Virtual summit conversion rates are something that hosts don't tend to pay attention to until it's too late. A lot of times, when you notice there's a problem without specifically looking for it, there's no time to fix it since the promotional period for a virtual summit is only 2-3 weeks.
But don't worry, there's a fix for that! As long as you pay attention to the right things early enough, you'll be golden.
Today, we'll cover which conversion rates to pay attention to throughout your summit, how to estimate what they'll be, how to analyze the actual numbers once you have them, and the biggest areas to focus on when you need to make improvements.
Which virtual summit conversion rates to pay attention to
There are a lot of moving pieces in a virtual summit - so where do you need to pay attention when it comes to conversion rates?
There are two big pieces to watch:
- Registration conversion rate - This looks at how many see your summit's registration page and then enter their information to actually register.
- All-access pass conversion rate - This looks at how many people who register for a free ticket then upgrade to a paid all-access pass.
While these are the big pieces I want all hosts to watch closely, there are a few others that can also come in handy for some hosts:
- Launch conversion rate - If you're launching a product or service after your summit, pay attention to the number of people who registered for the event versus the number of people who buy what you're selling. It can also be interesting to look at the number of people who purchase your all-access pass and your other offer.
- Community members - I don't pay close attention to this, but some hosts like to watch how many people register for the summit versus how many join the attendee community.
- Presentation engagement - This is another one I don't watch too closely, but you may also choose to keep track of how many people who are registered actually watch the presentations.
How to estimate virtual summit conversion rates
Registration Page Conversion Rate
To determine your registration page conversion rate, you're comparing the number of people who hit your registration page to the number of people who actually register.
Figuring an estimate of this conversion rate is tough because the range can be so wide, depending on your industry. It really depends on how targeted your audience and summit topic are and your industry in general.
There are some hosts who are thrilled with 20%, while I like to see at least 50%.
Formula: Free registrations / Registration page views
For example, my most recent summit had about 1510 people view the registration page and 1250 register, which gave us a conversion rate of about 83%.
All-Access Pass Conversion Rate
To get your all-access pass conversion rate, you'll compare the number of people who register for their free ticket to the number of people who upgrade to the all-access pass.
If you’re just offering presentation replays, you’re going to see a very low conversion rate (usually around 3%).
If you’ve created a more valuable offer with extra sessions and valuable bonuses and you have a specific audience and topic, you can expect it to be higher. To be safe, start with an estimate of around 8%.
But to give you an overall range, the industry standard is 3-5%, but my students generally see anywhere between 10-20%.
Formula: All-access pass sales / Registrations
For example, the summit I hosted earlier this year had 4000 free registrations and 537 all-access pass sales, giving us a conversion rate of 13.4%.
Social Media Community Engagement
You can generally estimate that about 30% of people who register for a free ticket will join your summit community, but it really depends on how comfortable people are with the platform you’ve chosen.
If your audience is already on Facebook and you create a Facebook group, you can expect to see higher numbers than if you made them create an account on a platform they'd never used before.
Formula: Community members / Registrations
For example, my most recent event had about 400 people in the community and 1250 attendees, giving us 32% of our attendees in the community.
Live Video Views
If your presentations go “live” at certain times throughout the day, or you have speakers live in a chatbox for a certain time, you can expect to see about 5% of people show up “live”.
If you release a whole bunch of presentations at the same time each day, you’d expect that number to be even lower. There’s no reason for them to come right when presentations are available.
If you are hosting a true live event, you would see that number be a bit higher, but I’ve never done that so I can’t speak to what those conversion rates would look like.
Formula: Attendees live at a presentation / Registrations
Analyzing your virtual summit conversion rates
You announced your summit, promotional period has started, so now it's time to keep an eye on your conversion rates!
However, I definitely don't recommend hitting refresh 24/7 once your event goes live.
Here's how I like to monitor things:
- For the first 2 days that your event is live, don’t analyze the numbers. Just make sure things are working. If people can register for your event, can buy an all-access pass, and join your community, you're good to go for now.
- Around Day 3 of promotion or once you have at least 100 people registered, start looking at your conversion rates. The first couple of days and for the first handful of subscribers, things will fluctuate a ton, so wait a bit before you put too much stock in what you see.
Also keep in mind that, generally speaking, conversion rates will be at their highest point when it's just you promoting to your own people. They already know you and align with your message.
Once your speakers start to promote, expect your conversion rates to go down, and be okay with that!
But once you're at the point where you have solid data to analyze, you can decide if you're going to leave things as they are or make changes. Let's break down what that decision can look like for each type of conversion rate.
Registration Page Conversion Rates
Like I said before, registration page conversion rates vary like crazy. If you've hosted a challenge, webinar, or any other event before that you can set a goal based on, do that instead of comparing your numbers to anyone else.
But for example, say you ran a challenge in the past and your registration page converted at 50%. If you then see that your summit is converting at 30%, you may choose to make some improvements (which we'll cover next!).
All-Access Pass Conversion Rates
This will, again, depend on your offer and your audience. Generally speaking, if your all-access pass is converting below 7-8%, it's worth making some changes.
8-11% is definitely considered good, but you could always play around with copy and highlighting the value of the key pieces of your offer (usually the bonuses).
If you are at or above 12%, consider it a win!
Community Conversion Rates
The number of people who register and then move over to your free community is going to start off low. The number will increase as your summit gets closer and things like giveaways and your kickoff call approach.
Making improvements to your virtual summit conversion rates
If you've given your summit a few days of promotion, look at your numbers, and see that the numbers weren't what you were hoping - don't panic. If you've identified it early, there is plenty of time to adjust and I'll give my top recommendations for that here.
Keep in mind that it's impossible for me to know all situations, but I’ll go over what I see my students inside Summit in a Box needing to change frequently.
Registration Page improvements
The first thing to look at on your registration pages whether the above-the-fold space (the part of the page that people see without scrolling) grabs the attention of your audience and tells them why they should care. This space needs to include:
- The name of your summit or logo
- The summit tagline, which should state exactly who the summit is for along with the biggest benefit they'll achieve and/or biggest pain point they'll overcome from attending
- The summit dates
In addition to the above-the-fold space, look through the copy on your page. Are you focusing on the fact that you're hosting a cool summit or on the specific pain points and deep desires of your audience? Hint: It should be the second option ;)
And last, make sure that the page is visually appealing. I wish I could say that design doesn't matter, but it does. Having a well-designed registration page goes a long way in convincing cold traffic to give you their email address.
All-Access Pass sales page improvements
If you notice that your all-access pass isn't converting the way you'd like, there are improvements you can make here as well.
First, have a limited-time offer that attendees can get right after they register for about 20 minutes. Usually I do a 20-minute offer that gives 50% off the full price of the all-access pass.
Next, make sure the value is clear. The very top of the page needs to tell attendees that they have their free ticket and that you have a special, limited-time offer on a crazy high-value product.
And last, it's all about the bonuses. Don't hide your bonuses, highlight them! Rather than a bulleted list of the bonuses included, feature each one. Include a mockup or image, title, description, and regular price or the total value of each bonus, individually.
The takeaway and action steps
Overall, conversion rates are wide-ranging, but it comes down to how specific you got with your summit; from your audience and topic, to speakers and presentations, to what benefits there are for attendees.
Don't put much stock in what conversion rates look like for the first couple of days. Afterwards, use them as a tool to make improvements, rather than letting them stress you out.
Your action step for this episode is to get specific. If you think you’re specific with your summit audience, topic, and speakers, try to get even more specific. Take it as a personal challenge. It’s so worth it!
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