Branded webinars: why your own brand matters and how to get it right

Think back to the last webinar you signed up for. You probably remember the topic, maybe the speaker. Do you remember which business or organization was behind it? If what you mostly saw was the platform's logo, there's a fair chance you don't.

That's the simple case for branding. You put time, content and sometimes ad money into a webinar. At the end of it, the audience should remember you. This article covers where branding makes a difference, and how to set it up without a designer or much time.

Why it matters

There are a few reasons, and any one of them is enough on its own.

Trust. An email carrying a logo people recognize reads as part of an existing relationship. One from an unfamiliar sender with generic styling looks like another marketing message, and some people will ignore it.

Memory. A good webinar leaves an impression. If that impression is tied to your name, it keeps working for you months later, when someone needs exactly what you offer.

Credibility. An organization whose every touchpoint looks consistent, from the sign-up page to the end screen, comes across as organized. That matters most when you end the webinar by asking people to do something: buy a course, renew a membership, book a call.

Continuity. If you have a website, a newsletter, social accounts and a course, the webinar is one more place people meet you. When they all look alike, your audience moves between them without feeling they've gone somewhere else.

Where your brand shows up

Most people think about the broadcast room. Your audience actually meets your webinar in many more places, most of them before the broadcast starts:

1. The registration page, which is the first impression.
2. The confirmation email with their personal link.
3. The reminder before the session.
4. The waiting screen, where people sit for a few minutes before you start.
5. The broadcast room itself.
6. The end screen.
7. The thank-you and recording emails.
8. The web address in the browser bar, at every one of these steps.

That's eight touchpoints. If only one looks like your business, the audience mostly remembers the other seven. When choosing a platform, check each of them. There's more on this in how to choose a webinar platform.

The address: a small detail that counts

A link that looks like your own site earns more trust than one with an unfamiliar service name and a string of random characters. It matters most when the link is shared in a text message or a group chat, where people are more careful about what they tap. If you can, use an address with your name in it, and later on connect your business's own domain.

Prepare your logo

A logo that looks great on a business card can look poor in the corner of a screen. A few things to check:

• Use a file with a transparent background, usually PNG or SVG. A logo sitting inside a white box looks pasted on.
• If you have a horizontal and a square version, try both and see which reads better at small sizes.
• Check how it looks on both light and dark backgrounds.
• If your logo includes small text, like a tagline, it probably won't be legible. Use a version without it.

Pick one color

You don't need a full palette. One main color is enough, used on buttons, headings and small details. A few guidelines:

• Choose the color people already associate with you, from your logo or website.
• Make sure white text on that color is readable. Pale yellow or light blue can look lovely, but a button where nobody can read "Register" helps no one.
• If you're a club or team with known colors, this is the place to use them. Fans will recognize them instantly.

Your brand is more than the settings

Logo and color settings are half the job. The other half is what you bring to the broadcast:

• Slides in a consistent template, with the same color and font throughout.
• A webinar title that sounds like you. If your website speaks plainly, don't turn formal on the registration page.
• A background behind you that suits the business. A bookshelf, a clean wall or your logo on the wall, as long as it's a choice.
• An opening slide and a closing slide with the next step, so the last thing the audience sees is connected to you.

For how a webinar's structure leads up to that next step, see webinar structure that sells.

Check it from the audience's side

Once everything is set up, walk the path as a viewer. Register with a different email, open the confirmation on your phone, join the room, wait on the waiting screen, and read the email that arrives at the end. At each step ask: if I didn't know who sent this, would I be able to tell?

This is how you find a logo cropped on phones, a color that looks different on a dark screen, or an email whose subject line doesn't say who it's from. Better to find that now than in front of two hundred people.

When it matters less

If you're running an internal webinar for ten colleagues, or a practice session for friends, branding isn't critical. You can start without it while you learn the tools. Once your audience doesn't know you personally, and especially when there's an offer at the end, every touchpoint that looks like your business is doing part of the work. And if you later turn a webinar into a course, it's worth having that look the same too.

Your logo, everywhere

On Kolcast you upload a logo and pick a color once, and they appear on the registration page, the waiting screen, the room, the end screen and every email: the link, the reminder and the thank-you. Every account gets its own address, and on the Unlimited plan you can connect your own domain. There's no Kolcast logo on the paid plans, and a small Kolcast mark on the free one. You can see it in action in the live demo, and compare plans on the pricing page.