Report: Webinar Promotions Early in Week Are Most Successful

The “2016 Webinar Benchmarks Report” from BrightTALK uncovered several key insights driving top webinar programs and found that promotions earlier in the week had the highest registration numbers.

In addition to considering the best day of the week for promotion, businesses can include ratings and feedback, Q&A sections, polls, and attachments during webinar events to encourage user engagement. Companies saw a 46 percent engagement rate per webinar using ratings, 37 percent using a Q&A and 27 percent using polls.

The best days to host, according the report, are mid-week. Researchers note that, “For marketers looking to maximize their live audience conversion rates, try to plan your webinars on Tuesdays or Wednesdays to avoid the peak presentation day.”

On average, webinar presentations last 39 minutes, with 50 attachments downloaded, 47 percent participation in polls, and a 4.3 out of 5 rating. Typically, users ask for a PDF of the deck in addition to a recording of the webinar, so companies should include that in the attachments section of the presentation, according to the report.

Marketers can extend the life of the webinar by publishing the recording on their website. Data showed that even 100 days after the live webinar, it had only reached 65.5 percent of all-time views. “It is important to maintain a registration form in front of on-demand webinars for consistent lead scoring and to measure the performance of the content over time.”

To conduct this research, the company analyzed 12,000 webinars on the BrightTALK platform from 2015.

Webinar Views Shift From Live to On-Demand

According to a 2015 “Webinar Benchmarks Report” from ON24, 43 percent of people who registered for a webinar in 2014 chose to view it on-demand instead of live. This percentage was up 22 percentage points from 2013, due to viewers wanting to go back and re-view specific parts of the presentation.

In addition, an increasing number of people chose to register for a webinar after it ended and watched a recorded version. According to researchers, “On-demand registrations can occur many weeks after the initial live airing, particularly as companies find new ways to promote their on-demand content.”