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 offer full video control on first viewing
The main difference between replays and other session types is control over the video.
What is unique about replays?
Replays allow full video control, including skipping forward and backward freely.
Replay links can be watched (or rewatched) at any time.
How do replays differ from other session types?
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, unless you give on-demand attendees full video control (see below).
When these types of sessions end, they are over. They cannot be rewatched. (Someone who leaves an on-demand session before the end picks it up where they left off when they come back; only reaching the end of the video closes it.)
How do I decide whether to give on-demand attendees full video control?
Replays are no longer an option in your Schedule. To let people watch right away with full control over the video, enable on-demand sessions and turn on Attendees watching on-demand may fully control the video playback. When deciding whether to turn it on, ask yourself:
"Do I want to require attendees to watch my full eWebinar from beginning to end?"If the answer is yes, leave it off to preserve an event-style experience, at least on first viewing. (This can create a higher level of commitment and increase watch times.) Viewers can still get a replay link in your follow-up emails, just not to watch it the first time.
In general, however, if you’re comfortable with some attendees having full playback control on first viewing, turn it on. It lets attendees watch your eWebinar on their own schedule and terms.
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, enable ONLY on-demand sessions, and turn on full video control for them.
Limited control over the video in other session typesYou can give some video control in scheduled, on-demand, and just-in-time sessions:
However, viewers never have full control to freely skip around the video as in a replay, except on-demand viewers when you turn on full video control for on-demand sessions. |
Where attendees find their replay
Nobody registers for a replay. After their session, registrants reach their replay from your follow-up emails and from their eWebinar hub. Links or widgets that still ask for a replay register people for an on-demand session instead.
Replay links can be included in follow-up emails, and the default follow-up to people who completed your eWebinar includes one. The other default follow-ups use the { onDemandLink } merge tag, which opens the attendee’s join link while their session is still theirs, their replay once they have watched some of it, or a new on-demand session when they missed theirs (where your eWebinar offers on-demand sessions).
Nearly all eWebinar customers include replay links in their follow-up emails. (The thinking is, "I’d rather people watch my eWebinar 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.
To stop registrants watching the replay video altogether, turn off Let registrants watch a replay in the Replays section of the Settings tab: the replay page then still shows the summary, highlights, notes, and transcript, but not the video. To limit how long the video plays, turn on Set replays to expire there.
What attendees see on the replay page
The replay page shows the video with its interactions and transcript, the AI summary, and the attendee’s history with your eWebinar. Nothing past the furthest point the attendee has reached is shown: interactions still ahead appear as a stack of blank cards, and resources as placeholders that fill in as they get there. If you turn on Hide the summary until the eWebinar is completed in the Completion section of the Settings tab, the AI summary is held back until the attendee completes your eWebinar.
How to manage expectations of chat response times for Replays 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 eWebinar may be through the replay link in a follow-up email (unless they re-register, or the follow-up uses the { onDemandLink } merge tag, which takes them to an on-demand session instead where your eWebinar offers them).
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.
Replays 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 your eWebinar publicly, like in a social media ad, consider using an ungated on-demand link.
How eWebinar replays differ from live session replays
In one sense, every session in eWebinar is a "replay", since every session is pre-recorded.
So then why do we use the term at all?
Because it's a known term that carries meaning people already understand. With live webinars, for example, people who know they can't attend will often sign up just to get the replay link in a follow-up email.
That link works like a regular video player; they can skip around, rewind, and rewatch at any time. In this sense, eWebinar replays work exactly the same way. It's why we use the term.
The problem with traditional replays is that by the time the link arrives, days or weeks may have passed since they signed up, and interest has faded.
eWebinar works differently. People who want to watch right away don't have to wait for a replay: an on-demand session starts as soon as they join after registering, and you can give them full control of the video there too. Their replay comes after their session, to watch again or catch up on whenever they like. With a live session, 'watch now' is never even an option.