Overview
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Webinar email strategies matter
Webinar email strategies are essential to promoting your event and driving attendance to your webinar.
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Create a webinar email sequence
Every webinar should have a warm-up, active promotion, and post-event email plan.
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Get to the point
Audiences have limited attention. Get your message across quickly and provide bullet points when possible.
When it comes to driving webinar registrations and attendance, email still reigns supreme. If your email program is weak, even the best content will struggle to attract an audience.
Emails have to navigate multiple time zones, staggered work hours, and a crowded inbox to have a chance to connect with your audience. Your email strategy needs to be on point.
This guide provides you need to take your email strategy a step further: ready-to-use templates, timing strategies, optimization tips, and how ON24 amplifies your email workflow. Let’s take a look at how right now.
Why Your Webinar Email Strategy Matters
Before diving into templates, let’s quickly lay out when a webinar email strategy matters.
First, poorly timed or unclear emails are a major cause of low attendance rates — even after high registration numbers. That’s why a great email sequence doesn’t just register attendees — it primes, reminds, re-engages, and drives post-event consumption.
On the other hand, audiences are growing in sophistication, and their expectations — personalized, timely, relevant information — are growing as well. Meeting those expectations at scale requires the right strategy and the right tools.
The Webinar Email Sequence You Need
Here’s a recommended cadence that balances frequency with impact (without overwhelming your audience):
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- Invitation / Announcement — ~2–3 weeks before
- Reminder #1 — 7 days before
- Reminder #2 — 1 day before
- Final Reminder / “We’re Live” — 1 hour before start
- Thank-You / Replay / On-Demand — within 24 hours
- No-Show Follow-Up — 1–2 days later
- Extended Replay / On-Demand Push — ~1 week later
You can always add additional incentives – contests, previews, etc -but the above covers the essentials.
Anatomy of a High-Converting Webinar Email
Each email you send should contain the right mix of content, structure, and clarity. Here’s what works:
Anatomy of a High-Converting Webinar Email
Each email you send should contain the right mix of content, structure, and clarity. Here’s what works:
| Component | Why It Matters | Best Practice |
|---|---|---|
| Subject Line & Preview Text | Determines your open rate | Use “Webinar” + benefit or urgency. Keep it under ~50 characters. E.g. “Join Our Webinar: 3 Lead Gen Secrets” or “Last Chance to Register — Webinar Tomorrow” |
| Personalization / Tokens | Boosts relevance | Use first name, company, or industry tokens (e.g. “{FirstName}, here’s your invite”) |
| Strong Opening / Value Statement | Captures attention | Lead with “In this 30-minute webinar you’ll learn how to…” rather than intro fluff |
| Webinar Details (What / When / Where / How) | Avoids confusion | Always include date, time, time zone (e.g. ET / PT), platform link or join info |
| Agenda / Takeaways | Clarifies value | Use 3–5 bullet points of what participants will walk away with |
| Speaker Credentials | Builds trust | Show photos, titles, short bios, relevant achievements |
| CTA Button(s) | Converts interest to registration | Make it bold, action-oriented (“Save Your Seat”, “Register Now”) |
| Add-to-Calendar Link(s) | Lower friction | Many registrants forget to block time—offering .ics / Google Calendar links helps |
| Social Proof / Testimonials | Reinforces legitimacy | Insert a short quote or logo from past webinar attendees or customers |
| Urgency / FOMO Triggers | Encourages prompt action | Use “Seats filling fast,” “Last chance to join,” or countdown timers |
Timing and Send Strategy
Timing is critical when emailing. Here are strong benchmarks and tactics:
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- Best Days: Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday
- Invitation Time: 9–11 a.m. ET
- Reminder / Follow-up Time: 7–9 a.m. local time
- Final “We’re Live”: 30–60 minutes before start
- Stagger by Time Zone: Send separate batches for different time zones so recipients see them in their morning window
- Avoid Friday late afternoons or early Mondays, when inbox fatigue is highest
Copy-Ready Webinar Email Templates
Below are full template drafts you can plug into ON24 or your email system (make sure you adjust tokens or brand language as needed). Each includes subject, body skeleton, and CTA suggestions.
Invitation Email
Subject: How Top Marketers [Webinar topic] by [stat] Boost Webinar Conversion by 30%
Preview text: Join our live webinar on [Date, Time ET / PT]
Body:
Hi {FirstName},
We’d love your company at our upcoming webinar, “[Webinar Title]”, where we’ll dive into three proven strategies to [webinar-related benefit statement].
