Summits and giveaways leverage the lists of your guest speakers/contributors to grow your own list.
What is a virtual summit?
A virtual summit is when you interview a group of experts on a specific topic. Interviews can be live or pre-recorded, video or audio, and may last anywhere from ~30-60 minutes. Interviews are released daily over about five days and are available for free to all participants during the replay period.
One summit example is the Creating Unstoppable Teens event. Maggie hosted 20 experts all focused on helping teens develop the skills they need to thrive in and out of the classroom. This event was targeted to the parents of teens, which is her target audience.
What is a giveaway?
A giveaway is when you coordinate with a group of experts to “gift” services or products for free to all participants during the giveaway window. The giveaway window may range from one week to several weeks.
A giveaway example is the Done4You Giveaway. This giveaway is targeted to business owners and provides a wide range of business and marketing gifts.
Effective, quality list growth
You seek list growth so you have a larger audience to offer your services to and increase business profits.
These events can grow your lists by thousands over a few weeks. However, the quality of those subscribers varies… will they become paying clients?
For both, you want to make sure the summit or giveaway target audience is specific to and interested in a problem your business can help them solve. You want participants to be interested and in need of additional support you can provide post event.
A negative I see is the giveaway mindset. It revolves a lot around “free”. Participants come because they are getting something for free. Who doesn’t love to get something for free?
These individuals often grab the gifts and run… unsubscribing after they download the gifts that appeal to them.
Of course, that doesn’t apply to everyone who opts in. There are participants looking for support in a particular area and the giveaway provides the opportunity to learn and test drive new service providers to see who may be a good fit to hire.
But… do you want to attract a high number of freebie seekers or people willing to invest to get what they want?
Now, virtual summits are also free events, but from a slightly different perspective. It’s not quite the same “yes, because it’s free” mentality. Participants have to invest their time within set constraints to gain access to the free information you are providing. The event topic must directly address a problem they are working to solve and the interview series must be appealing enough that they are ready and willing to “spend” their time to receive the information.
A positive aspect of hosting a virtual summit is the ability to establish a relationship with participants. They will hear your voice in a telesummit or even see and hear you in a video summit. This allows them to get to know you on a couple levels which is a part of the “know, like, and trust factor” you often need to establish before a new client is willing to purchase your services.
Granted, not everyone who opts in for a summit will actively participate and you will have people unsubscribe just as you do with a giveaway.
Other benefits to hosting a virtual summit
List growth is not the sole benefit of hosting a summit. Summits increase your visibility and establish you as an expert in your field. By simply surrounding yourself with other key people in your industry you become seen as a leader in your industry.
Hosting a summit will open the door for speaking engagements and joint venture opportunities to further grow your business post event.
A summit also allows you to create a digital product you can package during the event or post event as a program now available for purchase.
These are some benefits you do not necessarily receive when hosting a giveaway.
Virtual summit vs. giveaway: Which is right for you?
Hosting a summit comes with a few more benefits, but you have to decide if those benefits outweigh the cons for you. For example, a giveaway allows you to avoid public speaking, which for some may be a significant con. However, if you want to quickly move new subscribers into paying clients post event, the time invested into interviews and allowing participants to get to know you faster may be well worth it for your business.
What questions do you have about hosting a virtual summit?
There are a few Virtual Summit Strategic Planning Sessions available.
CLICK HERE to secure your session.
If you have questions about hosting an event, you’ll get answers. You’ll receive guidance to ensure you are taking appropriate action to ensure a successful event. You’ll also receive information on support packages available to help you deliver the event you envision.
Lisa Nelson
Detail Project Management
P.S. Get answers to questions. Receive guidance so you plan a successful virtual summit. Learn about support options. CLICK HERE to secure your Virtual Summit Strategic Planning Sessions.
Image courtesy of Stuart Miles / FreeDigitalPhotos.net