Back in 2020 and 2021, webinars and virtual events exploded in popularity — nearly half of marketers reported hosting 20-30 virtual events in 2020 alone. Since everyone was at home all day, every day, webinars were one of the only ways to connect with peers and experts live.

Companies across industries tested out this marketing strategy, and many found real success. Over time, webinar delivery platforms have matured, which made the process of hosting an event decidedly easier. Virtual events like webinars are a scalable way for global audiences to learn about a pressing topic in their industry, discover new products, and get their questions answered by experts.

But virtual events aren’t what they were a few years ago. And the ways that people want to consume video content are shifting. You may have noticed dips in live webinar attendance recently — and you’re not alone. 90% of business leaders in the U.S. report that they’re requiring employees in-office in some capacity in 2023.

This has forced marketers to reimagine video content and live or on-demand events. Now, creative teams are optimizing webinar content by transforming long-form videos into bite-sized, engaging clips and making live events available for viewing on-demand.

The webinar is evolving

Webinar fatigue among consumers has led to innovative new video content styles. Marketers are doubling down on short-form video content due to incredibly high engagement rates and ROI. But fewer people are making room in their busy schedules to attend live webinars: many are back in the office, and in-person events are back in full force.

Potential attendees may assume that most webinars will eventually be available on-demand, which could also be contributing to the industry-wide trend of lower live attendee rates. A recent report indicates virtual attendee rates have dropped from 70% to 35-40% in the last two years.

This doesn’t mean the webinar is dead, though — it’s just time to adopt a slightly different strategy and make webinars accessible on demand. Creating webinars full of content that’s truly valuable to your target audience remains a great strategy: 86% of marketers say video is an effective medium for lead generation.

And at Vimeo, we’ve seen that from 2022 onwards, roughly 94% of our total webinar leads came from on-demand viewers. This signals a potential trend of more on-demand viewers and a preference for watching webinars on demand.

It makes sense: life has gotten busy again, and people are used to the convenience of streaming platforms providing on-demand entertainment at any time. Why would their webinar preferences be any different?

Below we’ll get into how marketers can optimize their webinars for what audiences want today: shorter, more impactful content, available whenever they want to watch. Some strategies include planning shorter webinars, adding pre-recorded sessions, doing post-event editing to create shareable clips, layering interactive elements, and even replaying entire webinars online.

What is an on-demand webinar?

An on-demand webinar is a pre-recorded piece of video content that’s edited and hosted online. Whether you take a live webinar, edit it, and make it available on-demand later, or you produce and record the webinar ahead of time for a simulive environment, they’re a great asset to a demand marketing strategy and an ABM approach, as we’ll outline below.

On-demand webinars can help drive lead generation, boost a brand’s authority in a topic area, and help you reach more people. And people love them!

More than half (68%) of attendees say they rewatch content from events they’ve already attended.

Running a live webinar used to feel like putting on a huge production — tons of preparation, infinite moving parts, and a wide range of skills coming together for one high-stakes, live performance. But by making an on-demand webinar instead of a live one, the stress around recording day is minimized, and marketers can polish the content before sharing it with the world.

Plus, by making webinar content accessible on-demand, whether or not you also shared it live, you exponentially grow the potential reach for the webinar beyond just those who will actually show up to the scheduled event.

Building more bite-sized, consumable content — and repurposing it

Companies are experimenting with creating shorter, bite-sized webinars that are aligned with audiences’ shorter attention spans — and a much more crowded attention landscape. Some are even testing mini-webinars as short as 10 minutes.

Many marketers may still see the value in creating a traditional hour-long webinar — 45 minutes of content, 10 of Q&A, and five of buffer time — but then, post-event, they can break up the webinar into the most valuable clips and insights, sharing those via email, in newsletters, and on social media.

Another key to building a more engaging webinar is to build in low-lift interactive features like polls and Q&A, but don’t overdo it. Attendees are often there to learn, not socialize, so don’t plan breakout rooms for your webinar.

Add chapters to make webinars scrubbable

On-demand webinars don’t have to be as linear as live events — they can be structured in a way that lets viewers jump around, pick out key takeaways easily, and navigate to the chapters most relevant for them.

That way, viewers don't have to feel like they need to sit through an entire experience where only part of the content is relevant to them.

Increase the post-live webinar editing

Live webinar audiences understand that live events will always have an element of spontaneity (and sometimes, a little chaos). Technical difficulties, speech mistakes, and filler words like “um” are to be expected. They know to expect live questions at the end, knowing that inevitably, some will be more valuable than others.

But for on-demand webinars, you can polish the recorded live webinar with simple video editing tools to save viewers time, provide only the best content, and save them from having to skip past a technical difficulty or a useless question.