What you’ll learn:
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- Key metric benchmarks every marketer must know
- How to design high-converting webinar flows
- Real-world case studies and actionable takeaways
Date & Time: [Date], [Time] ET / [Time] PT
Speakers: [Name, Title], [Short Biography]
[Register Now]
Reminder #1 (7 Days Out)
Subject: Reminder: [Webinar Title] in One Week
Preview: Don’t miss valuable strategies to boost engagement
Hi {FirstName},
Just a friendly reminder that [Webinar Title] is happening in one week on [Date, Time ET / PT].
Why you should attend:
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- Learn three high-impact tactics you can use right away
- Ask your burning questions live during Q&A
- Walk away with a tactical action plan
[Register Now]
We look forward to seeing you there!
Reminder #2 (Day Before)
Subject: Happening Tomorrow: [Webinar Title]
Preview: Final chance to block your calendar
Hi {FirstName},
Our webinar “[Webinar Title]” goes live tomorrow at [Time ET / PT].
Here’s what to expect:
• A clear 30-minute roadmap
• Tools and templates to immediately boost performance
• Live Q&A with the speakers
Register now and we’ll see you then!
[Join the Webinar]
Can’t wait!
We’re Live / Starting Now
Subject: We’re Live: Join Your Webinar Now
Preview: Click here to access the webinar room
Hello {FirstName},
The moment is here — [Webinar Title] is now live!
[Join the Webinar]
Hope to see you soon for [Webinar-related benefit statement]!
Post-Webinar (Attendees)
Subject: Thank You + Your Replay & Bonus Resources
Preview: Watch the replay
Hi {FirstName},
Thank you for attending [Webinar Title]! We hope you found value in the session.
Here’s what we promised:
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- [Watch the Recording]
- [Access Slides and Resources]
- Additional reading and related content
We hope you enjoyed the event! Check out [Add CTA + Link]
Post-Webinar (No-Shows)
Subject: Sorry We Missed You — Watch the Webinar On Demand
Preview: View the recording now
Hello {FirstName},
We missed you at the live session of [Webinar Title], but you can still catch the full webinar on demand:
[Watch the Replay]
Learn the same strategies, watch the Q&A, and access all the bonus content.
Optimize, Test and Measure What Works
To continuously improve your email performance, follow a structured testing and optimization plan:
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- A/B test subject lines (e.g. benefit-driven vs. urgency)
- Experiment with send times / cadence
- Swap CTA text or button style
- Test HTML vs. plain-text versions
- Segment your audience (e.g., East vs. West coast, industry vertical vs. broader list)
Track these key metrics:
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- Open Rate
- Click-to-Register Rate
- Registration Rate
- Registration-to-Attendance Rate
- Replay Viewing (post-event)
How ON24 Enhances Your Webinar Email Program
You don’t have to build and send all these emails from scratch. ON24’s platform is built precisely to streamline this workflow:
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- Pre-built email templates: Save time by leveraging ON24’s default templates you can adapt.
- Dynamic tokens and personalization: Automatically insert names, company, or region-level tokens without manual edits.
- Regional versioning and localization: Create multiple versions keyed to U.S. time zones, languages, or audience clusters.
- Smart automated rules: Trigger no-show follow-ups, replay pushes, or nurture sequences based on behavior.
- Deep analytics: See which emails drove registrations, attendance, and replay views — at a granular level.
ON24 helps you scale a localized, high-performing webinar email campaign without losing precision.
Common Mistakes and How to Avoid Them
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- Vague subject lines or missing “webinar” — your email may not even get context in the inbox
- Omitting time zone — confuses registrants across different time zones and regions
- Overloading emails with dense text — too much copy dilutes your message
- No reminders or follow-ups — missing engagement revenue from no-shows
- No segmentation — “one size fits all” often underperforms
- Skipping analysis or iteration — you won’t know what works unless you test
How You Can Take Your Webinar Email Campaigns to the Next Level
Effective webinar email campaigns blend content clarity, behavioral insight, timing, and iteration. Navigating time zones, languages, and send windows adds complexity — but with the templates and strategy above, you’re equipped to succeed.
Actionable next steps:
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- Use the templates above as a baseline for your next webinar
- Implement A/B testing in your email sends
- Leverage ON24’s templating, tokenization, and automation to scale
- Benchmark your metrics and iterate each campaign
Want to see how ON24 can support and automate your entire email-driven webinar funnel? Request a demo or download our U.S. Webinar Email Template Pack to get started.
