Online events have become a vital tool for connecting with your audience, generating leads and sharing your insights. However, with more and more people getting involved, it can be hard to choose a topic that will cut through.

Be clear on how to choose a webinar topic for your business that will cut through The Springboard team can also work with you directly on building and promoting your webinars, so get in touch if you would like more information.

First up is how to pick a topic that is relevant to your audience and build out an engaging presentation.

Find your audience’s sweet spot

Key to success is finding a niche topic that your audience cares about. Look at your target market’s pain points. What concerns are you hearing again and again? What questions are you always being asked?

We work with our clients at the start of any campaign to map out key stakeholders and identified key messages for each. This is vital to ensure any content created hits your audience’s sweet spot. 

Build your topic out from those key concerns but keep it specific. If you pick a subject that is too wide-ranging, you will only be able to give a very broad overview in the time allotted.

Create a clear structure

Before you start putting all your thoughts down on slides, draft an outline of the structure of your presentation. Plot out your headings from the intro section to the Q&A at the end.

Make sure your presentation slide templates are clear, easy-to-read and branded with your logo. Slides with too many words, icons or design features can look overcluttered and be hard to read.

Look at ways of breaking up the content into specific sections so there is a clear structure. You can also include an overview at the beginning of your presentation so your audience knows what to expect.

Build out your content

Once you have selected your topic and the top-level structure, you can start populating it out with content. If you can, brainstorm with your team members on what you think would be of value to your audience.

At all times, make sure the information you’re sharing relates back to the title, your pillars of conversation and what your audience will expect to hear about. Look at your existing content – blogs, presentations, etc. – and repurpose for your presentation.

Use imagery and graphics to add interest to your slides and break up the written content.

NB: if you want to play a video during your webinar, make sure you are confident that it will work correctly.

The 80:20 rule

It’s vital you don’t use the webinar as purely a sales tool. It will put viewers off and devalue the knowledge you are sharing. A common rule-of-thumb is the 80:20 rule – share useful information 80% of the time and spend 20% selling.

Consider sharing links to useful resources and highlighting upcoming industry trends. Are there case studies you can include as real-life examples?

Remember you’re the expert – don’t be afraid to give away your expertise. It creates goodwill and showcases you as a leader in your field. We hope this helps you to better understand how to choose a webinar topic for your business that will cut through. 

In the next blog, we will be looking at tips on promoting your webinar and capturing leads. For more information on how to build out useful content for your webinar, email info@springboardcommunications.ie

If you would like to read all the blogs in this series, you can download our e-book on Maximising Your Webinars. Enter your details below and we will email you the download link.

Post by Ciara Flaherty

As Senior Account Manager, Ciara drives communication campaigns for clients in a variety of sectors including technology, law, financial services and healthcare. A law graduate, she also has an excellent sense of the media landscape, both traditional and new, having worked for the Irish Examiner and breakingnews.ie.