6 Tips to Reuse & Repurpose Your Webinar Replays

Every business is looking for ways to be more efficient. There is an endless list of tasks and strategies to be tested, and usually very limited resources.

Because of this, content creators typically finish a project and rush on to the next one. You get obsessed with "the hustle," and don't think enough about getting the most from your hard work.

This is especially the case for webinars. We think of these only as live events. Once it's over, it's over.

But there are ways to reuse webinar replays and get more from these resources. You took the time to plan and present this webinar in the first place, and you need to ensure that you make the most of it.

Here are six strategies to make your past webinars keep working for you. Want more tips that aren't in this article? Check out our webinar best practices guide.

1. Send them to everyone who didn't attend

This one is obvious, but also vital. Even the best webinar platforms average around a 50% attendance rate. Which means that there are plenty of people who didn't catch your presentation live.

But just because they didn't show up, doesn't mean they're not interested. At some point, they wanted to hear what you had to say. And you can still deliver this to them to watch on their own time.

It only requires two simple steps:

1. Record the webinar
2. Email out a link to the recording

Good webinar solutions will even automate this process for you, so it doesn't have to be a hassle.

Pro tips

• Be quick to send the recording while the topic is still fresh in everyone's mind. There's also a good chance that attendees who enjoyed the session will share it with colleagues.
• Include a call-to-action to another valuable resource. Recording emails typically have a very good open rate, so take this opportunity to share something else.
• Automate these emails if possible.

There's nothing to lose by sending out your webinar recording. And it's another useful chance to connect with your prospects and customers.

2. Embed the webinar replay in a blog post

For many customers, the first place they find your business is through the blog. They may have no idea that you even host live, dynamic webinars. So why not use your blog for webinar promotion?

Video content is popular and visually appealing, and can even boost traffic. So consider embedding past webinars in blog posts to help people find them. You can write these posts yourself, or use a content writing service to do it for you.

But to make this work well, you need to add a little more. Provide a transcript of the conversation below the video. This helps people skip ahead to find the parts they're most interested in.

This will also help your SEO as you will end up with a blog post full of great keywords, which should help traffic. And you need content on the page if you want Google to pick up on the post.

Or you could write a summary of the webinar with a few extra insights. This shouldn't take too long because all of the research was already done.

Pro tip

Webinars are often gated, and not everyone wants to open this premium content to the world. If you'd rather users fill out a form, provide a short teaser clip in the blog post, and then show them where they can watch the rest.

Which brings us to the next point...

3. Create an on-demand webinar

Just because the webinar is finished, that doesn't make it less interesting to new viewers. In fact, as we said above, many users don't want to have to attend at a specific time on the right day.

They want access to content now. Make webinars available to stream on-demand, as soon as a user discovers them.

Here's our current on-demand webinars listed on our company page:

Pro tip

Choose a webinar platform that lets your easily create an on-demand webinar and registration page. This can work either by transforming a past live webinar session, or uploading a pre-recorded video.

And one way to help users find these on-demand webinars is...

4. Use webinars in nurturing campaigns

Once you've generated leads, you need to keep them engaged right through until they talk to sales and (hopefully) buy. Typically, you do this with content. Ebooks, customer case studies, or simply blog posts.

But webinars also make a great resource to send to prospects. They're a change from the usual formats, and they give them the chance to hear and see the real people behind your company.

Plus, they fit easily into your existing nurture campaigns:

• Send top-of-funnel leads your "big picture" (awareness) webinars. These are topics that will interest them, but aren't salesy.
• If leads are more mature, send them a product demo or walkthrough. They may not want to speak to a salesperson yet, but you can still show them what you have to offer.
• Send your most popular webinars to "colder" leads. If you haven't been able to connect with someone for awhile, perhaps a particularly interesting webinar topic will get them to pay attention.

Good nurturing campaigns require you to push different buttons. Not everyone wants the same ebook, so change up content formats and see if they have a bigger impact. Webinars are a perfect example.

5. Cut clips to use on social media

You don't even need to keep your webinar replays in one piece to reuse them. In fact, editing them down to their most interesting snippets can be very powerful.

Take the best 30-second moments from your webinar and turn them into short social media videos. The best ones include personality - a passionate presenter or an interesting debate between two speakers.

This requires a few simple steps:

• If you can, create a quick template intro and outro for each clip. (Otherwise people won't know what they're seeing).
• Find two or three "special" moments from each webinar.
• Place these clips within your template.
• Include a link to the webinar in social media copy, along with a brief description of the topic and people involved.
• Share, and encourage others to do the same.
• Repeat!

Pro tip

Obviously, this should be done mainly with top-of-funnel content. Social media can help you attract new business. But users want ideas, not product demos.

Pull out key statistics or eye-catching quotes. These are what social media runs on.

6. Post the entire replay to YouTube or Facebook

If you're not worried about keeping webinars gated, they're a good way to get more video content out there into the public without having to invest in new resources.

And they're a great way to introduce new users to your brand. YouTube is one of the largest search engine in the world, and Facebook still puts a real emphasis on video. Users are looking for new videos, and your webinars are ready to be shared.

The kinds of webinars that will work well on YouTube or Facebook:

• Discussions tackling a hot topic or common industry problem.
• List-style presentations. Your Facebook feed is already full of them.
• Panel discussions or roundtables. If your webinar included a handful of speakers, that means you have as many businesses to help promote and share the video online from their own channels.
• How-to guides to using your product. YouTube is full of these. They may not be as popular as a trending topic, but if they help people get set up and run your products smoothly, it's a win.

When in doubt, have a look at the kinds of business content already succeeding on these platforms.

Pro tip

If you're going to post webinars to YouTube, think about keywords. Identify webinars that tackle a popular or interesting topic that someone might search for.

Optimize these listings to include strong keywords, just as you would for a blog post.

And finally, make sure you include links back to your website and the rest of your webinars.

Repurpose webinar replays for more efficiency

Repurposing resources is just smart content marketing. If you've dedicated time and effort to creating something good, it would be a shame to use it once and then move on.

And yet, this happens all too often with webinars. Because we think of them as live events, all the energy goes into getting ready for the big day. And then it's easy to forget all about them.

Don't let that happen. Make your webinar replays work for you from now on.