Was the webinar topic not relevant to the target audience?
Did we miss out on something important during promotions?
Was the content, webinar structure, or even the choice of speaker not up to the mark?
You try to look for a number of possibilities that could have potentially impacted the webinar performance.
But what often tends to get overlooked is the webinar timing.
In the scheduling process, webinar timing is one of the most crucial factors that greatly affects the webinar outcome. This blog will dive into the concept of webinar timing, aiming to guide event organizers on the best time to schedule and host webinars.
Here are the key takeaways you can expect from this guide:
- What is the best time for webinars?
- Why is webinar timing such a critical factor?
- Tips to maximize webinar attendance rate
- Quick overview of different time zones across the world
What is the Best Time for Webinars?
As per this report, the ideal time to host a webinar is at 11 a.m. PST (2 p.m. EST). While this is considered to be the most preferred time to schedule the webinars, it is also important to take other factors into account.
Your best time for webinars will differ based on your target audience’s demographic, region, and the time zone they are based out of.
Why Webinar Timing is such a Crucial Factor
The webinar timing plays an important role in ensuring your webinar’s success and helping you plan your schedule efficiently.
The understanding of the right time offers multiple advantages, including:
- Guarantees global audience reach across different time zones
- Boosts the registration number
- Improves participation rate and reduces drop-offs
- Enhances webinar attendance, lead generation, and conversion rates
- Ensures quality feedback
- Improves your brand perception among your target audience
Best Time for Webinars: Tips to Maximize Webinar Attendance
This section will explore the top tips to help you identify and analyze the best time to host webinars to maximize webinar attendance rates.
Conduct thorough research
Conduct detailed research and surveys to identify the right time to host your webinar. There are various ways to conduct your research:
- Ask your live webinar participants about their most preferred time.
- Leverage social media to conduct polls related to the right webinar time.
- Share survey forms in webinar follow-up emails to gather information.
Monitor competitor webinars
Monitor your competitor’s schedule and timing. This insight will help you prevent the possibility of your webinar clashing with one that they may be hosting, ensuring that your target audience isn’t divided between the two online events.
This, in turn, ultimately increases the likelihood of higher registration and attendance numbers for your webinar.
Assessing competitor webinars and their timings will also give you an insight into how they schedule their events, allowing you to leverage their findings to your benefit.
Analyze the past webinars
Leverage data and performance analytics from past webinars to gain valuable insights into optimal timing. With this information, you could identify those webinars that had the highest attendance rates, when they were held (day and time), and the demographics of your audience, helping you identify the most effective time slots for a specific audience.
You can replicate a similar schedule for future webinars targeting similar audiences, and maximize the overall attendance.
Avoid lunch hours
Make sure your webinar is not scheduled during lunch hours. Whether your target audience consists of students or working professionals, hosting a webinar during break times is far from ideal.
Such timing can lead to low engagement, reduced attendance, and even negative feedback, as participants are likely to be distracted or unavailable.
Instead, if you choose a time outside of these hours, like late mornings or early afternoons, you increase the chances of a focused and successful event.
Leverage the A/B testing approach
By leveraging A/B testing, you can identify the best timings for your webinars:
- Start by scheduling two or more webinars at different times, targeting the same audience group.
- Ensure that your marketing strategies, webinar content and topic, and registration process are consistent across all sessions.
- Conduct each webinar following the same format and structure to maintain consistency in delivery.
- Post-webinar, compare the key metrics, such as attendance, participation, and time spent.
- Utilize this data to identify which time slot has worked best for this particular set of audience.
- You can replicate the same process with other regional audiences to gather different sets of data.
This data will help you optimize your future webinar performances and maximize webinar attendance across different time zones and target audiences.
Avoid weekends
To attract a larger audience and increase webinar attendance, it’s essential to avoid hosting webinars on weekends.
Research shows that the likelihood of your audience attending a webinar on a Saturday or Sunday is only 4%. While Fridays are slightly better, attendance still remains below 10%, which is far from ideal.
For better visibility and maximum attendance, plan and schedule your webinars during the weekdays, preferably on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays (except the ones preceding long weekends).
Take time zones into consideration
To ensure that participants join on time and are fully engaged, it’s essential to be mindful of the time zone differences among your audience.
If you’re targeting a global or multi-regional audience, consider scheduling two or three separate sessions tailored to different time zones. This approach allows you to accommodate participants from various regions, maximizing attendance and engagement.
To help you streamline your webinar scheduling process, we’ve prepared a list of major time zones below.
A Quick Overview of Different Time Zones
Time Zone | UTC Offset | Regions where Time Zone Works |
PT – Pacific Time | UTC -8 / -7 | Western United States, British Columbia (Canada) |
MT – Mountain Time | UTC -7 / -6 | Mountain regions of the United States and Canada (Alberta, parts of British Columbia and Saskatchewan) |
CT – Central Time | UTC -6 / -5 | Central United States, Central Canada (Manitoba, Saskatchewan, parts of Ontario) |
ET – Eastern Time | UTC -5 / -4 | Eastern United States, Eastern Canada (Ontario, Quebec, parts of Nunavut) |
GMT – Greenwich Mean Time | UTC ±0 | United Kingdom, Ireland, Portugal, Iceland, parts of West Africa |
CET – Central European Time | UTC +1 / +2 | Most of continental Europe |
EET – Eastern European Time | UTC +2 / +3 | Eastern Europe, Finland, Greece, Turkey, Israel |
IST – India Standard Time | UTC +5:30 | India, Sri Lanka |
CST – China Standard Time | UTC +8 | China |
HKT – Hong Kong Time | UTC +8 | Hong Kong |
TST – Taipei Standard Time | UTC +8 | Taiwan |
JST – Japan Standard Time | UTC +9 | Japan, South Korea |
AEST – Australian Eastern Standard Time | UTC +10 | Queensland, New South Wales (except broken hill), Victoria, Tasmania |
AEDT – Australian Eastern Daylight Time | UTC +11 | New South Wales, Victoria, Tasmania (during daylight saving time) |
Next Step…
Choosing the optimal time for your webinars can be challenging, but it’s crucial for achieving your desired outcomes and meeting your goals.
While scheduling a webinar at 11 a.m. PST may be “statistically” ideal, it is not set in stone. To understand and identify the right time to maximize attendance, take into consideration the tips mentioned in this blog, like analyzing past webinar performances, competitor analysis and A/B testing.
If you need flexibility beyond specific time constraints, consider offering on-demand webinars, automated webinars, or pre-recorded sessions. These formats allow your audience to watch and revisit sessions at their convenience.
However, if real-time interaction and engagement are essential to your objectives, live webinars remain the best choice. Focus on selecting the approach that aligns with your business goals and event requirements.
If you’re seeking a solution that simplifies webinar scheduling and hosting, Airmeet has you covered – sign up for free here or contact us today.
FAQ
The right webinar timing helps you boost your attendance rate, allowing you greater access to potential leads and significantly improving the chances of conversion.
Yes, webinars can be scheduled during work hours on weekdays. However, it is considered ideal to avoid Mondays, Fridays, and Thursdays if they are adjacent to the long weekends, as these days often have lower attendance rates.
