You're running webinars every month. Registration rates are decent. Attendance is okay. But pipeline? Minimal.
The problem isn't webinars as a channel—the problem is most teams treat webinars like product demos instead of strategic demand generation assets. They optimize for attendance, not conversion.
Here's how to run webinars that actually generate pipeline.
Why Most Webinars Don't Generate Pipeline
Let's start with the common failure patterns:
Topic selection is product-focused, not problem-focused. "New features in Version 3.0" attracts existing customers, not prospects. Prospects don't care about your product—they care about solving their problems.
Registration-to-attendance conversion is terrible. 50% registration-to-attendance is normal, but that means half your marketing budget is wasted promoting to people who won't show up.
Content is too sales-y. The webinar is a thinly disguised product pitch. Attendees check out mentally after 10 minutes. You've burned trust and credibility.
Follow-up is generic. Everyone gets the same "thanks for attending" email with a demo CTA. No segmentation by engagement level, no personalization based on questions asked.
The teams that generate pipeline from webinars do everything differently.
Topic Selection That Attracts Buyers
Your webinar topic determines who registers and whether they're qualified.
The framework: Address a specific problem your ICP is actively trying to solve, and position your product as one possible solution (not the only solution).
Good topics:
- "How to reduce customer churn in SaaS: 4 proven frameworks"
- "Building ROI models that actually convince CFOs"
- "Scaling customer onboarding without adding headcount"
Bad topics:
- "Introducing our new dashboard redesign"
- "10 tips for using [Product Name]"
- "Why [Our Product] is better than [Competitor]"
The good topics attract people with the problem. The bad topics attract people who already know your product.
Test topic appeal before committing. Send email surveys to your ICP list: "Which of these topics interests you most?" Let data guide selection.
The Registration Strategy
Registration volume doesn't matter if attendees aren't qualified. Focus on quality.
Registration page optimization: Clear value proposition (what will I learn?), specific outcomes (3 frameworks you can implement immediately), social proof (400+ marketing leaders attended), and speaker credibility (not just your internal team).
Registration form: Ask qualifying questions without killing conversion. Job title and company size are must-haves. Budget authority and current solution are nice-to-haves but might reduce registrations. Test based on your sales qualification criteria.
Reminder sequence: Most people who register won't attend without reminders. Send 3 reminders: one week before, one day before, one hour before. Each reminder should reinforce value ("Here's what you'll learn") not just logistics.
Calendar invite: Include webinar link in a calendar invite. People who add to calendar attend at 2x the rate of those who don't.
Content Structure That Maintains Engagement
Webinar content should be 70% education, 20% examples, 10% product. Here's the structure:
First 5 minutes: Hook and credibility. Open with a compelling stat or story that demonstrates the problem. Establish speaker credibility (not company credentials—why should they listen to this person?).
Minutes 5-35: Educational framework. Teach a repeatable framework they can use. Not theory—practical, actionable steps. Use real examples (sanitized if needed) to illustrate each point.
Minutes 35-45: Application and product connection. Show how real companies (ideally customers) have applied the framework. Naturally connect to how your product supports the framework. This is where product demo fits—contextualized within the educational content.
Minutes 45-55: Q&A. This is often the most valuable part. Real questions reveal real pain points. Answer thoroughly and honestly, even if the answer isn't "use our product."
Final 5 minutes: Clear next steps. What should attendees do with what they learned? Offer resources (templates, worksheets, guides) and a soft CTA (talk to us if you want help implementing this).
People stay engaged when they're learning, not when they're being sold to.
Live vs. On-Demand Strategy
Live and on-demand serve different purposes. Use both strategically.
Live webinars: Higher engagement, real-time Q&A, creates urgency (FOMO for those who can't attend), better for building relationships. But limited by timezone and schedule conflicts.
On-demand webinars: Available 24/7, no scheduling friction, scales infinitely, better for international audiences. But lower engagement and no interaction.
The hybrid approach that works: Run live webinars monthly for net-new content. Record them and make available on-demand with a form gate. Promote both live and on-demand versions based on prospect segment (high-value accounts get personal invites to live, inbound leads get on-demand access).
