on24 webinar benchmarks report 2019communications.on24.com/rs/848-ahn-047/images... · each...

on24 webinar benchmarks report 2019

life sciences trends

contentsEXECUTIVE STATEMENT 3

Methodology 4

PRE-WEBINAR BENCHMARKS 5Promotional Cycle 5

Best Days to Send Promotional Emails 7

Best Days for Webinar Attendance 9

Best Time to Run Webinars 11

WEBINAR BENCHMARKS 13Average Viewing Time 13

Registrant to Attendee Conversion 15

Average Attendee Rate 17

Integration of Engagement Tools 19

Integration of Video 21

POST-WEBINAR BENCHMARKS 22Always-On Viewing 22

Always-On Viewing Time 22

CONCLUSION 24

2

Executive StatementThe life sciences industry is on the cusp of change. Digital technologies are not only revolutionizing drug development and commercialization, but also the way healthcare is delivered and how industry players work together. Commercial success is no longer solely defined by speed to market but also by the extent to which organizations can seize digital opportunities to work toward better health outcomes.

Creating value with new technologies and operating models isn’t easy though, especially as the most pressing challenges to growth, such as costs, risk and regulatory considerations, and competition from biosimilars, are still present. New challenges, such as maintaining cybersecurity and competition from tech giants who are diversifying into life sciences, further compound matters.

In this age of disruption, webinars are best positioned to support the digital transformation of life sciences organizations. They are opening up new ways to connect and providing insights to better understand the needs of healthcare professionals—and ultimately, help patients.

With webinars, life sciences organizations can ensure they conduct informed conversations with

HCPs by regularly delivering valuable content, making information available to them on their own terms and providing access to key opinion leaders, also known as KOLs, to share expertise and influence prescribing decisions. ‘Ask the experts’ webinars and educational programs help HCPs broaden their knowledge and keep up-to-date with the latest developments in their field, while also earning continuing medical education credits.

To help you on your road to digital success, we’ve analyzed all webinar benchmark data from events produced by life sciences organizations on our platform in 2018 and looked at how practices in this sector differ from those employed by their peers operating in other industries. We’ve also examined five key sectors—biotechnology; health, wellness and fitness; hospital and healthcare; medical devices and pharmaceuticals—more closely to get a glimpse into how webinars are used to support marketing efforts and drive engagement with different audiences.

ON24® is excited to work with life sciences companies to help find practical solutions to the most complex challenges encountered. We hope this report is an inspiring guide to running effective webinars and provides an easy-to-follow roadmap to success.

3

This study examines statistics across a webinar’s lifecycle, including webinar promotion and registration metrics, interactivity metrics, audience viewing habits, and both live and always-on attendance and conversion metrics. Unless otherwise noted, this study uses the following definitions:

Live webinars—Audio or video-based events streamed on a specific day and time.

Always-on webinars—Audio or video-based events attendees can view always-on, including archived live webcasts.

Registrants—Prospects registered to view an event.

Attendees—Prospects who registered to view an event and attended that event.

MethodologyON24, the world’s leading webinar platform, compiled the data in this report. The events included in this analysis were selected from a sample of ON24 webinars conducted globally by life sciences organizations in 2018. ON24 measured 1,795 APAC webinars in this analysis.

ON24 measured 4,088 webinars in this analysis.

All webinars were held between January and December of 2018.

Events represent a cross-section of over 130 life sciences companies.

In addition, those working for life sciences companies were surveyed to find out more about how they are using webinars and their effectiveness.

4

Promotional cycle

of life sciences companies say that webinars enable them to scale their marketing efforts.

Webinars are some of the most effective tools for scaling marketing activities in the life sciences industry, and it all starts with a carefully planned and executed promotional campaign. The longer you promote an event, the larger the audience you can reach. At the same time, it’s important to strike a balance between using a prolonged promotional period and keeping momentum.

Encouragingly, companies in the life sciences industry seem to understand the importance of using longer promotional campaigns to drive more registrants. Across all webinars produced by

Pre-webinar Benchmarks

100%life sciences companies on our platform, nearly half (48 percent) of registrants sign up at least eight days before the event. This compares to an average of 54 percent across all the sectors we examined as part of our annual benchmarks analysis.

As around half (52 percent) of registrants enroll up to one week before, it’s important to schedule a few reminders throughout the promotional period to keep your webinar top of mind.

