​Webinars are a stellar way to generate qualified leads, but how do you choose from among dozens of webinar providers? Webinars are a balancing act between interactivity and scale, and no two companies run their webinars the same way. From industry veterans like Citrix and Cisco, to startups like BrightTALK and InXpo, we'll show you how to select a webinar platform for your next campaign.

1. Which Platform/Community Should
You Use For Your Webinar?
Rob Gurley (@bullcityrob), Content Strategist/Technologist, Centerline Digital

2. • Some level of interactivity. Audience questions, “hand raising,”
surveys, post-webinar feedback, etc.
• Organizer/Presenter has full permissions set. Audience
members have limited permissions (can be muted, kicked, or
allowed to share screens).
• Almost always centered around a slide deck, with one more
more speakers providing live narration and commentary.
• In B2B marketing, webinars are lead generation tools that are
normally used for mid-late stage buyers.
What is a Webinar?

3. Formal vs. Informal, Interactive vs. Presentation
“One to One”
Conversations -
Audience has own
webcams, can speak
to presenter
UserInteractivity
Formality
At one extreme are tools like Google Hangouts,
which are highly interactive and personal, but scale
very poorly. At the other extreme are tools like On24
and INXpo that can handle thousands of audience
members, but at a cost to interactivity.
Webinar tools differ on their support for interactive
components (e.g. moderated question/answer, surveys,
chat tools) and suitability for large/formal events.
Presentation
includes Question
and Answer
segments, chat
boxes, surveys with
shared results
Technical Demos,
Slide deck
presentations,
Presentation of
recorded content
Sales-organized
demonstrations,
screen-shares, Daily
“journal”-type
presentations
Selection Criteria

4. Budget/Contracts
Are you planning a one-off event, or will this be part
of a multi-webinar series taking place over multiple
months? Will your audience size require upgrading in
the future?
Integration with Marketing/CRM platforms
Many webinar platforms interface directly with
automation systems - allowing you to update leads as
they register/attend the webinar, and giving you
follow-up flexibility
Landing Pages / Registration
Will you be creating your own landing pages for
registration? If so - how will your registrant data be
synced to the webinar platform? Will you use the
webinar platform’s landing pages? Can you brand the
pages?
Format
What type of video format do you need? Will you be
using your recordings for later viewing on your website/
video sharing site? Do you need to embed a video player
in your own site?
Support for Streaming Video
Some webinar platforms allow streaming video and
screen-sharing, while others limit presenters to non-
animated Powerpoint presentations.
Community Features
While most webinar platforms provide only the technical
framework for the webinar, some also promote the
webinars to existing communities that have signed up
for similar events.
Technical, Format, Creative
Other Considerations

5. There are four main phases in the webinar, each with their own operational tasks and design requirements.
Promotion Registration Follow-upEvent
It is critical to look at the event itself as a small part of the overall campaign
Webinar Event-Flow
Generating qualified traffic
to the webinar landing
page, sending invitation
emails to your database,
promoting the webinar on
third-party sites/email lists
Creating one or more
landing pages, either on-site
or off-site, for leads to
register for the webinar.
Using personalized content
and best-practice design to
increase registration rates.
Sending reminder emails the
day before/of the webinar,
allowing viewers to send
questions/comments to the
organizers, Recording the
event for use in future
campaigns
Ensuring sales teams have the
information that they need to
follow up with attendees.
Sending non-attendees the
recorded webinar and slide
deck. Sharing video highlights of
webinar on social channels.

6. Webinar Platform Comparison

7. Citrix
GoToWebinar
Probably the most widely-used single-purpose webinar
software. Popular in mid-sized and large companies, and
shares an account with Citrix GoToMeeting if they are both
enabled.
Requires both the presenter and the viewers to download a
proprietary software package on their computers - and this
extra step can impact viewership rates. There is support for
streaming video and the ability to record the webinars, but the
recordings are unreliable and must be manually converted to
mp4 before sharing.
Pricing: $320 per month for one organizer account, up to 500
attendees per event
Scalability+
+ Streaming Video
- Reliability
VIEW

8. BrightTALK is a lot LESS about the event itself and more about
cultivating an audience for a series of events. Catering mostly to IT
professionals, there are hundreds of brands on BrightTALK that each
have “channels” of webinars, kind of like a YouTube webinar.
People watch your webinars either live or on-demand and you can
choose to use BrightTalk’s registration page or embed the BrightTALK
viewer/application in your own page. BrightTALK automatically promotes
your webinar to members of its community with similar interests, and
PPC/CPL options exist for additional exposure to the BrightTALK
community (email lists, ads, etc.)
Pricing: $1700 per month for one admin, 20 videos at a time, and
5,000 total subscribers to the channel.
BrightTalk
BrightTALK Community+
+ Quick/Easy Registration
- No Streaming Video
VIEW

