Webinars in the Accounting Industry: What Works & What You Can Do Better

Webinars have become a go-to marketing tool for accounting firms, offering an efficient way to share expertise, engage clients and generate leads. But in today’s crowded virtual space, how do you make your webinar stand out and, more importantly, keep your audience hooked? For accounting marketing professionals, the key lies in choosing the right content, making it interactive and following up with smart, actionable steps. Here’s how firms like Withum and Rea & Associates are getting it right—and how you can too.

Why Webinars Still Matter

Webinars are more than just information dumps—they’re a direct line to client engagement. At Withum, webinars are integral to the firm’s thought leadership strategy. “They’re definitely a key component,” says Allison Gorga, Marketing Director at Withum. Whether it’s explaining new tax regulations or industry challenges, webinars keep Withum in front of clients and prospects, building trust and credibility above and beyond what traditional marketing tactics can provide.

Rea & Associates sees webinars as a way to respond to client concerns quickly and efficiently. For example, when Ohio’s tax regulations around tax-free shopping changed, Rea launched a webinar within days to clarify the new rules. “We use webinars to get important information out fast,” says Practice Growth Manager Becky Weiand. Webinars allow Rea to scale conversations, answer frequently asked questions and then follow up with personalized advice​ in real time.

Choosing the Right Topics

Picking the right webinar topic is an art. It needs to be timely, relevant and valuable enough to grab attention. At Withum, the most popular webinars focus on topics clients are actively asking about. “We’re not just throwing webinars out there,” says Gorga. Withum’s strategy is to focus on the pressing issues as they arise, like Employee Retention Credits during COVID-19, which led to elevated attendance and long-lasting goodwill among attendees​.

At Rea, the best topics come from listening to clients’ recurring questions. Weiand explains that while niche topics, like fiduciary retirement requirements, might attract a smaller audience, those attendees are highly relevant leads. On the other hand, broader subjects, like cybersecurity, tend to pull in larger crowds, but have a larger impact on brand awareness. “It’s all about understanding what’s timely and what our clients care about,” she says​.

What You Can Do: Focus on your clients’ questions and pain points. Consult principals and managers to understand the client’s challenges. Develop a webinar addressing those topics. This way, your content is always relevant and timely.

The Tech Behind Webinars

Your webinar platform isn’t just a tool—it’s the backbone of your event. Withum uses ON24, a platform that integrates with their CRM. This allows the marketing team to track attendee behavior, follow up efficiently and offer interactive features like live polls and transcriptions. “The data we get from ON24 is invaluable,” says Gorga. “We can track engagement, see who watched the replay and adjust our follow-up accordingly.”

Rea & Associates uses GoToWebinar, which Weiand appreciates for its simplicity and back-end analytics. The platform provides insight into attendee behavior, even tracking if participants are multitasking. This helps her team tailor follow-up communications.

What You Can Do: When selecting a platform, consider features such as engagement scoring, CRM integration and interactive tools to keep your audience engaged. If ON24 or GoToWebinar are not within your budget, you can consider alternatives like Zoom Webinars or WebinarJam. With the rise of AI, new webinar platforms are emerging every day. A platform that allows you to track detailed user behavior will help you fine-tune your strategy.

Keeping Audiences Engaged

With webinar fatigue on the rise, it’s important to keep your audience actively involved. One way Withum does this is by offering Continuing Professional Education (CPE) credits. To earn their credits, attendees must answer polling questions throughout the session, which ensures they stay focused and engaged. “Polling questions are a must, especially for our CPE webinars,” says Gorga.

Rea also focuses on engagement with polling questions and live Q&A sessions. Rea saves time at the end of each webinar for questions, allowing attendees to interact directly with the speakers. This engagement turns passive viewers into active participants, increasing their investment in the content.

What You Can Do: Don’t just talk at your audience—bring them into the conversation. Use polling questions, quizzes or even virtual breakout rooms to engage attendees. Consider offering CPE credits if relevant, as it adds tangible value.

Following Up with Actionable Steps

A successful webinar doesn’t end when the presentation does. Both Withum and Rea emphasize the importance of personalized follow-up. Withum uses ON24’s analytics to segment attendees based on their behavior during the webinar, creating targeted drip campaigns that keep the conversation going. “The follow-up is key to turning attendees into clients,” says Gorga​.

Rea takes a similar approach by sharing engagement reports with their principals, highlighting which clients attended and offering suggestions for follow-up conversations. This personalized approach turns a one-time event into a long-term opportunity.

What You Can Do: Skip the generic thank-you email. Instead, personalize your follow-up based on attendee engagement. If someone asked a question during the Q&A, send them additional resources or offer a consultation. If someone didn’t attend, offer to schedule a one-on-one chat to catch them up on key points. This tailored approach shows that you care about their needs.

Takeaways & Ideas

Here are some additional actionable ideas you can implement to make your webinars more effective and engaging:

• Encourage Partner-Led Invitations and Involvement: Instead of just sending a generic email blast, give your partners and key team members a role in driving attendance. Draft personalized invite emails that partners can easily send to their clients or even offer a short video message from a partner inviting them to the webinar.
• Leverage Pre-Webinar Content: Build excitement before the webinar by sharing teasers, key takeaways, or a miniseries of short videos introducing the topics or speakers. You can even run a quick pre-webinar survey to collect questions from attendees in advance, making them feel invested in the content before it even starts.
• Create a Content Ecosystem: Don’t let your webinar live in isolation. Repurpose the content by turning key insights into blog posts, infographics or even podcast episodes. After the webinar, use snippets or highlights to create bite-sized content that can be shared across social media platforms, driving more engagement over time.
• Experiment with Different Formats: Break away from traditional one-hour webinars and experiment with formats like short, 15-minute “power” webinars for time-strapped clients, or multi-day webinar series on more complex topics. You can also try hosting hybrid events, combining in-person networking with a live-streamed webinar for broader reach.
• Offer Perks: Give attendees a reason to register by offering exclusive incentives like early access to new tools, whitepapers or industry reports. You could also provide a special one-on-one consultation opportunity for select attendees.

The Future of Webinars

While webinars have become a bit of a buzzword, they aren’t going away anytime soon. Both Gorga and Weiand agree that while attendance may have dropped slightly post-pandemic, webinars remain a go-to tool for educating clients and showcasing thought leadership. However, they’re evolving from broad virtual events into more focused, content-driven sessions. Clients are less interested in general information—they want webinars that speak directly to their needs.

The key is knowing your audience, using the right tools and delivering content that matters.

To learn more about Withum and their upcoming webinars check out their events page.