Before Your Summit: Paid Ads & Marketing Strategy to Maximize Your Virtual Summit

BYS 2 | What exactly is a summit?

• Jenzaia • Episode 2

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So, what exactly is a summit?  This episode answers some of the most frequently asked questions summit hosts ask as they're planning their first summit...

1. Why should I host a virtual summit?

2. Should the tickets be free or paid?

3. Should the sessions be live or pre-recorded.

Listen now to discover how to make these crucial decisions with confidence and set yourself up for summit success from the very beginning.

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Speaker 1:

episode two of before your summit. We're going to be talking about what exactly is a summit and should you have a free one or paid? Hey, I'm jense, I'm your host and I'm a Facebook ad strategist. I've been working with teacher business owners and mompreneurs for the last four years building email lists, growing businesses using paid Facebook ads, and now we are channeling all of our energy into marketing summits, because it is my absolute favorite. But I think it's really important, before we get into all the marketing strategy and techniques and tips and all of that, that we talk about what exactly a summit is. So we'll talk about that and then we're going to talk about the differences between a live summit and pre-recorded. We'll talk about free tickets and paid tickets, and then we will touch on all access pass or VIP pass. I have an entire episode coming up about all access passes and what they look like, what their benefits are, why you should have one. All of that good stuff. But this one really is just going to be what a summit is and helping you to work through some of those bigger choices like, again, live or pre-recorded, free or paid summit. So let's jump in.

Speaker 1:

What is a summit? So the best way to describe a summit is to compare it to a conference. Business conferences have been around for a really long time, where you go to a hotel or a conference center and you show up sometime in the morning, there are usually some breakout sessions, or actually I would say that most of the time it starts with a keynote speaker and then you go to breakout sessions, there's a meal and then after dinner there are some social events. Next day we might have like a formal breakfast or there might just be a grab and go breakfast, some more breakout rooms, another keynote speaker at lunchtime, some more breakout rooms, another fancy dinner, social events, and then the final day there might be a couple more sessions, a final keynote speaker to wrap up and then you all head home. So that's like a three-day conference, and a summit is very similar to that where you're getting a whole bunch of presenters together to present on a similar topic, and so there's an overarching topic or goal for a conference or a summit and then many different speakers or presenters who are sharing their knowledge with you throughout the three or five or seven days. The biggest difference between what I would call a conference and what I call summit is that conferences are happening live and in person, whereas a summit is a digital event. Now, everyone may not have that same definition, but for me that is the big difference Live, in person, conference, digital event is a summit.

Speaker 1:

There are and I touched on these three typically at either a conference or a summit. There are and I touched on these three typically at either a conference or a summit. There's going to be three different types of sessions that you're going to see. So the first one is those keynote speakers. These are the bigger names, the bigger presentations. At a conference they're typically going to happen at like a mealtime or when everyone is congregated together in one room. For a summit, you're going to see them happening at the very beginning of the day or at the very end of the day.

Speaker 1:

Often the host is one of the keynote speakers and then there's a couple different ways other keynote speakers can be chosen. I've seen them similar to a conference, where they would get paid to do this larger speaking event, or there. Actually, I've seen sponsor packages that include a keynote speaker position. So a sponsor package is where I, as the speaker, pay, let's say, $500, and one of the perks that I get for sponsoring the summit or the event is that I get to have a keynote speaker position, and so I find it very fascinating that, depending on the summit, a keynote speaker is either paid by the summit to be a keynote speaker or they can have to pay and sponsor the summit to be a keynote speaker. So that's something that you, as a host, can make a decision about. Do you want keynote speakers other than yourself? I do highly recommend that the host of the summit is a keynote speaker. So do you want other keynotes besides you, and are you willing to pay to have these keynote speakers, or would you like them to be sponsors of the event, and that is one of the perks that they get for helping out financially.

