Your Zoom Webinars Best Practices Checklist

Webinar, demo, broadcast…whatever you call it, you’re running a virtual event and we’re here to help. If you’re hosting a Zoom Webinars, there are a variety of steps you should complete to make sure you’re creating the best experience for your panelists and attendees. Let’s take a look at your timeline of to-dos!

• Confirm date, time, title, description, and panelists
• Schedule the webinar
• Invite your panelists
• Begin promoting your webinar via email, advertisements, and social networks
• Meet with panelists to confirm webinar structure and content

• Review the webinar and account settings to confirm they’re to your liking
• Confirm that all panelists have been invited to the webinar
• Add poll questions as needed and consider some planted questions (in case you have a shy audience)
• Check your registrations – if they’re looking low, double down on your promotions
• Host a tech rehearsal if your panelists are first timers to review the features of Zoom Webinars
• Finalize presentation with panelists

• Contact panelists to confirm they are prepared and answer any questions
• Download and review the registration report at https://zoom.us/account/my/report/webinar

• Start the webinar at https://zoom.us/webinar/list or via your host calendar appointment
• Enable Practice Session upon scheduling so that only the host and panelists can join; as your panelists join confirm their audio and video are running smoothly (ideally, they are using a wired connection)
• Set up and manage webinar tools:
  • Chat: Click the More menu at bottom to allow/disable attendee chat (can chat to panelists by default)
  • Participants: Click the More menu at bottom to allow panelists to start video, mute on entry, and so forth
  • Q&A: Click the Options menu at top to allow/disable anonymous questions (allowed by default)
• Greet panelists and review roles and tools to be used such as Polling and Q/A

• Run a final audio, webcam video, and content sharing test

• Mute all panelists – panelists will remain muted until the presentation starts
• Use the broadcast button to move from practice to start mode and allow attendees to join
• Attendees will join muted and cannot share but will be able to see and hear panelists
• Moderator periodically welcome the attendees and let them know you’ll be getting started soon

• Start recording
• Moderator unmutes and starts video
• Moderator begins the presentation with welcome and housekeeping – sample housekeeping slides
• Confirm other presenters are ready to be unmuted and video is on
• Monitor Q&A for any technical concerns from attendees - send to https://support.zoom.com/hc for 24/7 assistance

• Send a follow up emails to registrants and attendees – be sure to include the webinar recording and a call to action (what you want them to do next)
• Upload the webinar recording to YouTube, Vimeo, or your website

If you’d like to know more about Zoom Webinars(and see webinar best practices in action), join one of our regularly scheduled Go BIG With Zoom Webinars at zoom.us/events. This quick guide was put together by Zoom’s online events team. To learn more about Zoom Online Event Consulting services, visit our support article or contact team lead Joshua Jones to get started.