Should I Share the Full Attendee List with Virtual Summit Speakers?
It used to be standard for virtual summit hosts to share the full attendee list with all of the speakers. But with GDPR, all the privacy rules, and modern marketing tactics, what’s the right answer?
A Quick History of Virtual Summits
Back when summits first started it was standard to share the full attendee list with all your speakers. In fact, back then, it was the biggest reason that a lot of speakers agreed to participate.
Thousands of email addresses in exchange for a 30-minute presentation? Okay!
But this was back before GDPR and back before people really thought to care when their email address was shared.
Time has changed and so has the strategy along with it.
Should I share my full attendee list with summit speakers?
No, you should not share your full attendee list. It isn’t GDPR friendly, in any way, for someone to get added to 20 extra email lists after signing up for your event. It isn't a good experience for anyone. Even if you can find a way to make it compliant, it isn't beneficial for anyone involved.
Attendees will feel overwhelmed when they suddenly start getting emails from a ton of new people all at once. Because of that, it’s not beneficial for the speakers either. Instead of listening to what a select few speakers say, everyone will hit that Unsubscribe button really quick!
What to do instead?
We want to do better with this and make sure attendees are only hearing from people they want to hear from. We want to be sure speakers are only using their time, energy, space, and email marketing platform by communicating with the people who they have a chance at converting.
I know this can be tough. Being able to promise thousands of new leads to your speakers could be a huge reason speakers agree, and not offering it can be scary, especially if you’re starting with a small audience.
Luckily, there are a few strategies you can use so speakers can build their lists instead.
Let Speakers Pitch a Freebie
The first way to help speakers build their email list through your summit is to let them pitch a freebie at the end of their presentation.
Freebies perform better than paid offers after this type of talk when the freebie is directly related to helping attendees get the outcome the presentation talked about.
After the freebie, the speakers are welcome to send them to a tripwire offer, to their funnel, or to send them regular emails.
Invite Speakers to Contribute a Bonus
The second way you can help your speakers build their email list through your summit is by inviting them to contribute a bonus to your all-access pass.
Not only will this help you create an incredible all-access pass offer, but it's an easy way for speakers to get additional email addresses. I say “easy” because the best bonus contribution is one that they've already created: a mini-course, 30 days in their membership, templates, or workshop.
When someone purchases your all-access pass, they'll go to the checkout page for each speaker contribution they're interested in, enter a coupon code, and claim that bonus. Once that happens, they can be added to that speaker’s email list (hopefully the speakers are following the right policies, but from there it’s out of your hands).
Recap
So while we no longer want to share the full attendee list with all of the speakers, there are still ways you can set your speakers up to get a nice pile of leads from speaking.
Position it the right way to them, make the process easy, and you will still get an impressive “yes” rate from the speakers you pitch.
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