Is a Virtual Summit Right For Your Business? Consider These 3 Things
We’ve covered many of the ways that hosting a summit can benefit your business over the years, but the truth is that some business owners are in a position to benefit more than others.
Most online businesses can host a summit and see direct benefits for their business, but there are 3 key things I’ve found that can set you up for an incredibly successful event that takes full advantage of the power of this strategy.
In this episode, we’ll break down what some of those opportunities are, and which types of businesses are set up for the most impact through a virtual summit. Read to the end to learn whether a summit and the way we teach them here at Summit in a Box, is a good move for your business.
This is the beginning of a new series where I’ll be speaking specifically to this group of business owners who are most likely to find success with a virtual summit. Read on to find out if your business fits into that category, and learn more about the upcoming series on the podcast just for you!
Listen to the episode
Why host a virtual summit?
Before we talk about which types of businesses are set up to see the highest return on their investment when hosting a summit, let’s talk about what those results are in the first place. Any business owner can host a summit and experience some of these benefits, but some of you will be set up for them all!
The most powerful opportunities that come along with hosting a summit:
- Massive email list growth in a short period of time without the huge budget you need for some list-building strategies.
- Sales from the event itself, by selling an all-access pass which covers the costs of the event and usually a whole lot more.
- Collaborating and building or nurturing connections with 20+ complementary experts in your industry (AKA your summit speakers).
- Spreading your message and values more widely than you ever have before (Stay tuned for an upcoming episode digging deeper into this!)
- Building the Know, Like, and Trust Factor with attendees, extremely quickly.
- Launching an offer to thousands of people who have been primed and are ready to take that next step following your summit.
- Ongoing benefits that come with a significantly larger following and new industry connections.
Who can benefit from hosting a summit?
I think it's pretty safe to say that most online businesses would benefit from at least half of the things on that list. Really, as long as you have your messaging down enough to effectively communicate with your audience and some tech know-how, you technically have what you NEED to host a summit.
So even if you don’t fit into the category of businesses that stand to benefit the most from hosting a summit, please know that doesn’t mean that it’s not worth it to host a summit. I’m just saying that this next category of people are the business owners I see being able to take full advantage of the benefits.
How to know if you're set up to take full advantage of hosting a summit:
#1 You’re successfully selling a scalable offer
You’re successfully selling a course, membership, group program, or another type of offer you can deliver to multiple people at once, and you need to generate a high volume of leads or pageviews to meet your sales goals.
#2 You have a steady business already built
You're not working through the basics of setting up your online business or struggling through your messaging, trying to figure out what's going to convert. You know what your offers are, you have a signature offer that you know will sell when you launch it, and you know how to generate leads. You’re wanting to bring in leads in a more streamlined way, or take the strategies that are already working for you up a notch.
#3 Your goals and values are aligned with the summit model
Of course, you want the list growth, leads, sales, and visibility that comes with a virtual summit, but there are other parts of the summit strategy that need to align with your values in order for a summit to make sense for you. Summits involve providing a high amount of value to people who aren’t necessarily paying you yet, and collaborating and supporting other businesses in your industry.
We believe that when you go in with the intention of building connections, supporting your speakers, and all coming together to provide an incredible experience to your attendees, without making it all about you as the host, your results will follow. Of course, not everyone shares these same values and goals, but if you do, you’re setting yourself up for summit success.
Just about any business owner that knows how to reach and talk to their audience can benefit from a summit in some way, but those of you who are already doing these three things are set up to reap the full benefits.
High-Volume Business Owners have the MOST to gain from hosting a summit
If you check all three of those boxes above, I would consider you a High-Volume Business Owner.
You have a scalable offer, but you need a high volume of leads in order to sell it, and that’s where the term High-Volume Business Owner Comes in. Let’s look at some examples:
Example #1: Course Creator
- Offer: $500 course
- Goal: $10k in revenue
- Sales needed: 20 sales
- Leads required to make 20 sales: 1000*
- *assuming a 2% conversion rate
If you’re selling a course, you’re a high-volume business owner
Example #2: Group-Program Coach
- Offer: 10k group coaching program,
- Goal $50k in revenue
- Sales needed: 5
- Accepted applications needed: 15*
- Total applications needed: 25*
- Application page visitors required: 800*
- *assuming mid-range conversion rates
If you sell a high-ticket program, you’re a high-volume business owner. You may not need as many sales, but you do need to be driving those page views.
