Why Webinars still matter for B2B Teams and How to do Them Right

Most B2B webinars underperform because they’re following the same Dead End Playbook. We plan a webinar, promote the event, try to get as many people to attend, and then follow up with attendees afterward.

Our webinar attendees see this coming from a mile away and promptly ignore our follow up, because (a) they’ve seen it time-and-time again and (b) we follow up with all our leads (via marketing automation or sales follow up) without the proper segmentation and personalization.

I ran this Dead End Playbook for years too, consistently hitting the Conversion Cliff: even when webinar registrations & attendance were above average, we saw very low conversions (<2%) from webinar sign ups to booked calls and pipeline.

It was only after I tried something new that I saw my webinar series drive meaningful results, and it all started with our 2-Step Sign Up Process.

This sign up flow gives registrants a short registration form, followed by a quick survey that asks qualification & intent-based questions, then offers a scheduling page to qualified, in-market leads. This process separates the small number of in-market buyers from the majority who are a good fit but out-of-market right now.

Implementing this 2-Step Sign Up Process immediately increased our conversion rates by 5-10x, allowing hot leads to go straight to sales and cold (but good-fit) leads to receive personalized, value-led nurture sequences (based on their survey responses).

Combining this sign up process with new promotional tactics (LinkedIn Event Ads, cold email campaigns & newsletter ad placements) has been driving much greater results across several webinar programs in recent months.

Webinars are here to stay! Viktor Underwood, with a decade of experience in video communication, has experienced the evolution of webinars from passive seminars to dynamic, interactive events.

How to do B2B webinars right today:

After the huge boom during 2020–2022, many started talking about “webinar fatigue.” But the data tells a different story. Webinars keep growing year over year, and at TwentyThree we’re seeing both more webinars being hosted and higher engagement than even during the Covid years.

The format has matured. A webinar is no longer just a Zoom or Teams link where anyone can tune in. Today, successful webinars are fully branded, professionalized experiences where you own every step of the audience journey. But branding alone isn’t enough. For B2B teams, the real power lies in tracking and attributing engagement.

If you don’t integrate webinar and video engagement into your martech stack, CRM systems like HubSpot, Salesforce, or Marketo — then you’re missing a huge part of how your audience behaves. Imagine an Account Executive being alerted when a key lead asks a question in a webinar, or a Customer Success Manager spotting churn risk because a client has skipped your last few launch events. That’s when webinars go from being a marketing tactic to a company-wide growth driver.

Looking ahead, one of the biggest shifts will be the end of the one-off webinar. Just like podcasts, webinars work best when they’re consistent. Why spend weeks promoting a single event when you can run a series that people subscribe to? Whether it’s a recurring episodic webinar, a multi-episode masterclass, or a recurring onboarding webinar, this approach builds bigger audiences over time and saves your team hours of administrative work.

To sum it up: track and attribute your webinar engagement if you truly want to understand your prospects and clients, and think in series if you want to maximize long-term impact. That’s how webinars will keep driving B2B growth in 2025 and beyond.

During the pandemic, webinars took off as the core event marketing channel for many B2B businesses. The global virtual events market was valued at a staggering $114 billion in 2021 and is projected to grow by over 21% annually until 2030. But as more businesses returned to the office, are in-person events back on top? Not necessarily.

Even today, webinars have matured into one of the most reliable ways to build pipeline but success doesn’t come from simply running more and more sessions. It comes from running the right sessions. The biggest mistake I see is companies treating webinars like long product demos. That approach turns people off.

What actually works is creating conversations that resonate with the industry trends your audience is already tuned into, weaving your product or service into the story only when it adds context or solves a problem. Drive your prospects from Discovery → Acquisition → Retention → Advocacy through TOFU → MOFU → BOFU virtual sessions.

I’ve tested this approach heavily. One of my golden rules is: relevance first, product/service second.

