How to Build a Webinar Production Strategy That Works Before, During and After the Live Event

Running a successful webinar involves much more than what happens during the live session. By the time a presenter goes live, decisions around the topic, format, promotion, registration, and audience experience have already shaped the event. And once the session ends, there is still plenty to learn from how people engaged and what they did next.

For associations running webinars regularly, looking at that complete process is particularly important. Each stage affects the experience members receive, but it also affects the amount of work required from the team responsible for delivering it.

A good webinar production strategy should therefore consider the whole event, from the first registration through to live delivery, reporting, and follow-up.

So, what should that actually involve?

Before the webinar: Getting people from registration to attendance

Getting someone to register is only the first step. Depending on how far in advance you're promoting the event, several days or even weeks might pass before they actually need to attend.

The communications in between matter.

Confirmation emails should give people everything they need to know, while reminders can bring the topic back to the front of their mind as the event gets closer. Adding the event to their calendar also makes it much easier for someone to find the join information when the time comes.

The content of those communications is important too. Rather than every email simply telling members that the webinar is approaching, use them to reinforce why the session is worth their time. Remind them what will be covered, introduce the speakers, or highlight a question the session will answer.

The same applies to the webinar itself. A clear title and description should make it obvious what members are going to get from attending.

For the team organising the event, this stage also includes building the registration experience, preparing event emails, and keeping track of who has registered. Bringing those elements together can make the run-up considerably easier to manage.

Planning the live experience

A good live webinar doesn't begin with deciding how many polls to include.

Before adding interactive features, think about how the session itself is going to work.

What does the audience need to take away from it? How will the presenters move through the topic? Where does it make sense to bring members into the conversation? And how much time should be left for questions?

A run of show can be particularly useful here. It gives presenters and moderators a shared understanding of how the session will flow and makes it easier to plan where slides, media, polls or other content need to appear.

Presenter preparation matters just as much.

Not everyone appearing on a webinar does this every week. Giving speakers an opportunity to become familiar with the setup beforehand can make a significant difference once they're live. It also gives the team time to check microphones, cameras, presentations and any media being used before an audience is watching.

And if a presenter can't attend live, that doesn't necessarily mean changing the session. Pre recording or simulive delivery can give teams more flexibility around speaker availability while still allowing the event to take place at the planned time.

During the webinar: Keeping members involved

Once the event is live, the focus moves to delivering the experience you've planned.

Polls, Q&A, and other interactive tools can all help, but simply having them available isn't enough. They work best when they have a clear purpose within the session.

A poll might be used to understand members' experience of the topic before a discussion begins. Q&A can bring the issues members are dealing with directly into the conversation. Resources can give attendees somewhere to go when they want more detail than the live session has time to cover.

Moderation is important here, too.

Having someone keeping an eye on questions and the wider event experience means the presenter doesn't have to manage everything themselves. Relevant questions can be brought into the discussion at the right point, while the presenter remains focused on delivering the session.

WorkCast brings these elements into the webinar experience, allowing presenters and event teams to manage the live session while members participate through features such as polls and moderated Q&A.

The result should feel straightforward to the attendee, even when there is plenty happening behind the scenes.

After the webinar: Understanding what worked

Attendance is useful, but it doesn't tell you everything about how a webinar performed.

Looking at engagement alongside attendance gives you a much better picture of what happened during the session.

Which polls did people respond to? What questions did they ask? Which resources attracted attention? How long did attendees stay?

Those signals can help associations understand which topics and parts of a session generated the most interest.

They can also highlight what members still want to know. If several people ask variations of the same question, for example, that could point to something worth addressing in a future session or communication.

This is where webinar reporting becomes particularly useful. Rather than relying on assumptions about what members found valuable, your team has information from the event itself to work with.

Making the content available after the live session

Not every member who is interested in a webinar will be able to attend at the scheduled time.

Making the session available on demand gives those members another way to access it and gives attendees the option to revisit something they found useful.

For longer sessions, features such as chapters can make that experience more practical. Someone looking for one particular discussion shouldn't necessarily have to work their way through an entire recording to find it.

There may also be occasions where parts of the webinar can be useful elsewhere. A question raised during Q&A could inform a follow-up email. A particularly useful section could be shared separately. A discussion might highlight a topic worth exploring in more detail later.

The aim isn't to turn every webinar into as many pieces of content as possible. It is to recognise when something you've already created can continue to be useful.

Using what you learn across future webinars

The real advantage of looking at webinars as a complete process becomes clearer when you're running them regularly.

One event gives you information about one audience and one topic. Over time, patterns start to emerge.

You might find that particular topics consistently attract more registrations. Certain polls generate much more participation. Members may repeatedly ask about the same issue, or attendance might be stronger at particular times.

That information can help shape future sessions.

Rather than relying entirely on assumptions about what members want, you can use what has already happened across your programme to make more informed decisions about topics, formats and delivery.

It also means each webinar can make the next one a little easier to plan.

Bringing the webinar process together with WorkCast

There are a lot of individual tasks involved in delivering a webinar, particularly when events are a regular part of your association's calendar.

WorkCast is designed to bring more of that process together.

Associations can use the platform to manage registration and event communications, prepare and deliver webinars through the WorkCast Studio, involve audiences through polls and Q&A, and review reporting once the event has finished.

Different delivery options also give teams flexibility when every event doesn't fit the same format, whether that's a live webinar, a pre-recorded contribution, or a simulive session.

And when additional support is needed, the WorkCast team can help with the delivery, too.

A webinar production strategy doesn't need to make the process more complicated. Done well, it should do the opposite: give your team a clear, repeatable way to prepare, deliver, and learn from every event you run.