If you’re searching for a way to exponentially attract new leads and make sales for your membership, then an online summit may be for you.
Event-based marketing like online summits is a fantastic way to demonstrate your expertise to a highly engaged audience…but only if you do it right!
Membership Geeks have participated in several online summits and we’ve seen the good and the bad in how well they’re pulled off as part of a marketing strategy.
With the right planning, you’ll have an event that drastically boosts your business but do it wrong and you’ve wasted your time and effort!
So, what exactly is an online summit and how can you create an awesome event to build momentum around your membership site?
Let's find out with guidance from Krista Miller of Summit in a Box.
What Is an Online Summit?
An online summit is a virtual event, normally run by one person (although it can be more), that brings together industry experts to give short presentations around a specific topic that your audience needs help with.
Online summits are usually free for your audience to attend for a limited time with revenue generated via an all-access pass that enables them longer access, such as recordings, and extra bonuses.
However, you can also have sponsors and tie in a membership launch to increase revenue.
The Benefits of Creating an Online Summit
Besides revenue, what other benefits are there of hosting an online summit?
Hosting an online summit gives you the opportunity to:
- Make connections with people in your industry
- Add potentially hundreds or thousands of people to your email list
- Generate momentum for your membership
- Showcase your teaching style
- Build authority in your niche
- Show people that your membership is worth investing in
- Easily repurpose part of your content for your blog, social media etc
- Make money for your business in multiple ways
How to Use an Online Summit to Increase Membership Sales
Now you know what an online summit is and how it can benefit your membership, how can you ensure that you create a successful event that people want to attend – and that grows your business?
Get Specific
In an online business world, helping people with a specific problem makes you more relatable and relevant to your audience.
That’s why your summit should zone in on a specific topic within your niche. Krista leads by example and targets business owners, but her summits are aimed at more narrow audiences, such as membership owners.
Being highly specific is what is going to get people to attend, especially when there are so many online events to choose from.
Reach Out To Guest Contributors
Before you reach out to people to invite them to speak at your online summit, you need to know what audience you’re targeting and who you know that targets that exact same audience.
If you’re pitching people with the right audience, that’s instantly going to increase the likelihood of them saying ‘yes.’
Keep in mind that big names within your niche may not be the right fit for your summit goals since they’re less likely to promote your event or value this type of opportunity.
People with small and mid-size audiences can bring something fresh to the table – that could even be someone you’ve interviewed on your podcast or an expert who has taught something inside of your membership.
Consider people you already have a relationship with as this gives you an organic opportunity to invite them to your summit without having to rely on cold pitching!
Consider The Logistics
What does an online summit look like from a practical perspective?
The number of sessions you have in your summit will largely depend on the session length.
Krista Miller recommends 15 to 20-minute presentations to keep your audience engaged since “attendees love short, bite-sized sessions where there’s not too much fluff involved.”
This presentation length enables you to have around 8 presentations per day, giving your audience a choice of which sessions to attend – and, it limits the risk of overwhelm!
Running 8 presentations daily over 3 to 4 days gives you a sweet spot in keeping your audience excited, whereas longer summits tend to see more audience members drop off.
Rely on Your Speakers To Get People To Show Up
So, how do we attract people to an online summit?
Your speakers are the number one way to ensure your summit is a success.
By using guest speakers that have the same audience you’re targeting for your summit, you’re going to get people wanting to show up and take action.
Plus, your speakers are more likely to promote it since it’s going to be valuable for their audience too.
Facebook ads, media promotion, and extra affiliates are additional ways to promote your event.
However, creating an exciting event for your speakers that feels more than a business transaction will go a long way in helping your summit to triumph.
Don’t Forget Monetization Methods
There are three main opportunities for monetizing your online summit – sponsorships, an all-access pass, and a membership launch.
The main monetization method for online summits is an all-access pass. This gives your attendees longer access to the presentations than the typical 24 to 48 hours.
It also offers attendees bonus content contributed by your guest speakers (typically products they already have).
Besides this, an online summit is, of course, the perfect opportunity to promote your membership – and positioning your membership as the natural next step is going to get people through the doors!
Build Awareness for Your Membership
To promote your membership, start building awareness of your membership from the beginning of your summit. For example, when you introduce yourself, briefly mention your membership too.
You can also have your membership sponsor your summit – this is an effective way to increase awareness of your brand.
Use Urgency To Attract Members to an Always-Open Membership
If you have an always-open membership, consider offering a free or low-cost trial (something that you’ve already proven works for you) to new sign-ups.
You can easily build an offer like this into your all-access pass and aim to convert new trial members into paying members with your proven retention strategies.
Another method to help convert your online summit attendees into members is to add urgency.
Offering some type of urgency re-engages your current audience, as well as people who are new to your content. For instance, you could add a live training session that’s only available via your summit.
Leverage Your Summit Content
Once your online summit is over, leverage your content.
One way to do this, Krista suggests, is to use your summit presentations for a tripwire funnel offer – this is going to work well if your content is highly valuable to your audience.
With a tripwire, you offer a free lead magnet, such as one presentation from your summit and once people opt-in with their email details, promote a tripwire page with your all-access pass.
While the ‘live’ element is unavailable, you can drip-feed summit content and still include bonus content that features your membership offer.
If you’re going to add presentations to your membership, then it’s a good idea to give your paying members free access to your summit.
However, if you want to maximize revenue then you could propose two tiers of your all-access pass, such as a lower-cost tier for presentation recordings and a higher-priced tier for recordings and bonuses.
By doing this, you’re able to gift your paying members free access to a lower tier and a discount for the bonus content.
Whatever route you decide to take, make sure it’s detailed in your guest speaker agreement to avoid any conflict.
Start Planning Your First Online Summit Today
With the right organization and strategy in place, online summits are a game-changer for membership site owners.
If you have a proven membership offer and retention strategies in place, creating your first online summit can generate a well-earned boost of email leads, new members, and additional revenue opportunities.
Just remember to focus on a specific topic and reach out to guest speakers who align with your target audience and overall summit goals.
Find out more:
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