on24 webinar benchmarks report 2019communications.on24.com/rs/848-AHN-047/images/Webinar Bench… · The right strategy and execution are essential to make a webinar program work

on24 webinar benchmarks report 2019

PROFESSIONAL SERVICES TRENDS

contentsEXECUTIVE STATEMENT 3

Methodology 4

PRE-WEBINAR BENCHMARKS 5Promotional Cycle 5

Best Days to Send Promotional Emails 7

Best Days for Webinar Attendance 9

Best Time to Run Webinars 11

WEBINAR BENCHMARKS 13Average Viewing Time 13

Registrant to Attendee Conversion 15

Average Attendee Rate 17

Integration of Engagement Tools 19

Integration of Video 21

POST-WEBINAR BENCHMARKS 22Always-On Viewing 22

Always-On Viewing Time 22

CONCLUSION 24

2

Executive StatementThe professional services sector is at the epicenter of disruption as the need for experts to help navigate the opportunities unlocked by digital innovation is greater than ever. The professional services industry play a critical role in developing future-proof strategies, predicting and managing risk, keeping clients compliant, producing and auditing financial statements, recruiting talent and competing on a global scale.

Without disruption and accelerated change, the professional services industry would not exist. However, the same technologies disrupting other industries also affects the delivery of professional services. The acumen companies in this sector used to support their clients’ initiatives is increasingly used to drive their own transformation. Digital is redefining the economics of professional services delivery and firms can no longer afford to stand still.

Author and copywriting trainer Jonathan Kranz provides an apt description of the industry’s most pressing challenge: “Professional services companies have to ‘sell the invisible’—intangible qualities of experience and expertise that resist easy ‘features and functions’ descriptions.”1 Selling the value of expertise—while facing an ever-increasing commoditization of services and downward pressure on margins—is no easy feat. But we believe webinars can help professional services organizations stand

out in a world overloaded with information.

Webinars are highly effective at articulating a clear identity. They help you to build a powerful, authentic brand by communicating in a credible and trustworthy way that sets you apart in a crowded marketplace. They also offer a great platform to share expertise and insight, engage with large audiences and build a robust sales lead pipeline in the process.

To help you get a head start, we’ve analyzed all webinar benchmark data from events produced by professional services organizations on our platform in 2018 and looked at how practices in this sector differ from those employed by their peers operating in other industries. We’ve also looked at six key sectors —accounting, business supplies and equipment, consulting, human resources, international trade and development, and legal—to better understand how webinars are used to support their marketing efforts, increase pipelines and drive engagement with demanding audiences.

Here at ON24, we recognize the need for change and we’re taking initiative. Opportunities created by webinars abound; you just need to dive right in. We look forward to working together to build your reputation and meet your clients’ needs.

1. How Professional Services Marketers Can Stand Out in a Crowded Marketplace, Content Marketing Institute

3

https://contentmarketinginstitute.com/2017/07/professional-services-marketing/

https://contentmarketinginstitute.com/2017/07/professional-services-marketing/

This study examines statistics across a webinar’s lifecycle, including webinar promotion and registration metrics, interactivity metrics, audience viewing habits, and both live and always-on attendance and conversion metrics. Unless otherwise noted, this study uses the following definitions:

Live webinars—Audio or video-based events streamed on a specific day and time.

Always-on webinars—Audio or video-based events attendees can view always-on, including archived live webcasts.

Registrants—Prospects registered to view an event.

Attendees—Prospects who registered to view an event and attended that event.

MethodologyON24, the world’s leading webinar platform, compiled the data in this report. The events included in this analysis were selected from a sample of ON24 webinars conducted globally by professional services providers in 2018.

ON24 measured 8,367 webinars in this analysis.

All webinars were held between January and December of 2018.

Events represent a cross-section of almost 200 professional services companies.

In addition, those working for professional services companies were surveyed to find out more about how they are using webinars and their effectiveness.

4

Promotional cycle

of professional services companies say that webinars enable them to extend their brand.

The right strategy and execution are essential to make a webinar program work for your business goals. As such, taking time to create a promotional plan that hits the mark is a key step. A campaign that starts at least two to three weeks before the webinar date is preferable as longer campaigns translate to more registrants.

