Unique Webinar Ideas To Keep Your Audience Glued To Seats

Did you know 95% of businesses say webinars are an essential part of marketing strategy. Webinars are here to stay. But a key challenge webinar hosts face is to come up with new webinar ideas & webinar topics.

Today webinars have proven themselves to the best format to 

• Generate high-quality leads
• Create & nurture online communities
• Boost content marketing
• Promote events 

However, Zoom fatigue has ravaged people’s minds. Now the audience wants to talk, contribute & network. They don’t want another boring webinar where only the host has a monologue. 

What Is A Webinar? 

A webinar is an online seminar. Webinars are conducted on Zoom or branded webinar platforms. They are different from online video meetings. Unlike online meetings, webinars are uni-directorial . The typical size of a webinar audience is between 25-300 participants. 

How do webinars work? 

Like a seminar, a webinar consists of a host and audience. An average webinar runs for 30 to 60 minutes and has around 100 audience members. But research shows that only 40 to 50% of registers attend the webinar. So, you need to choose the right type of webinar based on your audience and objectives. 

Types Of Webinars 

Depending on the customer journey, Webinars are divided into many types and different webinar formats. They are: 

• Product demos 
• Customer onboarding 
• Thought Leadership 
• Lead generation 
• New Feature Launch 
• How to webinars 

Interesting Themes For Webinars

Webinars are not limited to professionals. They are also a very effective way to engage students. Here are a few interesting webinar themes for students. 

• Entrepreneurship
• Personality development 
• Publics Speaking and presentation 
• Managing personal finances 
• Health and nutrition 
• Sustainability and innovation 

How To Design Interactive Webinars ?

1. Leverage Storytelling 

Have you ever attended a leadership seminar? If yes, have you ever wondered why we remember things for a long time when leaders speak? The answer lies in storytelling. Leaders often use storytelling to influence, teach and inspire people.  Stories forge a connection among people and between people and ideas. 

In the b2b industry, 62% of marketers count storytelling as one of the most effective marketing tactics. This is because stories stick! Customers would forget the facts and the information. But tell them a story, and they will remember it for a long time. That’s the power of eloquent storytelling. 

But what’s meaningful storytelling? This TED video will help you.

2. Challenge Them: Humans love a worthwhile challenge. For example, if you are conducting a webinar on “How To Write A Killer Resume.” Then invite your audience to create their own within a set time. Then, you can critique a few resumes and tell them what’s missing. 
3. Ask An Ice Breaker Question: This is another way to make your webinar interactive. You can ask an icebreaker question like, “What’s the unique skill that you bring to your job?”. This will put the audience at ease. 
4. Add Surprises: Everyone loves surprises. Don’t you? A pleasant surprise is sure to contribute a long way toward keeping your audience engaged till the end. For example, you can announce a small raffle for a prize within your budget. You can announce free tickets to future webinars. 

6 Fun Webinar Ideas To Engage Your Audience In 2022

1. Host An ‘Unconference’ 

Unconference? What’s that? An unconference is an alternative to conferences invented by Silicon Valley techies. 

The difference between the two is that unlike conferences, in an unconference, the audience has complete control. The Unconference puts the reins into the hands of participants.

If you are in the tech industry, Unconference is the most convenient webinar option and requires no organization. Just be sure to choose the right virtual event platform and you are good to go. 

Watch the Google Unconference hosted in April 2022. It was a major success because the audience had full control. 

Make sure you take care of these things 

• Be A Reliable Host: An unconference is like a party. A helpful host can enhance the experience. Be friendly, introduce yourself, and set the tone. A helpful host can enhance the experience. 
• Set the topic and an angle. E.g., if hosting a marketing unconference, don’t simply give the marketing as a topic to discuss. Instead, tighten the scope by providing an angle: Eg, the dark side of marketing. 
• Moderate but don’t go overboard. Let your audience get creative and brainstorm. More often than not they will police themselves. But when you do have to step in ensure you don’t curtail their voice too much.  

2. Webinar Gamification To Challenge The Audience 

Human psychology loves games. Similarly, gamification uses games and game-like elements in the webinar to engage the audience. 

The power of gamification is immense. 50% of startups say they are integrating game elements in their strategies. Psychology says people don’t like being forced to move from one destination to another. They want to be the master of their destiny. And that’s what happens in the gamification webinar. 

Okay, so now that we know gamification works. Here are a few ideas to gamify your next webinar! 

