5 Digital Engagement Trends Every APAC Marketer Should Know

B2B buying, marketing and selling has always been complex — especially in the APAC region — but the COVID-19 pandemic didn’t make things easier. It did do one thing though: it accelerated digital transformation trends, making digital engagement in today’s marketing environment all the more important. But how has this shift to digital engagement impacted the APAC region in particular?  How can a mix of digital experiences, such as webinars, content hubs and personalized landing pages, affect pipeline and help organizations to grow? 

To find out, we ran the numbers (well, our numbers) on digital engagement. What we found suggests that audience digital engagement in the APAC region grew year-over-year with significant gains in buying intent and conversion rates. 

What else did we find? Well, here are five key takeaways from the 2023 APAC State of Digital Engagement Benchmarks report: 

Audience engagement is intensifying

Across the globe, audience engagement grew for both live experiences and the number of interactions per webinar attendee. In fact, these grew by 25% globally between 2021 and 2022. 

In addition to audience engagement intensifying, attendee duration remains significant. In 2022, APAC audiences, on average, spent 51 minutes engaging with live webinars. The volume of webinar attendees in 2022 remained consistent with the levels seen in 2021, at an average of 120 attendees per webinar.

Audiences seek out on-demand self-education opportunities

The demand for on-demand content is at an all-time high across the globe. That’s because B2B audiences largely expect professional buying experiences to be as convenient and seamless as their personal buying experiences. 

In evaluating the composition of global webinar audiences, we found that 43% of audiences engaging with webinar experiences are now doing so in an on-demand format. And, similar to the lengthening of live webinar engagement, they are spending more time, increasing their duration of on-demand engagement by 16% YoY. 

Audiences want different types of digital engagement

Digital marketing has long been seen as a way to generate a high volume of leads at the top of the sales funnel. But, with a sophisticated digital engagement strategy, marketers can now use digital technology, like webinar experiences, to qualify and accelerate those leads to a purchase.  

As a result, the entire buying journey and the types of experiences are growing more diverse. 

To support this mix, global marketers are managing a growing portfolio of different experience types, with webinars running at 57% live, 17% on-demand and 26% simulive. Another shift in experience types was the use of breakout sessions to continue engaging audiences after the main live webinar event, with marketers doubling their use of breakout rooms year-over-year.

APAC attendees register for events earlier, giving more opportunities for engagement

In 2021 and 2020, audiences were waiting until the last minute to register for webinars, with 20% of global registrations occurring the day of the live event, a noticeable change in behavior from previous years. 

In 2022, though, APAC audience registration behavior returned to pre-pandemic trends with 38% of audiences registering the day of and week before the event, giving marketers the ability to plan their promotions further in advance and build momentum through a balanced promotional mix over a three-week, or longer, timeframe. 

This shift in registration behavior gives marketers a greater opportunity to build interactions before the live experience, and empower sales teams to take advantage of the period between registration and the live experience to connect and engage prospects. Important for APAC marketers is that their audiences require and prefer an even longer lead time before the event to register.

Audiences telegraph intent much more often

The final notable shift in B2B audience behavior in 2022 is the rise in buying intent. Across all digital experiences, engagement with high-intent calls-to-action, such as “get demo,” or “request pricing,” had the highest increase compared to 2021. 

For webinars, specifically, 2022 marked a significant jump in chatbot engagement with a 143% increase year-over-year. In addition, webinar audiences are raising their hand for demo requests at a higher rate, with a 77% improvement in conversion rate. 

Analysis of APAC digital engagement throughout 2022 shows that there has been a permanent shift in how B2B buyers expect to interact with brands — in short, they now expect more. Audiences want engaging and interactive experiences, available anytime and anywhere, and ultimately provide an opportunity for a human conversation. Learn more about these trends when you download the report now!