Research and Findings: The Top 5 Challenges Marketers Face with Webinars

Recent research by Forrester Consulting and commissioned by Hubilo unveiled that events like webinars are one of the most impactful lead-generation tools today. The data from the 2023 survey of 318 US respondents also underscores the significance of webinars, with 66% of respondents valuing them for lead generation and a majority (58%) recognizing their role in expanding customer relationships. Challenges are evident, too, with 62% finding current event webinar platform setup challenging, impacting frequency and branding. Only 45% of the respondents say that their platform offers engagement capabilities, while a lack of features to convert attendees into leads and customers troubled 76%, with 69% facing challenges to personalize their communication with attendees. 50% of marketers find it difficult to analyze their event's impact. Post-event content creation and follow-up also posed challenges, with 54% of respondents finding it difficult to generate post-event content and engagement.

These findings highlight the evolving role of webinars as core channels for direct customer engagement. In a resource-constrained environment, addressing these challenges is crucial. This blog delves into the top five challenges underlined by the research, introducing innovative Hubilo solutions tailored to empower marketers to harness webinars effectively.

Challenges Marketers Face with Webinars

Webinars, while a powerful tool in the modern marketing arsenal, come with their own set of challenges. This section will delve into the five primary challenges marketers commonly encounter when utilizing webinars and provide illustrative examples and research findings to shed light on their impact.

1. Set Up: 62% of respondents find webinar setup with the current platform a challenging task

This leads to a time-consuming webinar setup workflow, affecting various aspects of webinars, including labor requirements, webinar frequency, and branding.

• Labor Intensive: The complexity of setup often necessitates more in-house and outsourced labor, increasing operational costs.
• Frequency Limitations: Cumbersome setup processes tend to limit the frequency with which webinars can be conducted, potentially missing out on valuable engagement opportunities.
• Branding Challenges: Difficult setup can hinder the branding of webinars, reducing their effectiveness as a branding tool.

2. Engagement: Only 45% of the current webinar and event platforms offer features to boost engagement

Engagement is a challenge at various stages of the webinar process, from registration to attendance and post-event conversion.

• Registration Challenges: Lack of engagement during registration can result in lower attendance rates, impacting the overall reach of webinars.
• Attendance Struggles: Engaging attendees during the webinar is crucial for retaining their attention and conveying the intended message.
• Post-Event Conversion: Low engagement post-event makes it challenging to convert attendees into leads or customers, affecting the ROI of webinars.

3. Conversion: 76% of respondents report that platforms don't facilitate conversion, and 69% face issues personalizing their communication with attendees

Converting webinar attendees into quality leads and customers is a central goal, but challenges in this area can hinder success.

• Identifying Good Leads: Easily identify the leads with great potential. Proper integration with CRM systems makes identifying and prioritizing high-quality leads easier.
• Prompting Sales Action: Effective lead conversion relies on promptly engaging the sales team, which may need to be improved by CRM integration issues.

4. Proving ROI: 77% struggle to prove webinar ROI

Demonstrating the ROI of webinars and tracking their actual impact on business can be challenging beyond registration and attendance metrics.

• Measuring True Impact: ROI measurement may be limited to surface-level metrics, failing to capture the total value of webinars.
• Resource Constraints: A lack of resources for in-depth data analysis hampers the ability to derive actionable insights.

5. Post-Event Content & Follow-Up: Only 54% of the respondents have a platform that can quickly provide content on-demand today, and 60% are struggling to generate post-event content and engagement

The demand to repurpose long-form content into snackable pieces and sustain post-event engagement can be resource-intensive.

• Content Repurposing: Converting webinars into easily digestible content formats can be time-consuming and resource-intensive.
• Sustaining Engagement: Maintaining post-event engagement requires ongoing efforts to keep attendees interested and connected.

Download Hubilo's Webinar Success Blueprint to get our Essential Planning Checklist for Winning Events

Hubilo solves these five challenges for marketers

Hubilo is at the forefront of innovation, consistently introducing groundbreaking features designed to empower marketers to overcome the hurdles associated with webinars. These innovations reflect Hubilo's dedication to enhancing the webinar experience and maximizing its potential as a marketing tool.

1. Simplifying critical setup process with quick 5-Step Setup

Streamlining Setup in Under 2 Minutes: Hubilo's platform offers a remarkably simplified 5-step setup process that enables users to create and launch a webinar in under 2 minutes. This feature dramatically reduces the complexity and time investment traditionally associated with webinar setup, allowing marketers to focus more on content and less on logistics.

2. Engaging attendees from registration to webinar live with branding features

Hubilo's platform includes comprehensive engagement-enhancing and branding features. These features are designed to transform webinars into captivating and memorable experiences for participants. By infusing webinars with interactivity, customization, and branding elements, Hubilo ensures that webinars not only inform but also engage and leave a lasting brand impression.

3. Converting more registrants to pipe with Conversion Prompts & Sales Nudger

Empowering lead conversion, Hubilo's platform provides marketers with a set of conversion prompts and sales nudges that facilitate the process of turning webinar attendees into valuable leads and, ultimately, customers. These tools prompt timely action from sales teams, ensuring that potential leads are swiftly engaged and converted.

4. Proving the ROI of your webinar with the Revenue Impact Dashboard

Tracking Webinar ROI with Precision is now easier. Hubilo's comprehensive Revenue Impact Dashboard empowers users to precisely track their webinars' return on investment (ROI). It provides valuable insights into the actual impact of webinars on business objectives, transcending surface-level metrics and offering a holistic view of their contribution.

5. Making post-webinar content nurturing easier with Snackable Content Hub

Hubilo's Snackable Content Hub simplifies repurposing long-form webinar content into easily digestible formats. By breaking down webinars into bite-sized pieces, this feature maximizes the reach and value of webinar content, ensuring it continues delivering value long after the live event has concluded.

Read and Learn: 2X Your Pipeline With a Fresh Approach to Webinars

Discover the future of webinar marketing

In this research, we've delved deep into the challenges marketers face with webinars and how Hubilo's innovative webinar solutions can be your secret weapon in conquering these hurdles. But our journey doesn't end here. The marketing world is ever-evolving, and webinars are at the forefront of this transformation.

To unlock the full potential of webinars and propel your marketing strategies to new heights, we invite you to explore the complete research findings in our comprehensive whitepaper. This whitepaper is a treasure trove of insights, strategies, and real-world examples that will empower you to navigate the world of webinars with confidence and expertise.

Check out the full whitepaper here. Your future in webinar marketing awaits.

Read and Learn: How to Add Energy, Impact, and Results at Every Stage of Your Webinar

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