Creating an On-Demand Strategy For Your Webinars

An effective on-demand webinar program can deliver outsized benefits to B2B organizations. Not only has research by SiriusDecisions found that webinars are continuously found to be the preferred human touchpoint for buyers, but ON24’s data shows that one-third of audiences only watch webinars on-demand. Follow this playbook to develop an approach that delivers the most value from your webinar programs. It should be used by marketers that are looking to maximize the impact of their webinars through an on-demand approach, providing buyers with content wherever they are and at times that suit them.

Assess where you are now with your on-demand webinars and where you want to be

An effective on-demand webinar program can deliver outsized benefits to B2B organizations. Not only has research by SiriusDecisions found that webinars are continuously found to be the preferred human touchpoint for buyers, but they can also deliver significant revenue. For example, accounting platform Sage Intacct drives 15% of its marketing pipeline through webinars, with a single daily demo webinar contributing to 50% of that. ON24’s Webinar Benchmarks also notes that buyers are increasingly turning to on-demand webinars, with one-third of attendees now only watching on-demand sessions.

Needless to say, an on-demand webinar strategy should be a top priority for your organization. If you already are experiencing success from on-demand webinars, then the data from your programs should allow you to set incremental targets for future delivery in conjunction with the steps in this playbook. If you do not have a long history of using on-demand webinars, following the steps below will give you a baseline from which to build future success.

Regardless of where you are now, below are some questions you should ask to see if your organization is benefiting from on-demand webinars. For any where the answer is not “yes”, look to turn around that situation by addressing them in your planning.

• Are your webinars available on-demand by default? If not, you are on average failing to engage one-third of your target audience.
• Can your buyers access on-demand webinars even if they didn’t register when they went live? If not, you are instantly reducing the shelf life of your webinars and reducing their impact.
• Are your on-demand webinars delivering actionable audience insight? If not, you are missing out on the opportunity to continuously improve and refine your marketing efforts both within webinars and beyond.
• Are your on-demand webinars contributing significantly to pipeline and/or customer retention? If not, you have a significant opportunity to increase your return on investment from your marketing efforts by analyzing what is working well.
• Do you have a program of upcoming webinars that fills in and addresses key stages of the buyer journey? If not, you are missing out on the opportunity to accelerate buyer journeys by providing relevant touchpoints.
• Do your on-demand webinars drive engagement that effectively progresses the buyer journey? If not, you are missing out on the opportunity to drive conversations and interactions with buyers that turn into revenue.
• Are your webinars being repurposed and reutilized for personalized, targeted buyer experiences? If not, you are missing out on the chance to deliver better buyer experiences, the benefit of providing sales with relevant content and improved conversion rates from personalized experiences.

Ensure you have the on-demand foundations in place

Before planning out an on-demand webinar program, make sure you have the key foundations in place.

Here are some action items to follow that will deliver benefits from your existing webinars – even before you create new ones.

• Make all webinars available on-demand by default unless there is a good reason not to do so. Following this simple step will help your buyers to access sessions at a time and a place that suits them best.
• Create an on-demand webinar hub where you can showcase past webinars and feature upcoming sessions. Having this present means that whenever you create a webinar, there is a location on your site where you can feature it. If you have access to a content hub, you can upload webinars and other content assets easily within your marketing team. If you have another solution, make sure that whoever delivers webinars can upload them there without requiring IT or tech time to do so.
• Make sure your webinar performance and engagement data is easily accessible. This will allow you to adapt your on-demand approach based on audience insights.
• Ensure your webinars are sufficiently integrated with your marketing technology stack. This will enable you to build automated journeys and plays based on engagement with your on-demand webinars.
• Make sure that your marketing automation platform or CRM is set up to collect key data points that will help you deliver a better experience. For example, you may want your webinar Engagement Score to feed into your lead scoring, or a list of webinars attended to be visible on your CRM contact record for use by sales. You may also want campaign data in your CRM (or at the very least, a lead source) so you can attribute value from your on-demand webinars.

Develop a webinar editorial calendar

With the foundations in place, you should now develop a webinar editorial calendar with on-demand in mind.

