Webinar Trends and Predictions for 2021

December has arrived! Before moving on to the festivities, it is the right time to look back at the past year. Because it has been one hell of a year. Let's take a quick look at what shifts have happened in our working method, which trends emerged and what the predictions are for 2021.

Types of webinars in 2020

Thousands of webinars were hosted in 2020. With so many businesses and entrepreneurs forced to work from home this year, it's no real surprise that the use of webinars has skyrocketed.

If we look at the webinar attendance rates in 2020, we see the following interesting numbers:

• Training webinars have an attendance rate of 65% in 2020.

• Internal communication webinars have an attendance rate of 56.2% in 2020.

• Customer and onboarding webinars have an attendance rate of 42.1% in 2020

• Marketing Webinars have an attendance rate of 36.6% in 2020.

A BloggingX survey found that “73% of B2B marketers believe webinars are the best way to generate high-quality leads”. That means that webinars ensure that your potential customers show interest in your product or service.

Webinar audience in 2020

How do people attend webinars? If we look at registrations, we see that

• 33% of the registrations for webinars happen on the day of the webinar itself.

• 36% of registrations happen between 8:00 AM and 10:00 AM.

• 1-hour webinars have a sign-up rate of 67%, while 30-minute webinars attract only 8% of sign-ups.

• The preferred duration for a webinar is 30 to 40 minutes.

• Most people only attend 1 webinar per week.

• Email remains an important communication factor for signing up to webinars.

Forecast 2021

If we add up all the numbers above we can conclude the following: in 2020 we prefer to attend 1 webinar per week of approximately 35 minutes, for which we register around 9:00 AM on the day itself via email.

Now let's make a prediction of what 2021 will look like. The arrival of a COVID-19 vaccine will restore us to a more normal life. Even if we would soon be back in a situation where we could see each other face-to-face again, it is almost certain that webinars will continue to play a crucial role in 2021. It remains the best way for businesses to reach their audience online!

Increase in micro influencers

When you think of influencers, you probably think of celebrities with large followings on platforms like Instagram or TikTok.

Micro-influencers are influencers with a small to medium-sized following. While there are no specific criteria, anyone with less than 10,000 followers is considered a micro-influencer. At this time companies don't pay much attention to micro-influencers, but according to Anfluencer that will change in 2021. Micro influencers turn out to be quite efficient in branding.

We expect more brands to work with small influencers. They have fewer requirements and are easier to work with than bigger influencers.

Live chat is becoming increasingly important

According to ScherpOnline, there will be an increase in live chat as a means of communication in 2021, especially by service organizations. Live chat offers a fast and result-oriented way to provide customers with answers and support. To be effective with live chat on your website, make sure you respond quickly enough. This improves the experience of your client or lead.

More long form video content

According to Leadgate, we will see more and more 'long form video content' in 2021. In 2016 only 25% of smartphone users viewed content for longer than 20 minutes, this has increased by 54% in 2020. Long form videos are often used in the consideration phase. Here you can provide potential leads with more specific information and build a bond with your customer.

According to DesignShack, videos longer than 15 minutes account for 50% of all video engagement, but only 8% of content. So you can produce fewer videos that are longer and get better results.

In short

The use of webinars has grown exponentially due to the Corona crisis. We expect the growth in use of webinars to continue in 2021. After all, companies are getting used to this simple way of communicating on a large scale. In addition, it appears to be very effective to generate leads or providing training. Over the past 20 years, having email, a website and social media have become the absolute must-haves for any type of business. It could just be that 2021 is the year that webinars will add themselves to that little list.