More than other types of content, webinars give marketers the power to connect with audiences in a personal and immersive way. A firm favourite amongst B2B marketers, webinars are often touted as a top source for leads and ideal for all aspects of the customer journey.

But how can you keep people engaged? According to new research in GoToWebinar’s 2017 Big Book of Webinar Stats, only 40% of marketing webinars are taking advantage of engagement features. There is a tremendous opportunity for marketers to take webinars beyond a speaker and a few slides and engage audiences on a much deeper level.

Preparation is paramount

We’ve all been told that failing to prepare is preparing to fail – but planning really is the key to a successful webinar! It’s important to get ahead of the technology and check all the equipment before the presenter starts. Make sure the webinar software, headset/phone, internet connection and webcam, if your using one, are all working.

Secondly, ensure that everyone involved and attending has the correct dial-in details, it’s a simple step but can prevent a variety of issues.

To gain the audience’s trust and maintain interest, it’s important that the presenter is comfortable with the presentation. Presenters should run through the format beforehand and aim to shake off any last-minute nerves or uncertainty. Alternatively, if your webinar software has pre-recording capabilities, then this can be an easy way to prepare the bulk of the webinar. Once it’s been recorded, it’s easy to play back sections to the audience and removes the pressure and effort involved in live-hosting.

Interact with the audience

Webinars give marketers the power to have real two-way conversations with their attendees. The best way to engage an audience and get them learning new information is to encourage active participation. Before the webinar, create polls and surveys to keep your audience involved. You can also weave in more informal interactions by asking impromptu questions and having attendees respond with a “hand raise” or a message.

At GoToWebinar, we like to keep webinars loose and fun, and we’ll usually begin with an ice-breaker question, just to get everyone’s attention and set the foundation for future interaction.

All these opportunities for interaction give attendees the ability to take part in the webinar and do more than just watch and listen. Not only will this keep the participation high but also provides marketers with instant feedback on the audience’s engagement and insight into topics.

Another creative way to interact with audiences during webinars is to invite attendees to appear on video side-by-side with the presenter. Perhaps to ask a question or to discuss topics which needed further discussion. This is a very visual way to attract the attention of those who have become disinterested and produce interactive content.

Work on your delivery skills

We’ve all listened back to voice recordings and questioned whether that’s really what we sound like. Every voice is unique so it’s not a case of trying to sound perfect, although there are certain techniques which can enhance public speaking. Keep in mind that it’s best to speak loudly and clearly, and talk naturally. No one will pay attention if you’re mumbling or talking in a flat, monotone voice.

Tone is an important way to convey sentiment, so make sure this is consistent throughout as it will help to gain the audiences trust. Pausing can also be a very effective way of emphasising specific points, as the sudden silence can often surprise listeners and pull them back in.

Make it fun

Incentives can be a great way to encourage audience participation and increase engagement during webinars. Offering a prize which matches the audience’s interests, is a good way to ensure attendees remain focused. This encourages active participation and gives them a good reason to keep thinking about the webinar in the weeks that follow.

You can also infuse a lot of fun into your webinar with the visuals and formatting of your slides and presentation. Use GIFs, videos, and striking or familiar images that elicit emotion. Make important information stand out with non-standard fonts. And if you’re really feeling creative, you can add life to your presentation by giving it some kind of visual theme or including gamifying elements. Why just show bullet points of data when you can make it fun with a multiple choice or true or false question?

Judge your performance

Creating a simple exit survey can help marketers to judge the performance of the presenters and assess what content and format works well. The questions can be as simple as: How would you rate this webinar?

Many webinar platforms offer in-built analytics which can help you to evaluate success and gauge audience interest. Tracking metrics such as number of registrants is a good measure of how successful a topic is in signing up new registrants.

Another good metric to take note of is, the number of attendees in comparison to the number of registrants. Data gathered over the last year shows that the average attendance rate for marketing webinars is 37%. While this is relatively low, it does provide a great opportunity to continue the conversation with those who didn’t attend, nurturing them to explore other webinars and additional content.

Evaluation is key for improvement, so comparing previous webinars will allow you to gather insights and learn what captivates the audience and what causes them to stop paying attention.

- by Daniel Waas

Content creators know that video can drive discovery, discussion, and consumption in authentic and innovative ways where other forms of content can fall short. These videocentric, highly-engaged audiences are highly prized by brands and publishers alike. They are influencers, they have disposable income and their appetite for compelling stimuli is insatiable.

Creators that can reach these audiences are in an incredible position to generate revenue from those brands, if they can align a brand with the right content and the right audience in a way that delivers influencer value as well as monetary value.

Where YouTube was once the leader and trend-setter of all things video, we’re seeing blockchain-based platforms and technology driving a period of evolution. These new technologies are pushing video towards decentralised marketplaces allowing everyone – users, advertisers, publishers and content creators – to win the monetised-video game.

