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Announcing ON24’s 2020 Webinar Benchmarks Report

March 25th, 2020 Michael Mayday

What’s the best time to run a webinar? What about promoting it? And who, exactly, is so used to running video events? You have questions about running webinars and digital experiences. We have answers.

That’s because we’ve just recently released the ON24 2020 Webinar Benchmarks Report, which is chock-full of useful information, from the best day to send promotional emails to average attendee conversion rates. Download this report to learn what you can expect from your webinar program, what other ON24 users are doing with their webinars and discover useful tips that’ll make your digital experiences stand out.

And, special for this year, you’ll also be able to see what leading marketers across the globe are doing to stand apart from the digital marketing pack based on data we’ve gathered for our report, “Experiences Everywhere: What Top-Performing Marketers Do Differently.

Curious about what’s in the report? Here are a few takeaways:

When to Promote Your Webinars

According to our benchmarks report, Tuesday and Thursday are the best days to send promotional emails for your digital events. Though, keep in mind: any day during the mid-week is typically fine for promotions.

Make sure you start your promotions early, however. We recommend at least 15 days before your virtual event’s launch, as more than half of all registrants sign up for a webinar eight days before the event. In fact, more than a quarter of all registrants sign up more than 15 days in advance. So, calendar out your emails and webinars!

The Best Day and Time for Webinars

When should you hold your webinar? Well, according to our benchmarks, Thursday has overtaken Wednesday as the best day for webinar attendance, but, again, the difference is so narrow that nearly any day mid-week (Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday) will serve your webinar well.

When it comes to the time of day, 11 a.m. Pacific (2 p.m. Eastern) continues to be the best time to hold your webinar. But what if you’re not running a coast-to-coast virtual event? No worries. The best time to run a webinar is really the time that fits in with your audience’s schedule. Typically, that time is an hour before or after lunchtime (12 p.m.). So, feel free to run your event at 11 a.m. Eastern if that’s suitable for the audience you’d like to reach.

Personalizing Experiences

Marketers today can no longer depend on a one-size-fits-all approach. Audiences want content personalized to their tastes, needs and, well, account. In fact, personalized marketing is so valuable today that, according to our Experiences Everywhere report, 78% of B2B marketers say they’ve found personalized approaches like account-based management to be more effective than traditional marketing approaches.

Fortunately, today’s digital tools make it easy to create personalized and account-specific experiences, even for assets like webinars or targeted landing pages. All you have to do is get a little scrappy and organize your team and content for maximum effectiveness. Record a short intro video to play before a webinar that addresses the account you’re reaching out to. Or, incorporate a logo and special messages on a targeted landing page.

There are a variety of ways you can personalize a digital experience. Check out our e-book, “The Marketer’s Guide to Creating Personalized Content Experiences for more tips.

On-Demand Experiences

So what do you do after the event is over? Easy: make it available on demand. With always-on content, you can extend the reach of your virtual events to connect with registrants that may have missed the live event or interested audiences searching for your organization’s guidance.

In fact, 38% of all webinar attendees watch webinars on demand, spending up to 38 minutes engaging with your content and resources. But marketers can go even further, providing audiences with content hubs and targeted landing pages filled with relevant webinars, e-books, reports, videos and more. Used right, content hubs can provide audiences with all the on-demand resources they need to make a decision and provide your organization with the insights it needs to help bring a deal to close.

Download ON24’s 2020 Webinar Benchmarks report for more insights into how you can create digital experiences that connect.

About The Author

Michael Mayday

Global Lead, Digital Content, ON24

Michael is a B2B content marketer, social media manager, copywriter, ghostwriter, content strategist, SEO lead, content manager, conversational marketer and editor at ON24.