Webinars are popular. Case in point: Someone searches for a webinar every second of the day. And from the attendee perspective, it’s easy to understand their popularity. You can attend from anywhere, the subjects are seemingly infinite, and you can attend or view at your convenience. It’s no wonder webinars are the go-to learning method: 91% prefer webinars to articles (60%), whitepapers (48%), and blogs (42%). Planning a webinar? Keep in mind these webinar best practices:
Content
54% of B2B professionals sign up for webinars weekly to stay current. What makes them click “register?”
Webinar Best Practices
Top topics:
- tips, tricks, and best practices (70%)
- industry predictions (62%)
- how-to (61%)
- expert interviews (60%)
- case studies (59%)
- data insights/original research (55%)
Timing
Steer clear of summer months when hosting—everyone is already OOO. Use warm weather months to brainstorm, map out, develop, and/or record on-demand content. Webinar attendance peaks in January, April, September, and November. That doesn’t mean sidestep the other 8 months. Instead consider your membership’s needs, annual conference’s timing, holidays, and other competing events (in and out of the workplace) that vie for your audience’s attention.
Tuesdays and Thursdays are the most popular days to host webinars. Although Thursday wins attendance (41.5%) followed by Friday (40.2%), and Wednesday (39.7%), Tuesday has the lowest (37.6%). Whatever day you pick, ensure it’s best for your audience through post-webinar feedback. While no start time is perfect, 2pm EST webinars have the highest attendance rate (50%) followed by 12pm (46%) and 11am (45.6%).
Marketing
Best practice: start at least 3-4 weeks ahead of time with 2-3 email and social media pushes. Registrations increase by 12% when promoted at least 4 weeks ahead of time, so put a project plan together.
Most registrations occur between 8-10am (36%). The best days to send webinar promotion emails: Tuesday-Thursday. Tuesdays average the most registrations (21%), compared to Thursday (20.3%), and Monday (19%). Expect most registrations to happen closer to the date. Over half (54.7%) occur less than a week out, 19% sign up the day before, 9% on the day of—so build this into your marketing schedule.
Length
Some data suggest 60-minute webinars are more popular than 30/45/90-minute webinars. This may reflect people’s engagement, but it may result from default thinking: 61% of webinars are 60-minutes long and 14% are 45 minutes long. Like sitting through a meeting that could have been an email—avoid scheduling a webinar for longer than you need. If the content is important but it doesn’t stretch to an hour—don’t make it. Choosing a non-traditional length of time could boost attendance rates by 5% (30/45-minute webinars) and 15% for 90-minute webinars.
Audience engagement
On average, attendees stay engaged for 24 minutes out of a 60-minute session–so vary your delivery to maintain audience engagement and participation throughout. Consider: video, guest speakers, and polls. Webinars with integrated video content are rated 7.8 out of 10. “Guest speakers” are a draw, so use that in your marketing. Polls create avenues for interaction and feedback. Also try using webinars as a “community building” tool (e.g., a roundtable to answer questions or discuss issues) to connect your membership.
Webinar Best Practice Trends
Make it easy and make it flexible. Only 29% of webinars are “live” so don’t feel pressured to host a “live” webinar. Attendees love “on-demand” because it increases flexibility:
- 37% watch a replay and 46% only watch the webinar replay
- While only 27% report attending webinars regularly, they sign up to receive the digital recording and catch up afterwards when convenient
Most webinar views come within 10 days of the actual webinar—use this in your post-webinar follow-up/outreach. Consider streaming the content on another platform simultaneously (e.g. LinkedIn) to broaden your audience with tools like Livestorm or Restream. Try closed captioning/live transcripts to make your webinars more inclusive. Incorporate gamification elements (e.g., leaderboards, badges, challenges, or even prizes) to up the fun, engagement, and drive users to your content.
If you want to meet your members where they are, webinars are a good place to go. Vary delivery methods, keep messaging concise, and incorporate flexibility, practicality, and fun into webinars. Being mindful of webinar best practices will allow you to make the most of your efforts