My advice: treat virtual events not as a one-off campaign but as a repeatable channel with its own playbook. If you nail the relevance, interaction, and follow through with thoughtful nurturing, these virtual event campaigns can become one of your most cost-effective and compounding growth levers in your marketing channels.

Webinars still matter because they move prospects from awareness to action in a single sitting. They don’t just ‘drive MQLs’, they directly affect conversions by letting us demo value, surface objections, and earn consensus from the buying committee live.

At SingleStore, webinar days consistently deliver 50+ new signups versus 5-6 on typical days.

Treat them like a product launch: one job-to-be-done, a crisp 7-10 minute live demo, two quick polls to segment intent, and a tightly moderated Q&A that sales can lift into follow-ups.

It feels awesome to see the webinars I crafted reflected in the revenue pipeline!

Ship within 24 hours (chapters, clips, recap, nurture) and track reg→attend→trial→SQL and influenced revenue.

Webinars still win because they trade passive views for active intent, and that makes them a proven decisive touchpoint in the sales journey.

Pipeline contribution by B2B Marketing teams has never been more important than now. Leading B2B Enterprises have recognised the value webinars offer and have built extensive webinar programs that integrate with marketing strategy, tech stack, and goals.

Webinars offer significant insight into buyer demographics, behaviour, and preferences which are crucial for ongoing lead management and nurturing. Gated webinars, more than any other marketing asset, allow B2B Marketing teams to gain the granular insights necessary to better target prospective and existing customers with relevant information along their buyer journey.

The value offer of webinars should always match the audience’s requirements. This is best done as part of a planned and programmatic webinar content plan, avoiding the temptation to create ad hoc webinars that only fill individual engagement gaps. This approach makes both the planning and engagement process more sustainable and relevant in the long-term.

Consider the audience’s different content requirements throughout their buyer journey. Early stage engagement calls for more thought leadership, advanced stages call for proof through product insights and customer stories, whereas the acquisition stage calls for more detailed insights and answers. B2B Marketing teams that provide audiences with valuable insights for each stage increase their ability to gain significant mind share and engagement.

Webinar audience growth follows consistent value. B2B Marketing teams that serve the audience’s needs first will see audience growth as a result. Resist the temptation to pitch or push for buying signals.

In today’s crowded B2B landscape, webinars still are the most effective go-to-market tools. Webinar is a time tested GTM approach offering a dynamic platform to attract prospects, demonstrate expertise, and engage with them. For B2B and enterprise businesses across tech/product/SaaS—who often face long decision cycles, webinars serve as both an education engine and a trust-building ecosystem.

Thoughts on why Webinars Still Matter for B2B Teams

The key to an impactful webinar lies in its execution. Webinar needs to be positioned as value-first experiences and not as a sales pitch. Start by choosing topics that align with real buyer challenges, bring in credible voices (customers, partners, or subject-matter experts), and invest in interactive formats that encourage participation.

Steps to execute a relevant and successful Webinar

Brands should measure outcome of a Webinar not just in terms of leads, but also across brand health metrics like authority built, pipeline influenced, and trust strengthened.

For me, webinars became powerful when I stopped thinking of them as “events” and started using them as collaboration platforms.

Instead of the classic presentation format, I experimented with bringing clients and partners onto the virtual stage. One standout session was a “customer roundtable” where three of our clients shared their success stories and challenges in real-time.

It wasn’t a sales pitch; it was peers learning from peers. The authenticity drove incredible engagement, and because the spotlight was on the customers, it built far more trust than a standard marketing webinar ever could.

What made it different was how we structured the aftermath. Attendees weren’t just sent a recording; they were invited into a private Slack group where discussions continued, resources were shared, and relationships deepened.

That simple shift turned a one-hour webinar into an ongoing micro-community. Some of our best deals and partnerships came directly from those follow-up conversations.

The takeaway?

Webinars in 2025 work best when they don’t feel like webinars at all.

Make them about co-creation, give the audience a role, and extend the conversation beyond the live event, and you’ll find they create a pipeline, trust, and long-term community all at once.