2015_benchmarks_report_brief_86107

2015 BrightTALK™ !
Webinar benchmarks report!

Table of contents
Executive summary
Overview ...……………………………………………
3
Methodology ………………………………………….
4

Pre-webinar benchmarks
Best days to publish & promote …………………….
5 - 6
Webinar promotion timelines ………………………...
7
Registration form conversion rates …………………
8
Live webinar benchmarks
Pre-registration to live audience conversions ……….
9
Average minutes viewed ………………………………
10
Audience engagement usage …………………………
11

On-demand webinar benchmarks
On-demand webinar views ………………………...
12
Video content statistics …………………………….

13
Comparing webinar and video engagement ……...
14
Channel benchmarks
Webinar channel growth ……………………………
15
Webinar program sizes ……………………………..
16
Comparing number of webinars to leads ………….
17
Measuring distribution sources ……………………..
18 -19
Conclusion……………………………
20

2015 Webinar Benchmarks Report

Executive summary
Overview
In 2015, B2B marketers will be challenged to think more strategically about the content they produce and how it is leveraged by the business to create
leads and convert them down the sales funnel. With an abundance of digital content from valued sources like industry inﬂuencers and analyst researchers at
their disposal, buyers are looking for more meaningful experiences to drive purchase decisions. Because of the rich experiences that webinars offer, they
have become a must-have tactic for effective lead generation and nurturing.

Yet, the art and science of a successful lead generation and nurturing program using webinars is evolving quickly. BrightTALK has analyzed the engagement
data behind the thousands of new pieces of content hosted on its platform over the past year, gaining insight into the trends in rich media content
marketing. The goal of this report is to use this data to highlight what makes webinar programs most successful and thereby provide marketers with the
information and tools to stay ahead of the curve.
3!

Executive summary
Methodology
In 2014, BrightTALK supported over 21,000 global webinars and
videos. Of those, 10,157 webinars were published into communities on
the BrightTALK platform and included in the analysis for this
benchmarks report. All of them can be found using the search feature
on BrightTALK.

This report will look at specific metrics including: pre-webinar
registrations, pre-registrations to live attendee conversions and on-
demand webinar performance. Unless otherwise noted, live webinars
are events that are presented on a specific day and time to an
audience. On-demand webinars are assets that previously ran live or
were uploaded as an on-demand asset onto the BrightTALK platform.

Finally, audiences are categorized as registrants, attendees and no-
shows. Registrants have registered to view upcoming content,
attendees have viewed content either live or on-demand and no-shows
registered for content but have yet to view.
4!
Webinar
[web-uh-nahr]
Noun
1.  An interactive seminar or other presentation that takes place
on the internet, allowing participants in different locations to
see and hear the presenter, ask questions, and answer polls

Origin
1990-90; Web + (sem) inar

Best days to publish & promote
Pre-registration webinar statistics on BrightTALK offer a number of insights about what constitutes a successful webinar promotion. In 2014, Wednesday
was the most popular day of the week for overall registrations, closely followed by Tuesday and Thursday. These ﬁndings indicate that Friday is a poor day
to launch any kind of webinar-related campaign. Rather, wait until Monday to publish or promote your next webinar to gain more registrations.
5!
Mon! Tue! Wed! Thur! Fri! Sat!
2.7%
Sun!
1.6%
19.6%
21.6%
23.1%
20.0%
11.4%
Pre-registration percentages by day of week

6!
Best days to publish & promote
The data shows that people tend watch more content toward the end of the week. In 2014, 24.1% of all views on BrightTALK occurred on Thursdays,
suggesting that people have more time to commit to a webinar or other long forms of content later in the week. For webinar producers who value live
audience engagement, Thursdays also produce the most registered to live audience member conversions. Overall, the percentages of pre-registration and
viewed content by day of the week have remained consistent year over year.
Mon! Tue! Wed! Thur! Fri! Sat!
4.2%
Sun!
3.2%
14.3%
20.0%
22.1%
24.1%
12.0%
Viewed percentages by day of week

