Common mistakes to avoid when live streaming webinars

But hosting a successful webinar is not as easy as simply going live. Most organizers tend to make some typical mistakes that could jeopardize the experience, reduce engagement, and even ruin brand reputation. 

This guide includes the most common pitfalls to avoid when live streaming webinars, as well as practical information about how to avoid those. Avoiding these traps, you can deliver seamless, interactive and professional webinars, which your audience will remember long after the live stream is over.

1. Lack of Proper Planning and Strategy

The success of any webinar depends on the planning. A significant number of webinar hosts fail to take it seriously and think that great content alone will guarantee results. 

The truth of the matter is that sessions can go on for longer, go off track or even not fulfil the expectations of the audience unless one has a powerful strategy. An effective plan will not only keep the session on track, but it will also make the session valuable.

• Lack of clarity in goals: As long as the aim of the webinar is not specified (whether it is to educate, nurture leads or increase brand authority), chances are that the message will be disjointed and unrelated.

• No structured agenda: Not having a defined agenda can easily result in a chaotic delivery, overly-rushed parts or a pointless side-track.

• Missing rehearsals: Certain technical or content-related issues may come to light during practice runs. This is why it is absolutely necessary to include a couple of rehearsals, so you don’t encounter any not-so-pleasant surprises during the live event.

• Poor timing: When you schedule a webinar, you need to consider that odd times may greatly decrease attendance.

• Failure to bring in the audience pain points: Even good delivery will not keep their attention unless the webinar covers real issues that the attendees are struggling with.

2. Ignoring Technical Setup and Equipment

A webinar with technical flaws is the worst thing that can frustrate any audience. Issues such as stuttering video, bad sound or a frozen screen can spoil the whole experience. A well-developed technical arrangement shows professionalism and keeps the participants oriented on the content and not the issues.

• Poor internet connection: Buffering is more likely to take place when using Wi-Fi that is unstable. It is much more reliable when wired.

• Lack of audio quality: External microphones are much better than internal laptop microphones, which captures the surrounding noise.

• Poor lighting: Dark, or dimly lit rooms make speakers seem detached, whereas well lit rooms enhance presence and believability.

• Not testing tools: When it comes to live-streaming, it is easy to forget to test the platform and run into live-stream issues like glitchy screen-sharing or silence.

• No contingency plan: The failure of a single technical device can result in the termination of the entire session, when a backup device or backup slides are not handy.

3. Overlooking Audience Engagement

Webinars are interactive and many hosts use this as a one-way broadcast. Such an error causes the attendees to be passive and inactive, and this usually results in a premature exit. An interesting webinar makes attendees feel like engaged participants, and not passive viewers.

• The absence of interactivity: The absence of polls, quizzes, live questions & answers is the loss of two-way communication opportunities.

• Monotone presentation style: A monotonous speaking tone can make the attendees check out within minutes.

• Not paying attention to chat and comments: When attendees believe that their questions or comments are being ignored, they become disinterested within a short period of time.

• Slide-heavy delivery: Delivering a text-heavy load of slides rather than talking or showing images makes the session seem like a lecture.

• Failure to promote networking: Webinars already are communities—by not using breakout rooms or group conversations, we are missing the chance to encourage healthy networking.

4. Poor Content Quality and Delivery

A webinar will not work even with perfect technology unless the content can connect with the audience. Most hosts overload a single session with too much information or make the mistake of turning the webinars into direct sales opportunities. The content must be highly valuable, relevant and presented in a manner that keeps the participants engaged throughout the entire process.

• Too promotional: Making the webinar feel overtly salesy, instead of an informative event, is a sure shot way to lose the audience’s trust and interest.

• Unstructured flow: Unrelated content lacking any organic flow or rhythm can easily confuse attendees.

• Jargon overload: Overly technical language will isolate those who are not experts in the subject matter.

• Absence of storytelling: A webinar can be dry and unmemorable without real-life examples and stories.

• Failing to pay attention to delivery speed: Talking too fast overloads everyone, whereas talking too slowly may make everyone tune out.