In this new era, why should content creators and advertisers look to blockchain-based video platforms? Here are three reasons to consider:

Smart contracts

Before blockchain-based video platforms, content creators had little or no control over the monetisation models used to sell their work. This issue is addressed through smart contract technology, which is the backbone of how videos are monetised and shared on blockchain technology.

Depending on the platform, creators can be compensated in many different ways including pay-per-view, subscription, donations, or a combination of these options. Creators can also reward users for usage, such as embedding or seeding their video.

What makes smart contracts so attractive to creators? They have the power to decide how they’re compensated, and the revenue from pay-per-view (PPV), subscriptions, etc. goes directly to their wallets. Additionally, due to encryption, there is a high level of security associated with blockchain and smart contract technology, which is important when video content is shared globally via a decentralised market.

The Interactive Video and Experience Protocol (IVEP) is one such platform. An interactive video technology built on blockchain. It enables  audiences to engage with video to shop, chat, click, and share, using overlaying layers filled with interactive elements. It also allows and creators and advertisers to monetise and measure video content using the aforementioned layers. It provides free foundational smart contracts for creators and users within its core Layer. This includes the creation and use of digital currencies for transfer and settlement, registration of the IVEP experiences, and participant registration contracts that include trust scores and token accounting. The latter ensures reliable data minimises abuse of the system by disreputable advertisers and content creators alike.

This trust approach negates the need for the wide ranging demonetisation of channels that major streaming platforms have had to implement to avoid advertisers being inadvertently aligned with a small number of disreputable and offensive video types.

Decentralized marketplace

Another significant benefit of blockchain-based video platforms is that members dictate the use of the protocol, apps, and/or services to benefit all participants, something that is contrary to current dominant video platforms that continue to alter rules, demonetise select videos and channels, and favor key stakeholders; Audiences, and content creators, are not getting their fair share of the value they provide to publishers and advertisers who capture most of the gains while retention and engagement are decreasing.

Creation of decentralised marketplaces ensure content creators have a voice in video distribution and consumption – not just in its creation.

Smart objects

As retention and engagement decrease, new metrics and methods to assess video performance are necessary. Real human engagement metrics represent a significant improvement to existing attention-based metrics and can warrant a much higher premium for the participants who embrace such an approach.

Technologies such as IVEP can capture better metrics on interactions through the use of programmable smart objects and functions. IVEP can be used as a trusted and independent source by publishers, advertisers, and ad networks. It can be used to capture real human viewing data, engagement metrics, and user data.

One engagement feature offered through IVEP is a polling function. Surveying the audience right inside a video that is not tied to any one distribution platform allows marketers to access real-time insights from the audience and better identify customer needs, preferences and trends.

In addition to measurement enhancements, the IVEP’s programmable smart objects and functions also offer advanced monetisation features. One such feature available through its digital application (dApp) Store is a product placement tool for the digital world. IVEP allows digital products to be inserted into any video available on the open web, as well as into new digital experiences such as augmented reality (AR), virtual reality (VR), and live gaming. Video on-demand (VOD) services on all devices can benefit from digital product placement.

The community can also develop its own features, making use of the open architecture of the platform.

For content creators, the pros to joining a blockchain-based video platforms significantly outweigh the cons. From smart contracts allowing creators to have more say in how they’re compensated and how their work is distributed, to tools that are developed for the creator and marketer alike, everybody has a say.

While we’ve covered just three, more benefits will present themselves as content creators continue to shift their focus to video and monetisation features and as marketers continue to look for innovative video content and user experiences.

- by Fred Dionne

YouTube has cemented its place as the undisputed leading platform for digital video in the UK, with eMarketer stating that the sites viewing is close to saturation point.

The company’s first market forecast for YouTube shows that through its sheer ubiquity and its easy integration on other content platforms have both contributed to its video dominance. 2018 will see 40.4 million (or six out of 10 people) will watch a video on the platform’s app or website at least once a month.

Watching videos over the internet is now firmly embedded in the UK. The spread of smartphone ownership and the proliferation of streaming services such as Netflix and Amazon Prime mean that two thirds of the UK population now watch some form of digital video.

Facing competition

YouTube is not set in its position as top digital video dog, however, with competition coming from the popular streaming services. Another source of competition is a result of the increasing moves by consumers to watch content with their phone.

eMarkter is predicting that 64% of digital video viewers will use their mobile to view videos in the coming year. This means that YouTube will be competing with Facebook, Instagram and Snapchat, all of whom have been investing significantly in video over the last few years.

“UK adults have been migrating their social media and video habits over to mobile for some time,” eMarketer senior analyst Bill Fisher said.

“It’s no surprise, then, that the social media platforms have been making major plays in the video space. YouTube viewership isn’t going to drop away, of course—it’s too well-established. But it’s going to have to compete for video-viewing time from a multitude of other options like never before.”

- by Colm Hebblethwaite