BigMarker Review: The Swiss Army Knife of Webinar Software?

Overall rating

4.7/5

4.7

7 day trial for free

Pros

Cons

Best or unique feature

Webinar Types & Setup

5/5

Audience Interactions

5/5

Presentation Tools

4/5

Pricing & Trial

3/5

Webinar Funnel Pages

5/5

Video Engine & Support

5/5

Webinar Replay

5/5

Email Reminders

5/5

Mobile Devices

5/5

Analytics & Exports

5/5

In this BigMarker review, we’ll tackle 3 important questions in great detail:

  1. Which are the key features that make BigMarker such a popular choice among webinar marketers?
  2. What are the most important pros and cons of BigMarker that you should know about?
  3. Who is this webinar software really for? In which cases is the price justified?

BigMarker is an increasingly popular webinar marketing software. And understandably – it’s packed with useful marketing features, handy presentation tools and insightful webinar analytics. 

Different Webinar Types & Ease of Setup

You can literally host any type of webinar on BigMarker. When you’re about to create a new webinar, you’re greeted with this choice:

BigMarker webinar types
Different types of webinars on BigMarker

It can be a bit overwhelming to choose, so let’s look at each webinar type separately:

For live and automated webinars, you’ll also have an option to host it as a webinar or a webcast. In this case, both allow interacting with the audience, launching polls, chatting and taking questions.

The only difference is that on webcasts, the attendees can’t join with webcam + mic. The video quality is better, but the attendees experience a slight 10-15 second delay.

webinar or webcast choice on BigMarker
Webinar or webcast

Automated Webinar Timeline Builder

There’s a very visual timeline builder for automated webinars.

You can schedule all the interactive events which trigger at a specific time relative to the webinar starting time:

BigMarker automated webinar events
BigMarker events to add to automated webinar

After you add all the event triggers, your automated webinar timeline would look something like this:

BigMarker automated webinar builder
BigMarker automated webinar builder

Once you’re done with it, you can “Play Test” to launch it and see how the attendee would experience it.

Webinar Funnel Pages & Landing Page Editor

There’s a surprisingly wide selection of different landing page templates available on BigMarker. 

BigMarker landing pages
BigMarker landing pages

The important thing to notice here is that there’s also very different layouts.

In this way, you can actually design the registration page that best communicates the value of your webinar and attracts sign-ups.

The Webinar Landing Page Editor

On the left-hand side, there’s a ‘what you see is what you get’ type of page editor. It enables you to customize the main aspects of the landing page – banner image, presenters, all the texts, colors and add your logo. This way you can customize the landing page to closely match your brand.

The agenda is a unique feature I noticed during this BigMarker review. You can set up a sequence of topics for your webinar.

BigMarker landing page example
BigMarker landing page example with an agenda

In addition to that, there are some technical aspects you can add and customize on the landing page:

Another useful feature is that you can add custom questions to the registration page. This helps you gather some useful data about your attendees before the webinar.

BigMarker custom questions
Custom questions setup on the Registration Page

The Registration Confirmation Page

Also known as the Thank-You Page.

You can customize the elements you want to display on this page. For example, you can add:

Here’s how the registration confirmation page editor looks like:

BigMarker confirmation page editor
BigMarker thank you page editor

Overall BigMarker review rating for the webinar funnel pages is massively positive.
They have abundant customization tools and elegant design options.
The navigation can take some time to get used to, because there’s just so many options.

Email Tools are Flexible & Well-Designed

The email tools are also very powerful and one of the most flexible features of the BigMarker review.  

There are different email types you can set up:

BigMarker feedback survey email example
Post-webinar feedback survey

There are further segmentation options on these emails. You can choose to send each of those emails to:

This means you can create a different email to each of these groups, if you want. Or you can send the same email to everyone.

The email tools go so far that you can customize the sender’s name and email address (reply-to) as well as all the texts, buttons and colors on the emails.

BigMarker email scheduler
BigMarker email scheduling options
BigMarker email editor
BigMarker email editing options

So, the email customization options are very flexible in terms of scheduling and design. An absolute delight.

Here’s how a customized confirmation email would look like for the attendee:

BigMarker webinar reminder email example
How the BigMarker webinar reminder email looks like for the attendee

Elegant, clean and straight-forward. The prominent “Add to calendar” will surely increase the attendance rate. 

BigMarker Webinar Audience Interaction Tools

When you’re setting up the webinar, you can pre-configure the audience interaction tools like:

Once they’re pre-configured you can launch them at any time during your live webinar.

pre-configured offers
Pre-configured offers

Chat and Q&A

In the BigMarker live webinar room, there’s a public chat (everyone will see) and the private chat (only the host will see).

