So you want to host a virtual summit to exponentially grow your audience (aka your email list), influence and revenue FAST?
You’ve come to the right place.
This guide will walk you through a multi-step method to host a wildly successful virtual summit so that you can reap the rewards of one of today’s most effective digital lead generation tools.
Take a moment to think about what sets summits apart from other list building methods to grow your online business.
Perhaps you’ve tried blogging. Or podcasting. Or pouring money into your paid advertising budget.
But at the end of the day, you end up a few measly subscribers ahead of where you started, and not much revenue to show for your effort.
A virtual summit turns all of that on its head.
Don’t get me wrong, I’ve been there.
Five years ago, I was working harder than ever, writing blog posts and recording podcast episodes to get my business off the ground.
I know what it’s like to hustle all day (and night!) only to see meagre gains.
Frankly, it sucked.
It wasn’t until I focused all my energy on hosting a virtual summit that things turned around (and then they changed A LOT all at once!)
In fact, I can honestly say that it changed my business and live forever… along with the 100’s of students I’ve taught since.
There IS another way, and this guide will show you the exact steps to do it.
Virtual summits are the FASTEST way that I know of to build a list of engaged subscribers who will become buyers.
With this method, I’ve been able to generate well over $1 million from my online business in a very short time.
And it’s not just me…I’ve taught this method to hundreds of students in almost every niche imaginable.
It works time and time again.
If you ready to focus your time and effort on hosting an online summit so that you can finally start seeing results in your business, this guide is for you.
Are you ready?
Let’s do this!
What Is A Virtual Summit?
A virtual summit is an online event that brings together the top experts on a given topic.
Video interviews with the speakers are often free for a short period of time, such as 24 to 48 hours. People can opt-in with their email address to register for the event and view for free, and can upgrade to unlimited viewing by purchasing the All-Access Pass.
A virtual summit is:
- Online conference or event
- Webinar (or podcast) on steroids
- Leverage other people’s success to build your email list/authority
- Win-win-win for your speakers, attendees, and YOU (if done the right way)
- Win-win-win for your speakers, attendees, and YOU (if done the right way)
You bring the top experts in your industry together in one online event (typically 3-7 days long, but can be shorter or longer) and interview them on various topics to deliver the best and most up-to-date information to your audience.
When you launch your summit, people can register to watch ALL of the summit sessions for FREE.
All they need to do is register for the summit with their name and email address so that you can send them the special links each day of the conference (and build your email list!)
Once they’ve opted in, they’ll have the option to buy the All-Access Pass (or Premium Pass as I’d like to call it for my own summits) right away if they want LIFETIME access to everything, including all the bonuses that you’ve put together in an irresistible offer.
If they purchase, they’ll get access to any pre-recorded sessions as soon as they’re ready and the live sessions throughout the summit in the member’s area.
During your summit, a few of the sessions (usually 3-8 per day) will be released every day for people to watch free-to-view within a set period of time (usually 24-48 hours). After that, it’s locked away only for people who have purchased the summit All-Access Pass.
With the summit model, you provide the value upfront and it’s possible for people to watch the entire online event and implement the advice for free.
If they know they want access to everything or are impressed by the content (and if you do it right, they will be!) they can purchase the All-Access Pass to come back and watch the sessions whenever they want.
Hosting your own virtual summit allows you leverage other people’s success to build your own email list and authority.
Why Should You Host A Virtual Summit?
Here are the top benefits of why you should host your own virtual summit:
Reason #1: Build A Large, Engaged Email List FAST
Virtual summits are the fastest and most reliable way to “get paid” to build a large, highly engaged email list — even if you’re starting from scratch.
They blow traditional list building methods out of the water.
Blogging
Podcasting
Social Media
Publicity
Paid Advertising
Take writing a blog or recording a podcast, for example.
These methods can work, but they typically take months (or years) to gain traction and bring in the traffic and email subscribers that you want.
I experienced this myself when I was writing my blog and podcasting for 18 very long months without seeing any real results before I hosted my first summit.
A virtual summit turns the game around because it’s a real event with built-in shareability.
People get excited about the content from expert speakers that they get access to for free… and they WANT to tell others about it.
Even better, because the summit is live during specific dates, people have to share it with their friends NOW – they can’t put it off because it will be too late.
This means that more people share your virtual summit and it has good viral potential.
As a result, you can get thousands of targeted and engaged leads in a matter of weeks.
Reason #2: Raise Your Visibility
You know your content is good. Great, even.
…But people aren’t getting value out of what you create if they don’t know it exists.
When you create a virtual summit, you put your business on the map as you reach thousands of new people with your summit content.
A virtual summit naturally attracts people who are genuinely interested in your topic so that you can grow a targeted email list and audience.
It will help you to get your name out there and widely recognized in your niche. You will no longer be a nobody but you will be known as an action-taker who provides true value to your audience.
“Virtual summits are the most underrated marketing tactic at your fingertips…“
Reason #3: Build Rewarding Relationships With Influencers
If there is ONE thing that can grow your business faster than any other strategy that I know of it is this:
Authentic relationships.
It’s the PEOPLE who make a true difference to your success. As the old saying goes, it’s not what you know but WHO you know that counts.
And in online business this holds true as ever.
The awesome thing about hosting virtual summit is that it naturally puts you in the loop with influencers in your niche so that you can continue to grow.
You will build authentic and mutually beneficial relationships as you reach out and connect with experts in your niche.
Your summit sessions also give you the opportunity to talk to industry leaders one-on-one so that you can learn from them and ask them your burning questions.
As you continue to reach out and connect with more and more experts in you niche you will be seen as the person to know who can connect people to others in your niche.
This is a powerful position to be in and comes about naturally through what you do a virtual summit host.
