Marketers need to get more out of their webinar programs in 2022. But how? Here are five 2022 predictions you can use to guide your webinar marketing strategy throughout the year.
Want to learn more? Check out our on-demand event, “Webinar Marketing Predictions for 2022,” and see how you can get more out of your events. [Watch Now]
Webinars won’t look like webinars
Webinars tend to follow a similar format with a speaker, an accompanying slide deck and engagement tools along the bottom. But it doesn’t have to!
Webinars can look and be anything we can imagine. We need to start being more creative with our webinar formats and consoles. For example, take a look at Paper Plane Co.’s event below.
Even though it’s running as a standard webinar, the webinar console design makes the event far more interesting than a standard presentation. Want to see what’s possible when you take the webinar format to the next level? Check out how Knight Frank crafted an entire experience with ON24 Webcast Elite.
Audiences want immersive experiences, so the webinar console you create matters. Need more inspiration? Check out the webinars that rocked 2021 to learn how you can take your digital experiences to the next level.
Webinars and events merge
Webinars are often thought of as single, stand-alone sessions. Virtual events, by contrast, are often thought of as big-ticket events featuring multiple sessions across multiple days. It’s time to start thinking about your webinars and virtual events as the same thing.
Both webinars and virtual events are immersive digital experiences designed to achieve the same goal: to drive audience engagement and accelerate deals. These environments can contain single or multiple events, different formats and empower you to pick and choose the type of engagement you want to facilitate.
You can use your webinar console to set the stage for the type of event you’re producing. Event consoles can look like traditional convention centers with expo halls, networking lounges and meeting rooms. They can also look like a bar, awards stage, a kitchen or a haunted house.
Use your webinar console to give audiences the look and feel of your event. Oftentimes, it’s as simple as uploading a quality image that represents the setting you want. Then you can adjust your features and placement to match the design you’re going for.
Webinars become timeless
Lose the idea that webinars have to be a certain time length or fit into a certain box. Lots of companies are successfully moving away from the hour-long webinar.
If your event is engaging and entertaining to audiences, they will stay. The time an attendee stays on a webinar is directly correlated to how engaging the experience is. Audiences will stick around for good experiences.
Instead of trying to fit the content of a webinar to a certain block of time, let the webinar content define the timeframe. Over the past year, we’ve seen everything from multi-day events to three-minute webinars with consistent audience attendance. We’ve even seen organizations create webinar content hubs where audiences can self-select their own content journey.
Focus on driving engagement and let the content and audience experience tell you how long your event should be. Don’t get locked into a set idea of how long a webinar or digital event should be.
Success will no longer be measured by attendees and registrants
Registration and attendees should not be the definition of an event’s success. Why? Because someone can attend an event and not engage or even be interested in becoming a client.
Instead, audience engagement should be the metric you use to define an event’s success.
With engagement as your guiding principle, you’ll set your sales team up for success with actionable data. Engagement takes an attendee from interest to intent and intent is where you drive pipeline.
Deliver an experience that starts a conversation. Attendees want a journey and an experience. It’s up to you to give it to them.
No more sales handoff, sales will be in the webinar
Bring your sales team directly into the webinar. Doing so will help them make connections with prospects earlier in the buying journey and develop natural, organic conversations.
Enable your SDRs and prospects to connect by offering pre-scheduled meetings, chats, breakouts and incentives within your webinar.
Webinars Will Drive More Results
Webinars can be your greatest marketing tool if you take advantage of everything they can offer you. there are no rules! You can do anything you want with your webinars so get creative and push the boundaries.
Start by making small changes and see how they go. Or add a new webinar format to your staple events and then compare and contrast the results. Or go crazy and create a whole new webinar plan for 2022! The webinar world is your oyster and now is the time to take advantage of everything webinars can offer.