Guide to Using Replays in eWebinar

Replays work differently than any other session type in eWebinar. This guide explains what you need to know to use them with confidence.

How to decide whether to enable Replays in your Schedule

The main difference between replays and other session types is control over the video.

Replays allow full video control, including skipping forward and backward freely.

Replay links can be watched (or rewatched) at any time. 

Scheduled, on-demand, and just-in-time sessions run in real time once they begin. Even though the content is recorded, attendees cannot freely skip around. 

When these types of sessions end, they are over. They cannot be rewatched.

When deciding whether to enable replays in your schedule, ask yourself:

If the answer is yes, leave replays off in your Schedule to preserve the event-style experience, at least on first viewing. (This can create a higher level of commitment and increase watch times.)

In general, however, if you’re comfortable with some attendees having full playback control on first viewing, leave replays on. It just gives attendees another way to access your webinar on their own schedule and terms, which can increase attendance.

If you ALWAYS want viewers to have full control over the video playback, then choose On-demand only as the Event type in your Schedule, and then ONLY enable Replays.

If you leave Replays off in your Schedule, they are still included in follow-up emails by default

Turning replays off in the Schedule tab means attendees cannot register for your webinar to immediately receive a replay link.

However, replay links can still be included as links in follow-up emails — and they are included by default. 

Nearly all eWebinar cystomers include replay links in their follow-up emails even when replays are disabled in the Schedule. (The thinking is, "I’d rather people watch my webinar from start to finish the first time. But if they miss the session they signed up for, it’s better they watch a replay than not watch at all.")

If you don't want replay links to be sent in your follow-ups, you must remove them.

If you leave replays off in your Schedule and keep them in follow-ups

If someone registers for a scheduled, just-in-time, or on-demand session and does not attend, their first time watching your webinar will be through the replay link in a follow-up email (unless they re-register).

Knowing this, you may want to adjust how chat behaves for replays. Because replay links can be watched at any time, you may want to:

• Use the replay welcome message* to clarify response-time expectations (Recommended) OR
• Switch replays to Email form only in Chat preferences

* The replay welcome message only appears for attendees who did not attend a session and are watching for the first time via the replay link.

Replays and hours of operation

Replays are never affected by the Hours of operation you set in your Schedule.

If replays are enabled in your Schedule or included in follow-up emails, they can be watched at any time, including outside your hours of operation.

NOTE: For teams following scheduling Scenarios 2 or 3, this is another reason to use the replay welcome message to clarify response times (recommended) or switch Chat preferences for replays to the Email form form.

Do not share individual replay links publicly!

Replay links are unique to each attendee and retain that attendee’s chat and interaction history. They are not meant to be shared publicly.

If you wish to share a replay link publicly, like in a social media ad, consider using an ungated replay link.