What is a webinar and how it works: the 2025 guide

Live events used to be a marketing staple. By providing a hub for networking, learning, and dunking donuts into coffee, you could connect with potential customers and boost loyalty tenfold.

However, we’ve all learned the futility of relying on in-person events. They are expensive, have a limited reach, and can be disrupted by forces out of our control. The solution to all these drawbacks is simple. Go digital.

Webinars pack all the punch of an in-person seminar or workshop but bring them into the digital age. Planning one opens you up to the global market and allows you to connect with every person in attendance.

So, what is a webinar and why is it so important for the modern marketer? Let’s find out.

What is a webinar?

If you want all the power and information of a live conference with the flexibility and reach of the internet, then a webinar is the perfect solution. These digital events form a direct line of communication from your team to your target audience’s homes and businesses.

Webinar is a fairly broad term, encompassing presentations, live chats, Q&A sessions, and more. Attendees can experience speakers, product demonstrations, and learning opportunities from home without taking time away from their busy schedules.

This versatile format can be used for:

• Education and training
• Marketing and lead generation
• Customer success
• Professional development
• …

No matter what style of webinar you’re hosting, it should be engaging, targeted, and to the point.

The benefits offered by webinars

Webinars are extremely effective when utilized properly. This is because they:

• Expand your audience – Eliminate geographical and economic limitations, reaching a global audience with ease
• Are evergreen – Webinars can be recorded and made available 24/7 to reach attendees far into the future
• Easily scale – A single webinar can accommodate thousands of attendees without significant additional costs
• Capture valuable data – As folks register for the event, you collect information such as name, email, company, and role
• Qualify leads – Using interactive features such as polls and Q&As, you can gauge which leads are most invested in your brand
• Showcase expertise – Demonstrate knowledge and expertise in your industry, and gain endorsements from prominent speakers
• Build trust – Consistent, high-quality webinars establish you as a reliable source of information
• Encourage engagement – Connect one-on-one with attendees through polls and chats in a way that isn’t possible at live events
• Create repurposable content – Snippets from the event can be used to promote future events, and create other forms of content
• Generate leads and sales – With the ability to capture contact information and showcase your product or service, webinars can lead to increased conversions
• Are cost-effective – Webinars eliminate the need for travel and venue expenses, making them a budget-friendly option for businesses
• Increase brand awareness – Promote your brand to a wider audience and establish your company as an industry leader

With these benefits in mind, it’s easy to understand why 73% of marketers say virtual events like webinars are either important or a must-have.

Webinar best practices

With so many webinars being produced every day, your team must do everything they can to stand out and make a positive impression. From our expertise both as a webinar industry authority and hosting several webinars each month, here’s what makes an impactful webinar:

Tip one: utilize AI for long-term engagement

AI can be a highly effective tool at all stages of planning and executing a webinar. Savvy marketers will use machine learning to automate:

• Personalized email confirmations
• Analyzing attendee engagement
• Creating video summaries
• Repurposing video content
• Interpreting collected data

This eliminates space for human error and frees up time to connect with attendees and start planning your next webinar.

Tip two: partner up for greater effect

Partnering with a relevant industry expert or brand can increase the credibility and reach of your webinar. Collaborate on content creation and promotion to attract a larger audience and provide valuable insights from multiple perspectives. Plus, having a guest speaker can add variety and keep viewers engaged.

Tip three: invest in compelling visuals

If your webinar is mainly a person speaking with nothing to look at and minimal engagement, it might as well be a podcast. Make your webinar visually stimulating with relevant graphics, images, and videos.

This will not only keep your audience engaged, but it will also make the content more memorable, professional, and shareable.

Tip four: practice and prepare beforehand

Don’t underestimate the importance of practice and preparation. Familiarize yourself with the webinar platform and do a trial run to ensure everything runs smoothly on the day of the event.

Rehearse your presentation and anticipate potential technical issues. You should feel confident and prepared for any challenges that may arise during the webinar. If anything does go wrong and you don’t have a plan in place, your company will end up looking unprepared and unprofessional.

How to promote a webinar

Promoting your webinar is a huge factor in its success. You can only connect with potential customers if they are logged on.