Pre-webinar Benchmarks

87%Across all webinars produced by professional services companies on our platform, nearly half (48 percent) of registrants sign up at least eight days before the event. This compares to an average of 54 percent across all the sectors included in our annual benchmarks analysis.

Early registrants, who enroll at least 15 days before the event, are more common in the human resources sector, accounting for 43 percent of all registrants. By comparison, less than a fifth (19 percent) of registrants in the business supplies and equipment sector enroll at least 15 days before.

Registrants in the legal sector are most likely to enroll up to one week before—56 percent compared to only 37 percent in the human resources sector.

Distribution of Registrations Across Promotional Cycle

Professional Services Average

12%day of 8-14

days before

22%more than 15 days before

26%40%1-7

days before

5

Start promoting your webinar at least two to three weeks before it’s scheduled to run so you have plenty of opportunities to build up excitement, highlight the benefits of attending and provide supporting content. Don’t forget to send at least a couple of email reminders to boost registration rates.

ON24 TipPursue a longer promotional cycle to boost registrations rates.

Accounting 14% 16% 36%34%

Business Supplies/Equipment 2% 31% 19%48%

Consulting 11% 24% 23%42%

Human Resources 11% 20% 43%26%

International Trade & Development

Legal

4%

17%

27%

19%

20%

25%

49%

39%

the breakdown:

day of 1-7 days before

8-14 days before

more than 15 days before

Pre-webinar Benchmarks: Professional services TRENDS

6

Best Days to Send Promotional Emails

of professional services companies believe webinars help them lower their cost per lead.

Emails are highly effective at promoting your webinar and driving registrants. It’s not just about subject lines and calls to action though. Timing is also a key factor impacting the performance of an email campaign.

Mid-week emails typically perform best and that’s also the case in the professional services industry. Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday account for over two-thirds (68 percent) of webinar registrations.

Emails sent early in the week (Monday or Tuesday) perform best in the legal and human resources sector (44 percent and 41 percent, respectively), with Monday performing particularly well for legal webinars. Emails sent on Wednesday or Thursday are most successful in the consulting sector, accounting for over half (54 percent) of registrations.

71%

Thursday

24%

Monday

15%

13%Friday

Tuesday

21%

4%

Wednesday

23%


Saturday/Sunday


7

You’re probably looking to attract high-value attendees who hold the decision-making power in their organization. They’re busy individuals, so make sure the benefits of attending are explained upfront and the registration experience is simple.

ON24 TipMake the registration process hassle-free.

monday tuesday wednesday thursday friday Saturday/Sunday

Accounting 16% 22% 15%23% 20% 4%

Business Supplies/Equipment 11% 27% 10%27% 19% 6%

Consulting 13% 30% 10%21% 24% 2%

Human Resources 16% 26% 11%25% 20% 2%


Legal

14%

22%

21%

20%

13%

11%

23%

22%

20%

20%

9%

5%

the breakdown:


8

Best Days for webinar attendanceMid-week is also the best time to hold a professional services webinar, with Wednesday and Thursday accounting for 59 percent of attendees.

Our analysis show there is a lot of variance across the six sectors we examined in more detail.

Tuesday is particularly effective in the business supplies and equipment sector, accounting for nearly three-fifths (59 percent) of attendees. Wednesday emerged as a clear winner in the consulting space (46 percent) but is the worst performing day in the international trade and development sector (18 percent).

29%

Monday

9%

8%

Tuesday

20%

4%

Wednesday

30%

Distribution of Attendees by Day Professional Services Average

Thursday Friday Saturday/Sunday


9

Mid-week webinars typically perform best, no matter what sector you operate in. Look at past engagement data and content consumption patterns to determine the optimal day to reach your prospects.