Speaker 1:

The second type of session is the breakout rooms. These are typically the smaller presentations where, at a conference, you're going to be picking two or three of them that you would go to each day, or each like chunk of the summit, and so you're not going to be able to participate in every single one, and summits are going to have many different presentations, and those smaller ones are going to be those similar to the breakout sessions. Now, it is so much easier to consume all of the content at a virtual summit than in person at a conference, because in a summit, the whether the presentations are happening live or pre-recorded, they will be recorded and you have a chance to watch them kind of more at your own pace, and so you're able to consume all of the content, versus a conference in person where you like have to pick which sessions you're going to and you can't go to every single thing. Then the final type of session and I'm seeing more and more of these happening are the social ones, and so at a conference this is typically going to happen like after dinner. There was one conference that I was at. It had like a marshmallow s'mores station that we were able to make s'mores at. I've seen games and activities where it's like team building or there's some sort of like amazing race challenge type activity. So there's tons of different activities like that For virtual summits.

Speaker 1:

We're thinking about things like co-working times. We're thinking about speed networking, where we're getting on zoom and we're using breakout rooms to connect people, either one-on-one or in small groups. We're thinking about hot seats or live q a's, live panels. These are extra events. Sometimes they have a little bit more of a social spin, sometimes they continue on with the theme of the conference or the summit. Sorry, but they are not single presentations or presenters that are happening. They're a mix and variety. I've also seen some that are like sing-alongs or yoga sessions. I've seen directed drawing. It really depends on the type of summit that you're hosting what these activities could be. So let's talk about, oh, the benefits.

Speaker 1:

You as a business owner, absolutely could host a conference or an in-person live event, or you can host a summit, and there are definitely pros and cons to each one. Going to build those relationships. There's going to be connections forming between you as the host, with participants, and then there's also going to be connections building between you, the different participants. And being in person definitely has just a different energy and a different vibe it always will. But one of the biggest downsides to hosting an event live in person are the costs that are associated for the host and also for the participants.

Speaker 1:

The host you're going to need to secure a venue. Typically there's a payment required for that. You're going to need to sell those tickets and you're going to need to make sure that you are as close to sold out as possible, because obviously you want to recoup as much of the cost as possible, which can be really challenging, depending if your business is more locally driven or if it's a wider reaching. That can be hard. Like I have a friend who lives up in northern Ontario and she hosts a live event. She's a realtor, though, so she's able to reach out to her network and she has connections with stagers and house cleaners and other solo business owners, and so together they have a quite a wide reaching network within their local community and they're able to fill a room fairly easily with their live events, whereas if your business is online and digital and to get people into a room would require flights or trains or long car rides, it could be more challenging.

Speaker 1:

The other piece, again, is that cost, and so, as a participant at a conference or a live event, you're paying for your ticket, you're paying, potentially, for accommodations, you're paying, potentially, for travel costs. You're also possibly paying for food that you wouldn't be paying for, like when you're traveling and you're eating at restaurants. It's more expensive than if you're at home and you're able to cook your meals right. So that's a big piece of the puzzle. When you have a virtual summit, you do lose out on that connection piece, which is why more and more summits are adding in the social aspects, the speed, networking and other connection pieces so that people can connect, but it just will never be the same as in person.

Speaker 1:

But there are no, not the same costs. Yes, there are some overhead costs that you, as the host, have to pay. You need to host the summit somewhere, you need to have storage to store the recordings of the sessions and there's going to be other costs like, potentially, marketing costs and support, but the cost for the participant and those costs are going to be less than if you're hosting it in a physical location. Almost always, the costs for the participant are also lower. You have to buy the ticket, potentially, but you don't have to have accommodations, you don't need to travel anywhere. There's no additional food costs. Really, your costs as a participant are whatever. It is to access the ticket, paid ticket and like scenarios when one would make more sense over the other.

Speaker 1:

But when you're thinking about hosting an event like this, you want to really think hard. Should it be in person or virtual? And we do call summits live events often, so let's dive into live versus pre-recorded and making sure that we're clear on messaging and our decisions. So live, the sessions are happening in real time. Speakers may or may not be able to engage with the audience while they are presenting. I did a summit oh gosh, how long ago was it now? Maybe two years ago where the presentations were live and I was able to interact with the audience through a chat while it was happening. I've also been behind the scenes of summits, where interaction with the audience was a little bit more challenging and, depending on the formality of the presentation, it might be really hard to interact with the audience if you're trying to share slides and present at the same time. The one that I did that was live was a little bit less formal and I was kind of riffing and so I was definitely able to incorporate the comments, answer the questions and like chat with the audience as I went.

