A webinar checklist for charities

Webinar checklist

Planning stage

• Decide on a webinar platform
• Set the date and time for the webinar to take place
• Decide on a topic
• Find speaker(s)
• Identify your target audience
• Create a sign-up page

In the lead-up

• Meet with your speakers to discuss the topic and structure
• Receive and review slides
• Do a practice run-through before the real thing
• Set up any accessibility features, such as closed captioning
• Allocate supporting roles, including back of house and host

Promotion

• Send out promotional marketing to your target audience. This includes:
  • Acquisition and retention
    • Acquistion: reaching out to your target audience and getting them to sign up
    • Retention: reminding those who have signed up about the webinar

• Send out to the three types of people who sign up:
  • Those who sign up and don’t attend
  • Those who sign up in advance and forget about it
  • Those who sign up last-minute

• Send out reminder emails to sign-ups:
  • One week before
  • One day before
  • One hour or 15 minutes before

• Advertise on social media
• Share the relevant links for how to join with sign-ups and speakers

Webinar day

• Check internet connection is working for all parties, including:
  • Back of house
  • Host
  • Speaker

• Check sound quality
• Check camera
• Check slides and screen share
• Ensure all the functions of your webinar platform are in order
• Turn on accessibility features
• Check the webinar is recording
• Give a glass of water to speakers!

After the webinar

• Send out feedback form to attendees
• Pull the webinar recording and edit if necessary
• Start post-webinar promotion
• Send recording to those who attended
• Send recording to those who missed
• Share recording on social media
• Share recording with speakers
• Do it all again next time!

Remember, there is no one way to run a webinar. Different things work for different organisations.

This is what’s worked for us and made the process as smooth as possible in our experience, but that’s not to say there aren’t other ways of doing things. Update your checklist as you go and tailor it to your organisation.

If you have any other webinar tips and tricks, please share them in the comments below.