How long Should My Webinar Be For Maximum Conversion?

“How Long Should My Webinar Be?” is a question that many people have asked me when we get on our first phone call.

The answer on how long your webinar should be is “it depends”…

But Ill give you some frameworks that will make it make sense (or dollars )

First off, the biggest question you have to ask is what are you selling on the webinar? That determines the ideal length.

Webinars are a great sales tool because they do 3 key things:

1. Establish authority – “this person knows what he is talking about”
2. Build rapport – the “know, like, trust factor”
3. Overcome objections – naturally move people to buying

The key to how long it is depends on how good you are at the first 2, as its what drives sales is number 3.

What this means is that the best webinars are the perfect balance of building authority and then driving the sale.

How long should your webinar be if you are “selling” a phone/zoom call:

You should be able to prove authority, teach them something that gets the lightbulb to go on and gives them an “ah-ha” and in under 30 minutes.

The framework for this should be:

Hook – Raw Curiosity to get them to lean in
Client outcomes – Future pace them to see what they can expect
Story teaching – Quick stories to show them what you can do for them.
What working with you looks like – this is the start of the sale.  first CTA goes here
Client outcomes – 3 quick client outcome stories
Book a Call – Here is how to work with me.
Objections/FAQs – Overcome the top 3 objections
Final CTA – Book a call with me to get (results) without (pain)

How long should your webinar be if you are selling a product or service:

Most people now days are selling something priced $497 to $2,997. If you are just getting started, I would recommend pricing your product at $997. Once you get some sales, testimonials, and confidence, you can move up to $1,997…

To be clear, I don’t recommend selling a $2,997 straight up on a webinar (more on that is coming in a specific post)…

And I don’t recommend selling something under $997 either (discover more here)

If you are selling something at these price points, you need enough time to establish authority and rapport, and overcome the objections…

… but it can’t be too long or you will lose your audience to Facebook or the 794 things going on around them.

“So how long is too long for a webinar” you might ask?

The thing is…

…it’s not about length as much as it is about keeping them highly engaged and leaning in.

For example, you can do this through superb storytelling, proper use of language, and your energy/pacing. (more on this is available in another post)

I can hear you…

“Enough,” you are saying, “just tell me how long!”

Here is the framework for how long your webinar should be:

• 45 to 75 minutes broken down as follows:
• 10 to 15 minutes on opening, backstory, and framing
• 30 to 45 minutes of content and teaching.
• 20 to 45 minutes of sales and overcoming objections.

Tips:

1. Start on the SHORT side of things.

   One of biggest things I see holding people back from conversion is not getting people to the offer.

   The first thing is that better stories will help with this, but the easier fix in the beginning is to shorten the teaching.

   Next is that teaching kills conversion more than anything else, as most people zone out.  Instead, make the teaching lightweight and get them to just have a simple “ah-ha”

   Lastly, talking faster and having an amazing amount of energy will move things along AND increase sales.

2. The sales portion needs to be almost as long as the rest of the presentation combined.

   Here is why. 10% will buy when you first start your offer. 10% will never buy (and will most likely jump off)…

   What this leaves is 80% of your people just sitting there.

   This means that these people want what you have, they just need a bit of help off the fence. This is where having a great stack comes in.

   Most importantly, by stacking your offer, you naturally continue to provide value, till the buying scale tips in your favor.

So here is the big secret 🙂

While total length is important, its more about when you get to the offer portion of the webinar. The faster you get there, the sooner you can find out who is a “maybe” and help them help themselves…

The key here is that rapport / authority building continues while you are making your offer (this is something that I show my students how to do)

What this means to you is that if you can get to the offer in 30 to 45 minutes and have built enough for the audience to say “maybe” then you will have more people getting to the offer.  

To sum this all up, by getting more people to the offer, you will increase sales.  You want the front half of the webinar to be as short as possible to build high rapport and authority.  Too long, and you will lose people, too short, and you will miss sales because of people not seeing you as creditable.

Pro Tip:

No one I know talks about this, but it’s something so powerful that I have to share it with you.

If you get to the end of the pitch portion of the webinar and you still have people on, you should NEVER stop there.

Continue to talk!  Those people are interested in buying, they just need a bit more convincing.

For example, continue overcome objections, tell client success stories, restate outcomes. Talk a bit more. 

After that, if you can (and are comfortable) take questions and get people moving forward.

Are you Imagining yourself holding a powerful webinar that converts to sales and what my help?