Promotion cycles for webinars are getting
incrementally shorter year over year. There are
various explanations for this, such as the increased
number of promotions that go out for a single
webinar or the number of webinars produced by the
same entity within a given year or month. Whatever
the explanation, the outcome is the same:
Regardless of how early promotions start for a
webinar, 86% of the total pre-registered audience will
have done so by the day before. That number has
not changed from 2013. The live day is still the most
valuable day to promote a webinar, as 14% of the
total pre-registered audience will register that day.
7"
0%
10%
20%
30%
40%
50%
60%
70%
80%
90%
100%
21 days
14 days
7 days
3 days
1 day
2013
2014
Percent of total pre-registered audience by days before a webinar
Webinar promotion timelines

Marketers spend a great deal of time
optimizing registration forms to help either
convert anonymous web traffic to known
leads or to learn more about identified
prospects. In marketing, conversion rates
from forms can vary drastically based on the
number of required fields or the perceived
value of what the attendee will receive in
exchange for their information. Typically,
audience members are more likely to share
their information with brands if there is an
exchange of value, such as an information-
rich webinar.
8!
Minimum registration form
Lead generation registration form
BrightTALK Channels offer four standard
registration forms: Minimum, Moderate,
Prospect and Lead Generation. The
minimum form converts the greatest
percentage of potential audience members
to viewers because it requires only five fields,
as opposed to the lead generation form,
which requires 12.

When comparing the two forms’ conversion
rates, lead generation forms convert only 6%
fewer audience members. The takeaway
here is that webinar attendees expect to
provide detailed contact information at least
once to attend a webinar. It also suggests
that it might be more effective to ask for
more lead information up front to ensure
effective lead scoring and remove any
barriers for repeat or return content views.
Registration form conversion rates
Lead form conversion rates !
Minimal: 44%"
Moderate: 41%"
Prospect: 40%"
Lead generation: 38%"

Pre-registration to live audience conversion
On average, webinars with higher pre-registration numbers have a lower pre-registration to live conversion rate. Conversion rates speak to the urgency and
the relevancy of the content. A session that is designed for and promoted to a very select audience will naturally have a smaller turn out, but is likely to drive
more value for each individual attendee than a broader topic to a broader portion of your audience. For example, some B2B companies utilize webinars to run
product demonstrations. Most audiences would be uninterested in a demo, but the ones who are interested will show up, therefore making each attendee
more valuable.

Webinars with broader messaging and audiences should be mapped towards the beginning of prospect engagement campaigns, and targeted webinar
assets should be placed towards the bottom of the engagement funnel. Overall, pre-registration to live attendance conversion rates are up 3% year over year.
That number is expected to increase as professionals spend less time traveling to connect and more time interacting on social media or at online events.
9!
64%
1-100 registrations
Average live attendance of pre-registrants by overall ever pre-registration size
49%
101-300 registrations
45%
43%
41%
1000+ registrations
Average live attendance of pre-registrants by year
40%
2012
46%
2013
49%
2014

The average length of time audiences spend
viewing live webinars is increasing steadily year
over year. In 2014, the average length of a
webinar was 42 minutes. This is an exciting
ﬁnding, as the average length of time
audiences spent watching a single live webinar
was 36 minutes. This means that audiences
are generally staying on for the entirety of the
presentation.

The same is true for on-demand audiences.
The average length of time spent watching an
on-demand webinar is 29 minutes, up from 27
minutes in 2013. Though the average number
of on-demand minutes viewed is lower than
live minutes viewed, it is promising to also see
this number grow year over year. One
explanation for the lower number of minutes
viewed on-demand is the on-demand
audience drop off for the Q&A that took place
during the live session.
10!
2013
41 minutes
2014
42 minutes
Average length of webinars
Average length of webinar minutes viewed
2013
35 minutes
2014
36 minutes
Average minutes viewed

Audience engagement usage
As more marketers adopt webinar technology, they are also getting better at engaging their audiences for greater periods of time. BrightTALK enables
marketers to survey audiences prior to the webinar date, host live Q&A sessions with their audience, poll live webinar attendees and provide additional
resources for the session by way of attachments and links. More than half of all webinars on the BrightTALK platform in 2014 took advantage of these
audience engagement features.

