B2C Virtual Summits: Changing Up the Cookie-Cutter Summit Strategy with Tenae Stewart
You'd think that someone with a business called "Summit in a Box" might think there is one cookie-cutter way to host a summit, but that's not at all the case. The "box" is meant to make your first summit as easy as possible and to allow you to expand and customize from there.
Find a part of the process that doesn't feel good?
Think your audience will respond better to something different?
Have you experimented with something in the past that you know works well for you?
Change it.
That’s exactly what this week’s guest Tenae Stewart did. She is here to share about her incredibly successful summit. In it, she changed up everything from free-access length, all-access pass pricing, speaker earnings, and more!
I’ll let Tenae take it from here.
Empowered Modern Witches Summit
My business, The Witch of Lupine Hallow, started as a blog and has grown to a thriving membership and community space. My goal is to help people be in tune with nature to then be in tune with themselves. I focus on moon phases, astrology, seasons, connections with one another, and the cycles of nature.
I recently wrote a book for my business, but it was released in 2020 at the height of the pandemic. I couldn’t launch my book with the traditional in-person events, so I looked outside the box for new ideas.
I wanted an event that was diverse, inclusive, and inviting for all people.
What could that event be? It had to be a summit!
I’m so glad we had a summit because we had so much fun, and it was so successful. This year for round two, we doubled our numbers.
A Focus on Collaboration
The first year of the summit, I wasn’t primarily focused on sales, and wanted exposure for my book. However, I did put a big focus on collaboration between the speakers and myself.
There are a lot of summits about astrology, but not as many within my sub-niche of spirituality within astrology. I wanted to create comradery between the businesses, and also create something that will foster the audience and provide value for anyone interested in the topics.
The Summit Details
My summit was a free, 5-day event with 15 live presentations on Zoom. It took place the week of the autumn equinox in September.
There were 3 presentations every day that were each about 45 minutes long, but because each one ended in a Q+A session, we left extra room between presentations. Many speakers stayed on quite a long time to answer questions for attendees, which they loved.
This year, I tried something a little different and released a small, prerecorded video each morning that was an introduction to that day’s topics.
We had 800 attendees the first year and 2000 attendees our second year!
The Sliding Scale All-Access Pass
Our attendees were allowed free access to the presentations from the summit through the end of September, which gave them about 10 days to watch replays.
After that, you had to have an all-access pass to keep your access.
In the all-access pass, we included:
- Bonuses from speakers
- A course from me
- Presentation recordings with captions
It was a $700 value for attendees, at a much lower price.
We priced our all-access pass on a sliding scale, which was very different from other summit’s all-access pass price tiers.
We were very transparent that 50% of all-access pass sales were divided equally among the speakers (instead of them receiving affiliate commissions).
Attendees could choose to pay $67, $97, or $147 - all for the same content.
About 4% of our sales came from the highest price point, and about 10% choose the middle. The rest came from the lowest price point.
But the fact that some attendees CHOOSE to pay the highest price point for the same content, showed how much they what they were learning.
Even without limited-time offers and price increases, the all-access pass had a conversion rate of 11%!
My Advice to You
It’s all about showing people the value of what you're doing.
Give yourself the freedom to play with different elements. A sliding scale may not apply to your community, or an affiliate program may not work for your speakers. Do what feels good, and what makes sense to you and how you run your business.
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