The key to effective webinar promotion is understanding your target audience and explaining what they can gain by attending. People don’t want to sit through a digital sales pitch, they want to know what practical value your webinar has to offer.

With your value proposition in hand and a full understanding of what makes your target audience tick, you can choose the perfect promotion channel. Some effective ways to get the word out include:

• Compelling copy – A catchy title and description will pull viewers in and tell them what to expect
• Highlighting the speakers – If you have a particularly engaging or well-known speaker coming to your webinar, they can be a huge draw for those invested in your niche
• Email invitations – Sending personalized emails to people who have shown an interest in your brand before is a great way to re-engage them
• Post on social media – Use footage from previous webinars, testimonials, and fun graphics to boost visibility and engagement online

Remember to choose channels that resonate with your core audience and make it as easy as possible for folks to register.

How to choose a webinar hosting platform

The number one thing that can make or break your webinar is the webinar hosting platform you choose. It will define the functionality, interactivity, and overall success of your event.

Make sure you know exactly what you want to achieve with your webinar to help you narrow down which features are most important. Are you focusing on lead generation, product demonstrations, corporate training, or brand awareness?

With so many options available, it can be overwhelming to choose the right one. To make the decision easier, here are some factors to consider when choosing a webinar hosting platform.

Audience size and capacity

How many attendees are you expecting at your webinar? Some platforms will limit the number of people who can log on at once, while others can stream to hundreds or thousands of participants.

Even if your first couple of webinars are smaller in scale, it will be important to find a platform that can scale with you. Think about how many people you want to attract for your first event, as well as events far in the future.

User experience

An overwhelming or hard-to-use platform will scare away attendees and make it impossible for them to engage with the content. Test out different platforms and find one that is simple for both the hosts and the participants.

Look for a clean, intuitive interface with easy navigation and branding options that put your brand front and center. The platform should be easy to navigate, and nice to look at.

Integration capabilities

The perfect platform will connect with your existing tech stack, making it easy to collect and use data, send out email invites, and move attendees along your sales funnel or flywheel.

Compare your current setup with the software that each webinar platform integrates with. Include:

• CRM systems
• Marketing automation tools
• Email marketing platforms
• Social media platforms and tools

Seamless integrations can streamline workflows and enhance data collection.

Features and functionality

Think about the features you need for your webinar. Do you want to conduct polls and surveys during the event? Are pop-up notifications and attendee moderation features necessary for the way you webinar? Do you need the ability to share presentations or screen sharing with your attendees? Are automated email reminders important for your event?

Make a list of the features that are crucial for your webinar, and then compare different platforms to see which one offers them all. The more engaging your webinar is, the better your conversion rate will be.

FAQ

What is the typical length of a webinar?

The average webinar will run between 45 and 60 minutes. This allows enough time to cover a topic while keeping the audience’s attention and giving space for questions and engagement.

When choosing a length for your webinar, consider the complexity of the material and the engagement level of your audience. Don’t exceed the advertised time frame. Attendees want to know that you value their time.

Is a webinar always broadcast live?

While many webinars are conducted live to allow for real-time interaction and engagement, pre-recorded events can also be effective. These “on-demand” webinars grant more flexibility for attendees and allow the information to be shared with colleagues.

How do you measure the success of a webinar?

Defining and measuring the success of your webinar depends on the goal you had in mind while planning. Countless metrics and KPIs can help you determine success, including:

• Attendance rate
• Poll responses
• Chat activity
• Average viewing duration
• Error rates
• On-demand views
• Attendee feedback
• Conversion rate
• ROI

You have to decide in advance which of these metrics are most important for your webinar and look for ways to improve going forward.

Meet Kaltura – the easiest way to get your webinar off the ground

The Kaltura Webinars platform was designed specifically to help you plan and execute the most impactful webinars possible.

Whether you’re organizing a live webinar, or recording one for on-demand, Kaltura helps you

• Enable interactive features such as Q&A, polls, and surveys to create connections with prospective leads
• Access robust analytics and data collection across touchpoints
• Quickly and simply share video content on countless platforms
• Use AI to add captions, translations, and more to your webinar in real-time 

No matter what style of webinar you’re planning, you should rely on the top events platform in the world to empower your presenters, engage your audience, and drive results. Try out Kaltura for yourself and start making memorable, effective webinars today.