How to Craft an Effective On-Demand Webinar Strategy

B2B marketers know that on-demand webinars are part and parcel of their webinar strategy. But what if there was more to your on-demand webinar than you realized? 

During The ON24 Experience 2024, industry expert Tim Johnston unpacked how on-demand webinars are a powerful tool in your marketing strategy toolkit. Yes, on-demand webinars are a great way to meet customers where they’re at, but what about other integrations that can unlock their fullest potential? 

Hint: AI-powered capabilities can do a lot of the heavy lifting. 

Let’s take a look at how on-demand webinars can help you level-up your marketing plan.

Introduction to Webinar Strategies

An on-demand version of your live event can be watched anytime, and allows viewers to incorporate webinars into their varying schedules. Viewers can also access an on-demand webinar from places outside their (home)office. But beyond ease of viewing, on-demand webinars offer marketers the opportunity to create more meaningful digital interactions.

The Shift to On-Demand Content

The proof is in the data; the annual ON24 Benchmark Report gives us insights into audience behavior. While live viewings do command longer viewing time — about 53 minutes compared to 30 minutes of on-demand webinars — the report also found a 13% uplift in the number of interactions per attendee watching on-demand.”

It’s clear that audience behavior is demanding on-demand interactions. So how exactly do you meet those demands? Think about opportunities such as:

• • Asking questions
  • Providing Polls
  • Including surveys
  • Recommending additional content

And when it comes to how many attendees are watching an event on-demand versus live, Tim explains that “44% of our overall attendees will only ever watch on demand.” Incorporating on-demand webinars within your strategy ensures that you don’t miss out on that 44%.

Maximizing the Value of On-Demand Content

How can B2B marketers enhance on-demand content to maximize the value and increase meaningful connections with viewers? Let’s see what Tim recommends:

• • Communicate on-demand availability: At the start of a live webinar, it should be made clear to viewers that an on-demand version is easily, and quickly, accessible. 
  • Promote interactivity and engagement: Seize the on-demand webinar as an active opportunity and provide polls, surveys, and recommended content.
  • Chapterize your content: One reason why the 53-minute live viewing decreases to 30 minutes is because viewers like to skip around to the parts that apply most to them. Make it easy for readers to navigate to different sections within the webinar.
  • Prioritize the next step: Think about call-to-actions as the next logical step in the conversation with your on-demand audience. Don’t be afraid to change that CTA if needed. For example, maybe an event you wanted your audience to watch has passed, and it makes sense to point to a new one.

Interactivity and Engagement

Just because an event is on-demand doesn’t mean a viewer’s questions will be forgotten and go unanswered. Interactive features that help foster audience interaction, such as configuring the question capabilities box, allow for the on-demand viewer to feel heard.

Answering on-demand audience questions should also come with a sense of urgency. “We need to think about on-demand viewership as having a shelf life around offers. Is there any time sensitivity?” Tim asks. Addressing viewers’ questions in a timely manner can move leads further down the pipeline.

Leveraging Technology and AI

The B2B marketing sweet spot — where repurposed content meets personalized experiences — can be elusive without a clear strategy in place. AI capabilities help marketers reach their goals, efficiently, by taking one webinar and transforming it into numerous formats.

For example, the ON24 Intelligent Engagement Platform uses its proprietary AI-powered Analytics and Content Engine to generate Key Moments. Key Moments — which clips the most engaging segments of a webinar — helps marketers identify those segments of a webinar that can be reused, repurposed and relayed to targeted audiences for further engagement. Here’s just some of AI’s full potential:

• • Video clips (think registration pages)
  • Social media snippets
  • Website blogs
  • Potential call to actions

Sales Team Integration

On-demand viewers are somewhere, out there, watching from the comfort of their own time and place. Sound like a moving target? Not quite. The ON24 platform combines powerful integrations with CRM platforms to help build a relationship between on-demand viewers and sales teams.

Each and every time an on-demand interaction occurs, your sales team gets notified. This means that follow-ups are easier to keep track of, and potential conversions are cultivated, not ignored.

Innovative Strategies for Driving Engagement

Ensuring engagement via an on-demand experience means you need to tap into wherever your audience is already hanging out. You can drive engagement through:

• • Trade shows: Connect attendees to digital events while they attend physical ones by using QR codes. After attendees scan the QR code, they can easily access company products and download information, or request a booking.

• • Social media: Tools like Sprout and Bamboo help promote on-demand content without having to send out new promotional emails.

• • Confirmation Emails: Make your email work overtime. While the confirmation email for one event can confirm an attendee is signed up, it can also point the recipient to another one while they wait.

Content Hubs and Accessibility

Centralized content hubs that include content with closed captioning for accessibility can ensure ease of use. Offering the ability to see and read a webinar at the same time gives viewers options, and can elevate the experience. Tim points out the streaming service user experience: “I prefer watching Netflix with subtitles and captions. People like to see and read at the same time.”  

Adding readable content like PDFs, e-books and blog articles while personalizing your content hub for either an individual, or an entire industry, can make for a more meaningful journey.

Education can always be an objective for any B2B marketer. On-demand content hubs that make it easy for viewers to find bingable content is a great way to reach that goal. Allowing customers to continue their education journey in their own time, by clicking on additional relevant webinars, is a great way for B2B marketers to continue the dialogue with on-demand viewers.

Ready to uncover your marketing strategy potential? Change how you engage with ON24X.