This report will evaluate the performance of digital experiences in the manufacturing industry. It looks at how companies are deploying digital experiences and how audiences are consuming and interacting with this content. It also evaluates this data against all industry data, providing takeaways for areas of improvement.
With a high percentage of attendees joining the on-demand version of webinars, it is not surprising to see that the average length of webinar attendance comes in at below all industry average. Knowing this behaviour, marketers must orient content for consumption in an on-demand environment and have engagement techniques that work for those audiences. This is especially seen through a lower overall engagement rate and less questions. Importantly, CTAs taken following the experience exceeded all industries.
Digital Experience Conversion.
The conversion rate for live and on-demand consumption of webinars was 64.4%, 9 percentage points higher than all industry average. Conversion rates in manufacturing for on-demand was 45.18%, significantly higher than the all industry average of 23.2%.
Attendee Time.
The average length of attendance for manufacturing webinars was 44 minutes. This is 9 minutes less than the all industry average.
Attendance.
The average number of webinar attendees in Q1 2021 was 110 overall. The manufacturing industry surpassed that average with 179 per webinar.
Questions.
Manufacturing audiences were less engaged in Q&A during webinars, reporting an average of 12 per experience, compared to 19.7 for all industries.
Engagement Actions.
Manufacturing audiences were less engaged as other audiences during webinars, with an engagement rate during the event that was 6.1% lower than average.
Calls to Action.
Manufacturing audiences were more likely to take a CTA following a digital experience with audiences taking 24.8% more CTAs.
Conversion.
When evaluating conversion to attendance for personalized and curated content experiences, manufacturing audiences outpace other industries. Manufacturing audiences converted, respectively, 8 and 12.6 percentage points higher than industry average.
Content Consumed.
On personalized experiences, manufacturing audiences consumed 46.7% more content than all industries.
Attendee Time.
For on-demand experiences, attendees joined for 35.3 minutes on average, 4 minutes longer than other industries.
The key themes coming from manufacturing organizations for digital experiences include:
With high consumption rates of on-demand webinars, curated and personalized experiences, manufacturers must rethink engagement techniques for those audiences. Manufacturers must also consider the average length of attendance for all digital experiences and ensure that future content and programming meets with behaviors.
Manufacturing audiences, despite having lower engagement rates during experiences, are on-par with average for CTAs following the event, meaning that it is a priority for manufacturers to ensure that they are deploying the appropriate CTAs and acting on those buying signals.
2020 was a year where digital experiences, from a production and consumption perspective, were thrust into the limelight. While the trend towards the digitization of the buyer’s journey had already been started, the global pandemic accelerated this trend in ways that no one could have imagined.
COVID has had an impact on almost every area of business. However, for marketers, it extends beyond simply a change in revenue targets.