B2B marketers need to meet increased demands for digital content while ensuring personalised, quality experiences. And with AI creating new possibilities for marketing plans, it can be hard to determine where to pivot next.
Research from ON24 has found that APAC-based audiences continue to demand personalised digital engagement, learning opportunities, and interactive experiences. Our latest benchmarks report analyzed the behavior of more than 30 million professionals to see what they are looking for in digital content.
Not sure where to focus your marketing approach? Here are five key takeaways from the 2024 APAC State of Digital Engagement Benchmarks report:
1. Increased digital interactions are more valuable than ever before
APAC audiences are engaging with content more deeply and actively than ever before. In fact, there has been a 20% increase in the average interactions per webinar attendee since 2022. Audience members clearly crave two-way digital interactions while sharing their opinions, feedback, and preferences with fellow attendees.
So, what does the rise in digital interaction mean for marketers? With engagement insights and first-party data, marketing teams can ensure future experiences are better than ever before by determining which exact parts of their events resonate the most with audiences.
2. Audiences crave personalisation
Content personalisation ensures APAC audience members feel seen and heard—attendees consistently expect that digital experiences are tailored to their individual demands and preferences. In fact, interest in demo requests quadrupled year-over-year with personalised experiences. This valuable data confirms that personalisation should always be on a marketing team’s radar.
Marketers have already started responding to the demand—marketing teams created more than four times the number of audience segments as they set out to serve relevant offers based on both buyer characteristics (e.g. firmographics, region, job title or function) and buyer behavior. From these individualized segments, there was then a 10-fold increase in the number of personalised landing pages that were built.
The data also saw double the conversion rate from “contact us” CTAs from personalised experiences over-generalised experiences. The takeaway: when digital experiences speak to audiences, the likelihood that participants will actively show buying intent increases significantly. Unique messaging geared towards different segments of people will result in audiences who feel seen and heard, and, in turn, want to engage with marketers’ offerings.
3. On-demand allows for continued engagement
Beyond personalisation, audiences want opportunities to continuously engage. The average duration of webinar engagement in APAC is 52 minutes, which means marketers have a nice chunk of time to collect signals and data to enhance future digital content.
But engagement doesn’t stop once the webinar is over. No longer are one-and-done events the answer — engagement is a continuous process.
In fact, 44% of APAC audiences watched webinars on demand. This continues a trend observed in previous years as on-demand now commands a sizable portion of a webinar’s audience. Sales and content designers should keep this in mind when creating their follow-up strategy and overall event presentation.
While some viewers may prefer to watch the webinar live, and others prefer on demand, there is a group that does both. The data shows that three percent of APAC attendees view the same webinar both at the time of broadcast and then rewatch the session later on demand. This is great news for marketers looking to zero in on highly interested viewers in order to provide follow-up.
4. Viewers hunger for engaging learning opportunities
Viewers are hungry to learn from their digital content, and a webinar is a great way to provide both learning and certification. Attendees view digital events as a professional development opportunity and prefer having certification options as proof of their learning. In fact, 2023 showed significant growth in educational engagement, with a 21% growth in digital certifications year-over-year.
The data also shows that webinars that involve learning experiences are increasingly moving to a digital format. The number of hybrid events has more than doubled, rising by 103% since 2022. Audience members want to learn from anywhere, and marketers should keep this in mind when formulating their hybid event solution.
5. Digital content consumption is increasing
The APAC appetite for digital content is ever increasing. In fact, the report shows double the amount of content hub visitors and double the increase in nurture pages as proof that APAC viewers want more. But the challenge for marketers is not just to create more content, but to make content that’s highly personalised and resonates with audiences.
Given that marketing budgets are typically already stretched thin, generative AI comes in handy to meet the need for more content that is still applicable to audience needs. For example, in the final quarter of 2023, the number of key moments identified within events more than doubled. Marketers can use these key moments to create shorter, shareable content that is easily viewed without watching the entire event.
Learn more about these trends by downloading the report now!