ON24 TipAvoid running webinars on Monday or Friday.

monday tuesday wednesday thursday friday Saturday/Sunday

Accounting 9% 22% 34% 25% 8% 2%

Business Supplies/Equipment 5% 59% 21% 8% 5% 2%

Consulting 5% 18% 46% 23% 7% 1%

Human Resources 7% 30% 27% 29% 6% 1%


Legal

15% 20% 18% 32% 7% 8%

7% 29% 23% 25% 14% 2%

the breakdown:


10

Best time to run webinars

Three in five (63 percent) webinars produced by professional services organizations are run between 8 a.m. and 1 p.m.

Webinars run in the morning, between 9 a.m. and 12 p.m., represent 45 percent of all professional services webinars on our platform. They are particularly popular in the accounting, consulting and human resources sectors, accounting for

over half of webinars. The three sectors are most likely to opt for 11 a.m. and 12 p.m. webinars—45 percent, 53 percent and 34 percent, respectively, compared to less than 10 percent in the other three sectors and an industry-wide average of 25 percent.

International trade and development webinars are most likely to run early in the morning, between 7 a.m. and 10 a.m. (43 percent). This compares to an average of 30 percent across the whole industry.


11 AM

6%

16%

7 AM

9%

9%

8 AM

12 PM

15%

4%

9 AM

1 PM

3%

14%

6 AM

10 AM


11

Some time-pressed professionals prefer early-morning webinars they can dive into before starting their workday, while others are more likely to attend late morning or lunchtime webinars once the most important meetings of the day are out of the way. Experiment with a few times to find the one that works best for your organization and your audience.

ON24 TipConsider audience availability when scheduling webinars.

Accounting

Business Supplies/Equipment

Consulting

Human Resources



6 am 7 am 8 am 9 am 10 am 11 am 12 pm 1 pm

2% 4% 6% 10% 15% 29% 16% 7%

2% 5% 10% 3% 2% 5% 3% 1%

2% 4% 8% 12% 10% 34% 19% 3%

2% 5% 15% 23% 8% 20% 14% 4%

3% 10% 16% 17% 8% 4% 2% 2%

the breakdown:

12

Average viewing time

how professional services companies rate, on a scale from 1 to 10, the importance of customizing the webinar console with their branding.

Our data show the average viewing time for professional services webinars, including a ten to 15-minute Q&A session, is 50 minutes.

WEBINAR BENCHMARKS

Only webinars in the business supplies and equipment and human resources sectors have below-average viewing times (42 and 49 minutes, respectively). This shows professional services audiences typically exhibit high levels of engagement.

Over two-thirds of professional services organizations using webinars for training or continuing education say the typical length of their sessions is one hour (67 percent and 71 percent, respectively). Nearly a third (29 percent) of those offering continuing education programs run longer webinars, lasting 90 minutes or more.


Average Viewing Time in Minutes:

8.9

50’

13

the breakdown:

webinar Benchmarks: Professional services TRENDS

Accounting

Human Resources Legal

Consulting

63’

49’



42’

51’ 56’

50’

The optimal webinar length depends on many factors, ranging from the topic and type of content delivered, to your audience’s preferences and webinar program’s goals. Ultimately, the more interactive a webinar is, the more likely attendees are to stay engaged for longer.

ON24 TipDon’t use an arbitrary number for your webinar length.

14

Registrant to Attendee Conversion

In 2018, the average registrant to attendee conversion rate across the professional services industry was 62 percent, slightly higher than the rate recorded across all the sectors on our platform (55.9 percent). Interestingly, webinars in the accounting and legal sectors are ahead of the pack, with average conversion rates of 72 percent and 68 percent, respectively.

Webinars used for communication purposes recorded the highest conversion rates across most of the sectors we examined in more detail, with the accounting and human resources sectors standing out. Accounting and legal webinars used for continuing education and training have particularly high conversion rates.

Consulting

64%

Professional Services

62%

Legal

68%

Accounting

72%

Human Resources

62%


51%


55%

Average webinar conversion rate for webinars with more than 100 attendees:


15

THE BREAKDOWN:

communications marketing

Establish registration and attendance goals but remember to focus on both the top-of-funnel and the bottom-of-funnel value of your webinars. Keep track of engagement levels, number of acquired leads, sales accepted leads and opportunities. These metrics will help you track the performance of your webinar program over time and optimize accordingly.

