Hours or days pass between sign-up and session, and in that time the date slips out of people’s minds. A good webinar reminder email brings it back at the right moment, with the access link ready to click. This guide covers when to send reminders, what belongs in each one and why they should stay free of marketing.
Why reminders matter so much
Registering takes seconds, often squeezed between two other tasks. On the day itself, the registrant’s mind is somewhere else. Without a nudge, they miss the start even though they fully meant to come.
Reminders solve a few practical problems. First, they put the session back on the registrant’s radar. The access link also lands in the inbox exactly when it’s needed, instead of sitting in an email from last week. And anyone whose plans have changed gets an easy way to switch to another time.
Reminders can’t make up for a weak start, though. If your thank-you page has already put the session in people’s calendars, the emails have a much easier job.
The right timing
Which reminders make sense depends on the gap between sign-up and session. The plan below is a starting point for sessions a few days ahead:
| When | Job | Length |
|---|---|---|
| Straight after sign-up | Confirmation with time, access link and calendar entry | Medium |
| About 24 hours before | Remind people of the benefit, offer to switch times | Medium |
| About one hour before | Lock in today’s session, link ready | Short |
| About 10 to 15 minutes before | Just the link, so the start goes smoothly | Very short |
With a lead time of a week or more, an extra message in the middle can help. It needs its own content, though, such as a question to prepare or a short preview of one section. A reminder that only says “Don’t forget!” is more likely to prompt an unsubscribe.
Last-minute registrations
If someone registers an hour before the session, the day-before reminder no longer makes sense. Your software should skip reminders whose time has already passed rather than sending them late. Otherwise the registrant gets three emails at once, one of them saying “See you tomorrow”.
That leads to a rule for your copy: don’t write “see you tomorrow” in the confirmation if the session could be today. Use date and time placeholders instead. The guide to planning an automated webinar schedule shows how to match sessions and lead times.
Send times and time zones
Schedule reminders relative to the session, not at fixed clock times. “24 hours before” adapts to every session, “every Wednesday at 10am” doesn’t. Also check whether a reminder for an early session would arrive in the middle of the night. For an 8am webinar, the one-hour reminder goes out at 7am, which is fine. For registrants in another time zone, that same moment may be far less convenient.
In the EU and the UK the clocks go forward on the last Sunday in March, while most of the US changes a few weeks earlier. In the week before, check that sessions and reminders still arrive at the right local time.
What every reminder should include
Each reminder follows the same basic structure. The closer the session, the more you leave out.
- A subject line with the time. People should see when it starts without opening the email, for example “Tomorrow at 7pm: a weekly plan that holds”.
- The access link at the top. As a clear button, with a text link underneath. Nobody should have to scroll.
- Date, time and time zone. Ideally in the registrant’s local time, otherwise with the time zone spelled out.
- One sentence on the benefit. What they’ll take away, not “our webinar starts soon”.
- A link to switch sessions. People who switch stay with you.
- A way to cancel. A link such as “I can’t make it” stops the reminders for that session.
- A recognisable sender. Always the same name, a reply-to address someone actually reads, and a link to your legal details.
Subject lines deserve attention of their own. For reminders, the main thing is to put the important part first, because phones often show only the beginning.
Three examples
Here’s how the three reminders for a Thursday evening webinar might look. Your email software fills in the values in curly brackets.
The day before
Subject: Tomorrow at {{time}}: a weekly plan that holds
Hi {{first_name}},
It’s tomorrow at {{time}} ({{time_zone}}). In 45 minutes I’ll show you how to plan your week so there’s still something left after a chaotic Monday. You’ll leave with a template you can use straight away.
Here’s your access link (button)
Can’t make it after all? {{switch_link}}
One hour before
Subject: Starting in one hour ({{time}})
Hi {{first_name}}, the webinar starts today at {{time}}. It’s worth having a pen and paper to hand.
Join the webinar (button)
Just before the start
Subject: We’re about to start
The webinar begins in a few minutes. Open it now (button)
The emails get shorter as the session approaches. The last one has a single job: the click.
