make it as simple and as easy to digest as possible.

In this instance, use the same voice and tone you would use if you were talking to a friend or colleague, while still maintaining professionalism. If you communicate as clearly and directly as you do in everyday life, your audience is far more likely to take more away from your presentation since they will be able to keep up with what you are saying. While it may be tempting to prepare a script that outlines exactly what you’ll want to say for the live webinar, it’s better to spend that time rehearsing what you’d like to say and preparing for the presentation. Scripted delivery of a webinar just doesn’t come off as genuine, personable or memorable compared to a more informal and unscripted presentation.

Use Questions

When presenting a webinar, audience engagement is key in order to not lose attention throughout the hour. Utilizing poll questions can be a great way to maintain audience attention and to make a memorable interaction. Poll questions are short multi-choice questions based on your content and require the audience to directly interact with your material during the webinar.

Poll questions are also a great way to break up your talking points and keep things fresh and inclusive during your presentation which will, in turn, make your content more memorable and keep your audience alert.

A second way to keep your audience attentive is to ask rhetorical questions throughout your webinar. Choosing the right rhetorical question is a great way to get your audience thinking and although the answer should be obvious, it focuses the attention back on the attendees, who are using their own judgment. As a result, this has a more positive effect than you telling them what to think.

 

“A rhetorical question can be an effective persuasive device, subtly influencing the kind of response one wants to get from an audience” – Edward P.J. Corbett

Images

When it comes to the use of images, The University of Iowa found a strong connection between memorization and visuals in an experiment with undergraduates.

The study indicated students memorization was far better when it came to recalling tactile and visuals together as opposed to auditory information alone. This makes what you show in your presentation just as powerful, or even more so, than what you say. With this in mind, be sure to note that presentation design, text and how you format your slides are vital when creating content your audience will remember.

In addition, the Presentation Training Institute, claims 60 percent of listeners are far more likely to remember the visual component of a webinar, with only 10 percent being able to remember the verbal part of a presentation. This means pairing your content with a visual cue, especially at the beginning of your presentation, can hook your audience in right from the get-go.

However, it is also important for speakers to not overindulge in imagery. This could create the opposite effect and actually take away from your content. In this case, it’s best to stick with images that complement and emphasize the points you are making throughout your webinar.

Cater to Emotion

Lastly, make sure to highlight emotion in your presentation. When you create emotionally charged content for your audience, you are more inclined to impact them and therefore build on their memory.

Research shows people on social media are more likely to share something online if it prompts an emotional response within them. The same will go for your webinar. Try incorporating emotionally charged words along with a fact or statistic that resonates well with your audience. This could help motivate them to share and talk about your presentation with others.

If you want to learn more about how to advance your content before hosting a webinar with us, try checking out our other Webinar Production & Marketing Tips blog articles. For further questions on how to create more memorable content for an upcoming webinar, leave us a comment below, or reach us through our Xtalks contact page.