ON24 TipTrack a variety of metrics to evaluate the performance of your webinar program.

continuing education

Business Supplies/Equipment N/A N/A 38% N/A

Consulting 73% 66% 57% 50%

Human Resources 98% 58% 57% 51%

International Trade & Development N/A N/a 57% 46%

Legal 58% 70% 58% 67%

Professional Services Average 74% 73% 61% 60%

Accounting 81% 88% 69% 68%

training/Learning


16

Average Attendee Rate

Nearly half (47 percent) of webinars produced by professional services companies attract at least 100 live attendees, significantly higher than average attendance rates across other industries.

Analyzing the distribution by size for webinars with at least 100 attendees reveals the vast majority (70 percent) of webinars produced in the business supplies and equipment sector attract less than

200 attendees, compared to a professional services average of 38 percent.

At the other end of the scale, attendance rates in the human resources and international trade and development sectors are particularly high. Human resources webinars are around twice as likely to attract between 500 and 999 attendees as those in other sectors, while nearly a third (31 percent) of international trade and development webinars attract at least 1,000 attendees.

Distribution of webinars by size, as a percentage of webinars with at least 100 live attendees: Professional Services Average


300-499 500-599 1,000+

100-199 200-299

38% 18%

16% 12% 16%

17

Accounting


Consulting

Human Resources


Legal

41% 17% 13% 11%

70% 30% 0% 0%

32% 25% 25% 16%

30% 15% 13% 11%

50%

49%

25%

21%

0%

17%

25%

10%

18%

0%

2%

31%

0%

3%

100-199 200-299 300-499 500-599 +1,000

the breakdown:

Use engagement data to pinpoint leads who are genuinely interested in the services you provide, then plan a targeted follow-up process. The level of their engagement will inform your future interactions with them, so don’t ignore those valuable insights.

ON24 TipEngagement reporting is critical.


18

Integration of Engagement Tools

of professional services providers say it’s ‘extremely’ or ‘moderately’ important to have access to engagement insights.

Incorporating interactive elements and fostering engagement is an area professional services industry seems to excel at. Around three in five (62 percent) companies state they build webinars with interactivity in mind, rating their interactivity as 3.4 on a five-point scale (compared to an all-sector average of 3.1).

94%As revealed in our previous benchmark reports, the questions and answers widget is the most popular choice, 83 percent of professional services organizations employ Q&A widgets, just slightly ahead of the all sector average of 81 percent.

Resource lists and surveys are particularly popular in the professional services industry. Resource lists are used in 78 percent of accounting webinars, whereas surveys are a popular choice in Business Supplies and Equipment space (47 percent).

It’s worth noting that polling is used more by professional services (31 percent) compared to the all-sector average (22 percent) and especially popular with accounting firms (72 percent).


19

Draw your viewers into a two-way conversation by encouraging them to ask questions, vote on polls and complete surveys. Interactivity is key, so make the most of the tools at your disposal. Promote your other content assets to showcase your expertise in the areas your prospects are interested in.

ON24 TipEncourage audience participation and think beyond the presentation.


Accounting


Consulting

Human Resources


Legal

q&a

83%

71%

59%

87%

83%

83%

88%

resources for downloadsurveys social group chat

Average proportion of webinars integrating engagement tools:

35%

11%

47%

45%

31%

15%

36%

28%

13%

16%

34%

15%

20%

22%

8%

9%

0%

9%

3%

0%

5%

31%

72%

8%

28%

39%

24%

21%

62%

78%

51%

73%

60%

54%

73%

polling


20

Integration of video

of professional services companies use video for panel discussions.

Professional services organizations rate the importance of video integration as 8.5 on a ten-point scale, higher than an average of 7.8 recorded across all sectors on our platform. However, only 28 percent of all webinars delivered by them in 2018 featured some type of video. By comparison, 38 percent of all webinars on our platform have integrated video in 2018.

33%

Videos are particularly effective at distilling complicated or dense information in an easy-to-digest format. The type and length of the videos will depend on the stage your prospects are at. Use short explainer videos to start the conversation and in-depth videos for demos and case studies.

ON24 TipVideo content adds energy and personality to your webinars.