9. WebEx is another enterprise player on the same caliber as
GoToWebinar. The biggest difference between the two is the quality
of the recordings. With WebEx, recording is far easier to do and has
more consistency in high-quality. WebEx should be a first
consideration for companies that record their webinars to
distribute later.
Because of WebEx’s size, it has out-of-the-box integrations with most
CRM systems and/or marketing automation systems. This is good,
since the landing page and email templates that come with WebEx are
very limited, and customer service charges extra for modifications and
branding on those simple templates.
Pricing: $379 per month for up to 500 participants on each event
Cisco
WebEx
Quality of Video/Audio/Recordings+
- Pricey, Limited Templates
VIEW

10. Google Hangouts wasn’t originally designed for webinars, rather, it
was built to supplant tools like Skype and Lync that were being used
for multi-participant virtual meetings. Hangouts on Air is a
modification of the original Hangouts platform for broadcasting
Hangouts to mass audiences - with the requisite administrative
permissions set. This can be used for question/answer and for
discussions/roundtables. With Google+ disintegration, the social
media component of Hangouts is no longer as much of a draw.
Google Hangouts doesn’t integrate directly with tools like Eloqua,
Adobe Campaign, etc., so you will need an external lead management
and registration system. For example, leads would be registered
through your marketing automation system, and then sent a non-
gated link to the Hangouts (with the understanding that the link
wouldn’t be shared) at the event time.
Pricing: Free
Google
Hangouts on Air Interactivity+
+ Mobile Experience
- Lead Management
VIEW

11. On24 has been around for longer than many of the other webinar/
webcast tools, and it has a feature set comparable to WebEx and
GoToMeeting. The biggest advantages of On24 are the advanced
integrations with marketing automation suites (including the ability
to score people based on whether or not they minimized the webinar
window), the interactivity, and the ability to present files (like PDFs)
alongside the webinar to the viewers.
On24 is somewhat hard to use for first-time users that aren’t familiar
with the interface, so it usually requires an organizer in addition to the
presenter to handle the various audience-engagement tools, field
questions, and start/stop the recordings as needed. The screen-sharing
can be choppy when used.
Pricing: $600 a month for 250 streaming users or 100 “call in”
users per event
On24, Inc
On24 Option to Present Files+
+ Custom Portals
- Complex
VIEW

12. ReadyTalk is a bit newer to the webinar scene than some of the larger
players like Citrix and Cisco, but it currently receives the highest
marks from customers (aggregate review scores on G2Crowd) of any
webcasting solution. ReadyTalk works within the viewer’s browser and
it provides a great desktop experience and reasonably good mobile
experience. On the other hand, it strips animations and videos from
PowerPoints and removes speaker notes - so a separate computer is
necessary for the presenter to see their notes.
Existing recordings can be interwoven in a live event, so a company
could present recorded content and then do a live Q&A session at the
end, or a live introduction at the beginning, cutting down on
scheduling conflicts. ReadyTalk can handle the registration and pre/
post event emails or can integrate with Marketo/Eloqua/etc.
Pricing: $310 a month for 500 viewers per event
ReadyTalk
ReadyTalk High Customer Satisfaction+
+ Live Operator Option
- Static Slides Only
VIEW

13. Adobe Connect is part of the Adobe marketing suite but can be
purchased as an individual service. Adobe Connect is mostly intended
for webinars that require a very high level of preparation and user
engagement, such as online learning lectures, or training programs.
The design tools are stellar, with very good customization options for
the landing pages, registration emails, etc., and with total
customization of the actual video portal itself. Users can display live
webinars interspersed with other types of content (like quizzes, videos,
etc.).
On the downside, Adobe doesn’t have good support for lead
management solutions outside of Eloqua. If you use Pardot, Marketo, or
another automation system, you might have to export your attendee list
only after the conclusion of the webinar without the live updates to
status that you would get from a better integration.
Pricing: $375 a month for 500 viewers per event
Adobe
Adobe Connect Best Design Tools+
+ Live Video/Broadcast
- Limited Marketing Automation
VIEW

14. YouTube is the most popular video-sharing site on the internet and you
probably already use YouTube to host your archived event videos and
other videos from your company. YouTube Livestream is basically live-
streaming video that can be viewed by anyone with the streaming link,
making them perfect for quick sharing with your existing YouTube
audience and for promotion on social media.
Downsides of Youtube include a lack of registration options, since the
streaming video is not gated and can be accessed through the link.
Youtube streaming events are thus best for brand awareness, driving
traffic to another gated form of content (like a contest or event), or
engaging your existing customer-base. WARNING: Chat is enabled by
default on live streaming video, but there are no moderation tools.
Enable at your own peril.
Pricing: Free
Google
YouTube Livestream Harness YouTube Audience+
+ Easy Setup/Promotion
- Lack of Interactivity and Registration
VIEW

15. Questions? Tweet Me @BullCityRob
CENTERLINE.NET
Thanks!