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What Even is AI?
If you've asked this question to yourself, you are not alone. In fact, you're in good company.
Think back to those long school lectures when a new concept was introduced and the whole class was left scratching their heads. Artificial Intelligence (AI) is making a lot of people feel similar - but it doesn’t have to be so tricky.
Much like that new concept in class, once you start understanding AI, it doesn't seem so intimidating anymore. Instead, it begins to feel like a supportive classmate, who’s ready to lend a helping hand.
AI, in its simplest form, is a tool.
It's a technology that enables machines to mimic human intelligence. It is crazy powerful and can help you in more ways than you think - not only can it work on advanced concepts like computer coding, it can also help you craft the perfect webinar.
It can assist in a ton of tasks, from crafting the perfect emails to analyzing complex data after your webinar is over.
General Advantages of Using AI
The advantages quickly become obvious. Did you ever have a classmate who always had a knack for solving problems quicker than anyone else? AI offers that advantage of speed and efficiency.
It handles large volumes of data, performs tasks at a lightning-fast speed, and does it all without breaking a sweat (need we say more?).
Where it really comes in handy - and saves you a ton of time - is that AI can tackle mountains of complex data and give you insights that might have otherwise gone unnoticed.
And the reach of AI goes beyond speed and data processing.
It has been a game-changer in providing accessibility to many; transcription services for those with hearing impairments, aiding visually impaired individuals in navigation, and tearing down language barriers with real-time translation capabilities (helping attendees who otherwise would struggle in a virtual setting).
A Word of Caution on its Limitations
But remember, no one is perfect, not even AI.
Just like us, AI has its limitations. Its accuracy might not always be spot on and its understanding of context is limited.
It may have advanced algorithms and high-speed processing, but it was last updated in 2021, so the information is not going to be perfect.
You should also know that the ability to understand context is a bit of a rough patch for AI. Working with AI can sometimes be like that friend who takes your sarcastic comment at face value, leading to confusion and misunderstanding.
One of the other limitations is AI's lack of real-time learning. Unlike humans who can adapt and learn from their experiences on the go, AI needs to be retrained to accommodate new tasks or pieces of information.
So, while AI can be a powerful tool, it isn't a magic bullet. It's crucial to approach AI with both optimism for its capabilities and caution for its limitations.
As we delve deeper into the potential applications of AI, specifically in the realm of webinars, we'll see how this balance plays a crucial role.
Let's explore how this partnership can work together to breathe new life into your webinars:
How AI Can Be Used to Make a Better Webinar
Webinars are an amazing way to build a community, become a thought leader, or build a brand. Now, AI can seamlessly choreograph the numerous steps involved in crafting an effective webinar so that you can host more.
Let's see how this happens.
Helping you choose the type of webinar
1. Researching similar webinars
Unless you have a clear idea of what you want to present or who you want to have speak, sometimes choosing the right webinar topic can feel like a chore. Thankfully, AI, with its data crunching capabilities, comes to the rescue. It can analyze a wild amount of information from past webinars to unearth hidden gems – like key factors that contributed to their success.
The time of the day, the topic, the speaker, or the interactive elements – AI scans through all these variables, deciphering patterns that might elude the human eye. This invaluable analysis allows you to strategize your webinar on proven insights rather than mere assumptions.
Most importantly, you want to tell the tool you're using, ChatGPT for example, about your company. What is your product? Who are your target ICPs? What are the benefits of using it? What are your business's core values and beliefs? By training the AI model about your business, you'll generate more impactful results. So take a few extra minutes to provide this context.
Need some help on where to start with your webinar planning? Try this prompt in your favorite AI model:
Analyze past webinars on the importance of building community for b2b companies, focusing on duration, topic, speakers, and audience interaction level. Then, make a recommendation for a relevant webinar topic, duration, and panel expertise needed to make it compelling.
2. Crafting the perfect email
The journey of creating a webinar isn’t just about picking a topic; it's also about effective communication with stakeholders, such as sponsors, speakers, or attendees.
Here's where AI's language processing capabilities can shine. By scrutinizing successful emails from the past and suggesting improvements, AI ensures that you're not just casting out a generic message into the sea of email communications; instead, you're launching a meticulously-crafted message that resonates with your stakeholder.
Try this prompt to get you started:
Generate an email draft inviting a speaker to our webinar, based on email best practices and the speaker’s background. Be concise in the request and use a friendly and conversational tone of voice.
Preparing for Your Webinar
After you've selected your webinar topic and communicated with your stakeholders, the next stage of your journey begins - prepping for the big day.
Once again, AI steps up to take on some of the load, making your preparation process smoother and more efficient.
1. Creating your webinar agenda and helping with schedule optimization
A well-planned agenda is the backbone of any successful webinar: it ensures that your event has a clear direction and keeps the audience engaged.
Use AI to help craft an agenda that resonates with your audience and optimizes your webinar schedule.