5. Not Choosing the Right Platform

Your webinar’s success depends heavily on the platform you are using. Organizers often are tempted to select tools based on their budget, or popularity (not by the size of the audience, the options to engage or not engage, or technical dependability). 

• Poor scalability

Selecting a platform with a capacity that is smaller than your anticipated number of participants can lead to crashes or lockouts.

• Lack of interactive capabilities

Interactive elements like polls, chat, or Q&As encourage participation. If your streaming session lacks the interactive elements, it may demotivate your attendees and make the webinar boring.

• Difficult user interface

Webinar Platforms that are hard to navigate frustrate the attendees and inspire them to abandon the session.

• Absence of integrations with CRM or email

Absence of integrations complicates the tracking of the lead and following up.

• Poor support

In the absence of responsive customer support, troubleshooting live problems will turn into a nightmare.

6. Not Promoting the Webinar Effectively

Even the most carefully planned webinar may not have any success when nobody turns up to the event. One of the most common mistakes is that organizers depend on a single channel for promoting the event.

• Lack of pre-webinar buzz

There are no teasers, countdowns, sneak previews, etc. to make it more exciting.

• Restricted promotional outlets

There can be a risk of limiting reach if you only reach out to audiences via email. So rather than depending on a single promotional channel, utilize a mix of channels—including emails, social media, blogs & partnerships.

• Weak value proposition

Not telling participants what they can expect at the event reduces the likelihood of people registering.

• No reminders

In the absence of automated reminders, a significant number of the registrants forget the session.

• Bad landing page layout

An overcrowded or unappealing registration page makes fewer people register.

7. Neglecting Post-Webinar Follow-Up

Webinar hosts often fail to achieve long-term results, as they miss out on following up with the attendees post-event. In addition to reinforcing engagement, post-webinar activities contribute to turning attendees into loyal customers or advocates.

• Not sending out thank-you e-mails: A simple ‘Thank you’ helps to improve relations and increase the probability of attendees returning.

• Missing live recording: The ability to share replays widens the audience to those who were not present at the time.

• Failure to provide extra materials: In the absence of guides, white papers, and other links, the webinar’s overall value is minimized.

8. Overlooking Speaker Preparation and Performance

Most hosts believe that having subject-matter expertise is enough to host a webinar – however there is more to it than just expertise.

• Unpractised speakers: Lack of practice can lead to fumbling and loss of time as well as unprofessionalism on the part of the speaker.

• Ignorance of the body language: Bad posture, lack of eye contact, or rigid gestures minimize the impact of the webinar content.

• Speaking without listening: A speaker who never interacts with the audience and monopolizes the event  can ruin the experience.

• Lack of adaptation to the virtual mode of delivery: Web-based webinars require more energy and voice variation to engage attention compared to in-person events.

• Lack of coordination among the speakers: Multiple speakers with no coordination or rapport can throw the audience off and confuse them.

9. Failing to Monitor Analytics and Performance

Most organizers close the webinar without looking at performance measures. This prevents them from learning what worked and what did not. Analytics may help to obtain valuable information about audience engagement and inform future session improvements.

• No metrics on participation rates: It is difficult to measure the interest of the audience without tracking the poll participation, chat activity, or Q&A engagement.

• Omitting lead quality checking: Assuming that all attendees are equal and not to be segmented makes the follow up campaigns less effective.

• Failure to benchmark against goals: There will be no success without comparing results to the predetermined goals.

• Ignoring the feedback patterns: Failure to analyze the feedback of the attendees will result in the same issues in subsequent events.

Practical Tips to Avoid These Mistakes

Although these errors are universal, they can be prevented through preventive actions:

• Give yourself direction and organization, then develop your content.

• Conduct technical rehearsals with  all speakers and test equipment.

• Engage interactive capabilities so that attendees feel involved.

• Promote the event across different channels and send out regular reminders.

• Always send follow up thank-you notes, recordings and other materials.

• Analyze metrics and feedback and refine future sessions.

With a combination of proper planning, excellent execution, and constant enhancement, you can make your webinars an enormous success.