We often think about crafting compelling content and securing the right audience, but among all, what usually goes unaddressed is how choosing the right webinar format can significantly impact the overall campaign success.
The right format typically varies based on your goals, target audience, and long-term strategy. Before choosing the format, ask yourself:
- What is the primary goal of hosting webinars?
- How does it align with your long-term business goal?
- Which format best supports audience engagement and conversion?
Today, a staggering 85% of businesses consider webinars essential to their marketing strategy. However, without a clear understanding of what they aim to achieve, webinars may not deliver the expected results.
To help you make the right decision, this guide will discuss every aspect of live and on-demand webinars. In this blog, we will explore:
- What live webinars and on-demand webinars are
- Which format should you pick, and why
- Key differences between the two formats
Let’s dive in and discover which webinar format will drive the best results for your organization!
What is a Live Webinar
A live webinar is an online event that enables real-time interaction and engagement with your audience. These webinars are often hosted as part of a company’s marketing campaigns and facilitate connections virtually.
Usually, the primary objective of hosting live webinars is to encourage real-time conversations and boost engagement with the target audience. However, from education and brand awareness to demand generation and customer engagement, these virtual events can be tailored to suit a variety of business goals and purposes.
There are several ways you can structure a live webinar, such as:
- Live streaming sessions for broader audience reach
- Presentation-based webinars solely focused on information delivery
- Networking sessions that encourage real-time engagement
- Multi-track webinars featuring multiple speakers and segmented sessions.
Live webinars offer an excellent opportunity for uninterrupted audience engagement. By strategically planning and incorporating activities throughout the event, live webinars can create a highly engaging and value-driven experience for attendees.
What is an On-Demand Webinar
On-demand webinars are recorded versions of live events. It allows viewers to access the content at their convenience. These webinars are often referred to as evergreen webinars and usually remain available over an extended period.
They help businesses facilitate global accessibility & promote inclusivity. Unlike live webinars, you can refine & tailor on-demand content before publishing.
You can incorporate several elements like multilingual subtitles, automated audience-segmented sessions, AI agents as instructors or guides, interactive elements like chat feed, post a comment CTA, emoji reactions, and contact support CTA to make your content more engaging and immersive.
On-demand webinars can be repurposed in different versions, like:
- Instant replays for post-webinar content review
- Video webcasts & podcasts customized to different audience preferences
- Online courses for structured and convenient learning experiences
- Company educational repository for employee learning & engagement
- Product tutorials for seamless customer onboarding and more.
Read: 22 New Ideas to Repurpose Webinar Content & Maximize ROI
By leveraging on-demand webinars, you can not only connect with attendees but also with a broader audience across the world. Having personalized on-demand content is a great way to extend its lifespan, maximize audience reach, and drive continuous engagement even post-webinar.
Live vs. On-Demand: Which One Should You Pick and Why
The choice between live webinars and on-demand webinars depends on several factors.
- What does your audience need?
- What are your content goals and what do you want to achieve?
- And most importantly, what is your engagement strategy?
If real-time interaction, brand authority, and audience participation are critical to your business goals, the ideal choice would be live webinars.
On the other hand, if providing flexibility, scalability, and evergreen content are your priorities, on-demand webinars are the ultimate choice.
When to Host Live Webinars and Why
1. Launching a new product or service
Live webinars enable companies to showcase product features, conduct demonstrations, and address audience questions instantly. This real-time engagement builds excitement, enhances product credibility, and fosters trust around the launch.
2. Panel discussions and expert sessions
For panel discussions and expert sessions, live webinars serve as an interactive platform for real-time debates, Q&A sessions, and panels-audience interaction.
These sessions allow participants to engage with thought leaders, clarify doubts, and gain valuable insights, keeping the audience deeply invested throughout the session.
3. Training & workshops
Live training sessions, without a doubt, foster a better and more interactive learning environment. Trainers or subject-matter experts can respond to queries on the spot, conduct live polls, and adapt their teaching based on audience responses. This dynamic approach improves knowledge retention and accelerates engagement.
4. Industry updates
When sharing time-sensitive information like market trends, new findings, and regulatory changes, choose to plan live webinars. These webinars have the ability to reach a broader audience within a limited time frame.
Instant live streaming webinars or social media live sessions ensure that critical updates are disseminated widely. This allows an immediate discussion and ensures clarification on the subject.
5. Community engagement & networking
Organizations aiming to build and strengthen relationships with their audience and employees can immensely benefit from live networking opportunities.
Activities like breakout rooms, brainstorming discussions, roundtables, and speed networking help foster & sustain meaningful connections.
6. Lead generation
Live Q&As, product demos, and audience engagement drive interest and build trust in potential leads. The interactive nature of live webinars encourages real-time conversations and boosts credibility. This ultimately results in driving higher quality and quantity of leads organically, accelerating the sales funnel.
When to Host On-Demand Webinars and Why
1. Evergreen content distribution
By optimizing the on-demand webinar format, you can significantly expand the lifespan of your content. This repurposed version of the live webinar continues to provide value long after the initial recording.
Moreover, you can leverage this content for educational purposes and brand awareness campaigns. Repurposing the recorded, on-demand content into several personalized versions helps keep it relevant & shareable and makes it evergreen.
