What is an automated webinar, and how does it work?

An automated webinar is what we call prerecorded video streaming. It’s not like you’re watching a live stream. The video they wish to stream has already been recorded, and they can watch it whenever they choose.

Advantages of Automated Webinar

The content is reusable

An automated or recorded webinar is one in which once you’ve completed and recorded yours, you won’t need to do either again. You’ll almost always have this amazing evergreen material on hand. Live webinars are required by organisations that employ them on a regular basis. This means taking time out of one’s day to stand in front of a camera for 30 to an hour. If there are any designs or other elements of their presentation, they must also be matched and performed. 

You can watch the webinar at your convenience

An organisation can use an automated webinar 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year. Another drawback of the online form is that you may overlook a large number of people who would like to engage but are unable to do so due to scheduling conflicts. Individuals with prior obligations are included in this category. At the same time, we’re talking about entire countries in other zones for whom it may be too difficult to even consider attending your webinar. People can watch your automated webinar whenever it is convenient for them by recording it.

Excellence

The majority of people’s greatest fear before conducting a webcast is that they might make a mistake. Given that most people’s greatest fear is open speech, this isn’t difficult to understand. The fact that they aren’t speaking openly in front of a bunch of people doesn’t make things any clearer. There are a few folks that make mistakes as well. While no one is perfect, you don’t want your company to be misrepresented because your webinar host is unable to communicate when you go live. This might make your company appear inexperienced, especially if competitors’ webinars are improving.

Automated webinars can help you accomplish your revenue goals

An online webinar could also represent a recurring revenue stream for your company. In any case, as you’re probably aware, a lot of companies charge people to view their webinars. Because yours is automated, that doesn’t mean it has to be less expensive.

Even though you must be upfront to them about this, if you do have some fantastic testimonials to promote from people who benefited greatly through your webinar, this will not be an issue. Look for a virtual event platform.

Disadvantages of Automated Webinar 

There is no need to hurry!

One of the most effective ways to attract people to attend your automated webinar is to highlight the necessity to keep moving. Many organisations do this by stating that they will only accept participants until a certain date or up to a certain number of people. No additional people will be allowed to participate beyond that moment. In any case, if you were to permit this in any way, it would be best to hold the webinar online. As you can imagine, this can cause a webinar to sell out in a matter of minutes, irrespective of whether they desire to move swiftly is genuine. With an automated webinar, this is difficult to achieve. Fundamentally, it’s a possibility. You may argue that you’ll need to minimise involvement to make it easier to answer to people’s questions quickly, but you’d have to make a strong case for this.

Lack of Interaction

One big disadvantage of having an automated webcast is that you won’t be able to rely on the same level of collaboration as you would with a live form. While the recorded webinar is playing, there is just no way to get someone to ask you a question. In any case, if you were to allow this in any way, it would be best to hold the webinar live. This isn’t a minor drawback, either. Many people look forward to webinars because they know they will be able to ask powerful figure questions. On many occasions, someone may be perplexed by a particular topic and have no way of obtaining or requesting an explanation.

Quality at a Low Cost

Finally, there are a few reasons why your automated webinar can put on a modesty act, which is exactly what you don’t want. We’ve touched on these in one way or another, but we’ll consolidate them here. To begin with, a lack of dedication can make it appear as if you weren’t concerned about your onlookers and needed to put something together. This will become increasingly the case as live webinars become more widely available. Someone who attended a webcast a week ago and asked questions in the audience may be surprised to learn they can’t be yours.

Similarly, as long as the commitment is seen as a privilege, not owning it will appear to be a deception. Second, being able to attend a webinar on a daily basis is fantastic. It does, however, make it appear less valuable. Regrettably, most people associate the aim is to highlight with esteem.

As a result, by trying to be helpful and ensuring that people may watch your webinar when you want, you’re hurting your chances of engaging them a lot of the time.

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However, virtual events are not a new concept and have been around for a while now. Normally, brands and event organisers would use a virtual event as a way to save costs and take advantage of the other benefits such as increased reach and attendance.

