Webinars are a fantastic way of imparting knowledge to an audience (and making some cash) but what about when your fresh webinar goes stale? Too many people put the time, effort and cash into creating their webinar then simply leave it to do its thing - meaning that over time the content may become less interesting or less relevant. For this reason, lots of producers are now focusing on increasingly popular evergreen webinar topics.
What is an Evergreen Webinar?
In a nutshell, a webinar describes a virtual meeting or conference which is available online. While an ordinary webinar is usually a live presentation or discussion on a specific date or time, the
evergreen version is pre-recorded. For busy consumers, this means that they’re able to access the content in their own time rather than being restricted to a set date. This is super-convenient for consumers and provides long-term value for a business - so what’s the problem? Because evergreen webcasts don’t happen in real time like
webinar formats, the topic or subject can become stale. As with trees or shrubs, evergreen content doesn’t lose its appeal like a current “hot topic” – it stands the test of time. So although a current news item may generate more immediate attention, its value is quickly lost. Whereas a topic (like those we outline below) will be of interest for weeks, months – or even years – ahead.
The best way to tackle evergreen topics is to arm yourself with some great software which takes your presentation and turns it into a funnel by:
- Building content around enduring customer pain points through carefully researched insights
- Harnessing the power of people through Q&As, audience engagement, focus groups and polls
- Driving registration and building leads proactively
- Connecting intelligently with all your other digital stuff including social media
Evergreen Webinar Topics that Work
In this section, we’ll switch on to some subjects that are tailor-made to an enduring web conference:
1. Training webinars
These days, people want to learn new things but are often unable to commit to a full time course due to cost or time constraints. Because of this, more and more of these inquisitive folk are choosing to learn online. This feeds perfectly into
your evergreen seminar. Don't forget to include some interactive stuff like quizzes and chats as these are great for holding your audience’s attention.
2. Industry trends and insights
When used properly, these can really help to turn your presentation into one which is credible and thought-leading. Attendees will never lose interest in trends that relate to their career or industry so this will always be considered to be valuable content. Get into the habit of reviewing your past content on a regular basis and then update to keep it fresh with new live speakers and insights.
3. Best practices and how-to guides
At a time when we get most of our information online (and not just from the Gods of Google), guides will never not be popular. If you’re putting together this type of webinar, here are a few good tips:
- Include best practices that your audience can use to navigate your presentation
- Focus on value - i.e. the customer’s main question will be “what will it do for me?”
- Make your webinar super-easy to use
4. Customer success stories
In many cases, your guests are looking to solve a problem or to achieve success and so nothing works better than other people explaining how they did just that. By focusing on real life stories and testimonials you can highlight the value of your product. You can also get sneaky and tweak this content for your socials.
5. Panel discussions with guest speakers
Long before the internet was even a thing, panel-based conversations have had an enduring popularity with audiences and these are a great tool. You can make the most of these by:
- Regularly inviting industry expert guest speakers
- Keep it interesting with imagery and colour as well as interactive features such as quizzes and live chats
- Make replays available as these encourage registrations
When you introduce different perspectives through panel features, this makes your content more robust and longer lasting.
6. Problem solving and pain points
If you were paying attention, you’ll remember us saying that solving problems and pain points is always a winner. That is, if you make sure to do comprehensive research of your audience through forums, social media and focus groups. This will arm you with the information you need to create a killer script that converts.
7. Product demonstrations and tutorials
Telling people about something is fine - but it’s not as effective as showing them. Demonstrations are a fantastic way of
bringing your content to life and making it tangible for your audience.
8. Future-focused predictions
Our world - and our technology - evolve at lightning speed and this puts your content in danger of getting very old very quickly. The best way to avoid this is to put time and effort into predictions and forecasts based on real facts and figures for big value to your visitors.
Final Thoughts
Evergreen webinar topics are your key to future proofing your content and keeping your audience engaged as well as attracting new ones. As we’ve shown in this article, there are a number of types of subjects that will never get old and so focusing on these will keep your presentations fresher for longer.
