Adding UTC start time to a webinar invite: +2.7% unique clicks
Test run byMarketingExperimentsResearch publisher
Commentary byLiftArchiveOur analysis, not theirsAdding a single line with the start time in UTC to a webinar invitation email raised unique clickthrough by 2.7% and total clickthrough by 45%.
MarketingExperiments (MECLABS) ran this split test on its own web clinic invites.
The idea came from an international subscriber who asked why the time was only listed in US Eastern time.
- Unique clickthrough rose 2.7%, at a 95% significance level.
- Total clickthrough rose 45%, also at 95% significance, which suggests people who clicked came back to the email more often.
- The team was also checking that the extra line did not hurt the US audience, and it did not.
The change
The variant adds one line giving the start time in UTC.
Simplified mockup drawn by LiftArchive from the shared screenshots.
Control
The usual MarketingExperiments web clinic invite, with the start time given in US Eastern time only.
Variant
The same invite with one added line stating the start time in UTC for readers outside the US.
Why it likely won
Our reading of the result, not the practitioner's claim.
- International readers no longer had to convert the time themselves, so one small barrier to signing up was gone.
- Seeing their own time zone may have told non-US readers the event was meant for them too.
- The change was a single line, so it added almost no clutter for US readers.
Caveats: This is one email test from 2012, and the sample size was not shared. The team itself noted it is hard to draw firm rules from a single simple email test.
Who ran it
MarketingExperiments ran this test and published the results (MarketingExperiments). The numbers are theirs; the summary and commentary on this page are ours.
Read the original case study on MarketingExperiments →
How to run this test on your site
- Hypothesis
- If we add the event start time in UTC (or the main time zones of our audience) to webinar invites, then more international subscribers will click to register because they won't need to work out the time themselves.
- Primary metric
- Unique clickthrough rate on the registration link
- Guardrails
- Clickthrough from US recipients
- Webinar registrations and attendance
- Unsubscribe rate
- Who should test it
- Any B2B or lead-gen business that runs webinars or live events and has a meaningful share of subscribers outside its home time zone. If almost all your list is in one time zone, expect little change.
Questions
Should webinar invites list more than one time zone?
If a real share of your list lives outside your home time zone, yes.
In this test one added UTC line lifted clicks without hurting the core US audience.
Is UTC or local time zones better for a global audience?
UTC is one neutral reference that anyone can convert from.
If your audience clusters in a few regions, listing those local times may be even clearer, but that was not tested here.
Is a 2.7% lift worth acting on?
When the change costs almost nothing, a small reliable lift is still worth keeping.
The bigger rise in total clicks is a bonus.