You could feed the AI a prompt like,
Based on the average attention span of our target audience, suggest an agenda for a 45-minute webinar on ‘Building Sustainable B2B Communities: Strategies and Best Practices’.
The AI will then create an agenda, ensuring your webinar has a good balance of information, engagement, and breaks.
2. Using AI tools to create your webinar image
If your webinar includes imagery or branding elements, AI can be an invaluable tool in creating a design that is both eye-catching and representative of the webinar's theme. There are a number of different websites that you can check out to try out AI image creation:
For image creation, try a prompt like:
Generate an image for our webinar titled 'Building Sustainable B2B Communities: Strategies and Best Practices' using modern design elements, people and the colors blue and white.
A side note: some of the tools are unable to create text with your logo so this may need to be done separately.
3. Helping to draft your social media copy to get the word out
The power of social media in sharing information about your webinar can seriously make or break your webinar: it can help with increasing your registration, sharing content during the webinar, and grabbing feedback after. Here again, AI can lend a helping hand by drafting impactful social media copy that grabs attention and boosts engagement.
Try out this prompt:
You're a social media expert for b2b SaaS companies. Based on what you know drives the most engagement on posts, draft announcements for our upcoming webinar "Building Sustainable B2B Communities: Strategies and Best Practices" for Twitter, LinkedIn, and Meta.
4. Helping to create the right questions for your speakers
Having some great banter between the host and the speakers helps keep the audience engaged. So, formulating the right questions can foster the right dialogue to deliver valuable insights to your audience.
And as you can imagine, AI can assist you in crafting these questions. To make sure AI is gathering the most up to date information, feed it articles, blog posts, a LinkedIn profile to help it understand your speaker. Only then, should you ask it to help you craft the right questions.
Try this prompt:
Based on [enter speaker name]’s expertise in community-building and our webinar topic, generate a list of engaging questions.
5. Help editing and crafting your opening speech
If you are thinking about greeting your audience to start off your webinar (which we do think is a great idea), that opening speech will set the tone.
It's your chance to captivate the audience and grab their interest.
While we recommend drafting your opening speech first, AI can help optimize it. We have found that although AI can write well - it's not perfect, so we suggest writing your speech first and then having AI edit after.
You could use a prompt like,
Edit and optimize my draft opening speech for engagement and clarity.
6. Your webinar presentation
Do you need to have a consistent powerpoint for your webinar?
Your webinar presentation is an essential tool in communicating your content effectively. AI can suggest content for slides, recommend colors and designs that enhance readability, and even propose types of graphs that would best represent your data.
Remember, that prompts work better when you are specific:
Suggest content for a slide explaining the future trends in B2B communities, along with suitable design elements and color schemes.
Take it to the next level by using a product like Gamma to help you generate a deck in seconds using prompts and content you provide.
After Your Webinar
The webinar may have ended, but the role of AI doesn't.
In the post-webinar phase, AI continues to deliver valuable support, helping you analyze performance and can even help you express gratitude to all involved parties.
1. Analyzing your data after the conference
Post-webinar data is a goldmine of insights - something that was typically scarce in in-person events.
It reveals what worked, what didn't, and where there's room for improvement.
AI can assist you in analyzing this data, identifying patterns, and providing actionable insights. You just need to input the data set into your favorite AI tool and then let it do its work.
To get this insight, you will need to set the right prompt:
Analyze the webinar data for viewer engagement patterns, drop-off points, and audience interaction.
2. Crafting the perfect Thank-You note
Expressing your gratitude to your speakers, vendors, and attendees helps maintain strong relationships and fosters a sense of community (and also set’s you up nicely for your next webinar).
AI can help you draft the perfect thank you note, personalized and sincere.
For example, you could use a prompt like:
Generate a personalized thank you note for our speaker, incorporating highlights from their presentation.
For this one, it may be helpful to include in the prompt a few sentences about the person's background, their role, and/or their speech to help give color to the AI response.
Is it worth it? A final thought.
AI can often be seen as intimidating, complex and elusive. But it's time to put that notion to bed.
From the spark of a webinar idea, right through to its execution and post-event follow-ups, AI can be there every step of the way. You can have it be your trusty sidekick in selecting the right topic or crafting impactful emails as well as assisting in planning the agenda and drafting attention-grabbing social media posts.
But let's not forget; AI isn't perfect.
It has its limitations and doesn't understand context as a human would. Still, AI proves to be a reliable companion, a silent co-pilot in your webinar journey, amplifying your efforts and refining your strategy.
So would we say it is worth it? Absolutely. Just be sure to know that oftentimes you have to do the work beforehand (like creating your speech), in order for it to be a quality piece as well as authentic one.
So, toss out the old playbook. It's time to reimagine what a webinar can be with the magic of AI.
If you are curious about AI and its role in webinars, talk with one of our team members today. They can take you through the process of creating the perfect webinar (with or without the help of AI) and have you set up for success.