Early registrants, who enroll at least 15 days before the event, are more common in the biotechnology and health, wellness and fitness sectors, accounting for around a third of all registrants (33 percent and 30 percent, respectively). By comparison, the majority (62 percent) of registrants in the pharma sector enroll up to one week before.

Average # of Registrations Across Promotional Cycle

Life Sciences Average

18%day of 8-14

days before

25%more than 15 days before

23%34%1-7

days before

5

To ensure you’re on the right track from the get-go, set a registration goal in line with the overall objectives of your webinar program. Track progress toward your goal throughout the campaign and optimize promotional emails accordingly. Experiment with different CTAs, teaser snippets and highly personalized content.

ON24 TipEstablish a registration goal and track progress after sending each promotional email.

Pre-webinar Benchmarks: life sciences

Biotechnology 23% 23% 21% 33%

Health, Wellness and Fitness 8% 37% 25% 30%

Hospital and Healthcare 11% 40% 25% 24%

Medical Devices 11% 36% 24% 29%

Pharmaceuticals 14% 48% 20% 18%

the breakdown:

day of 1-7 days before

8-14 days before

more than 15 days before

6

Best Days to Send Promotional Emails

of life sciences organizations believe that webinars help them reach more leads.

As is the case in most sectors included in our annual benchmarks analysis, mid-week promotional emails are most successful.

Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday account for over two-thirds (67 percent) of webinar


registrations. It’s worth noting that no clear winner has emerged, as each day of the work week (except Friday) accounts for around a fifth of registrations —ranging from 19 percent for Monday to 24 percent for Thursday.

Emails sent on Monday and Tuesday perform best in the health, wellness and fitness sector, accounting for nearly half (48 percent) of registrations. Wednesday emails are particularly successful in the biotechnology sector (26 percent), but least effective in the pharma sector (16 percent.)

86%

Thursday

24%

Monday

19%

10%Friday

Tuesday

21%

Saturday/Sunday

4%

Wednesday

22%


7

Mid-week promotional emails are only marginally more successful than those sent early in the week. Your audience might be more receptive early in the week, so use the mid-week guideline as a starting point and explore your analytics data to find out when your audience is most engaged.

ON24 TipExperiment with different email send times to garner the best response.

monday tuesday wednesday thursday friday Saturday/Sunday

Biotechnology 21% 19% 26% 21% 10% 3%

Health, Wellness and Fitness 25% 23% 19% 21% 10% 2%

Hospital and Healthcare 17% 20% 22% 22% 14% 5%

Medical Devices 18% 20% 20% 24% 13% 5%

Pharmaceuticals 21% 25% 16% 24% 10% 4%


the breakdown:

8

Best Days for webinar attendance

of life sciences companies say that webinars help them lower their cost per lead.86%


While there is some variance across the five key sectors we looked at, mid-week is the best time to run a life sciences webinar. Wednesday and Thursday are the best performers, accounting for 56 percent of attendees.

Running a webinar on Thursday is particularly effective in the health, wellness and fitness industry, accounting for 42 percent of attendees. However, it’s among the worst performing days in the biotechnology sector, where Wednesday seems to be a winner.

Thursday

29%

Monday

10%

9%Friday

Tuesday

22%

Saturday/Sunday

3%

Wednesday

27%

Average # of attendees by day Life Sciences Average

9

Mid-week webinars tend to attract most live attendees—this also gives you the chance to do a final promotional push at the start of the week to drive more registrants. Ultimately, what works for other companies might not be the best choice for you so test different days and monitor engagement.

ON24 TipWednesday and Thursday are the best days to hold a webinar.

monday tuesday wednesday thursday friday Saturday/Sunday

Biotechnology 16% 22% 32% 19% 9% 2%

Health, Wellness and Fitness 9% 20% 14% 42% 11% 4%

Hospital and Healthcare 10% 27% 23% 29% 9% 2%

Medical Devices 13% 21% 26% 21% 15% 4%

Pharmaceuticals 14% 27% 25% 21% 10% 3%

the breakdown:


10

Best time to run webinars

Three in five (59 percent) webinars produced by life sciences organizations are run between 6 AM and 12 PM. Webinars that are run early in the morning, between 6-9 AM, represent nearly a third (31 percent) of all life sciences webinars on our platform. They are particularly popular in the biotechnology sector, accounting for over half (51 percent) of the sample.


