Transcript
Welcome to the Bloggy Friends show.
What's up my bloggy friends?
Famous Ashley Grant here.
And if you have been considering participating in a virtual summit, this is the episode for
you.
I highly recommend that if you are a blogger and you are trying to get your name out there,
consider doing a virtual summit.
I have participated in a virtual summit in the past where I have been a speaker and I've
also attended many of them as a guest.
And I think that they are the coolest thing that people can use for what a lot of people
consider audience jacking or using other people's people to get your audience to grow.
And so in this entire episode, we're going to jam on all the things related to virtual
summits and I will leave some links in the show notes all about how you can participate
in them or even start your own because I think that virtual summits are the next big thing
for podcasters and bloggers alike.
They have been around for years, but I really see them becoming more and more of a thing
in 2024 and beyond.
So let's get into it.
So virtual summits, they are becoming more popular than ever, especially with more and
more people working remotely.
This started in the pandemic where people were working from home and still trying to
attend events or host events.
And so you may have attended a virtual summit yourself or maybe you've hosted one.
And if you have not hosted one or attended one, I at least recommend you check them out.
There's a couple that are coming up right now.
I know that podcast summit is next week at the time of this recording and there's a bunch
of other podcasting summits and excuse me, a bunch of other virtual summits coming up
in all kinds of different categories.
I mean, they've got them on how to host a summit.
They've got blogging summits.
They've got so many different virtual summits and I bet you if you were to type in whatever
it is you're into and virtual summit, you'd probably find some.
I have seen them for doctor's offices.
I've seen them for lawyers.
I've seen them for a whole bunch of niches.
And I just think that they're a very cool way to get access to a bunch of different
people in an industry and learn more about what your industry is about.
And it's just a great way to educate yourself on any different niche.
So virtual summits are a great way to connect with customers and increase your bottom line.
And best of all, they usually cost a lot less, like up to 90% less than what an in-person
conference or expo would cost to put on.
So they're great for almost any niche as long as your customers can access the internet.
They can be great for coaches.
They can be great for consultants, online marketers, small business owners.
You get the idea.
And as a bonus, you can use your recorded virtual summit for future marketing and sales.
And I've seen some people actually build entire businesses on virtual summits.
So what they'll do is they'll invite a bunch of people to talk on a topic.
They will sell tickets to this topic, this summit.
And sometimes they'll give away free tickets just to get you an entry point and to get
your email address, and then they'll sell a discounted version of the ticket so you
can have access to all of the recordings and notes and all the things from the virtual
summit.
And maybe they'll sell it at a low price point like $47.
Or if you want lifetime access, they'll sell it for $99 or whatever the number may be.
So they give you the free access.
You get the big...
I'm going to try that again.
They give you free access in exchange for your email address.
And then that email address is shared with all of the speakers.
And so it's a great way to build an email list really, really quickly for someone who
is brand new or trying to get their name out there, trying to build an audience.
And then all of this amazing content can either go into a membership site or it can be sold
at later dates.
And if it's not timely, it can be used as like an evergreen sales tool to create all
kinds of different physical...
Excuse me.
Can be used to create all kinds of different digital products, including eBooks or recordings
on the go or private podcasts or all the things.
There's so many different ways that you can use a virtual summit in your monetization
toolkit as it were.
But as with any online activity, you need to have reliable technology to host a virtual
summit.
You'll want to have all the required hardware, software, services needed to deliver an excellent
experience for your audience.
And without these essentials, you won't be able to hold your audience's attention.
So if you're considering holding your own virtual summit as a blogger, here are a few
things that you need to think about.
So first of all, to host it yourself, you first need to determine what type of event
you want it to be.
There's so many different styles of virtual summits and each one has its own unique benefits
and features.
So you first have to decide which one is right for your audience or if you should create
a new style entirely.
Here are a couple of different examples of the most popular virtual summit formats.
The first one is mastermind summits.
Now mastermind summits bring together a small group of people to discuss a single topic.
And it's both educational and inspirational and often very interactive between all of
the participants.
And after hosting one, you'll be probably planning several mastermind summits throughout
the year for your customers so that they can gain access to more experts in their field
of choice.
The second one is a product launch summit.
This event is where you bring together minds from different industries to discuss a single
subject and at the same time launch your latest product.
A good example of this is probably podcast movement.
Though they are known for doing an actual in-person conference, what a lot of people
don't know is that they also sell access to all of the recordings from the conference.
And in a way, that's considered a virtual summit.
So they're talking about all the various aspects of podcasting and that's like the unique unified
theme that is bringing all these people together, but they don't just talk about one aspect
of podcasting.
They talk about monetization.
They talk about building an audience, building a community.
They talk about how to market it, all the things.
And so that is what a product launch summit would look like.
And although some companies have taken it further, they're usually done in about one
day in length.
Podcast movement, for example, is usually three to four days, but you can use this as
a single product that you are selling.
So you host the summit and this is your product that you are now selling as your digital product.
