# Adding UTC start time to a webinar invite: +2.7% unique clicks

- Outcome: Won
- Page type: Email (Lead-gen)
- Elements: Copy, Localization
- Date shared: 2012-09
- Test run by: [MarketingExperiments](https://liftarchive.com/practitioners/marketingexperiments/)
- Commentary by: LiftArchive (our analysis, not theirs)
- Original source: https://marketingexperiments.com/a-b-testing/email-testing-simple-change
- Page: https://liftarchive.com/test/marketingexperiments-webinar-invite-utc-time/

Adding 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.

## Result

**+2.7% unique clicks**

- 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.

## 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)

- 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.

## How to run this test

- 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
- Guardrail: Clickthrough from US recipients
- Guardrail: Webinar registrations and attendance
- Guardrail: 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.

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Credit: MarketingExperiments ran this test and owns the result. Summary and commentary by LiftArchive (https://liftarchive.com/test/marketingexperiments-webinar-invite-utc-time/).
Usage: Free to use, quote and build on, with credit and a link: name the practitioner or organization that ran the test and link to its LiftArchive page. The results belong to the practitioners who ran and shared them; the summaries and commentary are LiftArchive's.