Companies in the medical devices and health, wellness and fitness sectors are most likely to opt for late-morning webinars, run between 10 AM. and 12 PM (34 percent and 44 percent, respectively). As expected, the optimal time to run a webinar varies significantly by sector. Finding a time that is convenient for your audience is particularly important in the life sciences industry, where accommodating pressing schedules can prove quite challenging.


11%

9%

7 AM

11 AM

12%

6%

8 AM

12 PM

9%

4%

9 AM

1 PM

8%

10%

6 AM

10 AM

11

Poor timing can lead to a steep decline in registration and attendance rates so don’t underestimate its importance. Early morning works particularly well in some sectors, but late morning and early afternoon might perform better in others. Consider your audience’s region and schedule, then determine which time would be most convenient for them to participate.

ON24 TipTIMING IS CRUCIAL TO YOUR WEBINAR’S SUCCESS.

Biotechnology

Health, Wellness and Fitness

Hospital and Healthcare

Medical Devices

Pharmaceuticals

the breakdown:


6 am 7 am 8 am 9 am 10 am 11 am 12 pm 1 pm

25% 16% 10% 9% 8% 5% 4% 4%

3% 5% 7% 13% 13% 31% 9% 5%

8% 5% 8% 14% 13% 13% 11% 10%

6% 6% 6% 11% 22% 12% 7% 5%

8% 13% 11% 10% 7% 5% 5% 3%

12

Average viewing time

Our analysis revealed that the average viewing time for life sciences webinars, including a ten to 15-minute Q&A session, was 48 minutes. While this is below the average of 58 minutes recorded across all sectors on our platform, it still puts the life sciences industry ahead of others.

In an effort to accommodate your audience’s schedules, you might be tempted to opt for shorter webinars. While these have their merits, the effectiveness of your webinars does not hinge on their length.

WEBINAR BENCHMARKS

9.1how life sciences companies rate, on a scale from 1 to 10, the importance of customizing the webinar console with their branding.


And our data support this view. The average viewing times for webinars in the medical devices and pharmaceuticals sectors are around 60 minutes (57 and 63, respectively), so it’s clear that the topic, type of content being delivered and audience preferences dictate webinar length. With the exception of biotechnology, webinars in all sectors have above-average viewing times.

All life sciences organizations using webinars for training or continuing education say that the typical length of their sessions is one hour.

Average Viewing Time in Minutes:

47.9’

13

While shorter webinars might seem more accommodating for busy schedules, longer sessions indicate that you’re going to cover a topic in more detail and your prospects are going to extract more value from them. Remember that medical practitioners value access to informative content and engaging interactions with KOLs, so don’t be afraid to experiment with longer webinars.

ON24 TipShort webinars are not always an optimal choice.

the breakdown:

webinar Benchmarks: life sciences

Biotechnology

44.7’Health, Wellness

and Fitness

55.8’


50.2’Medical Devices

56.8’Pharmaceuticals

62.8’

14

Registrant to Attendee Conversion

The registrant to attendee conversion rate is one of the most important metrics used to keep track of webinar performance. In 2018, the average conversion rate across the life sciences industry was 69 percent, significantly higher than the average rate recorded across all webinars our platform (55.9 percent). Encouragingly, the conversion rates across the five sectors we examined more closely ranged from 63 percent to 69 percent. Our data shows that webinars used for communications recorded the highest conversion rates across four of the five sectors included in our analysis, namely biotechnology (78 percent),

Webinar Benchmarks: life sciences

hospital and healthcare (85 percent), medical devices (75 percent) and pharmaceuticals (87 percent). Continuing education webinars had the highest conversion rates in the medical devices and pharma sectors (each at 62 percent), while training webinars had particularly high conversion rates in the hospital and healthcare sector (71 percent).


63%


69%Biotechnology

63%

Medical Devices

66%


65%

Pharmaceuticals

69%

Average webinar conversion rate for webinars with more than 100 attendees:

15

Average webinar conversion rate for webinars with more than 100 attendees:


communications training marketing continuing education

Biotechnology 78% 48% 50% 48%

Health, Wellness and Fitness 54% 66% 62% 52%

Hospital and Healthcare 85% 71% 54% 54%

Medical Devices 75% 60% 54% 62%

Pharmaceuticals 87% 55% 33% 62%

Examining demographic data for the two groups of registrants—attendees versus those who didn’t attend—can uncover additional insights about the prospects who are most interested in your content. More insights equal a greater chance to convert them into leads.

