Webinars are one of the most valued and impactful content formats in B2B marketing. At a time where featuring authentic, expert voices is an utmost priority for brands, webinars offer a great way to showcase your brand’s credibility and bring influential expertise (internal or external) to your customers.
In our 2025 B2B Influencer Marketing Report, webinars ranked as the third-most effective content type in influencer programs, after social media posts and in-person events. According to the latest B2B content marketing benchmark research from CMI and MarketingProfs, webinars are second only to in-person events in terms of distribution channels producing the best results.
And yet, many B2B brands and marketers surely feel their results could be better when it comes to webinar lead generation. This is a pain point our marketing agency hears about often: We poured so much of our energy and resources into planning and running this live event, but didn’t get nearly the number (or quality) of leads we were hoping for.
At TopRank Marketing, we’ve helped numerous B2B companies achieve stellar results with webinars, and we’ve also observed plenty of common mistakes that tend to limit overall impact. This guide will help you proactively steer clear of those missteps.
But before you get started, it’s critical to be sure you’re optimizing around the proper objective.
First: Are you sure you want your webinar to generate leads?
Not every webinar needs to be planned with this goal in mind. Leveraging the webinar format as a lead gen tactic is natural — fill out a registration form, share contact info, gain access to exclusive content — but it’s a mistake to view this as the only valuable objective.
Webinars present a unique opportunity to bring an audience together in real time, via a highly engaging and interactive format that welcomes feedback and input. It’s important to note that while gating the webinar with a registration form has obvious lead gen benefits, it also puts up access barriers that can limit audience size and reach. This is a trade-off that needs to be considered.
Beyond lead generation, webinars can contribute to a variety of goals, including:
- Brand awareness and thought leadership
- Nurturing existing leads
- Repurposing and promoting other high-value content assets
- Gathering market research and insights through direct interaction
- Inspiring partner and influencer collaborations
Another effective way to use webinars is for community engagement, and educating or enabling your existing customers. As Laura Ramos, Vice President and Principal Analyst at Forrester Research, shared during a MarketingProfs B2B Forum event a few years ago: “Using webinars for post-sale engagement is an untapped opportunity. Webinar attendees are a sort of community and you can use the event to educate through Office Hours style format.”
In use cases like these, gating your webinar in the name of lead gen can actually be detrimental toward the objective at hand. So that’s a key caveat to keep in mind. But with it out of the way, let’s zero in on best practices for webinars when lead generation is indeed to the goal.
Webinar lead generation: Mistakes to avoid
When webinars come up short in terms of lead gen results, the culprit is usually one or more of the following:
The webinar doesn’t have a compelling enough hook.
When you’re asking people to give you their contact info as part of the registration form, it’s a pretty big ask. You’ve got to be sure you’re offering something of real, concrete value, and framing that up-front. Examples of a strong lead gen webinar hook include:
- Unpacking original unique data and research
- Interviews with respected subject matter experts
- Experts on your team tackling authentic customer challenges
- Behind-the-scenes breakdowns of processes or case studies
- Takeaway resources: worksheets, templates, playbooks
We’ve consistently seen excellent results when helping clients develop webinars that dive into original research, both because the data can be so effective at guiding the conversation and because fresh insights are in high demand among decision-makers.
But it’s one example of a scenario where not gating your webinar can ultimately yield better lead gen results. If the research report you created is itself gated, you could use the webinar to share highlights with a broader audience.
Planning and promotion aren’t given their due
Putting together content for a high-quality webinar, and finding the right (willing) participants, requires extensive work. Understandably, the main event itself consumes a lot of focus, but that doesn’t mean the promotional aspects should be given a short shrift.
Amplifying the webinar to a targeted audience with paid media, such as Event Ads on LinkedIn, is a pretty tried-and-true method for driving qualified registrants — if you’ve got the budget. Don’t stop there, though. Additional webinar promotion techniques include:
- Publishing SEO-optimized blogs or resources on your website to attract organic visitors, with CTAs driving to the webinar.
- Activating the creators or influencers you partner with to help promote the content in their networks.
- Developing templates or messages to help your team members spread the word: social messages, email signatures and so on.
Influencers and participants aren’t chosen strategically
We mentioned earlier that webinars are one of the top influencer marketing tactics, and with good reason. When you partner with individuals who hold sway with your target audience, that’s a clear path to gaining visibility and credibility in the eyes of potential customers.
But finding influencers who meet all the criteria to be a great fit isn’t easy, much less convincing them to participate if there’s no pre-existing relationship. This is where an established partner can be an integral component in your success.
“Identifying, qualifying and connecting with ideal influencers” is cited as the No. 1 challenge in succeeding with influencer marketing. (2025 B2B Influencer Marketing Report)
Lack of thoughtful follow-up and nurturing
Webinars, much like any form of content marketing, need to be predicated on value first and foremost. If the show itself is just a big product pitch, people will tune out. If the follow-up emails are aggressively promotional, recipients will likely tune those out too.
The email addresses you collect with your webinar lead gen campaign are the whole point, so treat them with care. Use nurture streams as an opportunity to add further value, and build a relationship.
Not maximizing the mileage of your webinar content
We’re really big on the value of content repurposing, especially at a time where marketing resources are stretched thin. Content from your webinar can be excerpted and reimagined in various ways, for various purposes — including promoting the webinar itself.
One straightforward example would be taking snippets from the show — a particularly lively exchange or insightful point — and publishing them as short videos on social media with a link to the full on-demand stream. Or you could create an image carousel featuring one key quote from each participant. There are many ways to go, but no matter which, it’s best to bake in your repurposing plan from the start.
Check out my #ContentChat episode with Erika Heald discussing content strategy in the age of AI, as well as our blog post recapping the conversation!
Achieve your B2B marketing goals with better webinars
Webinars can be a powerful engine for B2B marketing success, but only when they’re aligned with the right goals, built around real audience value, and fully supported before and after the event. Whether you’re aiming to generate leads, engage customers or fuel your broader content ecosystem, the key is being intentional and strategic.
An expert partner with cross-functional expertise can be the perfect ingredient in a successful webinar campaign. Explore TopRank Marketing’s content marketing services and learn how we might be able to help you overcome those pesky barriers to boosting pipeline.
About the author
Nick Nelson is our friendly neighborhood writer-man. As the Associate Content Director at TopRank Marketing, he is on a mission to energize brand narratives with smart, fun, sharp wordplay. In his free time, Nick enjoys basking in the misery of Minnesota sports fandom, making cringeworthy puns, and smothering all types of food in buffalo sauce.