Another type of summit is called a content distribution summit.
You'll want to host something like this if you already have an established audience,
but you need to increase your social media presence.
This is more like an interactive version of a webinar where you get people engaged with
each other.
They share content, you share brand updates and behind the scenes news.
Another summit is live conversations.
A live conversation is more of an interactive virtual summit and it's usually just one person
similar to a webinar where you're hosting for about an hour or so.
You're doing this with usually just yourself, but sometimes you'll do it with another person
in the industry and you guys just chat and have a live conversation with each other or
with the audience.
And you can do this for networking, content distribution, connecting with and providing
value to your audience.
It's very similar to doing a live podcast, but it is considered a form of a virtual summit.
So those are the most popular types of virtual summit, but what kind of tools do you need
if you want to host one?
The first thing you need is to get the proper tools, things like your desktop, your laptop,
your phones, your tablets, et cetera.
You need to consider your audience numbers and you may find that it's going to be easier
to manage chat replies or interactions better on one device than it would be on another.
So things that you want to consider are having a high quality microphone.
You want your viewers and listeners to be able to hear you clearly.
You also need a really fantastic internet connection.
This is even more important if you plan on doing your summit live.
A lot of virtual summits are hosted and held prior to the actual live event, meaning all
of the recordings are handled ahead of time.
So whenever it goes live, so to speak, it is actually a prerecorded audio that is being
pushed out as if it were live, but in truth, it was recorded in advance.
So if you are going to be doing one that is live, make sure you have a really good internet
connection.
And I'll also say that with this, if you're going to do it live, make sure you do a test
run just to make sure you understand all the bells and whistles and how you're going to
do it.
If you plan on having more than 50 participants in your virtual summit, you want to probably
opt for a wired connection, not Wi-Fi, and test your provider's upload speed before your
summit actually begins.
The last thing you want is to bring all these people in, especially if they're paying for
it to be there live.
You don't want them to miss it just because your internet wasn't reliable.
Other things that you need is video conferencing software.
I've seen people do this with Zoom.
I've seen people do this with Riverside, GoToMeeting.
And the other one that I've also seen a lot is virtual summit software that is hosted
by or not hosted.
I'm sorry.
It is owned by Dr. Mark Wade.
I actually had the immense pleasure of interviewing him for Podcasting 101 with RSS.com.
And what I will do is I will leave the link to his episode from Podcasting 101 in the
show notes because if you swap out the word podcaster for blogger throughout that entire
episode, it's everything you need to hear.
It is just a fantastic episode and I highly, highly recommend it.
And he talks about how if you participate in one, you can build an audience or if you
host one, you can basically turn that into a income stream for your business.
Other things you need if you want to host a virtual summit, emailing software to invite
your attendees and to keep up with them as the summit gets closer, you want to remind
people about it so they actually show up.
You want a landing page for your event and sales page.
I've seen people do this with LeadPages.com.
I've seen people create their own pages on their own websites.
Some people who have used programs like Stealth Seminar, they actually have a plugin where
you can create a landing page in the software and it links to your domain.
That's an option as well.
And finally, you want a payment processing of some kind to collect payments for any sales.
And Virtual Summit software is really good at this because they have upsell pages.
So whenever you bring people to your landing page to participate in your summit, they can
get their free ticket and then after they get their free ticket, that's when you can
start offering them options like purchasing the recordings or the downloads or whatever
it is that you want to offer your attendees.
So when it comes to software, there's a lot of software options available for hosting
your virtual summit.
I've mentioned a few here already.
I've also seen people use things like Facebook or YouTube to host a small virtual summit.
But these platforms are pretty basic.
And if you want something where you can have like polls or ask your audience questions
and be able to catch up with them in real time, they may not be good enough for actually
being able to engage with your audience.
So if you only have about 50 attendees though, that's not going to be a big deal.
You can use a smaller software or something like that.
But many of the other tools that I have mentioned like the Virtual Summit software or GoToMeeting
and all the other ones, they offer some really amazing tools that give the host more control
not only over their content, but also over how they engage with the audience.
So what I mean by the control over the content is once you put something on Facebook or you
put it on YouTube, you can usually download it in some way, shape or form using some type
of software.
When you use a platform like Virtual Summit software or GoToMeeting or even Zoom, it's
much harder to download this content for free.
So if you are paywalling it and you want to make sure that people can't get access to
it after the fact, you'll want to use a software that's going to actually take it offline,
so to speak.
Even though it's still available to those who have paid for it, the people who haven't
will not be able to have access anymore.
So like I said, one of the best options for hosting a Virtual Summit is Virtual Summit
software.
They offer the best Virtual Summit and webinar platform on the market right now for the price.
And usually if you purchase a package with them, they not only give you the software,
but they also teach you how to use it, how to promote your first summit and all those
good things.
So this software, it allows you to create a custom landing page.
And I'm not sponsored by them in any way, shape or form.
I've just checked out a few of them.
