I suggest you choose a format that will best convey your message while engaging your audience. You can consider the following four webinar formats:
Single Speaker: As the name suggests, this is a single speaker who communicates with the attendees. The speaker will also demonstrate the webinar content and answer any questions the attendees may have. I recommend this type of webinar if you have a small audience.
Interview format: The speaker plays the role of an interviewer and asks a series of predetermined questions to the subject matter expert. This type of webinar can be very engaging as attendees watch the experts answer the questions. It also encourages them to ask questions, which makes it interesting.
Moderated Panel Discussion: Similar to a roundtable discussion, a roundtable webinar involves multiple speakers discussing a predetermined topic. A moderator will be required to facilitate this type of webinar.
Q&A: Similar to the interview format, this type of webinar also allows the speaker to answer questions, but this time, the questions come directly from the audience. I recommend collecting questions in advance. This will help you stay on schedule and check for questions from the audience. Q&A segments are usually added at the end of all webinar formats.
- Plan the visual elements
Since it is an online seminar, webinars rely heavily on audio and visual aids to demonstrate their content. Slides filled with text will not do the trick.
The best webinars should feel more like a face-to-face experience, and you should ask presenters to use their webcams while presenting.
I am presenting here a webinar intended for marketing experts wishing to automate certain actions using a CRM (that's me at the bottom left).
The camera is enabled which allows the audience to see the speaker during the presentation, which adds another layer of information like non-verbal cues etc.
However, this requires that each presenter not only have a decent camera (ideally, better than the one on their laptop) but also proper lighting.
In terms of slides, Including suggests you consider the following points when preparing visuals for your next webinar:
Have an introductory slide with information like start time and what points will be covered. But make it fun!
Next, have a slide showing a synopsis of the topics that will be covered.
Include a slide showcasing the tools and websites that will be used during the process. I recommend using the tools and websites in real-time during the webinar to have a better impact on your audience.