Best Webinar Software for Engagement Tools

While online events have led to tremendous convenience for participants, they still have their problems. With webinars, attendees are more prone to distractions, more likely to have their experience affected by network issues, or get bored due to the lack of engagement. According to Zippia, on average, only 40% of webinar attendees watch online events from start to finish.

To ensure that your attendees stay engaged in your event, finding ways to involve them is crucial. Bizzabo confirms from their research that 82% of event marketers see event engagement as a critical factor for success. That’s why engagement functionalities are a priority for virtual events and webinars.

There are a handful of engagement tools that are effective for boosting attention. While the ones you’ll need will depend on the scope of your event, getting a comprehensive suite of engagement tools on your webinar software aids with flexibility. Finding the right tools alone can be quite tasking, but we managed to find the most in-demand ones for you to check.

We’ll show you the attributes we thoroughly researched when determining the best software in terms of engagement so that you can understand how they work and what they are used for. Let’s dive into it.

What Makes the Best Webinar Software for Engagement Tools

To determine what attributes are essential for webinar software with great engagement features, we conducted extensive market research to gather the most important tools for webinars and virtual events, consulted with industry experts, and interviewed event marketers with large audiences in different niches. Below are the attributes that we evaluated to determine the best webinar software in terms of engagement functionalities:

Chat

Chats are the most prominent standard of communication today. Chat functionality in webinars provides an extra voice to audience members so they can communicate with each other and the event organizers. It’s a great way to interact with your audience since you can see their responses and questions in real-time to answer them right away.

They are also great for helping event attendees network with one another. The chat can create organic connections, enhances a productive work environment, and allows people to let their guard down since they won’t have to show their face.

Screen sharing

The screen sharing feature allows attendees to see what the presenter is seeing. It’s mostly used to display presentation slides or how something works using your computer. With screen sharing, speakers can augment their talk with charts, slides, graphs, and other presentations. It’s one of the most popular features in webinar software, allowing speakers to create a more immersive experience during their sessions. When picking a webinar software, ensure to look out for the screen sharing feature. It’s so basic that every webinar software should have it.

Whiteboards

The whiteboard is an essential feature for teams collaborating virtually across multiple locations but is also great for helping customers understand your points better. It offers a visual interface where presenters can draw and display visual information in real-time. Plus, since presenters can use natural hand gestures reflected on-screen, the process on whiteboards is seamless and intuitive, enabling better demonstrations and explanations.

Polls and Q&As

Polls and Q&As are excellent for getting your audience more involved in your event while gaining valuable feedback. With audience feedback, you can improve your future webinars by understanding your attendees’ needs and possible issues they are facing.

Emails

With the email feature in your webinar software, lead capturing and converting an audience becomes more effortless. You can set up automated event confirmation emails, send details about the event, set up reminders, and follow up with your attendees after your event to stay in touch and get them to convert. This feature is also a great way to catch people who missed your event to send them a replay or make them sign up for your next event.

Calendar integration

With the calendar integration, you can keep your audience aware of your events. Attendees can simply import your webinars into their calendars with one click, ensuring that they don’t forget about your event and make more people show up when it’s time.

10 Best Webinar Software for Engagement Tools

How to Choose a Webinar Software with Great Engagement Tools

Keeping attendees engaged is one of the significant goals of event organizers. Whether you’re organizing large industry events for thousands of attendees, or question-and-answer sessions for your clients and customers, either way, you don’t want people to be bored or not show up.

When choosing a webinar software with great engagement tools, getting the right mix of functionalities is the critical objective. Make sure to check which features you need for your webinars. Some people may not require an email functionality, since they can integrate their own email marketing software without drawbacks, while others don’t need a whiteboard since they have it all prepared on their slides. Looking at the bigger picture it’s essential to pick the best tool overall. You can explore each product's features, interface, pricing, and other characteristics to align your needs. This way, you’ll have a clearer picture of what’s generally best for you without missing out on anything you might need.

You can check out our Finder Tool to receive a tailored webinar software recommendation that meets your specific needs. And, sometimes, making that final choice between webinar software tools can be challenging. That’s why we also have a Comparison Tool in place, so you can put the software solutions side by side and compare their features in detail.