How to Make Webcasts Pay Off
February 21, 2007
By Sharat Sharan

The president and CEO of ON24 Inc. outlines findings from a study of webcast data, and defines what the results mean for marketers.

Over the years, customers have provided us feedback on the effectiveness of their webcasting programs to attract, retain and engage hundreds, even thousands of viewers. They understand that webcasting offers them a cost effective way to reach, track and interact with their customers. But one question lingers for them: What benchmark could they use to evaluate the success of their programs? In fact, some inquired if we would be able to provide such an overview.

Intrigued, we decided to take a look at the webcast data on our network to see if we could identify any emerging trends, as well as provide any insights on factors that may contribute to a successful webcast.

We evaluated webcast information from 35 business-to-business (B2B) publishers from January to June 2005 and January to June 2006. Although focused on B2B publishers, our research revealed several key insights, which we believe are applicable to all marketers regardless of industry:

• Webcasts drew and retained a significant number of qualified viewers for a significant period of time, an average of 39 minutes in 2006 and averaging over 500 registrants;
• Video webcasts attracted an average of 45 to 47 percent more registrants and attendees while audio webcasts decreased by about three percent in registrants and nine percent in attendees over the same period of time; and
• Audience response rates to polls and surveys increased by 13.57 percent for audio webcasts and 21.43 percent for live webcasts.

What does this mean for marketers?

1) Marketers can attract, retain and engage more viewers with video.
We believe that the popularity of consumer video and the wider availability of broadband may be contributing to the increased registration and attendee levels for video webcasts. Furthermore, audio webcasts are more prevalent, creating more competition for viewers, whereas video is relatively novel for most viewers. This, combined with the engaging nature of video, indicates that video webcasts will be a powerful medium to reach target audiences in 2007.

2) Marketers can communicate with key customers and prospects about corporate announcements, product launches, industry topics and more for an extended period of time.
By registering and attending a webcast, viewers have indicated their interest in the subject related to what the company is selling. Compared to the distributed reach of an ad, webcasts enable companies to present a marketing presentation in front of 500 plus business users, who are motivated enough to spend an average of 39 minutes viewing your message. From this perspective, webcasts enable marketers to deliver complex messages to highly qualified audiences.

3) Marketers can gain more insight on attendees for sales lead generation efforts since interactive features, such as polls, surveys or Q&As, provide invaluable information on attendee behaviors.
With a webcast, marketers can find out exactly how long an attendee viewed the content and what questions he or she asked. And, if a particular attendee has participated in more than one webcast or other online event, marketers can combine information from all of the events to develop an even more accurate picture of the attendee's level of interest.

Marketers recognize that webcasts are cost effective, interactive and attract large "qualified" audiences. By understanding what attracts and retains attendees and how attendees interact with webcasts, marketers can better leverage webcasts for marketing and corporate initiatives.

Sharat Sharan is president and CEO of ON24 Inc., a webcasting and rich media marketing solutions company