85% of firms using webinars during COVID-19

Almost nine in 10 Australian businesses (85%) are now using webinars as a key marketing and education channel during COVID-19 — a 21% increase over the last year — according to new research from events provider Redback Connect.

Investment in webinars has also grown exponentially, with 59% of firms looking to spend more on this channel in 2020 and an average expenditure 69% higher than last year.

Lead generation was the primary reason for using webinars, with marketers able to source leads 80% cheaper via this medium. Of the 127 organisations surveyed as part of the State of Webinar Marketing 2020 study, 34% used webinars for lead generation purposes.

The approach seems to be paying off, with 47% of organisations rating them as ‘mostly’ to ‘highly’ effective. Almost three-quarters of respondents (72%) said they run six or more webinars per year and one-third (33%) run 20 or more.

Jeff Downs, CEO and founder at Redback Connect, said that, at 78%, the webinar medium had been the most popular category for staging events for his business in March this year — the first month of COVID-19 lockdown measures.

“When managed effectively, webinars provide the interactive and personable content needed to fulfil these purposes. Webinars remove geographical boundaries and are a cost-effective way to engage large, dispersed audiences over time,” said Downs.

“With social distancing the ‘new normal’ at least until the end of the year, we expect webinars to make up a large proportion of communication between organisations and their stakeholders throughout the 2021 financial year.”

Image credit: ©stock.adobe.com/au/Andrey Popov