Video is a highly effective format when targeting time-pressed professionals, easily (and often more convincingly) conveying messages that would be difficult to express in writing. Explainer videos allow clients to quickly understand what makes your company unique and how you can help them address their pain points or solve a problem for them. For prospects who are further into the buying process, use longer, detailed videos that answer any questions they might have.

The accounting sector is leading the charge, with the vast majority (77 percent) of webinars integrating video in some shape or form. This compares to just over 10 percent of webinars in the business supplies and equipment, human resources and legal sectors.


Human Resources

28%

13%Accounting


Consulting

77%

27%

24%Business Supplies/

Equipment

Legal

12%

13%

Average proportion of webinars integrating video:


21

Always-on viewing

Before rushing to the next webinar in your program, it’s worth thinking about how you can make past webinars keep delivering value for you.

Always-on webinars are particularly effective in nurturing campaigns as they can be geared around the buyer’s journey and provide a wealth of engagement data you wouldn’t normally have access to. You can set up a content portal to archive all past events, repurpose them by delivering bite-sized content tailored for different personas, on multiple channels, or develop a continuing professional education program—the possibilities are endless.

Almost three in five (57 percent) companies operating in the professional services industry offer continuing education programs both live and on demand. Two-thirds (67 percent) of organizations using webinars for training purposes make them available both live and on demand.

POST-WEBINAR BENCHMARKS

Always-On Viewing Time

The average always-on viewing time for webinars produced by professional services companies is 32.9 minutes, significantly lower than an average of 47 minutes across all the sectors on our platform. Viewing times for always-on webinars are higher in the accounting and legal sectors (37.8 and 36 minutes, respectively), while international trade and development webinars record the lowest viewing times (25.9 minutes).

The average number of always-on attendees in the professional services industry is 57, less than half the average number of live attendees (131). While this is the case across many sectors, professional services organizations need to adopt an always-on strategy to stay ahead of the game and derive more value from their webinar programs.

22

post-Webinar Benchmarks: Professional services TRENDS

Derive more value from your most successful webinars by offering them on-demand. Archived webinars are a treasure trove of supplemental resource material, so you can easily repurpose them as bite-sized content in other contexts or to other audiences.

ON24 TipIdentify top-performing webinars and retarget them to broader audiences, on-demand.

Average always-on viewing time in minutes:


Human Resources

32.9’

31.9’Accounting


Consulting

37.8’

25.9’

35.3’Business Supplies/

Equipment

Legal

32.9’

36.0’

23

ConclusionThe average engagement score for all webinars produced by professional services companies on our platform was an impressive 4.5. With nearly 11,000 hours of content watched in 2018 and an average of 251 questions asked per webinar, it’s not surprising that professional services organizations are leapfrogging their peers in other sectors in terms of engagement.

Across all types of webinars, the accounting sector is outpacing the other sectors included in our analysis. Webinars used for training or continuing education have above-average engagement scores across most sectors, which highlights the importance of developing robust educational programs.

Regardless of size or sub-sector, professional services organizations need to invest in initiatives powered by digital technology to fulfill their ambitions and sustain their competitive advantage. Automation will increase agility, artificial intelligence will bring efficiency gains and collaboration tools will improve communication with external talent.

But it’s not just about scaling operations and increasing efficiency. Articulating the breadth of your offering, showcasing your expertise and being responsive to client needs are equally important. Webinars are a key tool for achieving these goals and we’re excited to support professional services companies throughout their digital transformation journey.

Average ON24 engagement score per webinar type:

marketing communications training continuing education

Professional Services Average 4.6 3.7 4.8 5.3

Accounting 5.8 4.7 6.2 6.9

Business Supplies/Equipment 4.2 n/a n/a n/a

Consulting 4.7 3.9 4.5 5.3

Human Resources 5.3 3.4 4.3 5.3International Trade & Development

Legal

4.1 n/a n/a 5

5 2.6 5.2 5.9

24

Documents

on24 webinar benchmarks report 2019communications.on24.com/rs/848-AHN-047/images/Webinar Bench… · The right strategy and execution are essential to make a webinar program work