•  54% of webinars used ratings and feedback
•  45% of webinars used the live Q&A feature
•  54.24% of webinars had surveys and 27.59% had attachments
•  The use of polls grew 100%

11!
2014 overall engagement on the BrightTALK platform
49,625
Surveys / Polls
9,654
Attachments
27,293
Questions
159,061
Ratings

On-demand webinar views
Webinars continue to draw views from on-demand audiences long after the they originally run live. Much like their text-based counterparts, webinars can
continue to deliver value to the business months after being published. As the data below shows, even 60 days after a webinar, there is the potential to
capture, on average, 15% more viewings. It is important to host on-demand webinars in areas of your website that are easily navigated to and search engine
optimized. It is also important to maintain a registration form in front of on-demand webinars for consistent lead scoring and for measuring the performance of
the content over time, especially if on-demand content is being utilized in nurturing campaigns.
On-demand webinar
benchmarks
12"
Live webinar
+1 day
+ 3 days
+ 7 days
+ 14 days
+ 21 days
+ 60 days
11%! 26%! 41%! 51%! 57%! 75%!

Video content statistics
Videos provide a different type of experience for viewers. The format is
generally much shorter and drives more on-demand views than other
content formats. In 2014, 33% of the content published on BrightTALK
was video content, which is a 71% increase of total video assets year
over year.

The majority of video viewings on BrightTALK in the past year were on-
demand. This can be attributed to the fact that video content is
commonly developed to create a post-event experience for viewers,
while webinars are intended to engage viewers during a live
presentation. In 2014, BrightTALK introduced the ability to produce
self-service webinars with screen sharing. We look forward to including
data collected from that feature in the 2016 version of this report.
On-demand webinar
benchmarks
Year
5%
10%
15%
20%
25%
30%
35%
2010
2012
2014
Percentofoverallcontent
13!
0%
2%
33%
25%
The total percent videos represented on BrightTALK by year

Comparing webinar and video engagement
Content length is another primary difference between webinars and videos. Of all video assets on BrightTALK in 2014, 39% were between 0 and 5 minutes
long and the mean length was 18 minutes, compared with a mean length of 42 minutes for webinars. Since videos tend to offer richer experiences than
webinars, they can tell compelling stories in a fraction of the time. When integrated with traditional webinars, which drive live viewings, short-form video
content provides viewers with an engaging on-demand experience. It is important to produce both formats, because live and on-demand content provide
different attendee engagement insights.

One of the frequently raised questions is: Are webinars or videos more engaging? Based on previous ﬁndings and analysis, there has not been a distinctive
difference in the various viewing benchmarks and, thus, the engagement levels. Neither of the two has demonstrated a dramatically greater advantage than
the other. Rather, the more effective question to ask is: Which format is the right one for my audience?
On-demand webinar
benchmarks
14"
2014 engagement with video on the BrightTALK platform
314
Surveys / Polls
or .6% of all
surveys and polls
732
Attachments
or 7.5% of all
attachments
5,946
Questions
or 21.7% of all
questions
11,148
Ratings
or 7% of all ratings

Webinar channel growth
Channel benchmarks
15

Number of content assets
0
500
1000
1500
2000
2500
3000
1-5
6-20
21-50
128
605
1195
2884
The number of active channels on BrightTALK is up 83% year
over year. A single BrightTALK Channel gives marketers the
ability to create, distribute and measure content performance
from a single content hub. Multiple channels give marketers
the ability to effectively segment their content across regions
or product lines. In addition, the average channel on
BrightTALK acquired 889 subscribers last year.
Numberofchannelsubscribers
Average number of total channel subscribers by number of assets in channel
50+

Webinar program sizes
It is not unusual to see webinars in the same channel that have greatly
different numbers of attendees.