ON24 TipGain vital information by looking at your attendance rates more closely.

Life Sciences Average 68% 60% 54% 57%

16

Average Attendee Rate

A third (33 percent) of webinars produced by life sciences companies attract at least 100 live attendees. Analyzing the distribution by size for webinars with at least 100 attendees reveals that the majority of webinars produced by organizations in the medical devices and pharma sectors only attract between 100 and 200 attendees (62 percent and 78 percent, respectively), compared to a life sciences average of 46 percent.


Attendance rates are higher in the biotechnology sector, with 45 percent of webinars attracting at least 300 attendees. This compares to only one in ten webinars in the medical devices and pharma sectors. Hospital and healthcare webinars are two to three times more likely to attract at least 1,000 attendees than those in other sectors.

Distribution of webinar by size, as a percentage of webinars with more than 100 live attendees: Life Sciences Average

300-499 500-599 1,000+

100-199 200-299

17% 13% 6%

46% 18%

17

Biotechnology



Medical Devices

Pharmaceuticals

37% 18% 22% 18%

49% 16% 18% 10%

46% 17% 12% 14%

62% 18% 10% 7%

78% 11% 11% 0%

5%

7%

11%

3%

0%

100-199 200-299 300-499 500-599 +1,000

the breakdown:


Most life sciences professionals are required by licensing bodies to earn a certain number of continuing medical education credits each year, so use CMEs to boost attendance rates. Providing a certificate of attendance or exclusive access to a panel of highly-respected subject matter experts is another way to incentivize your target audience to attend.

ON24 TipUse incentives and exclusive benefits to drive more attendees.

18

Integration of Engagement Tools

of life sciences companies build webinars with interactivity in mind.

By its very definition, a webinar is an interactive broadcast that makes use of various tools to spur engagement and build long-lasting relationships with audiences at scale. However, few organizations use all the interactive elements at their disposal to enhance the experience Our survey results suggest that the life sciences industry is behind the times. While 57 percent of life sciences companies claim they build webinars with interactivity in mind, they rate their interactivity as only 2.4 on a five-point scale. This is significantly lower than the all-sector average of 3.1.

57%


Unsurprisingly, integration of engagement tools in life sciences webinars is limited, and regulatory restrictions probably represent a contributing factor. On average half (53 percent) of life sciences companies integrate lists of downloadable resources into their webinars. Resources lists are particularly valuable as they help extend the engagement beyond the webinar environment. Life science organizations can provide a wealth of supplementary content, which can be pre-approved to meet compliance needs, and then tracked to see how target audiences interact with it. This gives them the opportunity to gain even more insights into audiences and address their pain points. In line with other sectors, the questions and answer widget is a popular choice, being used in the majority of webinars produced. Alongside Q&A widgets, polling was identified as driving the most engagement, but it is used by only 23 percent of life sciences organizations.

19

Incorporating interactive elements like surveys and polls enables you to keep the audience engaged and also track their areas of interest. Don’t forget to review engagement data after the webinar to optimize your follow-up strategy. For more tips, read about how a healthcare products and services provider boosted its pipeline by having instant access to attendee behavior and engagement data.

ON24 TipUse a wide range of engagement tools to gain insight into your audience’s preferences.


Biotechnology



Medical Devices

Pharmaceuticals

q&a

77%

90%

87%

75%

85%

82%

resources for download

10%

0%

34%

9%

1%

0%

surveys

53%

34%

56%

58%

48%

57%

social

25%

26%

37%

38%

32%

32%

polling

23%

8%

34%

15%

19%

24%

group chat

24%

10%

18%

29%

15%

3%

Average proportion of webinars integrating engagement tools:


20

https://www.on24.com/customer-stories/roche/

Integration of video

of life sciences companies use video for live events.

Life sciences organizations rate the importance of video integration as 7.6 on a ten-point scale, but only 29 percent of all webinars delivered by them in 2018 featured some type of video. By comparison, 38 percent of all webinars on our platform have featured video in one form or another.

