Zoom is a great tool for meetings but if you want to run a webinar then their paid Webinar tool can be quite expensive.  Zoom offers a free meeting option for meetings of less than 40 minutes or a very reasonable £12.99/month for the full meetings tool. In contrast the Webinar software is £64/month.

With a little bit of preparation however it is possible to set up Zoom meetings so you that participants are hidden, making it feel much more like a webinar and saving you money.

[In case you aren’t sure of the difference, an online meeting would usually have all participants able to attend on camera and to be able to speak. A webinar is more of a presentation style,  doesn’t show participants or allow them to come on screen unless the host specifically invites them. Webinars are usually used as part of a sales funnel so the control over what people can see is more important.]

Sounds useful? These are the steps you need in Zoom meetings to set up a ‘fake webinar!’

You will need a zoom account. You will need a paid account if you plan to have a meeting for longer than 40 minutes.

Disable Participant Video – Go to the Meeting setting, scroll down to Video and under Participant video set to OFF. This means that as participants join their video will be switched off.

Mute Participants – Under Meeting Options tick the box ‘Mute participants on entry’. If you might want to unmute people to ask questions etc then you can also tick ‘Allow host to unmute participants’. 

Disable Participants from unmuting themselves – As soon as the meeting starts go to Security (this is a button on the main toolbar once the meeting is started) Uncheck the ‘Allow participants to unmute themselves’ Now everyone will remain muted unless you unmute them. Note that you can start the meeting while people are still in the waiting room so do this before you let them in! 

Hide Participants Video – again once the meeting is live go to the Participants page (accessed from the participants button on the main toolbar). Click the 3 dots to access more features and then select ‘Hide non-video participants’. All the participants will now be hidden as you have disabled their video.

Optional Disable Chat – If you don’t want participants chatting to each other you can disable participant chat. Either completely or set it so they are only able to chat with you.

Remember you can always have a trial run with a friend before the main event just to be confident that your webinar will go smoothly… good luck and enjoy your webinar!