In today’s dynamic marketplace, webinars have evolved into a perfect marketing tool.

Ideal for driving leads and engaging contacts, webinars move prospects through the buying cycle, and are a powerful way to bring new products and services to life.

However, even the most effective webinar strategy succeeds or fails on the impact of its promotional campaign. To help your broadcast achieve its potential, ensure your marketing strategy implements the following considerations:

• Start promoting early

Launch your webinar at short notice and no-one will be there to participate. Schedule it for a week from now, and attendee numbers will still be limited.

According to a study* by ON24, the week prior to an event accounts for a large share of registration figures, but 17 per cent of registrants sign up more than 15 days before the live webinar, and a full 29 per cent will register on the day.

Based on this evidence, the longer your promotional cycle, the greater your chances of driving a large audience to your hosting.

• Time your promotion

While your promotional activity should be amplified via social media, emails and newsletters are going to leverage the biggest draw. To help with this, you need to catch your audience when they are at their most receptive to marketing messages.

Some of this boils down to common sense: on a Monday people are wishing it were still the weekend, similarly Friday has everyone dreaming about Saturday, so it’s generally best to avoid the book ends of the working week.

According to ON24 research, Tuesday and Thursday pull in 21 and 25 per cent of subscriptions respectively, but Wednesday brings in 30 per cent, so make sure the bulk of your campaign is built using the profile-lifting power of the hump day.

Saturday and Sunday are, unsurprisingly, the least effective days on which to send out promos, so use the weekend for planning rather than promoting.

• Smart scheduling

The timing of the webinar itself impacts greatly on its success. Beyond the obvious broadcast times to avoid, such as at midnight on a Sunday, time zones are a key consideration and can trip up marketing teams who think they’ve got the best from their schedule.

Aim for a time that avoids commuting hours (before 9am, after 5pm) and stay clear of lunch time. For Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA) regions, ON24 research shows 15:00 GMT to be the most effective time, with 17 per cent, closely followed by 14:00 (16 per cent). Study results of the top five performing times, according to a percentage of total attendees:

• 9am: 13%
• 10am: 14%
• 12pm: 14%
• 2pm: 16%
• 3pm: 17%

Your webinar content could completely change the marketing industry, but not if nobody is present to witness it. That’s why your promotional campaign is every bit as important as the webinar itself.

When you’ve got your date set, stick to it, and take advantage of social media to keep your audience in the loop, reinforcing the benefits your webinar will bring.

Your campaign should incrementally increase anticipation and build awareness until the final second. Remember, a large chunk of your audience will be joining you on the launch day, so don’t let up until you go live!


*About ON24 Webinar Benchmarks Report
The study measured statistics across the entire lifecycle of a webinar, including webinar promotion and registration metrics, webinar interactivity metrics, audience viewing habits, and both live and on-demand attendance and conversion metrics.

Click here to download a copy of the ON24 Webinar Benchmarks Report.

About ON24
ON24, the world’s leading webinar marketing platform. In 2015, ON24 supported over 60,000 webcasts globally.

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