In 2014, 63% of webinars on BrightTALK had fewer than 100 viewers.
It doesn’t take a large number of attendees for the event to be a
success. Because webinars are usually gated behind a registration
form and are on average longer than 36 minutes, they are often used
as middle- and late-stage education assets for their prospects. So
while a blog may average hundreds of views per day, it also cannot be
used in the same way webinars are. For example, blog analytics will
determine how long audiences were on the page and if they clicked a
call to action. In comparison, a webinar will tell you not only how long
someone viewed and if they clicked the call to action, but also if a
prospect submitted questions or reviews, participated in a poll or
downloaded attachments -- an overall more targeted and personalized
experience.
Channel benchmarks
Webinar by audience size
1-100 views
101-250 views
251-500 views
501+ views
16!

Comparing number of webinars to leads
Channel benchmarks
17!
Number of content assets
0
2
4
6
8
10
12
1-5
6-20
21-50
50+
There are over 3.3 million professionals subscribed to
BrightTALK communities. Each day, these professionals visit
BrightTALK to educate themselves on industry trends and
best practices and interact with thought leaders in their ﬁeld.
All channels on BrightTALK have the opportunity to beneﬁt
from these communities. Any audience member who attends
a webinar from a BrightTALK community is known as a
BrightTALK free referral. On average, free referrals equal 15%
of the total number of subscribers in a channel.

Channel owners looking to maximize the number of free
referrals they earn from BrightTALK communities can do so by
publishing more content. The channels with the highest
percentage of free referrals generally produce between 21 and
50 webinars per year.
Percentofchannelsubscribers
whoarefreereferrals
14
16
18
20

Channel benchmarks
Measuring distribution sources

Keywords and communities
Previously, registrations and views originating from search and social sources hovered at 15%. To increase engagement, BrightTALK has taken a more
active approach to optimizing its site for search, allowing presenters to provide keyword-rich previews of their webinars and channels on BrightTALK to
achieve better search results. Keywords indicate which topics are important to webinar and video audiences. The average channel on BrightTALK is tagged
into four communities, and the average webinar on BrightTALK uses four keywords. Here are some of the keywords trending up and trending down in
December 2014.
18!
Trending companies
Trending
Trending
Social media (+700%)
Content strategy (+280%)
Demand generation (+169.33%)
Content marketing (+123.53%)
Digital marketing (+83.33%)
Lead generation (+66.67%)
Market research (+0%)
Email marketing (+0%)
Brand marketing (-43.75%)
Content management (-75%)
B2B advertising (-100%)
Marketing automation (-100%)

Measuring distribution sources
Channel benchmarks
19!
Embeddable channels and assets
BrightTALK is the only webinar solution that supports embeddable
webinar and channel plays. In 2014, more than 300,000 views took
place on BrightTALK embeds across the web. That is a 6% increase
from the previous year.

By embedding assets into branded landing pages, webinar content
will beneﬁt from general website trafﬁc, search engine optimization
and a streamlined audience experience.

Conclusion
Content drives demand. Without relevant, engaging and accessible content, prospective buyers will look elsewhere for the information that they need to inform
decisions. The BrightTALK platform has been enhanced to support content in multiple formats: webinar, video and attached ﬁles and links. Although webinar
content dominates the platform today, the ability to provide viewers with multiple content types will help presenters better align their stories across different
mediums and appeal to wider audiences.

Content creation on BrightTALK in 2014 showed a rapid growth trend with 20,000 new webinars and videos produced, a 70% year-on-year increase. These
webinars and videos are more than just content pieces; they are the source of powerful engagement data that provides BrightTALK and its clients with the insights
they need to make smarter business decisions and close more deals.
Deliver relevant,
rich media content
live and on-demand
Engage buyers from
professional communities
looking for solutions
Create off-the-shelf
demand funnel with
leads built in
BrightTALK is changing the way modern marketers work
20!

BrightTALK provides webinars and videos for professionals and their communities.

Every day thousands of thought leaders are actively sharing their insights, their ideas
and their most up-to-date knowledge with professionals all over the globe through the
technologies that BrightTALK has created.
About BrightTALK
For more information on BrightTALK marketing solutions, please contact us.

North America

Europe
Email: sales@brighttalk.com

Email: sales@brighttalk.com
Phone: +1 (800) 230 6051

Phone: +44 (0) 20 7397 8407

2015_benchmarks_report_brief_86107

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