With an automated webinar you no longer have to turn up for every session. When it runs still matters a great deal. A good automated webinar schedule gets registrants to actually attend, and that comes down to rhythm, lead time and a few easily missed details such as clock changes. This guide shows you how to build a schedule that suits your audience and how to improve it over time.
Why the schedule matters
The presentation in an automated webinar is finished, so you could simply offer it as an on-demand video. A scheduled time does something a video can’t: it works like an appointment. Someone who books Wednesday at 7pm plans their evening around it, gets a reminder and is actually there. A video that’s always available tends to end up on a “watch later” list that nobody returns to.
A poorly chosen schedule undoes that advantage. If the next session is too far away, many people lose interest before it starts. If the times clash with your audience’s day, some won’t register at all. For the bigger picture of building a long-running webinar, see How to build an evergreen webinar that lasts. This article is about the clock and the calendar.
Three basic patterns
Most schedules come down to one of three patterns.
Fixed weekly slots. The webinar runs on certain days at certain times, say Tuesdays at noon and Thursdays at 7pm. It feels predictable and resembles a regular event.
Frequent starts. A new session begins at short intervals, for example every half hour. People can join almost straight after signing up. This suits visitors who are interested right now and works best for shorter webinars.
One-off dates. A specific date and time, perhaps to launch a new offer. There’s a genuine occasion, and your invitations all lead up to that day.
Which pattern fits depends mostly on how people find your webinar. Someone who arrives from your newsletter or a blog post is usually happy to book a slot in the next few days. Someone who clicks an ad often has a short attention window, and a session starting in thirty minutes may suit them better. That’s why many organisers combine fixed weekly slots with a way to join at short notice.
Lead time and number of sessions
How much lead time makes sense
There’s always a gap between sign-up and session, and its length cuts both ways. A longer gap leaves room for reminders and a calendar entry, but more people forget or lose interest. A very short gap catches people while they’re keen, but leaves little room for a reminder.
As a rule of thumb, keep the next available session within one to three days of sign-up. Treat that as a starting point and check it against your own numbers. If your webinar runs only once a week, some people will register almost a week ahead, and reminders become all the more important for them.
Give people a small choice as well. Two to four upcoming sessions over the next few days work well for most webinars. A single slot that happens not to fit means a lost registration, while a long list makes choosing harder than it needs to be.
How many sessions per week
The right number depends on how much traffic your registration page gets. A small number of visitors spread across many sessions means each one plays to a nearly empty room. Technically that’s fine. For the chat, though, it’s nicer when several guests are there at once and can see that others are asking questions too.
Start with a few sessions, perhaps two to four a week at different times of day. If traffic grows or people ask for other times, add more. Going the other way is harder, because you shouldn’t simply cancel sessions people have already booked.
Days and times as rules of thumb
There’s no single best time for every webinar. Plenty of general advice exists, but your audience may behave quite differently from the average. A few considerations help you get started:
- Think about your audience’s working day. Office workers often have time around lunch, freelancers and tradespeople more often in the evening, parents of young children perhaps later still.
- Combine two times of day. A lunchtime and an evening slot cover different routines.
- Factor in the length. An hour-long webinar doesn’t fit a lunch break. A twenty-minute one might.
- Be careful with the edges of the week. Monday morning is often taken up with planning, Friday afternoon with winding down. That’s experience, not a law.
- Try the weekend if the topic suits it. For personal topics such as hobbies or household finances, a Sunday morning can work well. For work-related topics, usually less so.
Here’s an example. Imagine you run a webinar for small landscaping businesses. During the day the owners are out on jobs. A sensible first try would be Tuesday and Thursday evenings plus a Saturday morning. After a few weeks you’ll see which of those works best.
Time zones and clock changes
As soon as your audience spans several countries, time zones matter. The most important rule: show sessions on the registration page in the visitor’s local time. Nobody should have to convert times themselves, least of all in a confirmation email.
Decide which time zone you plan in, too. If you’re based in the UK and want to reach both Europe and North America, a quick table helps:
| Session in London (winter) | Berlin | New York | Los Angeles |
|---|---|---|---|
| 12:00 | 13:00 | 07:00 | 04:00 |
| 17:00 | 18:00 | 12:00 | 09:00 |
| 19:00 | 20:00 | 14:00 | 11:00 |
A lunchtime London slot is far too early for the US. If you want guests there, you’ll need a later session of their own.
Clock changes are easy to overlook. The UK and the EU change their clocks on the last Sunday in March and the last Sunday in October. Most of the US changes on the second Sunday in March and the first Sunday in November. So for a few weeks in spring and autumn, the gap between London and New York is an hour smaller than usual. In the southern hemisphere, Australia for example, the changes happen at entirely different times of year. If your webinar software stores sessions in a fixed time zone and converts them for each guest, this is handled for you. It’s still worth checking the registration page from a guest’s point of view before each change.
Holidays and breaks
An automated webinar keeps running on public holidays unless you change something. That can be fine, since some people have more time then. On days like Christmas Eve or New Year’s Day, though, attendance is likely to be low, and a guest who hears a cheerful greeting on New Year’s Eve might be puzzled.
Decide in advance how you’ll handle such days:
- Take out holidays that apply across your whole audience.
- Regional holidays, such as bank holidays that differ between the nations of the UK or states in the US, can usually stay in.
- For longer breaks, such as the end of the year, make sure the registration page shows the first session afterwards.
The key point is that nobody should be able to book a session that won’t take place.
Match your reminders to the schedule
Schedule and reminders belong together. A reminder the day before only makes sense if there’s more than a day between sign-up and session. For sessions starting in half an hour, the confirmation with the joining link is the message that matters most.
A typical sequence for sessions a few days out looks like this: a confirmation straight after sign-up with the joining link and a calendar file, a reminder the day before, another about an hour ahead and one just before the start. Reminders that no longer fit the timing should simply be skipped rather than sent late.
Make it easy for registrants to switch sessions, too. Someone who can’t make it will pick a later slot instead of dropping out entirely. For anything you send after the session that goes beyond practical information, you’ll usually need consent under GDPR and the e-privacy rules. For an overview of the whole process from sign-up to session, see How to create a webinar in nine steps.
Review and adjust
After a few weeks you’ll have enough data to judge your schedule. One figure per session is especially useful: how many registrants actually attended? If a particular day or time performs clearly worse, replace it.
Change only one thing at a time, and wait until enough registrations have come in. If you change the time, the reminders and the registration page all at once, you won’t know what made the difference. Keep a dated note of every change so you can compare before and after properly.
Frequently asked questions
How many sessions should I offer to begin with?
Two to four a week at different times of day is plenty to start. Add more once traffic grows or people ask for other times.
Fixed slots or frequent starts, which is better?
It depends on how people reach you. Fixed slots suit people who like to plan. Frequent starts suit visitors who are interested right now, for example from an ad. A combination often works well.
Do I need to handle clock changes myself?
Good webinar software converts sessions to each guest’s local time automatically. Check the displayed times briefly before each change anyway, especially for guests in North America.
Should my webinar run on public holidays?
Not on holidays that apply across your whole audience. Regional holidays can be fine and are sometimes well attended.
Start with a simple schedule
A good schedule isn’t designed on paper. It starts with a few well-chosen times and improves each week you look at the numbers. Start small, watch who turns up when, and adapt step by step. The notes on consent are general information, not legal advice.