Read: On-demand webinars repurposing and content strategy
2. Expanding audience reach
If your primary goal is to expand your audience reach across regions, on-demand webinars might be the best way to do that. By leveraging these webinars, you can:
- Remove the challenge of coordinating across multiple time zones
- Resolve the demographic restrictions with targeted on-demand content
- Remove language constraints with personalized multilingual content and more.
3. Educational & training materials
Businesses, associations, universities, and training institutions can leverage on-demand webinars to build structured learning repositories. From online courses and video series to case studies, newsletters, and FAQs, on-demand webinars can be transformed into several content assets.
By capitalizing on these resources, organizations can enhance onboarding programs, employee training, and self-paced learning experiences.
4. Lead nurturing & sales enablement
Consider a scenario where, for instance, not all prospects who registered could attend your live webinar. And even those who did, may not be able to fully engage in real-time due to some reason.
In such cases, on-demand webinars can help you:
- Reconnect with no-shows by sharing recorded content
- Offer gated access to capture new leads over time
- Implement drip campaigns to nurture prospects with personalized follow-ups
5. Event follow-ups & recaps
Regardless of whether the event was in-person, virtual, or hybrid, on-demand webinars help extend its reach.
By using recorded sessions from conferences, panel discussions, training workshops, and more, businesses can engage all participants. From no-shows to virtual or in-person attendees, they can continue conversations with all, beyond the event.
Key Differences Between Live-Webinars and On-Demand Webinars
| Key Differences | ||
|---|---|---|
| Component | Live Webinar | On-Demand Webinar |
| Purpose | Designed for real-time interaction, engagement, and audience participation. | Created to expand audience reach, sustain engagement, and provide flexible content access anytime, anywhere. |
| Duration | Typically 45 – 60 minutes. For longer webinars, up to 90 minutes. | Flexible. Can be repurposed into shorter clips (10–30 minutes) or longer sessions. |
| Scalability | Varies-depending on the webinar platform and its hosting capacity. | Highly scalable, unlimited viewers can watch the content at any time. |
| Time & Schedule | Requires proper planning, including event date, speaker availability, and invitations. | No specific time & schedule is required. Enables anytime, anywhere access. |
| Host & Speaker | Requires a live host and speaker for audience interaction. | Not required. Can be structured for self-guided learning. |
| Content Control | Can be edited before the event but cannot be changed or modified once delivered. | The content can be edited, enhanced, and modified before the publishing. |
| Promotion | Requires targeted & tailored promotions before the webinar. | It is not mandatory. |
| Webinar Hosting Platform | Hosted on unified webinar platforms with live streaming & robust engagement capabilities. | Hosted on video-on-demand platforms, websites, or LMS systems. |
| Real-time Interaction | Support live polls, Q&As, chats, and networking activities. | Minimal real-time interaction. Engagement is maintained through pre-set forms, quizzes, or automated responses. Note: With relevant integrations, Q&A and polls can be included. |
| Post-webinar Interaction | Can be continued via instant replays, emails, surveys, and follow-up sessions. | Can be done via automated emails, CTAs, and related content recommendations. |
| Availability | Only accessible during the live session, unless recorded. | Available for repeated viewing over an extended period. |
| Format Variation | Includes structured formats like live presentations, panel discussions, live demos, workshops, and more. | Can be repurposed into various formats such as videos, audio podcasts & webcasts, case studies, blogs, etc. |
| Data Collection | Captures real-time metrics such as attendance, engagement, drop-offs, CTA clicks, and feedback. | Track views, watch time, page visits, CTAs, and user interactions (if applicable). |
| Limitations | Time zone restrictions Limited segmentation Language barriers Not accessible to non-attendees | Lack of real-time interaction Requires strong pre-production & editing Lacks a live speaker or host |
| Technical Requirements | Stable internet connection Webinar platform with live streaming Engagement tools CRM & automation Integration | Video-hosting platform Video-editing tools On-demand access setup Tracking tools |
Final Thoughts
Live webinars and on-demand webinars are two of the widely used formats by businesses and organizations. In many cases, they complement each other within broader marketing, sales, or training initiatives.
For example, a live webinar used for training or product demos can later be repurposed into on-demand content, further extending its value and reach.
It is also important to understand that each format serves a distinct purpose. Live webinars are generally used to drive real-time engagement and connection.
On the other hand, on-demand webinars sustain those connections, nurture leads, and expand audience reach beyond the event itself.
While choosing the right format is crucial, understanding why you’re using it makes all the difference.
FAQ
The time zone differences often lead to low attendance in live webinars. Whereas on-demand ones are accessible round-the-clock ultimately minimizing this issue.
Live webinars offer several advantages, including real-time audience interactions, immediate feedback, and higher engagement to ensure an immersive and interactive experience.
Yes, there are several other formats or types of webinars, such as pre-recorded and simulive (simulative + live).
Pre-recorded webinars are recorded in advance but can be played live or on-demand.
Simulive webinars are pre-recorded but streamed at a scheduled time with live chat and Q&A, mimicking a live webinar experience.
On the other hand, on-demand webinars are fully recorded versions of live webinars and are accessible anytime.