With the travel restrictions in place currently, virtual seems to be the new normal for events for the foreseeable future. Keeping that in mind, here is a list of virtual events do’s and don’ts to make your next virtual event awesome!

What are Virtual Events?

Before we dive into the do’s and don’ts of virtual events, let’s take a look at what a virtual event actually is.

In essence, a virtual event is essentially an event that is hosted completely online. Due to the flexibility of the medium, a virtual event can take many forms such as webinars, virtual conferences, virtual trade shows, etc.

With a modern virtual event platform, it is possible to create any type of virtual event you can think about. Additionally, they also offer features like live chat, polls, Q/A, and more that helps in simulating the experience of a real event online.

Virtual Events Checklist

Now that we have a fairly decent idea of what a virtual event is, let’s take a look at some of the most important do’s and don’ts of virtual events.

Do note that this virtual events checklist is not exclusive but it can be considered as a nice starting point if you want to host an amazing virtual experience for your attendees.

1. Understand the importance of the initial trial and error phase –

If you have never used a virtual event platform before or have never hosted a virtual event before, there will be a learning curve involved in the process of hosting your first virtual event.

This is why it is important to have some time to tweak your virtual event set-up and go through a “trial and error” phase to set up everything just as you want. This applies to many technical aspects such as the design of the lobby spaces or speaker halls, tweaking the polls and games that will take place during the event, the design of the speaker window, and more.

DO: Go through a “trial and error” phase while setting up a virtual event.
DON’T: Expect everything to go smoothly with the initial set-up and test rigorously.

2. Have a dress code for anyone on-camera –

This might be a bit of a controversial point to make on a list of virtual events do’s and don’ts but it is important for speakers to look professional at your virtual event.

The speakers usually live-stream their sessions for virtual events and while it is not normal, some speakers may not dress up to the standard that you’re expecting. This is particularly true in the case of professional or networking events.

DO: Have a basic dress code for the virtual event.
DON’T: Allow speakers to take your event too casually, especially if you’re hosting a serious event.

Read More – Events That Can Go Virtual During A Pandemic

3. Take full advantage of the features provided by the virtual event platform –

A modern virtual event platform has a lot of powerful and interesting features that can be used to take your virtual event to the next level. This is why it is important to leverage the power of all the features provided and take advantage of them.

For example, most modern platforms offer some kind of engagement features like live chat, polls, quizzes, Q/A, and more. It is possible to use these features in a way that makes the virtual event much more interactive.

A lot of event organisers do not take the time to understand the different features provided by the virtual event platform they are using and instead just rely on the core features of the platform.

DO: Explore the features provided by the platform you’re using for your virtual event.
DON’T: Only rely on the core features provided by the platform.

4. Rehearse, recheck, and troubleshoot –

The last thing you want is for something to go wrong during a live virtual event. This is why it is important to rehearse, recheck, and troubleshoot as much as time permits when it comes to virtual events.

It is a good idea to let the speakers involved during the testing phase of the virtual event and allow them to rehearse their sessions on the platform so they can deliver it perfectly during the live event.

Additionally, you should always have a mindset of rechecking every aspect of the virtual event setup and be in the habit of constant troubleshooting. Depending on the virtual event service provider you’re using, you might have the benefit of live support that can help you with troubleshooting.

DO: Have a habit of rehearsing, rechecking, and troubleshooting.
DON’T: Be overconfident in your abilities or the speaker’s abilities.

5. Make more engagement the priority –

Lastly, one of the most important metrics for any kind of event is engagement. This is also true for a virtual event and engagement should be a priority if you’re hosting a virtual event.

As mentioned earlier, you should use engagement features as much as possible but you should also design the event in a way where engagement feels natural.

Ideally, you want your virtual attendees to be as engaged as possible and you should try to facilitate communication at every touchpoint in the flow of the event to maximize engagement.

Virtual is The New Normal

So far, 2020 has been the year of virtual events. Unfortunately, the main reason for the trend is a global pandemic. Yet, as the world will eventually get back to normal, it seems very likely that virtual and hybrid events are here to stay due to the many benefits they offer.

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