For B2B marketers, the word of 2020 was undoubtedly “webinars”. However, ON24’s Director of Marketing Tim Johnston is a leader in the field and says it is time to rethink how you are delivering them.
On Tuesday, Johnston took a sledgehammer to the boring, mundane – and sometimes harmful – rules that have crept into modern webinars during 5 Webinar Rules to Break in 2021, an online event hosted by B&T Editor-in-Chief David Hovenden was moderated.
In 2021, ON24’s director of marketing believes it is time for B2B marketers to stop calling their webinars “webinars” and deliver them as “digital experiences” instead.
“If you think you can only do one traditional webinar these days, you have to do a lot more because there are brands that really entertain their audiences,” said Johnston during the webinar. refer to Thomson Reuters, among others.
“The robot scripts just don’t work these days, so we can’t get away with just audio-only execution, just a screen, or a script – it just doesn’t work.”
He adds, “It’s time to get creative … these are digital experiences and we need to think about them differently.”
But how do we as B2B marketers get creative with this format? Well, according to Johnston, you have to break those pesky rules.
Rule # 1: Webinars take place at this time on that day
Do you have the same problems running your webinars on a Wednesday at 12 noon? You’re not alone. According to Johnston, this is a common problem that ON24 customers encounter.
“You get stuck in the mindset of hosting a webinar at the same time … I keep seeing that,” he said. “We don’t have to do that anymore.”
Citing recent research from ON24, Johnston said that audiences consume webinar content differently, with typical Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday slots shifting to provide opportunities for early morning commuter webinars, among other things.
Rule # 2: A webinar is a presentation
Are your webinars delivered like a PowerPoint presentation? Well, according to Johnston, it’s time to move away from that.
“This is probably my favorite rule to smash to pieces,” said Johnston. “Too often marketers think of webinars as a presentation. Think of webinars as a digital experience.”
These digital experiences can be in the form of Q&A, coffee break chats, or elements that you would not associate with the topic of your webinar – such as: B. a mixology or yoga class. Lateral thinking.
Rule # 3: A webinar has to be “live”
With the rise of on-demand webinars, the old rule that these digital experiences must be broadcast live has become obsolete. According to Johnston, it’s a misnomer that has been around for a long time.
“If you don’t have an on-demand strategy in mind or you don’t have one, you need one,” he said. “Otherwise, you may be ignoring up to 40 percent of your audience.”
Johnston also had more insight into why webinars shouldn’t be of a certain length and why you shouldn’t have to open your webinars.
Would you like to learn more? ON24’s 5 webinar rules for 2021 are now available on request here.
Selected image source: iStock / South_agency