80%


While there are some creative limitations due to regulatory compliance issues affecting the industry, they are not difficult to overcome. With a clear approvals workflow in place, you can incorporate high-quality videos from your content library, such as video interviews with KOLs and patients or educational videos about various diseases.

ON24 TipUse video-based webinars to create a more engaging experience.

An increasing proportion of medical practitioners watch video content for professional purposes. It’s surprising that life sciences companies are not making the most of this highly effective form of content. The impressive growth of platforms like GIBLIB—often dubbed the ‘Netflix of medical education’—only highlights the size of the video opportunity. Unsurprisingly, the health, wellness and fitness sector is well ahead of the curve, with seven in ten webinars making use of video. At the other end of the scale, only 13 percent of webinars in the hospital and healthcare sector integrate video to some extent.


13%


29%Biotechnology

41%

Medical Devices

42%


70%

Pharmaceuticals

38%

Average proportion of webinars integrating video:

21

Always-on viewing

Pre-recorded webinars are particularly useful in the life sciences industry as internal compliance teams have the opportunity to review and approve the content before it is broadcast externally. This doesn’t mean that these events are less engaging or effective; on the contrary, they can feel as interactive and dynamic as live webinars if they use engagement tools and links to further resources.

Another always-on use case is repurposing high-quality videos and slides produced for in-person events and distributing this content to a larger audience. Using a portal to collate and archive all past events also means that the content can be easily accessed by reps during detailing meetings, mitigating compliance concerns and ensuring their presentations are on-message.

Almost two-thirds (63 percent) of companies operating in the life sciences industry offer their continuing education programs both live and on-demand, on par with their peers in other industries. All life sciences organizations using webinars for training purposes make them available both live and on demand.

POST-WEBINAR BENCHMARKS

Always-On Viewing Time

The average always-on viewing time for webinars produced by life sciences companies is 32.2 minutes, significantly lower than an average of 47 minutes across all the sectors on our platform. Viewing times for always-on webinars are higher in the health, wellness and fitness sector (36.3 minutes), while the lowest viewing times are recorded in the biotechnology sector (31.3 minutes).

The average number of always-on attendees in the life sciences industry is 48, less than half the average number of live attendees (109). Despite the advantages of adopting an always-on strategy to extend the lifetime of past webinars and ensure compliance, these figures suggest that life sciences companies are not extracting the full value from their webinar programs.

22

post-Webinar Benchmarks: life sciences

With anytime-anywhere virtual care becoming more commonplace, providing access to content repositories on demand is critical. Work closely with your compliance team to develop an always-on strategy. And if you want to get a glimpse into what others are doing, read our case study about a fitness leader that extended the reach of its event by 65 percent, delivered positive ROI and used always-on access as an upsell opportunity.

ON24 TipAlways-on webinars enable wider audience reach and further engagement.


34’


32.2’Biotechnology

31.3’

Medical Devices

31.9’


36.3’

Pharmaceuticals

32’

Average always-on viewing time in minutes:

23

https://www.on24.com/customer-stories/equinox/

Conclusion

The average engagement score for all webinars produced by life sciences companies on our platform was 4.3. Continuing education programs can be a significant value driver, so it’s encouraging to see that the average engagement score for CE webinars is 5.1. The biotechnology and medical devices are leading the charge, with average engagement scores of 5.6 and 5.3 respectively. Digital disruption in life sciences is far from over. Organizations operating in this industry will need to redefine the way they market their products, work with healthcare providers and tech innovators toward better health outcomes, and communicate with patients. Leaders are using

webinars to bolster this transformation by creating more informed and meaningful conversations with healthcare professionals, offering educational programs with the patient at their core and building a strong network of key opinion leaders.

Our analysis shows 2018 was an excellent year for life sciences webinars: almost 1,600 hours of webinar content were watched on our platform. Engagement levels were high, with an average of 43 questions per webinar. We’re looking forward to seeing what 2019 brings and working with the life sciences industry to make webinars a staple of their marketing strategies.

Average ON24 engagement score per webinar type:

marketing communications training continuing education

Life Sciences Average 4.6 4.6 4.1 5.1

Biotechnology 4.4 4.2 3.8 5.6

Health, Wellness and Fitness 5.8 4.9 4.8 4.2

Hospital and Healthcare 3.8 4.7 4.7 4.8

Medical Devices 4.8 5.1 4 5.3

Pharmaceuticals 4.8 5.9 3.8 5.1

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