Speaker 1:

There is more pressure on the speakers to show up on time on a schedule because if it's pre-recorded, you can pre-record it anytime you want, before the submission date, right, but with a live summit you have to show up at that time, you have to be ready to present at that time and you have to go. You also can't really do anything if a mistake happens. Now I am a huge believer in mistakes happen. We move on. That real life the messy is good for people to see and we don't want perfection anyway. It's easier to relate with someone who stumbles over the words a little bit or makes a mistake or whatever it might be. But that is just one piece of the puzzle of like live happens right, like you don't really know what's going to happen and you hope that it all goes well. So there's that. There is more engagement, though typically with a live presentation, where it's happening in real time and there does seem to be more urgency for the participants to show up and watch the speaker. Even if they can re-watch the recording later, they're still more likely to show up live and I would imagine that that's because they're able to interact with the speaker, submit questions or potentially, at the end of the session, get their questions answered. So there is that good.

Speaker 1:

The other option is pre-recorded, and this is where the sessions are recorded at an earlier time than released at a scheduled time during the summit. You can choose, as the host, to release all of the day's episodes or um sessions in the morning at like 9 am, or you could have some sort of more staggered schedule so that they are not all released at the same time. You know there's one that goes live at 9 am and then one at 10 am, one at 11 am and then lunch break and then one and two and three and like stagger it out for the participants. This does allow more flexibility for the speakers. Like I said before, you're able to record it at a time that works well for you. You're not shuffling around other things to make sure you can make it happen and there's a little bit more flexibility there. There's also typically fewer tech glitches because you're able to get everything up on the platform ahead of time. Test it, make sure that you work out any kinks and you're not relying on okay, we, we're going live. Let's hope this works.

Speaker 1:

Often you will hear people say live summit, even when the sessions are pre-recorded. I don't know if that's because they want people to feel like it's live, even if it isn't. I think that sometimes that might be the case. I also think that many summits are using live components. So the speed networking or the co-working events, those live Q&As, the live panel sessions, hot seats, other social events like the yoga, as live events throughout the summit, and so, while the sessions are pre-recorded, the summit does have those live aspects. I think people like to use the word live and having the sessions go live at that's those staggered start times can make it seem like they are not pre-recorded, but I just think we should be very careful about that. There is definitely benefits to both. I think new summit hosts are probably going to, and probably should lean towards pre-recorded, but as you gain experience, you might decide that you want to go the live route and have those live presentations so that there is that higher level of engagement and more urgency and you're getting people to actually consume the content.

Speaker 1:

Next thing that you need to decide is between a free ticket and a paid ticket, and so a free ticket there's no cost to sign up. It's kind of like a free email download or a free video training. Except this is a free three or five day event and people get access to all of the sessions for typically a predetermined amount of time. I've seen it anywhere from. You have access to the sessions on the day that they go live and that's it. It's like 24 hours max or up to like a week after. So it really depends on what how long you want to give people the ability to watch the sessions with a free ticket and usually that's about it.

Speaker 1:

There's also the option to have a paid ticket, where these are usually going to be lower costs. I've seen them anywhere from $19 to $149. It does really depend on your niche, your audience and what they'd be willing to pay for. That summit that I ran that the tickets were like. The basic lowest level ticket was $149. It was for pharmacists. It was a very technical summit. There was a lot of industry leaders that were not business owners. They were providing a lot of high level, detailed content, amazing training that was happening, and so it was a very um, specific audience, very specific audience, very targeted audience, very related to their careers. Many of the people who participated were able to get their employers to pay for it, similar to like a conference that you would attend in person. So you need to really like think about your audience, because a lot of my teacher business owners. If you were to charge $149 for a summit like the basic level access to the presentations only type level that's just like not going to fly. So it really does depend on your audience.

Speaker 1:

Now, both free tickets and paid tickets will typically have an upgrade, a paid upgrade of some sort, and so with the free ticket, we usually call it an all access pass, which gives you extended access to the summit presentations, to those sessions. It can be anywhere from 90 days to a year to lifetime access which, as a reminder, lifetime access means the lifetime of the content, not your lifetime, not lifetime of the host, but like the lifetime of the contact content. As long as that content is accessible, you have access to it, but that does not mean it's going to be accessible forever anyway, side rant, um, so we call those all access passes. They will usually include that extended access and then bonuses speaker notes, we'll get into that with the this. I have an episode coming all about all access passes and all of the different things that you could include.

