Webinars and virtual event solutions are key to generating more leads, building a brand and making inroads into an ideal market. But there are a lot of different webinar platforms out there, ranging from barely a meeting tool to fully fleshed virtual conference solutions and more.
How, then, can you find the best solution for your organization? Here’s a quick guide on what to look for when looking for a webinar platform.
The Ability To Keep Audiences Engaged
One essential feature of any good webinar platform is the ability to keep audiences engaged. Otherwise, your webinars will start feeling more like messages in a bottle than dynamic presentations!
Sometimes, engagement comes from multimedia. Make sure your chosen platform lets you integrate video and other multimedia so that your webinars don’t feel like “sit and get” presentations.
Quality matters. Make sure you deliver the best audience experience possible through broadcast-quality video. Attend a live demo to learn how ON24 delivers.Â
Mostly, though, engagement comes from audience interactivity. Make sure you choose a platform that offers many different tools for audiences to engage with you. This will keep your audience’s attention and encourage audience investment.
Access Made Easy
No matter how many bells and whistles your platform has, its accessibility is very important. It needs to have an intuitive user interface so audiences have an easy time connecting and staying connected.
Think of it this way: at this point, everyone has been in a remote meeting or a video call where another person was having difficulty with the software. That person couldn’t engage with anyone else or pay attention to any presentation because they were wrestling with the technology.
Your platform needs to offer an intuitive user experience for audiences. This allows them to pay closer attention to what you have to say and engage with you that much more easily.
Value-Oriented
There are many webinar platforms you can choose from to begin creating better webcasts. And these platforms are available at a variety of price points.
As with any other business investment, you must find a platform that fits your budget and will help you drive a strong ROI.
For example, some of the best platforms offer creative ways to repurpose previous content, identify hot leads and create on-demand experiences that let audiences choose their buyer’s journey.
Analytics Data
Webinars are so popular because they gather plenty of first-party data to analyze. That is, in addition to keeping audiences engaged, webinars allow you to learn more about what audiences want.
However, it’s one thing to gather information. It’s another thing to know what to do with that data! That’s why a good webinar platform should help you process, analyze and highlight insights from your data.
Your webinar platforms will soon pay for themselves with the right analytics and analytics insights. That’s because you can learn enough from each presentation to make the next presentation even more effective.
Extensive Customer Support
Even the most user-friendly technology will eventually give you trouble. In some cases, you may be able to fix this “in-house.” If that doesn’t work, though, you need to have a reliable support system.
That’s why the best webinar platforms offer more than increased audience interactivity. They also offer friendly customer support that you can reach in a number of different ways, from email to phone calls.
You should be able to get a quick response and swift solution to your problems with the platform vendor. After all, if you have an upcoming webinar scheduled, every minute matters!
Webinar Platform Marketing Opportunities
At the end of the day, most webinars are about providing attendees with relevant information about a pain point and how to solve for it. Even if your basic goal is simple brand awareness, you must sell audiences on the idea that your company and products are trustworthy.
Because of that, the platform you choose should have some in-app marketing opportunities. This may include the ability to send promotions, push notifications, emails, and so on.
The ability to do this kind of marketing from within the app can help save you plenty of time. And when you’re trying to sell audiences something, these features give you the ability to strike while the iron is hot.
Hybrid Event Support
When is a webinar more than a webinar? When it’s a hybrid event, of course!
In the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, hybrid presentations have become much more common. And they let presenters enjoy the best of both worlds, giving presentations to people within the same room as well as online.
Such hybrid events are popular with many companies because they provide a way to reach more people than ever before. When you try to find the right webinar platform, make sure it offers support for these hybrid events to give yourself more presentation options.
ON24 makes it easy to set up and run a hybrid event. How easy? All you have to do is press a button. Click here to learn more about ON24 Hybrid Mode or check out our hybrid event solutions.Â
Search Online Reviews
By now, you have probably narrowed your search. You’ve found a few webinar platforms you can trust. To help finalize your decision, you should search online to see what the reviews are saying.
You can sometimes check what people say via third-party services such as Google Reviews, TrustRadius and G2. You can also search for the company name across social media to learn more from first-hand experiences.
Finally, don’t hesitate to ask your colleagues if they have any experience with the company. Between good “worth of mouth” and your own extensive reach, you are sure to find the webinar platform that is best for you.
Speaking of Webinars…
Here at ON24, we specialize in live webinars, hybrid events and so, so much more. And we know that your company and customers deserve nothing less than the best.
To experience the ON24 difference, come check out our live demo today to see what we can do for your business!