How to run a webinar people actually show up to

The short answer

People miss webinars for three reasons: they forget, they can’t find the link, or the time doesn’t suit them. Fix all three:

1. Pick a time that works where your audience is, and say which time zone it is in.
2. Get it into their calendar the moment they book.
3. Remind them, the day before and on the day, with the join link in every reminder.
4. Decide on a replay before you sell, because it changes who turns up live.

Why webinar attendance drops

A room has pull: people have travelled, they are dressed, their friends are there. A webinar has none of that. It competes with whatever else is on the screen, and skipping it costs nothing but a click.

Free webinars feel this most, because a free registration is a light commitment. Our post on how to stop no-shows at a free event covers that side in more depth. Paid sessions see fewer no-shows, but people still forget.

Most of what follows isn’t clever. It is removing every small reason not to turn up.

Pick the right time

There is no single best time for a webinar. Think about who your audience is and what their day looks like:

• Professionals often prefer a lunchtime slot or straight after work.
• Parents may find later in the evening easier, once children are in bed.
• Small business owners often prefer outside their busiest trading hours.

If you can, ask. A one-question poll to your email list beats any guess.

Keep it short. A tight 45 minutes is easier to commit to than a loose two hours. Say how long it runs on the event page, and finish on time.

Get time zones right

Australia has several time zones, and not every state observes daylight saving. Queensland, Western Australia and the Northern Territory stay on standard time all year, so the gap between Brisbane and Sydney changes in summer. An online audience may be spread across all of them, and overseas too.

Do three things:

• Set the event in the time zone you are presenting from. On One Ticket each event has its own time zone, and the event page shows the time with its zone, such as “7–8 pm (AEDT)”.
• Say it in plain words too, in the description: “7 pm in Sydney and Melbourne, 6 pm in Brisbane, 4 pm in Perth.”
• Let the ticket show their own time. When someone books from another time zone, their ticket page shows the start in their time as well, and the emails link a “Check your time” page that converts it.
• Lean on calendar files. When the event lands in someone’s calendar, their calendar shows it in their own time zone. That is the most reliable way to stop a Perth attendee turning up two hours late.

If your audience is spread across many time zones, consider running the session twice, or offering a replay for the people who can’t make either time.

Get it into their calendar

A webinar that’s in someone’s calendar happens. One that’s only in their inbox gets buried.

On One Ticket, the ticket email carries a calendar file and links to add it to Google Calendar or Outlook, with the join link inside the calendar entry. Encourage people to add it: a line on the event page such as “Add it to your calendar from your ticket email” helps. See how attendees add your event to their calendar.

Remind them, with the link

Reminders are the biggest single lever on attendance. Each one should carry the join link itself, not “check your earlier email for the link”. The less searching on the day, the more people join.

On One Ticket, reminders go out automatically to every ticket holder, free or paid:

• The day before, about 20 to 24 hours ahead of the start.
• On the morning of, from 7 am in the event’s time zone.
• Starting in 15 minutes, just before it begins, for online events. It is on unless you turn it off in Settings › Preferences.

For a live webinar, every reminder carries the join link. For a pre-recorded premiere, they carry each person’s own Watch link. Premieres are a Pro and Team feature. Pro and Team are open now: upgrade any time in Settings › Plan. Limited-time offer: A$1 for your first year (first 100 organisers), then A$29/month for Pro or A$79/month for Team. Cancel anytime.

Our post on sending event reminders covers what a good reminder says if you are writing your own as well.

Make the link easy to find

On the day, people search their inbox in a panic. Make it simple:

• The join link is on their ticket page, which they can open from any of their emails.
• Use the same event name everywhere, so a search for it finds the right email.
• Don’t change the link after people have booked. If you must, update it on the event as soon as you can, because new reminders carry the current link.

Make it worth turning up live

Give people a reason the live session beats watching later:

• Live Q&A. Promise to answer questions, and do.
• Something only attendees get, like a worksheet shared during the session or a discount code read out at the end.
• A clear outcome. “By the end you’ll have a draft budget” is a better promise than “an overview of budgeting”.

Ask a question at checkout, such as “What do you most want to learn?”, and use the answers. People are more likely to come to a session that answers their own question. See collecting information at checkout.

Decide on the replay before you sell

A replay helps people who can’t make the time, and it is a fair thing to offer on a paid session. It can also mean fewer people come live, because they know they can catch up.

Decide which matters more and say so on the event page:

• “Can’t make it? Everyone booked gets the recording.” Good for paid content where the material matters more than the live moment.
• “Live only, no recording.” Good when the interaction is the point.
• “The replay is for people who can’t make it; questions are only answered live.” A middle ground.

On One Ticket, replays are a Pro and Team feature: you add the recording link and choose when it goes out, and everyone with a ticket is emailed it and finds it on their ticket.

For pre-recorded sessions: let late joiners in

People run late. With a pre-recorded premiere, late joiners pick up where the video is up to, as if it were live. You choose how late they can join: until it ends, or until the last few minutes. The watch room can open up to an hour early with a countdown, which gives early arrivals somewhere to wait.

Capped sessions: use a waitlist

If places are limited and a session sells out, turn on the waitlist. When someone can’t come and a place frees up, it can be offered to the next person in line, who is keener than most. See how to set a capacity for your event.

Check your email allowance for big free webinars

Every confirmation and reminder is an email. On One Ticket’s Free plan, each organiser can send up to 500 emails a day and sell up to 500 tickets a day. A free webinar for a few hundred people fits; one expecting thousands of sign-ups in a day won’t, so plan your promotion over several days.

After the webinar

• Look at who came. For a premiere, the attendee list shows who joined and how many minutes each ticket watched. For a live webinar, it shows who opened the join link with the Join button on their ticket; your meeting tool’s own record shows who stayed.
• Follow up the same day, with the slides or the replay if you offer one, and the next date.
• Run it as a series if people liked it. Regulars who come every month are your most reliable audience. See selling a series of events.

How it all fits together, live and pre-recorded, is on the webinar ticketing page.