Why You Should Never Cancel a Webinar

I recently worked with a client who wanted to conduct a webinar to promote a new software product to a targeted group of potential buyers. They hired me to set up registration, facilitate a run-through session, and ensure that the webinar ran smoothly while they focused on pitching their product. They handled webinar promotion, sending out a series of invitations to their prospect list over a two-week period.

Unfortunately, for whatever reason, their outreach wasn't very effective. This happens sometimes. Maybe the webinar day or time wasn't convenient for that specific audience. Perhaps their messaging wasn't compelling or clear enough. Or maybe there just wasn't much of a demand for what they were selling in the first place. Ultimately, about ten people signed up for the webinar, give or take.

About an hour before the webinar was scheduled to begin (I had already started checking items off my day-of webinar production checklist), I received an email from the webinar organizer informing me that they were canceling the webinar.

This wasn't the first time a client had decided to pull the plug on a webinar at the last minute. Some webinar organizers seem to obsess over registration numbers as the ultimate indicator of whether a webinar should go on. But that kind of reasoning is irrational and counterproductive. Once you schedule a webinar and invite people to attend, there should really be no turning back. To do otherwise risks dire consequences for your business.

First, let's imagine a scenario where nobody at all registers for your webinar. This can happen. I've produced webinars where thousands of people have registered and I've produced webinars where not a single person has registered. Again, there are countless reasons why a webinar invitation might miss the mark. And sometimes it misses completely.

If nobody registers for your webinar, cancelling it might seem like a no-brainer. Why waste your time presenting to an empty room? But will it be empty? A webinar registration page still works right up until the end of a webinar. What if a few people decide to register a few minutes before the start time? What if a few more people notice the invitation sitting in their inbox and decide to register after the webinar has already started?

This actually happens all the time. In fact, most webinars receive a relatively high percentage of registrations on the actual day of the webinar. But now, all of a sudden, you have a bunch of confused and frustrated people who can't understand why they're not able to get into your now non-existent webinar.

Now let's imagine a scenario where, much like with my client, a few people pre-register for your webinar when they receive your invitation. It's one thing to cancel a webinar when you think that nobody has registered. But to cancel a webinar that already has registrations? It's indefensible!

Here we have people who are apparently so interested in what you're offering that they're willing to block off time on their calendar to hear about it. What kind of message are you conveying to these people when you abandon them because your registration numbers didn't meet your preconceived notion of success? It tells them, whether true or not, that you don't really care about them or value their time. It also tells them that you don't deliver what you promise. That's an odd way to nurture people along the buyer's journey, don't you think?

If, however, you're thinking that cancelling a webinar is the only way to prevent embarassment when that small group of attendees sees how little interest your webinar generated, that's not a valid concern. If you're using the right webinar platform, and you've set it up correctly, webinar attendees can't see how many other people are in attendance. You can even still conduct an engaging Q&A session with a tiny audience. Just prepare a few good questions in advance and answer them during the webinar as if they were actually typed in by the real audience. There's no way they can know the difference.

Even if, in the end, nobody attends your webinar, it's never a lost cause. You might feel a little silly doing it, but you'll have gained the valuable experience that comes with executing a "live" event, even if nobody was actually there. Plus, you'll have a webinar recording that you can share and repurpose. Who will ever know that nobody attended live?

Once you commit to delivering a webinar, there should be no reversing course. A cancelled webinar serves only to make an organization look disorganized and erratic. Even worse, it's a slap in the face to the people who took time out of their day to attend your webinar—the very people you should be treating like gold! Always follow through on your webinar promises. There's no reason not to—and many reasons why doing otherwise can hurt your business.