The Jungle of Webinar and Meeting Platforms

Just about every marketer is hosting webinars these days, and webinar marketing is a vital strategy for B2B businesses. A lot of consumer brands are turning to it for their own B2C marketing efforts too. Especially right now, with COVID-19 forcing many businesses to move in-person events and sales meetings into a virtual environment.
Using webinar software is one of the best ways to engage with leads and move them down the sales funnel!

The digital world has several huge advantages, apart from the cost and environmental benefits such as:

• We are no longer constrained by physical space – we can invite 50 or 5000 people. And geography is no longer an issue. 
• Better data collection and more options for bridging the gap and communicating with attendees pre- and post-event as they are onboarded on a communication platform.

However, hosting live webinars can be challenging. So before you are able to gain from all these advantages, you need to choose the right channel to use.

Going digital with your meeting or conference means that you live stream via the internet to your audience. To do so, you need to consider the following:

• Do you want to or need to see and communicate with your participants?
• Do you want to or need to engage with your participants?

The answers to these questions determine which virtual platform to choose. And in this jungle of different meeting platforms (Youtube, Zoom, Webinarninja, Facebook, Webex, Livestorm, Skype, QBrick, Twentythree, Clickmeeting, Microsoft Teams etc.), the question is “what is my perfect fit? Feel free to reach out to us, so we can help you choose the right webinar software.

• Webinar platforms are designed for one-way speak, and they are used for all types of presentations. Communication with your audience usually takes place in writing, as many of these platforms also provide a chat or Q&A function included in the service.
• Webinar platforms send picture and sound delayed, 10-30 seconds, depending on the platform and server capacity. The delay ensures that your transmission is of high quality, and some of the webinar platforms even allow you to choose which quality and bitrate you stream.
• Meeting platforms are used when you want to see (and hear) your audience, and it is really useful for work meetings and meetings where you invite your audience to actively engage.
• Meeting platforms send picture and sound instantly, and they require high bandwith, as you send data both ways. This means that you sometimes experience a low quality in picture and/or sound.