Webinars are one of the highest-performing marketing channels. Our Events and Marketing Strategy Survey found that webinars are the second-fastest-growing event type, trailing only in-person conferences. According to our benchmark data, the attendance rate for webinars has increased 9% over the last year.
As attendee interest in webinars grows, organizations have a significant opportunity to expand their reach among global audiences. They also must extend engagement beyond the event itself, weaving it into the broader customer experience.
In this post, we’ll discuss what a modern webinar looks like, how to extend webinar engagement, and key opportunities that many event teams are missing out on.
What a Modern Webinar Program Looks Like
With so many webinars competing for attention, often during busy workdays, attendees are selective about where they spend their time. They want relevance to their role, genuine education, and engaging formats. They seek clear answers to three questions: What is this webinar about? How will I be able to participate? What will I leave with?
High-performing, modern webinar programs share a few key traits:
- Targeted content. The topic, speaker, and follow-up questions are all tailored to specific needs and personas.
- Seamless, branded experiences. From registration to on-demand replay, every touchpoint reflects the company’s brand.
- Strong engagement. Polls, live Q&A, and/or chat allow attendees to communicate with one another, resulting in more than just one intent signal (attendance) for the event team hosting the event.
- Integrated data. Webinar engagement should feed into the same attendee record as your in-person events, so sales directors always know how their contacts are interacting with your brand, and other stakeholders have universal visibility.
How to Extend Webinar Engagement
A successful webinar extends its value long after it ends. The secret to maximizing webinar value is repurposing the content. Transcripts, clips, on-demand access, and relevant follow-up assets extend the life of your webinar while offering several new touchpoints for customers to get engaged. Working with the marketing team to track post-webinar engagement will provide critical insights for planning your next webinar.
The Webinar Opportunity Most Event Teams Are Missing
Despite the potential for strong ROI, most organizations are still running webinars as standalone events, disconnected from the rest of their event program and their broader marketing stack. This creates data silos that make it nearly impossible to understand how customers are engaging across multiple events.
On the flip side, event teams that have connected their webinars with their other events have a clear picture of how webinars fit into the buyer’s journey. They use webinars as registration drivers for their larger in-person conferences or roadshows. After their in-person events, they use webinars to reinforce messaging and increase engagement. When all of the touchpoints are designed to work together, engagement compounds and loyalty increases.
Maximizing Webinar Value
Webinars are a primary driver for growth, and evidence proves that audiences are interested. Mastering the ability to extend webinar engagement will result in greater marketing effectiveness and more sales opportunities for your organization. Learn more about our webinar tools, and discover how you can use webinars as a springboard for customer engagement at other events.
