What to Expect When Your Virtual Summit Opens for Registration

summit basics Jul 14, 2020

You've got an incredible online event planned and it’s time for the doors to open. Here’s what to expect when your virtual summit opens for registration!

You've got an incredible virtual summit planned, speakers are lined up, and tech is ready, but what should you actually expect once you open registration?

I don't want anything that happens during your promotion period to catch you by surprise. We're going to cover exactly what to expect once your summit opens for registration.

This will cover things to expect around tech, feedback, registration and sales, conversion rates, speaker promotion, engagement, and more!

What To Expect With Your Tech

The first thing I want you to consider is the virtual summit tech. If you haven't ironed out all the kinks before registration begins, you might find yourself with quite the headache. That's why TESTING is so incredibly important.

If you're a Summit in a Box member, inside the program is a step-by-step checklist of what to test before you open your summit for registration. Yay!

If you're not a member, it includes things like testing:

the registration process
your redirects
email sequences
purchases
affiliate tracking

Go through the process yourself and make sure things actually work.

Find a friend or subscriber you are acquainted with to register and ensure that they are getting the correct emails and access to the website.

Are email sequences set up correctly?
Are they getting your regular newsletters when they shouldn't be?
Are they being tagged correctly?
Are they able to join your community?

Even with proper testing, expect issues and set aside time to address them.

Positive and Negative Feedback

It is so energizing and rewarding to start seeing the reaction of attendees, even before presentations have started playing. Your speakers feed off of that excitement as well!

No matter how well you do things, there will always negative feedback.

People might say:

It is too expensive.
I don't like the schedule.
Presentations should stay free.

If you're getting the same feedback repeatedly, it's probably something you should pay attention to. Consider whether it's a valid concern, but expect that you're going to get some negative feedback. Outsourcing inbox management during your summit is extremely helpful if you're able to.

But overall, don't let negative feedback get to you. There will always be someone who complains.

Registration + Sales Flow Patterns

Next, let's cover the way the registration and sales numbers flow throughout the event. You are not going to see things stay consistent all the way through your promotion.

You'll see both sales and registration start strong, taper off, and then pick up again at the end and as your event starts. If it gets quieter than you'd like, give your speakers some encouragement.

It could look something like this:

Day One: The big day of subscribers and sales.
Day Two: Still a strong day of subscribers and sales.
Days Three-Five: Starts to get quieter.
Days Five-Seven: Have your speakers start promoting - sales and subscribers will be at their highest point.
Days Eight-2 Days Before Summit: It gets quiet again.
Day Before/First Day of Summit: Subscribers and sales pick up again.

Expect this going in and don't let it worry you when it happens. You can always plan something fun for speakers and affiliates during that middle period where things tend to get quiet to keep your numbers rising.

Watch Conversion Rates and Make Tweaks

Once your registration opens up and you have a little data to work with, take a look at your conversion rates and see how they compare to what you expect.

Take a couple of days of sales and look at how your all-access pass is converting. If you're seeing 7% or less in conversion rates, take another look at your offer. The industry standard is 3-5%, but students using my strategies tend to see much higher.

Keep in mind that your conversion rate will actually increase throughout the process of your summit.

Facebook ad experts recommend not looking at what's happening the first three days, and even then to not panic, and that Facebook will figure it out. However, your runway with a summit is short. If you're not seeing your cost per result heading where you want in the first couple of days, try something else. You don't have time for Facebook algorithms to hopefully figure it out.

Continue Encouraging Speakers to Promote

You'll see the biggest influx of subscribers the first two days that your speakers start promoting. After that, it's really up to you to keep things going.

You will have a couple of speakers dedicated to the process that don't need any extra hand-holding, but the majority of speakers will need ongoing reminders and offers to help from you.

Expect and schedule time for speaker encouragement.

Have scripts ready to go and post in your Facebook group or send via email. If you are a Summit in a Box member, these are already in the Speaker Community section. If you aren't a member, write out a script to encourage your speakers and have it ready in advance. Be kind, and come at it with a helpful attitude. If you start making demands, you are going to have speakers refuse to share.

Offer to help with:

Joint live videos on Facebook or Instagram
Writing a custom email for their audience

Speakers need guidance, reminders, and encouragement from you throughout the promotion period.

Encouraging Attendee Engagement

If you feel like you're having a hard time getting your attendees to start talking in your community, even if you are in there asking fun questions every day, ask your speakers and some friends to jump in and just start commenting. Your attendees will be more likely to comment when they see other interactions happening.

Also, keep in mind that if you only post an intro in your Facebook group, your attendees will not be engaged. If you're in there from the very beginning, asking questions, doing mini trainings, responding to their comments, they are going to be so excited and pumped up for your summit to start.

Expect your attendees to be as engaged as you are.

Crafting an Engaging Event is an excellent post to check out specific engagement-boosting ideas!