Example #3: Membership Owner
- Offer: $50/month membership
- Goal $5000 in monthly recurring revenue
- Sales needed: 100
- Leads required to make 100 sales: 2000*
- *assuming a 5% conversion rate
If you sell a membership, you’re a high-volume business owner
There are definitely other examples out there, but I hope this helps you see whether you fall into this high-volume category
Where is that high volume of leads coming from?
If you’re a High-Volume Business Owner, you’ve been relying on something, (or maybe lots of somethings) to get you the leads you need. Maybe you’re creating short-form video content, running ads, doing JV collaborations, or just doing a little bit of everything and praying it will work.
For me, it was Facebook ads for years. I used to spend $15,000+ per month to bring in leads to fuel our funnel and usually double that in sales. I’ve actually only ever hosted one summit for this business and instead focused my summits elsewhere because ads worked so well for us that I didn’t need to do anything else. I even stopped doing JV webinars or being intentional about other marketing and collaborations and just rode the paid advertising wave until it stopped working for us and so many others.
I’m in a high-level mastermind with some of the best-known 6 and 7-figure business owners in our industry and even they’re sharing that the things that worked before aren’t working as well for them. And I’m seeing them and others scramble to pile a whole bunch of strategies together.
Most of these new strategies all have something in common: they involve collaborating with other businesses.
All collaborations have a time and place
There are a lot of different collaboration options out there, and most can help you either make new connections, grow your audience, or generate revenue. But if you're here listening to this, I'm guessing you're in a spot where you need or want to do all of those things at once.
To make new connections, quickly grow your audience by 1000s, and build in multiple ways to make money a virtual Summit is really great for that and honestly the only collaboration method I’ve seen that ticks all the boxes.
I’m not going to go into too much depth about the different types of collaborations and what they’re good for, because I covered that in one of the workshops in our 6-Figure Summits Workshop Bundle, which you can check out to hear the full breakdown.
Out of all the different types of collaborations out there, a virtual summit is the only one that serves as a full-funnel all-in-one. Top, middle, and bottom of the funnel - It covers visibility, relationships, lead generation, re-engagement, and profits from the event itself, and lets you build a launch right into it.
Of course, the effort that goes into hosting a summit is also high. I’m never ever going to tell you that hosting a summit is easy, but the return on hosting a summit is high, even when you factor in all the effort that goes into it. The benefits of hosting a summit are ongoing, like nothing else I’ve experimented with before. And I’m someone who experiments with all different types of strategies so I can report back on them right and compare them with the things I like to do.
Overall, when you’re relying on a high volume of leads and need to bring them in and warm them up quickly, make new connections in your industry, bring in a high amount of revenue, and utilize that momentum moving forward, a summit is where it’s at. It can completely change the trajectory of your business, not just for a month, but for years to come.
So if you're ready for it, and you want to be walked through this process step by step with all the support, critiques, trainings, and templates you need, that's exactly what we do in our Launch with a Summit Accelerator program. I would love to invite you to apply to join us inside.
If you're ready to host a high-converting virtual summit to replace your slow-growth marketing strategies and use it to lead into your biggest course launch yet, I've got an exclusive training just for you. This training is for those who are interested in working with me in our Launch with a Summit Accelerator where we help our clients host life and business-changing virtual summits that lead to successful course launches. In the free private training. I'll show you exactly how it works along with all kinds of examples. Apply for an invite to the Launch with a Summit Accelerator today!
Resources
- Episode 120: Create an All-Access Pass that Gets Virtual Summit Attendees Hitting 'Buy Now'
- Episode 190: A Virtual Summit is a Full Funnel - From Lead Generation to Launch!
- Episode 195: What's the Difference Between a Free Summit and Paid Conference?
- Episode 197: Free Summits Attract Low-Quality Leads and Freebie Seekers
- 6-Figure Summits Workshop Bundle
- Launch with a Summit Accelerator
- Summit Host Hangout Facebook group
Pin it for later!
Free Training Series: Summit to Sales
Learn how virtual summits can become your most effective lead generation strategy, cash injection method, and lead to a long-term, reliable increase in sales of your signature offer.