If your webinar is a recording shown at set times, the emails follow the same rule as the registration page. Talk about the session or the start, not about it being “live”. And don’t invent urgency. “Today only!” in a reminder doesn’t fit a webinar that runs again next week. The guide to using a webinar countdown fairly goes into this.
Service email or marketing?
Reminders about a booked session are part of what the registrant asked for. Under the GDPR they usually rest on carrying out that registration (Article 6(1)(b)) and need no separate consent. That holds only as long as they stay exactly that.
Marketing by email, on the other hand, generally needs prior consent across the EU, and in some countries, Germany among them, that applies to business recipients too. “Marketing” is read broadly. German courts have treated even short promotional add-ons in automated confirmation or auto-reply emails as unsolicited advertising. So one line about your course at the bottom of a reminder can turn a service email into a marketing email. UK rules follow a similar logic.
The table below is a cautious guide, not a fixed rule:
| What the reminder contains | Cautious assessment |
|---|---|
| Session time, access link, switch, cancel | Part of the registration |
| Tech tips and preparation | Part of the registration |
| Short preview of the booked session’s content | Part of the registration, as long as it stays factual |
| Neutral note that an offer is presented at the end | Grey area, leave it out or keep it purely descriptive |
| Price, discount code or purchase link | Marketing |
| Mentions of other products, a newsletter or further webinars | Marketing |
| Request for a review or a survey | Often treated as marketing |
The simplest line is this: anything that helps people attend the session they booked can go in. Anything meant to sell belongs in separate emails to people who have opted in.
One more boundary concerns addresses that were never confirmed. If you use double opt-in, unconfirmed registrations get no reminders. The guide to double opt-in for webinar registrations explains why.
Making sure reminders arrive
The best reminder is useless if it lands in spam or carries a broken link.
- Set up sender authentication. With the technical standards SPF, DKIM and DMARC, your domain proves you’re allowed to send on its behalf. Many mailbox providers now expect this, especially at higher volumes.
- Include a plain-text part. Alongside the designed version, add a plain-text version that’s readable without images.
- Go easy on images. Many email apps only load images on request. The access link has to be visible without them.
- Check your placeholders. If the first name is missing, the greeting mustn’t read “Hi ,”. Set a fallback such as a plain “Hi”.
- Test the links. Every access link should open the right session, including after someone switches times.
- Look at it in dark mode. Buttons and text have to stay readable on a dark background.
Test the whole sequence before your first registrants receive it. Sign up with addresses at several providers, once with a few days’ lead time and once shortly before a session.
Reminder checklist
- Send times are relative to the session, and outdated reminders are skipped.
- Every reminder has the access link at the top and states time and time zone.
- Words like “tomorrow” stay correct for last-minute registrations.
- Switching and cancelling work with one click.
- No prices, discounts or mentions of other offers.
- No invented urgency, and recordings aren’t called “live”.
- Unconfirmed addresses get no reminders.
- Sender, reply-to address and legal details are correct.
- The sequence has been tested on phone and desktop, including dark mode.
Frequently asked questions
How many webinar reminder emails should I send?
With a few days’ lead time, three reminders after the confirmation are common: the day before, an hour before and just before the start. For same-day sessions, some drop away. What matters is that each message has a clear job.
Can I send text message reminders as well?
You can, but it means asking for a phone number. That makes your form longer, and you’ll need separate, voluntary consent for that channel. Only ask for the number if you’ll really use it, and make the field optional.
What if someone wants to stop all reminders?
Respect it straight away. A cancel link in every reminder ends the messages for that session. People who only want to avoid marketing should still be able to get reminders for a session they booked, if they wish.
Can I mention my offer in a reminder?
Better not. A purchase link, a price or a discount turns the reminder into a marketing email. If you want people to know an offer comes at the end, say so on the registration page, as described in the guide to building a webinar landing page.
Final thought
Good reminder emails are short, arrive at the right time and make getting into the webinar as easy as possible. Keep them free of marketing, schedule them relative to the session and test the sequence before it goes out. Then the people who registered will actually turn up.
This article is general information and not legal advice.
