[Updated: May 3rd, 2019]

By now, we both know that webinars are imperative for communicating with our prospective leads, customers, and stakeholders. A decade ago, we weren’t able to create such interactive and engaging live and on-demand webinar events that are relevant during the entire buyer’s journey.

We now have tracking metrics and are able to measure our webinar performance to see we are increasing our ROI. As far as technology has come, one thing that hasn’t changed is that once the live date of a webinar event passes, no one seems to remember the webinar.

It simply fades away.

Previously, we noted that 28% of prospective leads will sign up for a webinar 2+ weeks prior to the live event. We also found in our 2019 Benchmarks Report that 11% of webinar attendees will register the day of the live event, which is significantly less than 2017, with day-of attendees at 23%.

This may indicate that organizations now use longer promotional cycles and likely support their webinars with strong email campaigns.

In 2018, we found that the number of live-only attendees dropped to 59%, compared to 61% in 2017. However, attendees who preferred to watch the on-demand version jumped from 33% in 2017 to 36% in 2018.

Keep in mind that the on-demand viewers are still qualified prospects. They may not have been able to attend the live event but still value your content enough to consume it at their own leisure.

This is important as there is a whole target audience filled with MQL’s who want to learn more about you and your solution to their problems.

So, what are some takeaways from the 2019 Benchmarks Report?

1. Never Stop Promoting.

The 2+ week promotion cycle we discussed should not stop with the live event. The on-demand webinar can bring in traffic for weeks after the live event ends. But only if you constantly promote it.

Use a staggered method to promote your on-demand webinar events in order to gain new webinar attendees. This can be accomplished by altering the message to target numerous new audiences.

Think about your evergreen promotions. Is your webinar topic relevant to any promotions that you are currently running? You can also pause an on-demand webinar if promoting it is not feasible at the moment, only to bring it back sometime in the future. Armed with a new message, you will be able to attract a new target audience.

Repurpose your on-demand webinars by taking snackable bits and transforming them into evergreen content. You can embed them onto your website or even in your emails as a way to educate your prospects as to who you are.

2. One Portal. Infinite On-Demand Webinar Content.

This goes back to the Netflix effect. Giving your prospects access to your content in one location.

By amassing all your webinars into one hub, or portal, you are giving your viewership the ability to binge your content.

Most webinar portals will give you the ability to embed your content straight into blogs. Take it one step further with our Multimedia Hub.

Syndicate all of your marketing assets such as:

• Webinar content
• Marketing videos
• Lead magnets & white papers

All into one content library so your viewers can search, share, and easily consume your content. You can also publish your content directly on social media in order to increase your brand awareness.

3. Go Beyond The Webinar Platform.

Do not feel constrained to your webinar platform when hosting your on-demand content.

Make your webinar content easily accessible by leveraging other video platforms like Youtube, SlideShare, Vimeo, Muvi, and more. Simply by making your on-demand content more readily available, you will be able to reach new viewers who are interested in hearing what you have to say.

You can publish a full ungated event on its own, or do what we did and break them into smaller videos across a playlist. This particular series focuses on The Art of Storytelling with Ron Tite.

Experiment with your content. See if snackable bits work for you, or try working with longer but in-depth videos in order to capture a new audience.

4. Leverage Webinar Metrics To Gain New Viewers.

Webinar attendees in 2019 are spending more time watching webinar events as opposed to 2 years ago. More specifically, they are watching up to 58 minutes of content this past year. That is up from the 55 minutes they spent consuming webinar content back in 2017. Although it’s not a huge increase, viewer watch time in increasing each and every year—do not squander it!

Webinars now come equipped with interactive and engaging tools like:

• Surveys
• Polls
• Q&A discussion room
• Social media

These insights allow you to understand what your webinar attendees are interested in. Use this information to promote your on-demand webinar.

Take your real-time data from your surveys and polls, create an infographic for it, and start promoting it in your emails and social media.

Qualitative results are enticing to new prospects and will generate interest in your service.

Let’s Recap

If you have made it this far, I’ll let you in on a bonus method.

Suppose you have a webinar timeline ready for the next 6 months. Why not promote your on-demand webinar content during your next live event?

Think of it as a follow-up for your webinar attendees.

Follow these 5 tips to increase the value of your webinar events even after the initial live date. You will also be able to increase your viewership and reach new audiences by promoting your on-demand webinars.

As you plan your next webinar and evaluate the effectiveness of the program, use our 2019 Benchmarks Report as a guide to help you create, promote, and deliver successful events.

Download our 2019 Benchmarks Report here.

Still looking for more information on webinars? Be sure to keep up with our Lessons From The Frontline webinar program. Check out our latest episode if you are interested in evaluating where your prospects are in your sales pipeline.

Stay tuned for more updates on how to leverage your webinars to convert viewers into buyers.