For timing, I totally agree that today’s B2B prospects are way to busy to commit to 60- or even 45-minutes. I’ve hit the 20-minute mark, but with YouTube as a model, 10- or 15-minutes might be the “new” limit. Making it shorter seems to work, but attendance rates are still well below 50%. (I’d love to see some “typical” stats on webinar sign-ups vs. attendance, if you have that. Would also be interesting to know if “live only, no recording” would help attendance?)

Having “a particularly well-known or dynamic speaker” is another critical aspect, as you point out. While well-known can help draw leads, dynamic is the key to delivering memorable and effective content. A monotone voice that essentially reads from the slides is the best way to frustrate attendees, as are poorly-designed, busy, and sloppy slides.

For content, I get so many B2B marketing emails for webinars that tout the vendor’s company or offerings, not the content of the webinar. Yes, there’s a place for a product-focused webinar, but as you point out, that’s for customers or late-stage prospects, not your general lead population.

Great to read your detailed comments. If only marketers would put your insights into practice!

Additionally, I find webinars a good format for lead generation with partners. You can share leads and expand your database. It’s easy to co-present a webinar, while it’s not always easy to co-author a whitepaper.