Halloween is still two months away but already creepy masks and frightening costumes are  making their way onto end caps and POP displays everywhere. Unfortunately, scary webinars can happen any time of year. If you’re charged with delivering a webinar, beware of these things that can frighten off your target audience:

Beware of the Unknown

So you’ve been charged with delivering the company webinars—but do you know what it takes to run a targeted event that gets results? If you have limited experience, it’s time to do some homework. Take time to view archived webinars and keep notes about what you did or didn’t like about the event to use as a starting point for creating your own event.

Beware of the Infomercial

Yes, of course the point of your webinar is to sell your product or service, but don’t let that tempt you into creating a 30-minute long infomercial. The key to a great webinar is to share information that gives value to viewers. For example, if you’re a chain of retirement homes, don’t just sell people on the 4-star chef and the nature paths. Instead, tell the audience how they can make their homes safer for a convalescing senior or provide tips for navigating Medicare or other insurance programs.

Beware of the Unrehearsed

From nailing down copy to making the slides look just perfect, you’re busy—unfortunately it often happens at the expense of a thorough rehearsal. Make like a Broadway actor and practice! Practice every button you’ll click and rehearse every word you’ll say to create a natural sounding presentation.  After all, as Elaine Fogel at Marketing Profs points out, if you’re going to read from a script, your viewers probably would have preferred written information, such as a white paper.

Beware of the Unexpected

A microphone that doesn’t work. A pop-up that keeps appearing over your slide show presentation. Live shows are fraught with the unexpected. Commenters for Elaine’s blog entry suggested banishing the “oops” factor from a live broadcast by pre-recording the event and then broadcasting it later to a live audience. By providing the speaker for an aftershow Q&A you can still provide audience interaction while maintaining control over the presentation.

Remember a webinar attendee is just one click away from logging out of your event—keep attendees logged on by eliminating the scare factor.  What techniques have you used for making webinars not-so-scary?

For more information about reliable and easy-to-use platforms that won’t scare your audience, contact RollCall.