Use engagement data to segment: Live attendees = high intent. On-demand viewers who watch 50%+ = medium intent. Registered but didn't attend = low intent.
The Follow-Up Sequence That Converts
This is where most teams fail. They send one generic email and wonder why conversion is low.
Tier 1: Attended and engaged (asked questions, stayed til end). Send within 24 hours. Personal email from presenter referencing their specific question. Attach resources mentioned. Offer 1:1 conversation to go deeper. These are hot leads.
Tier 2: Attended but passive (no questions, but stayed). Send within 48 hours. Share resources and recording. Include most common Q&A from the session. CTA: "Want to discuss how this applies to your situation?"
Tier 3: Registered but didn't attend. Send recording with apology for the missed connection. CTA: "Watch on your schedule." If they watch 50%+, escalate to Tier 2 follow-up.
Tier 4: Watched on-demand. Triggered email series based on watch percentage. Watched 75%+? Send them Tier 2 follow-up. Watched <25%? They're probably not qualified.
Segment, personalize, and persist. One email doesn't cut it.
Promotional Strategy That Fills Seats
You built a great webinar. Now you need attendees.
Email promotion: Primary channel for most B2B webinars. Send 3-4 promotional emails over 3 weeks. Vary the messaging: first email focuses on topic, second on speakers, third on urgency (filling up fast), fourth on last chance.
Paid promotion: LinkedIn ads targeting your ICP with a specific job title interested in the topic. Test lead gen forms (lower friction, higher volume, lower quality) vs. landing page (higher friction, lower volume, higher quality).
Partner promotion: Co-host with a complementary company or industry partner. Share promotion duties and tap into their audience. Splits effort and expands reach.
Sales outreach: Give your sales team webinar invites as a warm outreach reason. "Saw you're working on [problem]. We're running a webinar on [topic]—thought it might be relevant."
Existing channel leverage: Promote in your newsletter, on your website, in your product (for PLG companies), and at other events.
Start promotion 3-4 weeks before the webinar. Earlier than that, people forget. Later than that, calendars are full.
Measuring Webinar Success
Move beyond vanity metrics. Here's what actually matters:
Registration → qualified registrations. Not all registrations are created equal. Filter by ICP fit. 500 registrations with 50 qualified leads beats 1,000 registrations with 20 qualified leads.
Registration → attendance rate. Target 40-50% for cold audiences, 60-70% for warm audiences. Below 40%? Your reminder sequence needs work.
Attendance → engagement rate. What percentage stayed for the full session? What percentage asked questions? High engagement indicates relevant content.
Attendance → pipeline created. The only metric that truly matters. Track: webinar attendees → meetings booked → opportunities created → deals closed. Attribute revenue back to webinar campaigns.
Payback period: How long until the pipeline generated exceeds the cost of running the webinar (promotion, production, team time)? Target 60-90 days for most B2B products.
If a webinar doesn't generate pipeline within one quarter, the topic, audience, or follow-up needs fixing.
Webinar Series vs. One-Offs
One-off webinars have high effort and variable results. Series create momentum.
The series approach: Run quarterly webinar series on related topics. Example: Q1 = "Demand Gen Fundamentals" (4 webinars). Q2 = "Pipeline Optimization" (4 webinars).
Benefits of series:
- Promote once, get registrations for multiple events
- Attendees become regulars (lower promotional cost per event)
- Build authority over time (not just one-hit educational content)
- Create progression (basic → advanced topics)
Execution: Space webinars 2-3 weeks apart. Make each standalone valuable but reference the series. Offer all-access passes to the series with one registration.
Series work best for companies with multiple personas or complex products that can't be covered in one session.
The Reality Check
Webinars are high-effort. Content creation, promotion, delivery, and follow-up require serious investment. If you can't commit to doing them well, don't do them at all.
But for companies that execute properly—problem-focused topics, educational content, tiered follow-up, pipeline attribution—webinars generate some of the highest-quality leads in B2B demand gen.
Just don't measure success by registration numbers. Measure it by pipeline created.