The host can also pin a message on top of the chat messages, so it’s always visible to all the attendees. 

In addition, the host has a strong control over the attendees. Meaning they can kick/ban hecklers or pin attendee message, like a testimonial, for example.

Host controls
Host has complete control over the attendees

BigMarker has nailed the Q&A here. All the attendees can ask questions and they’d become visible to the host.

Then the host can choose which Q&A questions he wants to publish.

After publishing each Q&A question, they become visible to the attendees.

Then the attendees can upvote which questions they want answered.

Bigmarker QA upvoting
Attendees can upvote on any Q&A questions

The host (or the moderator) can also provide a written answer to any Q&A questions that the host couldn’t give a detailed answer to on the video.

Polls and voting

The host can create polls before or during the webinar. Once the host launches the poll, it will display as a pop-up for the attendee. It’s impossible to miss.

bigmarker poll example
Attendee answering a multiple-choice question

This full screen polling maximizes the poll participation rate.

After the attendee answers the poll, the results will immediately become visible to them.

bigmarker poll results
Poll results after answering

Pop-Over Offers and Call-to-Actions

The offers are a critical part of interacting with the audience. This is where you make the offer and where you gradually start winning them over.

The host can launch the offer as full-screen or as slide-out.

BigMarker offers setup
Host view: Options to launch the offers

Since the attendees want to keep watching the webinar, I suggest you use the slide-out offer.

The offer is very attention grabbing. You can add an image and customize the call-to-action button.

You can also add a timer to the offer to create urgency.

BigMarker offers example as attendee
Attendee view: Slide-out offers

As the host launches the offer, it will launch for the host as well, so he can see exactly how it appears to the attendees.

Even if the attendee closes the offer, it will still remain pinned on top of the right-hand toolbar.

BigMarker offers example full
BigMarker Live Room - Offer will be pinned ontop of the chat - even if they're closed at first

This is because webinar purchase decisions take some thought, consideration and persuasion. It’s gradual as you’re answering people’s questions and giving them some encouragement.

Webcam Video Engine & Tech Support

As you’re entering the webinar room as the host, you can actually choose your webcam video quality.

BigMarker webcam video quality options
Choose the webcam video quality before the webinar starts

So, you can go all the way up to 1080p if your webcam can take it.

BigMarker webcam video quality
BigMarker webcam video quality

However, if you set the webcam quality to 1080p, the video feed becomes slightly laggy for the attendee if you set the video quality that high. 

A couple more unique features are the filters and backgrounds.

There are 6 video filters you can choose from. In my opinion, they’re a great feature to give a more of a quality feel to your webinar.

BigMarker video filter example
Webcam video (720p) with a video filter enabled

There’s also the “Host control panel” inside the webinar room for the host, but I’ve found that if I change anything, it doesn’t really make any changes.

Webinar video control panel
Host's video control panel

You have to leave the webinar room and join again to change the webcam quality settings.

What about troubleshooting during the live webinar?

If any attendee is having some troubles during the live webinar, you diagnose the problem by running a speed test for them. Or you can refresh your attendee’s browser.

Option to refresh attendee browser
The host can troubleshoot attendee problems

These are unique features I’ve only discovered while doing this BigMarker review.

There’s also a rich Help Center on BigMarker.

Live Webinar Presentation Tools

The live webinar room interface looks the same for the host and for the attendee. Of course, the host has more controls, but overall, it’s a good thing to have the same interface. This way the host can have more control over how the attendees experience the webinar.

Moreover, you can change the live webinar room colors to closely match your brand colors.

BigMarker live room color theme picker
BigMarker live room color theme picker

Another thing I like is that you can switch between the slideshow and the full screen webcam view really easily.

camera full screen switch
Switching between full screen webcam & slides

This way you can switch to full screen webcam video to really emphasize some point. Once you click on the “Slides” again, the slides will just resume from where you left off.

Play Videos

You (as the host) can pre-upload video or just launch them from YouTube.

The great thing here is that you can play/pause and seek the video. This gives you a lot more control. For example, you might have a 20-minute YouTube video, but you only want to show a 20-second clip right in the middle of the video. On BigMarker, you can do that easily.

BigMarker playing videos during webinar
Play/Pause and seek YouTube videos

To be fair, there is a tiny synchronization lag with pausing the video. The pause moment is 0.5 seconds early for the attendee. 

