How I Made Nearly $16k From My First Virtual Summit

We've all seen virtual summits run by big influencers.  And we know that if the big names are doing them, there's gotta be a reason.

But when I ran my first virtual summit in April of 2018, money was the absolute farthest thing from my mind. It seems crazy looking back, but any money I made was going to be a bonus for me. And yet I still ended up with nearly $16k when all was said and done.

I went in with the goal of providing a TON of value to my attendees in hopes of growing my reach, making new connections, and getting some new client leads.

Looking back, I think that intention is absolutely why I ended up 5x-ing my income goal and hosting a successful virtual summit.

I had 21 action-packed presentations and gave everything I had to my attendees. And since they were getting so much value, they knew they'd get their money's worth in what I was selling.

So, while I've gotten a little ahead of myself already, that brings us right to my first point.

1. I provided a ton of value

Like I already mentioned, providing value to my attendees was my biggest goal. I did that through valuable presentations, worksheets, the opportunity to watch replays, bonus trainings, giveaways, and a supportive community.

The attendees who took action on what they learned saw results fast.

And it turns out, the value I provided made a big difference when it came time to make an offer. Knowing the kind of value they were getting for free made it easy for attendees to make a purchase.

2. My summit was for a specific niche

Marketing a summit to "online entrepreneurs" or "creative business owners" is rough if you're not one of those influencers we were talking about earlier. Why? Because that "niche" is overused, encompasses a wide variety of people, and speakers are forced to create general content to fit everyone's needs.

That's why having a specific niche of overwhelmed brand and web designers served me so well. It was the first summit they'd seen just for them, all of the presentation topics were tailored to their needs, and the results being promised were exactly what they needed.

3. My speakers were engaged

My speakers were on board months in advance. It would have been easy during that time to lose touch with them and hope they'd be ready when the summit rolled around.

Instead, I kept in touch with them, provided everything they needed, and they stayed excited.

When time for promotion came around they were pumped up and ready to share with their audience.

4. I kept the audience warm

I opened registration for the summit 3 weeks before the summit began. However, I knew that I needed the people signing up early to stay engaged throughout the entire promotion period.

I accomplished that by having a email sequence drip out over those 3 weeks and by inviting them to join a Facebook community where we had conversation prompts every day.

I'm sure there were still a few people lost between signing up and the summit beginning, but these two steps definitely helped keep almost everyone excited for Day 1.

5. Kept the upsell at the front of their mind

While making sales wasn't my initial goal, once I saw how well my offer was performing, I quickly made some tweaks to put it front-and-center.

Rather than casually mentioning it here-and-there, I put it everywhere. Attendees saw it immediately after signing up, it was linked in all emails, it was mentioned in all of the Facebook Lives I did leading up to the event, and there was a button on every presentation page.

And best of all, once people purchased they were posting about how great it was in the community, which definitely helped! (This goes right back to my first point about providing a ton of value)

6. Price increases

Price increases were something I'd planned from the beginning and they performed really well. Throughout the promotion period to 1-week after the event, the product was available from prices ranging from $47 to $197. And sales came in at all of the set prices.

While the lower price points performed better, there was always an influx of sales the day before a price increase happened.

Did I mention value?

If you're hosting an online summit with the main goal of making a ton of money, I want you to take a step back.

It's always a great feeling to have a successful launch and there's nothing wrong with wanting that, but before you consider how you'll make money, consider how you'll help those attending your summit.

Providing value is going to do more than anything else you can do with your offer, price increases, or selling tactics.

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