Speaker 1:

For the paid ticket, we typically call it a vip pass, which gives them, like the next level of access, again, longer access to the sessions, um, one-on-one or small group sessions. Uh, again, we'll get into that a little bit more. But again, thinking about your niche, thinking about your audience, how much you're going to charge for the this upgraded pass is going to depend I've seen it anywhere from, again like $27 to $99 and thinking about who your audience is, what they and what a reasonable price is for them. I do really recommend that you have that upgraded pass, because that's where we recoup a lot of our money with a summit is through the upgrade to the pass.

Speaker 1:

I personally think with business owners who are targeting newer entrepreneurs, who are targeting consumers so like moms, fitness enthusiasts, teachers who are still in the classroom if you're targeting like solopreneurs or very small businesses, like one to five employee type size, I think that a free ticket with a reasonably priced all access pass is the way to go every single time, because you're going to grow your list with all of the people who are registering and you're also targeting people who tend to have more time on their hands and less money to spend, and so that's a really great way to get in as many people as possible and then to offer a really high value amazing all access pass to get those conversions on the backend. If you are targeting professionals so like that pharmacist example that I was talking about doctors, lawyers, pharmacists, therapists higher level degrees required or if you're targeting higher level businesses, if you're looking at having directors show up or chief of fill in the blank show up if those are the people that you are targeting, then you may want to have the paid ticket because they are more likely to have the money to spend right and to give them that feeling of exclusivity. You are going to have fewer people sign up if it is a paid event, so it is definitely going to be smaller, but it will be filled with a different kind of people who are willing to pay, versus a free event, which is going to be full of those consumer types, the ones who are looking for more information, more knowledge and have the time to spend to really invest in it. So just keeping that in mind and another piece of the puzzle when you're thinking about whether it should be free or paid is how big is your audience? Because the bigger your audience is, the more likely you are going to have people in it who are willing and interested in paying for your event. Now, these are not rules that are set in stone. If this is your first event and you have a small audience and you're targeting consumers, you can absolutely have a paid ticket. But those are kind of some of my thoughts about it.

Speaker 1:

You also have to think about what your goal is. What do you want to walk away from this summit with? Do you want a bigger email list? Do you want more cash in your pocket? Do you want to have new relationships built, like, what is your main goal? And then also, what are your participants walking away with?

Speaker 1:

Those people who pay are going to be more engaged. A higher percentage, that's not true. A higher percentage of people who pay will be engaged than your free registrations. You will likely have fewer people. A few. A lower percentage of people show up with the free pass than with the paid passes, because we invested the money, so we need to invest the time.

Speaker 1:

What are they actually walking away with at the end? What type of information, what type of knowledge is this and that's going to also help you to figure out. Do you need to gate it behind something? So, for example, with the pharmacist, having that higher dollar value helped gate between people who might just be curious about this information versus professionals who require this type of training for their jobs? Right, so it really.

Speaker 1:

You just really need to think about who your audience is.

Speaker 1:

How big is your audience, what are your goals for the summit and what do you want people to walk away with?

Speaker 1:

Again, if you ever ask me what my thoughts and preference are.

Speaker 1:

I'm going to tell you nine out of ten times it should be a free summit with a paid all-access pass, and you are spending a ton of time, energy and resources to getting as many people upgraded into that all-access pass as absolutely possible.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, so I hope that this has helped you to kind of really understand what a summit is and then make some of those first initial decisions whether you should have a live summit or one that's pre-recorded, and whether you should have a free ticket with an all access pass upgrade, or if you should have a paid pass, a paid ticket with that vip upgrade pass. There's no wrong answers. Your gut, you, your business, you're the one who knows what's right, uh, and you get the chance to choose. So so, yeah, I hope that this session or, yeah, this Saturday strategy session has been helpful and informative and I'm looking forward to our next episode where we're going to be talking about the summit marketing timeline and I'm going to be breaking down for you, week by week, a sample timeline of how you can reverse engineer your marketing plan for maximizing success with your summit. So I will see you then. Bye.