Once the fluff is trimmed down, marketers can create consumable, bite-sized content out of the very best clips of the webinar. They can also create different cuts and topic spotlights catered to specific channels and audiences.

Why should your team have an on-demand webinar strategy?

Virtual event attendance numbers are always at the whim of uncontrollable external factors. Maybe some attendees got called into meetings, others had to take care of kids or an elder, some couldn’t make the time zone work, and others just got busy and totally forgot.

Scheduling events is back to being as tough as it was pre-pandemic — plus, attention spans are shorter, and we’re all too screened-out for yet another hour-long virtual event.

On-demand webinars allow people to watch and digest the webinar when it’s most convenient for them, which means they’re more likely to be paying full attention than if they were multitasking while watching at an inconvenient time.

Plus, on-demand content engages audiences and attracts leads, long after the event has passed. And by repurposing video content, one webinar can provide endless quotes, social posts, and email hooks to use for months, or even years, to come.

How does an on-demand webinar strategy boost an Account Based Marketing (ABM) strategy?

Demand generation marketing used to largely take place separate from any account-based marketing (ABM) initiatives — but today, 60% of B2B marketers are doing both.

ABM is proactive: sales and marketing professionals actively pursue various stakeholders at high-value organizations, instead of waiting for individuals to reach out for a demo.

Webinars can be a helpful part of an ABM strategy, since the best ABM plans involve providing tailored educational content to the right person, at the right time. And on-demand video content can be personalized for various segments, which helps to better attract and convert customers.

For example, a webinar that goes into various benefits of accounting software for a small business can be edited into two different mini-webinars: one for a representative from a company’s HR team showing the benefits for employees, and one for someone on the finance team that speaks to the impact of accounting software on a company’s bottom line.

ABM strategies are strengthened by using different channels and mediums. By researching the target account, a sales professional can find out what works best for that potential customer: whether it’s a clip from an old webinar, a traditional sales outreach email, a phone call, or even a walk-in.

Some types of webinars to consider to power your ABM strategy:

Product-led webinars.
Customer-led webinars.
Timely industry information webinars.
Thought leadership webinars.

4 key steps for an effective on-demand webinar strategy

Here’s how to grow your reach, get more leads, and get more out of each webinar with an on-demand webinar plan.

1. Get your post-event emails to attendees + registrants quickly and provide a link to the recording

Live webinars require the collaboration of many different stakeholders to run smoothly — and one of the pieces that often gets lost is passing along the recording to attendees while the iron is still hot.

It’s important to send along the recording of a live webinar as soon as possible after it ends, while the ideas you covered are still rolling around in the brains of your audience — and while attendees that weren't able to make it live still see the missed event on their calendars. Provide a link to the recording for everyone who registered, and you’ll be able to track who watched after the event.

For ongoing post-event engagement, consider creating a resources page or hub to host all your on-demand webinar content. As an example, the Vimeo marketing team has a resources page where anyone can find on-demand videos and content related to marketing, employee communications, and video hosting.

Processing a long video, and cutting out any content unsuitable for an on-demand audience, can be time-consuming. Webinar platforms have gotten better at making the process easier and quicker, but make sure that when you’re doling out tasks for all your collaborators, there’s someone in charge of quick post-event recording distribution.

2. Invest time in a distribution plan

Getting more eyes on your content doesn't happen overnight. Webinars, and even clips cut from webinars, can’t do all the work: a dedicated distribution plan makes all the difference. Talk to various marketing channel leaders to discuss how their channels can help amplify your on-demand webinar content.

For example, some companies choose to host their on-demand webinars on a landing page, invest in paid promotions, and leverage organic social on LinkedIn or Facebook to help drive the right audiences to the right videos. Both these initiatives require buy-in from other team members or departments.

Content syndication is another great way to continue to get juice from your webinars. Our favorite content syndication vendors will include links to on-demand webinars in dedicated emails to their databases, newsletter updates, or even promote content via native ads. So you can ensure a breadth of potential prospects are getting eyes on your webinar.

Plus, on-demand webinars can be used for sales enablement in addition to marketing. Sales teams can both promote on-demand webinars and use the content within them to help move prospects along the buying journey.

3. Create bite-sized clips of your webinar after the event

Look for ways to break your on-demand webinar into multiple short videos using a video editing tool. Tiny snippets, like quotes, useful tips, and key insights can be used across many different marketing channels, but they’re particularly great for social media.

For example, in a recent webinar, Vimeo's team used text-based editing to create short clips of speaker quotes to help promote the on-demand webinar.

Alex Dwyer