Category Archives: Virtual Summits

FREE Virtual Summit Blueprint

By Lisa Nelson  |  Marketing, Virtual Summits

virtual summit blueprint

A virtual summit is when you interview several experts around a central theme with interviews being released over a set window of time to participants. A virtual summit might also be referred to as a telesummit with all interviews conducted via phone or you may opt for a video summit.

Each guest expert promotes the virtual summit to their list allowing you to reach a larger combined audience.

There are many reasons to host a virtual summit:

  • Build credibility… and your brand
  • Become seen as an influencer in your industry
  • Grow your list… attract clients
  • Generate income… fill programs and sell products
  • Increase invitations to speak at events

The most common reason for hosting a virtual summit is list growth. Regardless of your business stage, just getting started or an established expert, you will always need to infuse your list with a fresh pool of potential clients seeking the support you provide.

If your main goal is list growth, you still achieve all the other benefits when you host a virtual summit.

Here are 7 steps to hosting a virtual summit that will build your brand, grow your list, and multiply your sales:

7-Step Virtual Summit Blueprint

Step #1: Determine the virtual summit theme to best attract your target audience

You are hosting this virtual summit to grow your list, BUT you don’t want to attract just anyone to your list. You want to attract your target market. People seeking the products and services you provide.

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Are google hangouts going away?

By Lisa Nelson  |  Marketing, Virtual Summits

There is transition taking place in the video livestreaming world.

Blab.im is no longer available. This platform provided multi-person livestreaming. It worked well for interviews or panel style videos.

There are also rumors google hangouts is going away.

Some alternate options…

Zoom Video Conferencing

This system works well for virtual trainings, virtual summit interviews, and client masterminds.

A perk of this platform is the ease of use for your guests. It’s mostly “click a link to join” format. Plus, you can easily pull the mp3 from the video file. Great for virtual summits.

Facebook Live

A multi-person livecast version has not been released, but is highly anticipated.

A problem with Facebook Live… when do you start presenting content? You don’t want to begin until you have a decent audience, but those who arrive early get tired of listening to “filler” information and leave before you really get started.

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Virtual Summit vs. Giveaway: Which is More Effective to Quickly Grow Your List?

By Lisa Nelson  |  Marketing, Virtual Summits

virtual summit vs. giveaway

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?
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How do you make money with a Virtual Summit?

By Lisa Nelson  |  Marketing, Virtual Summits

virtual summit speaker invitaion

How do you make a return on investment with a Virtual Summit? Here are just 3 ways:

1. Event upgrades

The purpose behind the virtual summit is often list growth. Therefore, it is a free event anyone can attend, but access to each interview is limited to a 24 or 48-hour replay period. If you miss an interview or want to re-listen to a particularly useful segment, you may purchase the event upgrade package. The upgrade package might include downloadable mp3s, transcripts, a bonus gift collection, and/or special q&a only available to those who upgrade. An upgrade package often costs $97 during the event period with a price increase post event.

2. Affiliate commissions

You may sign up as an affiliate for each of your speakers. Your speakers offer a gift to your participants. Participants opt in for their gift and then move through that speakers sales funnel. You make a commission on any connected sales.

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How do you invite virtual summit speakers if you have no list?

By Lisa Nelson  |  Marketing, Virtual Summits

virtual summit speaker invitaion

This is a main obstacle you may face when planning for a virtual summit.

  • How do you find speakers for the virtual summit?
  • How do you secure big name speakers?
  • How do you get speakers to accept if this is your first time and you don’t have other speakers yet lined up?
  • What can you do to attract speakers to leverage their lists if you have no list yourself?

Let’s shift the way you are thinking when it comes to speaker invitations for a virtual summit.

Your list size is not really relevant.

Part of the agreement when you confirm a guest speaker is that they will invite their list via a set number of solo emails.

Therefore, you are leveraging the lists of your guest speakers.

For example, guest A has a list of 3000… you now have access to a list of 3000 for this event. Guest B has a list of 4000… you now have access to a list of 7000 for this event. Every speaker you add increases your event list size reach.

This leverage is one of the reasons why virtual summits are so effective at quickly growing your list.

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What questions do you have about hosting a virtual summit?

By Lisa Nelson  |  Virtual Summits

virtual summit questionsA virtual summit is when you host a gathering of speakers and experts who all speak about a specific topic. As the summit host, you decide the topic and who you want to interview.

There are many reasons to host an event:

  • Build credibility
  • Become seen as an influencer in your industry
  • Grow your list… attract clients
  • Generate income… fill programs and sell products
  • Increase invitations to speak at events

The most common reason for hosting an event is list growth. FYI – You still get all the other benefits even if your main goal is list growth. :)

They work because you are leveraging the lists of others in your industry. You could have a small list and you can still host an event. Your list size doesn’t matter, because you are capitalizing on the lists of your guests.

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