What is a webinar and how does it work?
Remco
03 January 2020 - 4 min
A webinar is a combination of the words "web-based" and "seminar". A webinar session is an interactive online presentation.
Would you like to know how a webinar works?
A webinar is an online presentation that allows you to share your presentation and webcam, or even gives you the ability to share your whole screen directly with others.
The participants can log in from any location in the world to join and follow the webinar presentation. The only thing they need to join, is a computer with a working internet connection. With our webinar software, you have the ability to organise your own webinar from any location on the planet. It’s a powerful tool to reach people across the globe. Furthermore, you will have the ability to personally connect to your audience in a very direct way.
What types of presentations are similar to a webinar?
A webinar is similar to a live-seminar. For example, a presentation in a theatre or on a large podium. You’re the presenter and you’re on a stage. You have the ability to speak to an audience of differing sizes, 100, 500 or even 1000 people. As the presenter, you’d be showing the presentation to other people. You’re able to see your audience or participants, and they are able to communicate with you through their microphones.
A webinar is like screen-sharing, like you’d be able to share your screen in a lecture through a regular beamer. A webinar can be broadcasted live, prerecorded and broadcasted at a later point in time. After a webinar is completed, you have the ability to easily share a previous live broadcast on demand to other people. All participants are able to see you and your screen. Instead of a microphone, there is the option for participants to join in through the use of a ‘Question’ box or a ‘Chat’ functionality for asking questions.
What is webinar software used for?
Until recently, online seminars often used to be complicated and expensive. The webinar software was often too costly, with terrible bandwidth capabilities, and using overly complex software. Fortunately, today’s technology has improved a lot. We developed into one of the largest platforms for webinar software. Our different packages for webinar software have developed into versatile marketing tools. Webinar tools that are capable of combining and integrating all types of communication technologies and software, audio, video, text and other means of live-interaction.
During the presentation, participants have the ability to ask questions through live chat functionality. As the presenter, you’re also able to ask questions to the participants. This allows for a high level of interaction. Through the use of polls and theses you’re able to extract very valuable information from your participants. And if you’d like to motivate the viewer to take action immediately by offering them an exclusive discount? The call to action functionality is all yours!
But the best thing to do is to experience it for yourself. At WebinarGeek, we offer a 14-day FREE trial on our professional webinar software!
The power of webinar software
The power of webinars can be used in many different ways. Webinar software can be used to expand an email list, increase the knowledge of your customers, improve your reputation, or convert more leads into sales.
Our webinars are the perfect medium for sales promotion. But there’s a lot more our webinar software could be used for. For example, it could be an addition to an online course or training. You can also use webinar sessions for masterminds or online interventions. Another recent development is the use of webinars for applications and interviews in the process of hiring new employees.
Who can benefit from using webinar software?
Webinars are useful for everybody! It does not matter if you’re an experienced speaker or if you’re introverted and find it difficult to be on a stage in front of a large number of people. Presenting a webinar is a new way to reach your online audience. It’s a low-barrier means of communication that can be easily organized.
What types of services or products can webinars be useful for?
Webinars are useful for all types of products and services. Webinars are used often for online products, such as digital courses. If you offer a physical product or service, you can use webinars to full your agenda with new appointments! Instead of a catalogue of products, you offer your webinar audience the possibility to plan a personal consultation with you.
The Benefits of Webinar Software
Webinars are interactive
Webinars offer real time interaction between participants and presenter. A webinar is an online interactive presentation to easily transfer your message to your audience.
Webinars have a large reach
A webinar allows you to reach your target market without effort, even when the presentation already happened. By offering your webinar on demand, it becomes possible to watch the presentation after the live broadcast of your webinar. This helps to effectively increase the reach and impact of your message.
Familiarizing yourself with your target market
With our webinar software you’re able to easily invite a targeted audience and get to know them. Thanks to our extensive data insights , understanding your audience will become a breeze. The data allows you to get to know your audience. A complete 180-shift from a physical meeting, where participants will only passively listen to you.
The use of marketing tools
It’s possible to emphasize your message during the webinar through the use of polls, call-to-action and live chat.The more interactive the webinar will be, the larger the impact of your message will become.
Benefits of a webinar compared to a physical event
Physical events and webinars can bring large groups of people together for a discussion/presentation about a certain topic. The benefit of having your own webinar is the fact that you don’t require a physical location. Everyone is able to join the webinar from their own location.
Webinars are affordable
There are no travel costs, no location and all added costs of renting a location are no longer necessary when choosing a digital meetup.
Accessible & flexible
A physical meeting is time-intensive, because you need to organize a location and have to take into account the availability of your participants. With our webinar software, you’re able to prepare a webinar in a short amount of time and have direct interaction with your target audience, without having to take into account the limitations of a physical meeting. Moreover, you aren’t bound to certina time-zones, everyone around the world is able to follow your webinar from their own location. Webinar software is an accessible tool to easily reach your target audience. By allowing people to participate in a webinar easily from their own location, you increase your reach and make things accessible for any type of target market!
What a webinar isn’t
A lot of people think a webinar is the same thing as a streamed live event. But a streamed live event has more similarity to a television broadcast. A webinar cannot be compared with streaming whatsoever.
A webinar isn’t an infomercial, like a television broadcast focusing on a large amount of information, or a commercial.
A webinar isn’t a one-sided presentation: one where the audience only listens and watches, like a lot of physical events.
A webinar isn’t a long-winded presentation: the best webinars aren’t too long. They are powerful, full of two-sided interactions.
Why do webinars work?
A webinar is a win-win situation for both the host and the participants, everybody gains something from a webinar.
Often, participating in a webinar teaches people something, it’s a place where you can pick the brain of the presenter. The benefit for the presenter is the direct interaction with their target audience and it allows them to get to know the pain-points of the audience in question. Furthermore, a webinar is accessible, because it offers a pleasant mix of technology and ease-of-use.
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