• Make sure to consider the following when planning your calendar: What gaps are there in creating content that addresses the stages of the buyer’s journey? Once you have your existing webinars featured in an on-demand hub, it may be apparent that there are stages of the buyer journey (both pre- and post-sale) that do not currently have a webinar that can be accessed. But even if your buyer journey map has a webinar at each stage, you should look to schedule in your webinar editorial calendar an opportunity to revisit and revitalize your existing sessions.
• What other campaigns or live experiences do you have planned? If you haven’t already done so, think about how you’ll incorporate webinars as part of an integrated campaign. Also consider any PR, thought leadership, product releases or analyst briefings that might be coming up.
• What industries, personas, geographies or other segments should be considered? While you can repurpose and repackage wider ranging webinars, there may be particular segments that could benefit from more immediate attention.
• What fun or engaging webinar formats could we incorporate? Webinars can be more than just presentations. Think outside the box for ways to engage your audience, particularly if they are working remotely and craving interaction. Talk shows, “ask me anything” (AMA) sessions, panels, and even after parties can be arranged.

Finally, when planning your webinar calendar, think about repeatable formats or branded experiences that can both build long-term audience engagement and encourage ‘content bingeing’ while also saving your team time on planning and organization.

The session on Developing Captivating Digital Content Formats in the Virtualized Certification Program provides additional points to explore.

Create an engagement checklist for every on-demand webinar

Webinars can work when the format consists purely of a speaker delivering one-way content. However, this doesn’t provide the opportunity to drive engagement that captures the attention of your audience – and provides you with valuable data points.

Here are some items to consider on your checklist:

• Create a clear call to action aligned to the buyer journey on the webinar console.
• Provide a link to your on-demand hub on the webinar console.
• Embed relevant resources in the webinar console.
• Make use of video to improve the quality of the session.
• Consider using polls during the webinar – even if it’s on demand, this will provide valuable feedback data and a chance for interactivity.
• Consider asking for Q&A – and ensure there is a process for these to be followed up.
• Ensure post-webinar email provides tailored content recommendations.

Revisit and improve existing webinars

Both as part of your editorial calendar and as an ongoing process, you should revisit your existing webinars and look to improve them to drive improved results.

First, assess the webinars in terms of the opportunity for driving engagement. It may be as simple as adding additional elements to the console.

Second, assess whether any of your on-demand webinars could be repurposed into a simulive session. By doing so, you can reach those who would prefer to attend live, which may be particularly helpful for colleagues in other time zones.

Third, you may wish to re-record the webinar (or incorporate clips from the old one with new content) in order to help it perform more effectively.

Repurpose and repackage on-demand webinars for personalized, targeted journeys

There are a number of ways in which you can use your existing on-demand webinars in ways that make them more relevant for your target audiences.

Some examples to explore in your plan are:

• Curate relevant webinars into a targeted content hub. This will allow you to provide one-stop-shops for your most important segments.
• Translate webinar recordings for new territories. This can include simply adding closed captions or going as far as dubbing previous content.
• Use webinar clips as video. For some time-pressed groups, signing up for a webinar might be off-putting. Instead, consider using key snippets within a targeted page to communicate your most important messages.

Revisit and iterate

As neither your buyers nor your organization will stand still, it is important to continually review your on-demand webinars to make sure they are still performing. Use the engagement data and other marketing performance metrics to find out how you can continue to improve.

To make this a regular process, we recommend including time to review your on-demand strategy whenever you revisit your marketing campaigns or strategic sessions. Add this to the agenda so you continue to reap the benefits of your on-demand webinars.

Following the steps in this playbook may appear to be a daunting task, particularly given the other pressures that you and your team may be facing. As such, consider bringing in additional resources for some of the steps – for example, an agency may be able to carry out the assessment, or update elements of your online experience. Another approach is to start small and begin this audit on just one channel of content at first.

In addition, you will need to maintain the support of your coworkers and leaders in other teams. For this reason, avoid taking a ‘brand police’ approach, especially when working with sales.

Finally, for two-way engagements such as webinars, the right talent can make a big difference in achieving success. Encourage and nurture anyone that demonstrates the right attributes so they can provide a bar that others work towards.