The Truth About Webinars on Mondays and Fridays

Everyone wants to schedule their webinars on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays at 2pm ET.

The reasoning behind this preference is sound. Almost every webinar benchmarking survey that's been conducted tells us that business webinars on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays result in the highest registration rates and the highest attendance rates. And this is logical. Mondays are not a great day for a webinar because people are catching up after the weekend and Fridays are not a great day for a webinar because people are getting ready for the weekend.

As for the time of day, 2pm ET seems to be the sweet spot for a business webinar targeting a U.S. audience. People on the west coast are in the office but haven't gone to lunch yet and people on the east coast are back from lunch but haven't left for the day.

All of this is well and good. If you want to try to maximize your webinar registration and attendance rates, schedule your webinar on a Tuesday, Wednesday, or Thursday at around 2pm ET. In fact, this is one of the best practices I recommend when I conduct trainings on how to produce and host a successful webinar.

But I also recommend something else: That you shouldn't completely write off Mondays and Fridays or times of the day that fall outside the usual webinar prime times. Why? Because if everyone else is scheduling their webinars on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays at 2pm ET, there's a ton of competition for that audience. Yes, in theory, you might end up with more registrations for a webinar scheduled mid-week in the middle of the work day. But, in reality, much less competition on other days or at other times might actually cancel out any dip in attendance.

There's also another reason why webinars on Mondays and Fridays shouldn't be ruled out. Not everyone can attend a webinar during the so-called prime times. If you schedule all of your webinars on Wednesdays at 2pm ET, how many potential attendees are you losing who have other standing meetings at that time every week or who have rigid work schedules that make them unavailable on that day for one reason or another? Mix things up! Over the course of a webinar series or campaign, offer people various days and times to attend your webinars. They might not be able to make all of them. But that's better than not being able to make any of them.

Even if you do lose a few attendees on Mondays or Fridays or at earlier or later times in the day, it's not the end of the world. You're recording your webinars, right? If you record your webinars, the day and time of the live presentation doesn't really matter much. Yes, the live presentation is an engaging and interactive event for everyone who is able to attend. But everyone else can still view the recorded presentation on a day and at a time of their choosing. And that's what about half of your registrants are planning to do anyway! Regardless of the scheduled day and time, the fact is that you're already losing a huge percentage of potential attendees right off the bat for every single webinar you schedule. About 50 percent of people who register for a webinar never even attend the live presentation. They know the day and/or time doesn't work for them, but they're still interested in your message and they register anyway because they know they'll receive a link to access a recording of the webinar later.

In 2019, I'd like to see webinar organizers schedule more webinars on Mondays and Fridays and at earlier and later times of the day. Your attendees will appreciate the flexible attendance options and you might even end up with a net gain in attendees as you avoid the fierce competition on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays at 2pm ET.