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A webinar is an appointment with people you have not met yet. They hand you their email address and half an hour of their day, and they expect something back they can use tomorrow. Get that right and one broadcast builds more trust than ten posts. Get it wrong and you talk to an empty room.
According to ON24's benchmarks, on average 57 percent of registrants actually attend, and Univid measures 49 percent live. Close to half of the people who sign up do not watch live. That is why this answer covers the weeks before and the days after as much as the hour itself. The webinar planning checklist turns those steps into a list for your date.
A topic your customer asks for
The strongest topic comes from your inbox and your sales calls. Which question do you get every week? Which misunderstanding do you keep correcting? A webinar on "the five mistakes in a planning application" draws more sign-ups than one on "our vision for the industry".
Make the title concrete and promise an outcome you can really deliver in 30 to 45 minutes. Add three sentences on what someone can do afterwards. You will reuse that copy on your sign-up page, in your emails and in your posts.
Picking the day and the hour
Contrast analysed 500,000 registrations: Wednesday gets the highest turnout, Tuesday and Thursday follow at 45 percent. By hour, 2 pm won with 55 percent live and 11 am came next with 50 percent. Monday and Friday are weaker, because people are opening or closing their week.
| Slot | Live turnout (Contrast) | When to choose it |
|---|---|---|
| Wednesday 2 pm | Best day and best hour | Your default for a UK audience |
| Tuesday or Thursday | 45 percent live | When Wednesday clashes with a trade fair or a holiday |
| 11 am | 50 percent live | When you also want viewers in Belgium, where it is noon |
| Evening after 7 pm | Lower for B2B | Only for consumers or freelancers who work during the day |
If your audience is spread over several countries, lay the working hours side by side in the time zone overlap calculator. An hour that suits London lands at 9 am in New York.
The five weeks before you go live
Four to five weeks is enough for an audience that knows you. Starting from zero, allow six.
- Week five: the pageBuild a sign-up page with the title, the speaker, what people learn and a short form. Ask for name, email and company, nothing more.
- Week four: the announcementEmail your list and post on LinkedIn and Instagram. A newsletter about the problem works better than a bare invitation.
- Week three: the reachIf you want to go beyond your own circle, run a small campaign with Facebook and Instagram ads or LinkedIn. You can also list the session as an online event on Facebook, so followers can mark that they are going. Track sign-ups with the Meta pixel.
- Week two: the dress rehearsalTest the software with the real speaker, the slides, the sound and the light. Agree who moderates questions and who watches the chat.
- The final week: remindersOne email a week ahead, one the day before and one an hour before the start, with the link at the top. That last email brings back people who forgot.
During the broadcast
Start two minutes after the announced time, not later. People who are on time will wait too long otherwise. Open with the promise from your title and say how long it will take. Change format after ten minutes: a poll, a question to the audience or a short demo. People who only look at slides drop off after a quarter of an hour.
Keep questions for the last quarter, but read them during the talk. That way the moderator can group the best ones. End with one concrete next step: book a call, download a checklist or sign up for the next session.
After the last word: the replay and the follow-up
Within 24 hours, email everyone who signed up with the recording, the slides and the next step. Univid sees turnout rise from 49 to 57 percent once the replay is counted. The people who did not come live are not lost.
Edit the recording into a video without the waiting time and the glitches. Put it on YouTube with a title people search for and chapters in the description, so viewers jump to the part they care about. A 45-minute webinar often gives you four or five short clips for social media. Check with the video file size calculator how heavy those exports get.
Ready to go live
- The sign-up page works on a phone and the form sends a confirmation
- The link to the broadcast sits at the top of every reminder
- Speaker and moderator have tested the software together once
- Microphone, light and camera are set and notifications on the laptop are off
- The next step is on the last slide and in the follow-up email
- Recording is switched on, locally or in your software's cloud
What organisers ask us most
How long should a webinar be?
Between 30 and 60 minutes, questions included. Keep a first webinar to 30 to 45 minutes. Longer only works when the audience expects a training session.
Which software do I need?
Zoom, Microsoft Teams and Livestorm each offer a webinar mode with sign-ups and recording. Pick what your audience already knows. A tool that needs installing first costs you viewers at the start.
Should a webinar be free?
For a first series, yes. A paid webinar needs a strong name or a course with a certificate. Free with a clear next step usually brings in more conversations.
How many registrants do I need?
Expect about half to show up live. If you want 40 people in the room, aim for 80 sign-ups. The webinar planning checklist puts the steps towards that in your calendar.
Can I release a webinar as a podcast too?
Yes, if the conversation works without the slides. An interview with a guest works better than a presentation. See what video podcast production involves.