• Scribble Corner: Encourage users to write what’s on their minds within 10 to 20 seconds. This is one of the most effective ways to channel creativity while keeping your audience engaged! 
• Host An Interesting Trivia: For example, If Jeff Bezos had to choose another industry to become a mega-billionaire, what industry would it be? Forecast the audience’s behavior for the next 10 years. 
• Two Truths And A Lie. A classic childhood game! Simply tell two truths and a lie, and get the audience to guess a lie. 

3. Live Problem Solving

Almost every human attending your webinar would have a problem they are looking to solve through your webinar. 

So, why not solve their problems? This would help you understand what problems your audience is facing and also allow you to demonstrate your expertise. 

For example, if you are an expert in the digital marketing industry, you can collect websites from the audience before the event starts. The experts would then audit the sites and point out the users’ mistakes. 

A popular SEO tool, Semrush performs live content teardowns. Here’s what it says on their registration page:

Interested in having one of your blog posts analyzed live on our webinar – with recommendations for how it could be improved? Submit it in the registration form below, along with topics and keywords you’re trying to optimize.

This webinar draws many qualified audiences because attendees want their examples to be selected. Want more ideas on live problem-solving webinars? Check it out here. 

4. Conduct Speed Networking 

“Networking is not about just connecting people. It’s about connecting people with people, people with ideas, and people with opportunities.” — Michele Jennae

If you have ever attended a typical webinar, you might have seen that in most of them, only experts talk with each other. Others simply present a PowerPoint presentation. That audience gets fewer to no chances to engage. 

Worst of all, even with so many experts from the world attending the event, the organizers forget about the ‘networking part.’ Imagine standing beside Jeff Bezos and not talking with him. That’s a lifetime opportunity you will be missing. 

Now that you know this issue, let’s address it. According to a study, over 70% of webinar attendees attend the events due to networking opportunities. This means if you provide them with networking opportunities, you know this 70% will attend and engage with your webinar. 

So, how do you implement networking with your webinars? Here are a few ideas: 

1. Leverage speed networking within a mobile event app. Here the audience gets a few minutes to introduce themselves to experts. However, you can add a personal touch through prompts to make it more enjoyable. So, instead of a simple introduction, let them talk about their dreams and goals in life. 
2. Host A Virtual Happy Hour: A virtual happy hour is a convenient way to break the monotonous tone of webinars and add a twist. It’s an ideal way to gather everyone and discuss things that matter to them. You can set up themes like career advancements. Eventually, the audience will be able to chat together and share their experiences. 

Need more ideas? Read our blog for more fun networking event ideas. 

5. Conduct A Virtual Debate Event Where People Can Share and Oppose Ideas

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dem0-UlKiZ4

If your audience is students, the virtual debate would be one of the best ways to conduct a webinar. After all, there’s nothing like a good debate to engage the busy minds of students and bring out a hidden genius. 

Before starting the event, you can choose some interesting webinar topics for students so they can prepare for the debate. 

Here are a few ideas for debate:

• Debatestorming. Divide your audience into groups. Each group gets a debate topic that they have to discuss in chat. And then have to justify their opinion in 60 seconds! E.g., Women are better leaders. 
• Devil’s Advocate: At one point in our lives, we have argued for a point we knew was wrong. In this, students get a chance to take the opposite view of the fact. They don’t have to believe in what they are saying, but rather generate a debate and support the topic with an argument. For instance, Opposing the view ‘Social Media: A Curse of 21st Century ’.

6. Host Ask Me Anything Sessions     

The primary reason why people attend webinars is that they want answers to their questions. Almost 92% of webinar attendants say that they like question and answer sessions before the webinar ends. 

And the most effective way to answer your audience’s questions is through an Ask me Anything session. Ask me Anything is an online interview format inspired by the Reddit community. The audience asks questions, and the host replies via commenting. You can steal this idea and use it in your webinar. 

Here are a few tips for hosting a successful AMA webinar: 

• Choose A Moderator. A moderator would take care of the crowd so the host could focus on answering questions. 
• Choose A Good Host: Choosing the right host is essential to getting the audience’s attention. 

Once the session concludes, you can compile the most relevant questions and answers in your preferred format and send them to your attendees. You can even repurpose it as a social media post or YouTube video. 

Conclusion 

And that’s a wrap for webinar ideas. We hope you got some cool inspiration ideas for your next webinar. But remember that no matter how good your content is, you will need a webinar platform to conduct things smoothly.