When scheduling a webinar or webcast, one of the key concerns is how many people will show up. So, if you are wondering whether to host your webinar or webcast in the morning or afternoon and what day of the week works best, read on to find out some scheduling tips.
What Day of the Week is Best?
As you can imagine, the worst day to host an online event is a Saturday or Sunday. Weekends are when we all get some hard-earned relaxation, and so most people won’t want to compromise their family time for a webinar or webcast.
Similarly, Mondays and Fridays are also unappealing for the same reason. Mondays are often busy as we get back into the working week after the weekend, and Fridays have many of us looking forward to the weekend ahead.
Overall, this means that midweek – Tuesdays, Wednesdays, or Thursdays – are best for hosting your online event. Avoid scheduling them on Tuesdays or Thursdays near a bank holiday weekend, as they will then have the same effect as a Monday or Friday.
What Times are Best?
Early mornings are for drinking a cup of coffee whilst we work our way through our email inbox, and late afternoons consist of wrapping up current projects before heading off home. For this reason, it is ideal to avoid scheduling your webinar or webcast too early or too late in the day.
Midday is often regarded as the start of the lunch hour, with most people taking their lunch break between 12 noon and 1pm. The optimum time to maximise attendance is typically before or after lunch – so, between 10am and 11am, or 1pm and 2pm.
Of these times, a study reported by Medium found that most people preferred webinars and webcasts to be hosted in the morning, with 26% of respondents preferring 10am, 32% choosing 11am, and only 16% selecting noon or later.
How Long Should Webinars or Webcasts Last?
According to Inc, neuroscientific research proves that presentations should ideally be 18 minutes long, a rule that has long since been utilized by TED Talks. This is long enough for you to get your point across, but short enough that attendees don’t lose interest.
Thus, if your event consists of one or two keynote speakers followed by a Q&A session, you should try to stick to around 30 to 45 minutes.
Leave Enough Time to do a Test Run
When scheduling a date and time for your webinar or webcast, always leave enough time to find the right webcast platform and test the technology in advance. Doing a run-through beforehand will allow you to spot any potential errors in advance, rather than something not working on the day.
Don’t Try to Compete for Attendees
As a rule of thumb, audiences will only want to attend one webinar or webcast in a week. Thus, it can be a good idea to investigate when your competitors or other industry professionals have events scheduled so that you can avoid these events clashing or competing for attendees.
So, there you have it – everything you need to know to effectively schedule your next webinar or webcast.
___________________________________________________________________________
Some other articles you might find of interest:
What Gaming PC should you get for under $1,000?
The Top 18 Best Prebuilt Gaming PCs Under $1000 Revealed & Reviewed
Have you ever wondered what the internet of the future looks like?
Can you have two phones with the same number?
Your Quick Guide on How to Use the Same Mobile Number on Two Phones
