Assuming you have amassed enough respondents to your survey, consider inviting them to attend a webinar. You can also leverage webinars to build your participant base by publicizing the webinar more broadly (although you can’t open the gates if you plan to share findings that people only deserve to get if they take part in the survey, such as compensation data). Even if someone has not completed the survey in time for the report and findings you discuss in the webinar, someone who attends will get to know you and your services from the webinar and thereport you send afterwards. Even more optimistically, if you collect enough post-webinar responses, you might issue a cumulative second report.

Many webinar hosting alternatives are available, e.g., GoToWebinar, Zoom, Webex, and others listed at https://www.forbes.com/advisor/business/software/best-webinar-software/. Or you can go the no-cost route. According to experts, the easiest way to host a webinar for free is to use a live streaming platform like Facebook Live or YouTube Live. The benefits include easy use, nearly unlimited numbers of participants, and simple marketing.

Informative webinars demand preparation and practice. They cost money and take time to rehearse and prepare if you are to acquit yourself well. The content and pacing need to be professional as does the technology nous to look adept and deal with access issues. Some providers of webinar software will provide experienced staff to smooth the process.

Based on questions and comments during the webinar, you will learn about new areas to explore, better phrasing of questions, or selections that should have been included. Attendees may comment on aspects of the report, such as its layout, order, or a puzzling plot. Attendees mostly ask about the substantive content of your material, but they also inquire about methodology. All surveys traffic in jargon and buzzwords, and if you adeptly use and explain them you will seem more knowledgeable and current.

You might choose to take questions as they arise or you may elect to wait until the end of the presentation. If the latter, you need to leave time at the end, with the risk that no or too few questions will be available. Of course, every experienced webinar presenter stocks a few softball questions to “ask” if the attendees haven’t spoken up. A challenge with questions asked live is that the questioner goes on too long or raises a point that will be addressed later.

The interchanges need not always be spoke-and-wheel, from attendees to the presenter. Chat comments may engender insightful material and allow those on the webinar to message directly to each other.

The marketing benefits of webinars account for their popularity. A webinar with visible faces also builds rapport. People get to see you and get a sense of you other than a bloodless questionnaire. This means you have some opportunities to market your firm’s services or products. An advantage of plumping for a webinar provider is that they handle technical issues, including recording the session. In that regard, remember to record the webinar so that you can distribute that recording to the respondents and more broadly. A webinar also generates material for articles or blogs, both during the preparation for it, and in the exchanges during it. A webinar also allows you to invite a respondent or a notable expert to enrich their experience.