Whiteboard Tool

The whiteboard is for expressing your thoughts and ideas visually. You can draw:

Choose any color and make the brush thicker. That’s useful for emphasizing something on the slides or just drawing out a concept.

BigMarker whiteboard drawing tools
BigMarker whiteboard drawing tools

Make Any Attendee a Temporary Presenter

You can temporarily give a webcam spotlight to any attendee in the webinar room. Once they’re made presenter, they can share their webcam + mic or their screen. This is a great way to have an attendee share a video testimonial to encourage other attendees to make the purchase.

BigMarker make presenter option
Host making an attendee a presenter

I did encounter a small bug during this BigMarker review – After I removed the attendee from the presenter role, they still have to switch off the webcam on their part.

Webinar Experience on Mobile Devices & Different Browsers

To be honest, the mobile experience is the most underwhelming part of this BigMarker review. Attendees can join on their mobile phone browsers and all the engagement features will be available to them, but the layout could be improved.

If it’s just the webcam video, it’s fine. But once you start sharing slides, the webcam slightly overlaps with the slideshow.

BigMarker Android - webcam
BigMarker Android - webcam
BigMarker Android - Slides + Webcam
BigMarker Android - Slides + Webcam

Of course, this depends on the attendee device, too.

On your side, you could move the webcam video below the slideshow, but again – it doesn’t change for the attendee.

Another design choice that seems kind of lazy to me is the blue “Engagements button” that just floats around in the middle of the screen.

Once tapped, the chat, Q&A, the polls and handouts can be accessed from there.

BigMarker Android - Polls
BigMarker Android - Polls
BigMarker Android - Q&A
BigMarker Android - Q&A

Joining on browsers like Firefox, Internet Explorer and Safari worked fine too.

Webinar Follow-up & Recording Video (Replay)

Webinar follow-up is an important part of your webinar and it shouldn’t be forgotten.

On BigMarker you can send a follow-up e-mail to attendees or no-shows. This way you can re-engage the attendees and dissolve any remaining hesitations and close the sale.

The webinar follow-up email includes the webinar replay. On BigMarker you have to Publish it before.

BigMarker webinar replay tools
Customizing the webinar replay engagement tools

Before you send out the webinar follow-up email, you can configure the webinar replay video:

Here’s how the webinar replay would look like for the attendee:

BigMarker replay for attendee
Attendee view: Watching the webinar replay

What I especially love about BigMarker is the engagement features during the webinar replay. You can set up polls, Q&A, chat and offers.

So, when replay attendees have a question, they can ask it right away.

And you can set up offers, so that they will trigger at a specific time. Here’s how the attendee will see the offers:

BigMarker replay offers
Attendee view: Offers during replay

You can also download the replay video or upload a different video to use as the replay.

Webinar Analytics Dashboard & Data Exports

The webinar analytics dashboard on BigMarker gives you the primary conversion data:

BigMarker analytics dashboard
BigMarker analytics dashboard

Since you can schedule an email campaign right from BigMarker, you can see the email campaign conversion data as well. Also, you can track the Social Media referrals. Basically, you’ll have all the acquisition data for your webinar attendance. 

You can download an even more detailed Webinar Report PDF, which gives you data like:

BigMarker Analytics Report
BigMarker Analytics Report

Let’s summarize the analytics dashboard aspect of this BigMarker review.
The webinar analytics dashboard and the report are very robust and insightful. The acquisition and engagement data are the most valuable here.

BigMarker Pricing Packages & Free Trial

The price for even the Starter package is quite high on BigMarker.

But given all the excellent features we’ve covered in this BigMarker review, it’s understandable.

However, as you can see, all the packages include most of the different webinar types. So BigMarker is meant for webinar marketers who use different types of webinars.

BigMarker Review Conclusion

If you’re frequently hosting live webinars, you have an automated webinar funnel and you’re also doing recurring coaching sessions, then BigMarker would be a wise choice for you.

This way all your contacts would be in one place and you wouldn’t have to use different software for different purposes. And you wouldn’t have to pay for multiple tools.

BigMarker is the best solution if you host different types of webinars.

There’s also a 7-day trial, so you can try out these features.

However, you couldn’t run a full webinar, since the trial is only limited to 10 attendees, but you could try out the marketing tools and live & automated webinar features.

BigMarker Pros and Cons

Let’s summarize the BigMarker review with the most important pros and cons:

Erkki Muuga

Erkki Muuga

Erkki has over 10 years of experience as a software product manager and a proven track record in building and growing SaaS products. He has a keen eye for key differentiating factors and spotting truly valuable software features that enable business use cases.

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