And this particular one is really awesome from all the ones that I have seen.
If I ever host a summit of my own, I intend to use the software personally.
So the cool thing about once you host one is then you can turn it into, like I said,
evergreen sales products.
And one of the most valuable ways to monetize your Virtual Summit is by turning it into
a product that you can sell later.
So you record your summit and you turn it into an evergreen sales webinar or a video
series or repurposing it in some way that makes it into an actual product.
This could be an ebook, a workbook, a workshop, anything.
We previously talked about the summit software and how to host it, but now let's discuss
how you can actually monetize your summit.
So like I said, you need to create a sales page.
The first thing is the first thing you need to do whenever you're creating your actual
summit.
You can use the software to build your landing page in Lead Magnet or whatever program you
are using.
Make sure that somewhere, some way you have a landing page in a Lead Magnet.
And the reason this is so important is it actually will give you a way to keep in touch
with your audience.
Even if they're not purchasing tickets, if they're getting them for free, you want some
way that you can get in touch with them before, during, and after your summit.
Next you want to funnel to larger products.
You want to create a sales funnel that leads your viewer from the summit to a larger, more
profitable offer.
These could be things like more extensive summits, masterminds, courses, coaching, all
that jazz.
And it's important to know where these people are entering your funnel and how to ensure
that they'll be on board and find value in your upsell.
So ensure that you're not putting people through an information overlord, oh, overlord.
Ensure that you're not putting people through an information overload when you're trying
to sell them something new.
And then finally, they're selling your summit as part of a membership.
I know a lot of internet bloggers, internet bloggers.
I know a lot of business owners that are actually using summits as their way to create a membership.
What they do is they host a big summit and they invite all kinds of industry experts
to talk about any different subject, whatever it is that their business is based on.
Then what they do is they take all of those videos and they put them into a monthly membership
because the idea is you can't always get all of the content within two, three, maybe even
a week, two, three days, even a week.
Because it's hard, especially if they have a lot of speakers.
For example, one of the summits that I attended, there were 48 speakers and you only had 48
hours to listen to all of these speakers.
Without paying for the membership, it was impossible to do.
So to be able to actually hear everything that everybody had to say, get access to the
people that were speaking, you could pay for the membership and have access to those people.
And you can do this by packaging it with other products.
For example, if you have those conversations already recorded, you could add additional
conversations, you could add coaching, you could add all kinds of different things to
make it a valuable membership that someone would actually be willing to pay.
One of the ones I saw recently, it was like $20 a month to get access to all of the speakers
and you had to pay for a year upfront.
So that's just an idea of something that you can do.
So what are the best ways that you can see a return on investment from participating
in a virtual summit?
The first one is that you want to give sponsors a seat at the table.
This tip came from Jonathan Zacharias, who's the founder of GRO, and what he said was,
invite industry experts from up and coming companies who would co-sponsor the event with
you in order to make the much needed splash.
For a summit, you always need a variety of expert speakers.
Why not invite someone who's also seeking a seat at the table?
His idea is that if you assemble this virtual summit, it could be an opportunity for them,
giving them hard data about who is taking part and why they can build credibility by
being seen as an authority alongside the other participants.
So long as they have something of value to add when speaking on the topic, they can help
you get your return on investment much quicker so you can make it a better overall event.
Brendan Thomas, who's CEO of Twibby, he said that it's important to define your goals
and metrics if you hope to be successful.
What he says is before the event, determine what you hope to achieve, whether it's increased
brand awareness, lead generation, or thought leadership opportunities.
And he also recommends that you identify key performance indicators, also known as KPIs,
that align with these goals and track them throughout the event.
This can include metrics such as registration numbers, attendance rates, engagement levels,
and even post-event follow-up activity.
When you track these metrics, he says, you can assess the success of the event and make
data-driven decisions about how to improve your future events.
And there's a lot more ways that you can actually see a return on investment from hosting or
participating in a virtual summit.
Additional ways include make it as niche-specific as possible, build relationships with attendees,
offer virtual sponsorships, evaluate networking opportunities that are gained, and bring value
to your target audience.
I'll leave an article in the show notes about how to see ROI from participating in a virtual
summit.
It's filled with a bunch of great tips from 11 of the experts that I spoke with who either
hosted or participated in a virtual summit.
And I just loved everything that they had to say, so I'll definitely leave that.
If you go to famousashlegrant.com backslashvirtualsummit, you can see all of the information about how
to create one of your own, how to participate, why they're beneficial, and the link that
I promised to Dr. Mark Wade's amazing episode that I did on Podcasting 101.
So I hope that this kind of got you excited about the idea of virtual summits, whether
you want to host one or just participate in one.
I think they're a really cool idea.
Like I said, I have participated in one myself, and I am considering participating or hosting
one myself in the future.
And I think they're just a neat way to engage with your audience.
So I hope you found this helpful, and if you did, please share it with someone.
And until next time, may your page views be high and your balance right below.