A webinar on webinars? Yes, it’s true. BtoB magazine, in partnership with ON24, recently presented best practices for blockbuster business-to-business webinar performance. From start to finish, the stats revealed the success of a BtoB webinar is largely attributed to the right timing.

Come early

A longer runway is more effective in driving registration. This means start promoting early! Forty-eight percent of all registrations occur 10+ days before the event, 37 percent of all registrations occur 1-10 days before the event, and 15 percent of all registrations occur the day of the event.

When promoting your webinar, be sure to use a rich marketing mix and varied messaging. The most effective methods for driving BtoB webinar registration are your prospect list (71 percent), your website and one-on-one invitations from sales. By starting early, you can hit your list multiple times, each time with a different message.

Make it a good time

Mid-week (Tuesday – Thursday) is the best time to host your webinar, with Wednesday being the optimal day. The average time spent viewing a webinar is 38 minutes, so don’t drag on too long.

The typical registration for BtoB webinars is 250-350 people, and of these registrants, the average attendance is 40-50 percent. This number is completely normal, so don’t worry if only half of your registrants actually attend! Post-webinar analysis indicates that qualified leads typically range from 15-30 percent of attendants.

Stay late

Overbooking and last minute meetings often prevent registrants from being able to attend your webinar. Registering is still expressing interest, and you don’t want to lose any portion of your audience, especially not due to scheduling conflicts.

For this reason, it is a smart idea to include an ‘on demand’ component to capture as many viewers as possible. On average, 24 percent of registrants view BtoB webinars on demand.

Ninety-three percent of business-to-business companies include webinars as part of their marketing strategy, and more than 80 percent of marketers rate webinars as one of their top three marketing tactics for lead generation. If you’re using webinars as part of your marketing mix, remember to time it right!

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