Startup Marketing: Snackable Webinars of the Future

Webinars, as they're run today, waste a lot of time. There, I said it. They do!

Now - Webinars are a powerful platform for B2B marketing. Powerful, and able to create impact upstream (thought leadership) and downstream (lead generation). They're usually set up for a deep dive into a single topic, featuring an expert speaker - and scheduled for about an hour during a weekday (research on topic).

I personally find it hard to believe that there's data to say that a 60 minute lockout during a (busy) weekday works better than every other webinar format. And don't get me wrong, this isn't idle critique of an established process - I've been a participant on both sides of a 60 minute webinar (listener, and presenter) - and found it quite a big time commit. I firmly believe that the webinars of the future will be snackable, concise, and on 'sub-topics' - so a topic is covered over multiple sessions.

A 60 minute topic split into 3 or 4 sub-topics to be covered individually in a snackable 15 minute session is likely to have a similar impact on the thought leadership axis, while creating a deeper pipeline of leads generated through the process.

Let me demonstrate with some math/rationale:

In a one-session, 60 minute webinar:
1) Number of registrants "R" (I've seen "R" fluctuate between 200 and 1500, depending on timing, topical nature and weeks spent marketing the webinar to potential audiences)
2) A1, Attendees to registrants ratio: This is usually about 20-25%
3) A2, active attendees to attendees ratio: This is usually at 50% during the session, and closer to 30% by the end of a session.

In a multi-session 15 minute webinar series (4 sessions, say):
1) R: At least 2x (more webinars, more time to market/marketing to drive registrations). 
2) A1: Unlikely to change due to a shorter session time
3) A2: Likely to increase significantly, reaching 50-60% by the end of the session.
4) More YouTube snacking of webinar content due to granular content per video

Social and qualitative multipliers aside, this is easily a 2-3x direct uptick in impact on lead generation. 

The rationale is clear, and setting up webinars is extremely simple at this point -- leaving very little need to force an archaic 1 hr format into current day business. 

The present is snackable, concise content, and webinars need to follow suit. 15 minutes, no time wasted on introductions and credentials, straight to the point on deep topics, with an additional off-webinar social angle (for Q&A etc.).