You ran an incredible virtual summit and have all kinds of new fans, friends, and followers on your email list. But now what?
What you don't want to do is get to the end of your summit and realize that you don't have a plan for the new audience you've built.
To help, today we'll go over:
- what not to do with your new audience
- what to do if you do and don't have an offer to sell
- a way to leverage your summit community.
What to do if you DO have an offer
You have an offer to sell after your virtual summit, so let’s start with what not to do with your new audience and that offer.
Don’t pitch everybody for your signature offer.
The first thing I don’t want you to do with your new audience is to pitch everybody for your signature offer.
Instead, build awareness of it throughout your summit and build in ways to create a segment of those who are interested. For example, maybe they attend your presentation, a masterclass you host, apply for a scholarship to your program, or click a link that mentions your offer in an email.
Let people know that your offer exists and build awareness of it, but you don't want to throw everyone into a week-long pitch sequence for your $2000 course. Most people coming to you through a summit are new to you and what you do so it comes off as pushy and salesy.
Don’t ghost your attendees
The second thing you don't want to do is just ghost them. You hosted an awesome summit, were in their inbox every day, showed up in your community every day, and then just fell off the face of the earth once your summit is over?
Instead, make a plan for staying in touch with them and continuing to provide value. This can be as simple as keeping your summit community going or sending weekly/biweekly emails.
Staying in touch and continuing to provide value also allows you to build the trust needed to do another launch to everyone down the road and see great results.
Launch quickly if your offer aligns with your summit topic
Your summit topic should align with what you sell. If the transformation you got attendees through your summit aligns in some way to the transformation your signature offer provides after your summit, then right at the end of the event is the perfect time to offer it to attendees who show any type of interest.
They signed up for your summit because they wanted to make progress with that thing. You’re truly helping them out when you give them the opportunity to take it further when they're primed, ready, and excited to do that.
Resources to Help Launch Your Course after a Virtual Summit
I have a few resources that are available to you that will help you learn the steps and strategies to launch your course or membership after your virtual summit.
Summit in a Box® Accelerator
Apply now to watch our training on how to replace slow-growth strategies with a virtual summit that will lead to your biggest launch yet. Apply today so we can send you details on our free, advanced training exclusively for course creators ready to ditch slow-growth strategies and reach their biggest launch yet with a virtual summit.
Podcast Episodes and Guest Experts
We also have a few past podcast episodes on this topic that will help you out.
What to Do if You Don’t Have an Offer
What if you hosted a summit to build your audience and make money, but you don’t have anything else to sell? That’s okay!
Now you have two main options for moving forward.
1. Use the summit to create an offer.
Your first option is to use the summit to create an offer. Pay attention to the questions attendees ask, the sessions that get attention, what attendees get most excited about, and use that information to create an offer.
If you want to go all out and create a big signature service, or course that is totally fine, but you could also keep it nice and simple and offer a live workshop and build up from there.
A benefit of going with a smaller offer, like a workshop, is that you can sell it before you create it and host it live to your audience. That way, it's not taking up a ton of your time and you're not putting time and energy into it until you know it will sell.
2. Stay Connected to Your Audience
It’s okay if you don’t want to sell anything to your audience after the summit. You made money through the event and there are so many other benefits outside of that.
If you don't have something to sell, stay connected with your attendees through things like social media and regular email newsletters.
To help, send a transition email once the summit is over. In it, you can:
- Thank attendees for being part of the event.
- Let them know what to expect moving forward.
- Share the top free resources you offer to help them continue to move forward.
- Mention anything else you offer, even if it's not directly related to the summit topic.
An email like that will help your attendees understand what you do apart from the summit and it sets you up to send the regular nurture content we mentioned.
Keep The Community Going
Something you can consider, regardless of whether you have something to sell, is to keep the summit community going. You'll likely have built an engaged community through your summit. If that's something you want to leverage moving forward and can put energy and resources into, keep it going and build it into your overall business strategy.
Put Your Plan in Place
Regardless of whether you have anything to sell, it's important to have a plan in place for your new audience once your summit is over.
Make your post-summit plan today!
Resources
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