Reason #4: Become An Authority
If you’re just starting out, it can be difficult to prove yourself and your expertise.
By hosting a virtual summit, you position yourself on the same level as other influencers. When you interview and are seen alongside the top players in your industry, people start to see you on an equal playing field with them.
As a result, you can cement your reputation as an industry expert by your association with them.
This helps you to build your brand and become a true authority in your niche. Trust and connection with your audience naturally follows, so that your business can grow to new heights.
Reason #5: Get Raving Fans and Lifelong Customers
One of the best things about hosting a virtual summit is the value that you can provide to your entire audience, both your free followers and paid customers.
Releasing valuable summit sessions for free (for a limited time) allows your audience to benefit from what your speakers have to share and you can build a reputation for providing massive value to your followers.
The virtual summit model is also perfect to build up trust with your audience.
The intense, daily communication that is automatically built into the virtual summit system trains your followers to expect to hear from you and TAKE ACTION.
The result? Almost unbreakable trust and authority.
When you overdeliver to your All-Access Pass customers by providing a top notch experience, they will become raving fans and lifelong customers.
Navid is probably the #1 person in the world when it comes to hosting virtual summits.
Ryan Levesque, Creator of The ASK Method
Reason #6: Multiply Your Income
One of the big challenges of starting an online business is bringing in those crucial early profits to meet your expenses and allow your business the breathing room it needs to grow.
Hosting a virtual summit helps you to push through this barrier because the model allows you to generate a profit WHILE you build your audience, trust and authority.
Unlike other methods, you can start generating income even before you launch. Partnering with established companies in your niche and securing a sponsorship deal is a great way to fund the creation process.
Additionally, you create a product – the summit All-Access Pass – as you build relationships with influencers, learn more about niche and get more authority.
You can start generating significant revenue from All-Access Pass sales as soon as you launch your summit to start getting a return on your investment.
In fact, my students typically generate five figures from All-Access Pass sales alone, and many generate over six figures in revenue.
But the true income multiplier doesn’t come from All-Access Pass sales. It comes from the true asset that your virtual summit helps you to build: your targeted and engaged email list.
The people who sign up for your summit are hungry for knowledge and willing to invest both time and money.
If you do it right, your backend funnel will be the most profitable part of your virtual summit. You can 10X your income by promoting a well-aligned offer that you target audience wants.
Here’s what my daily incoming revenue looked like during my List Building School online summit (notice the spike at the end where I introduce the backend offer?)
The best part is that once you’ve got the list, as long as you keep up engagement you can continue to profit as you promote different products or ongoing programs.
Reason #7: Virtual Summit Business Model
A virtual summit isn’t just some tactic. It’s a super valuable marketing strategy that can become your entire business model.
Let’s take just the email list that you build. These people are your ideal customers who have committed to learning more about your summit topic and are engaged with your brand.
You can leverage your email list over and over again to help them achieve their goals and generate more income for your business.
As you grow, you will find that additional revenue streams flow seamlessly to and from your other offerings.
Perhaps your audience finds out about you when they hear about your summit.
They sign up and are blown away by the incredible content that you expert speakers are sharing for free.
A no-brainer offer, they upgrade to the All-Access Pass to get lifetime access and all the bonuses available.
They LOVE the pass and what they’ve been able to achieve as a result of the summit and keep your brand top of mind.
They are ready to respond to any other offers to help them that you send their way.
Hosting virtual summits also gets easier and easier the more you do it.
Once you learn the system, it’s just a matter of repeating the process and growing your strategy each time.
There is no single point of failure and it can still be a success even if you get a lot of things wrong, with momentum building with each subsequent summit.
None of the traditional list building methods like blogging, podcasting, SEO, publicity and paid ads even come close to the speed and effectiveness of a virtual summit.
That’s why some of the biggest names online today like Neil Patel, Michael Hyatt, Stu McLaren, Ray Edwards, Marisa Murgatroyd, Lewis Howes, Ocean Robbins, Nick Ortner, and even companies like Microsoft, Teachable, Thinkific and Drip are utilizing the power of virtual summits.
But you don’t have to be a “big name” to create a profitable summit.
Using the proven Virtual Summit Mastery method, my students generated hundreds of thousands of qualified leads to their email lists and millions of dollars in sales from their virtual summits — just in the past twelve months alone!
And that number is increasing weekly as more and more VSM students launch their own profitable virtual summits in every niche you can imagine (at any stage of their business).
Ryan Lee, one of the most successful online entrepreneurs today, says:
Navid is the MAN when it comes to virtual summits. I rarely endorse anyone or any product, but everyone who asks me if Navid’s Virtual Summit Mastery is worth it, I say ABSOLUTELY. It’s fantastic quality, great instruction, Navid is a natural teacher and he truly cares about his students success . He gets my full endorsement. If anyone don’t have Navid’s Virtual Summit Mastery program yet, they should get in there now. It’s refreshing to see someone who’s teaching really good stuff.
Ryan Lee, Creator of FREEDYM
Proof You Can Exponentially Grow Your Audience, Influence & Revenue With Virtual Summits
I know that a virtual summit can exponentially grow your audience, influence and revenue because my students and I are living proof of it.
When I started out online, I tried everything. I was blogging, podcasting and doing anything I could to see some results but nothing really gave me the results I was looking for.
It wasn’t until I focused all my time and energy on creating my first summit that things started to turn around.
For a few months, I worked tirelessly on creating my first summit, The Branding Summit.
My very first virtual summit that helped me finally go full-time with my online business!
At first, I wasn’t sure if it would work.
I wondered if anyone would agree to speak. I wasn’t sure if people would come. And I had doubts about anyone buying the All-Access Pass.
But when my first sale came through and I got the payment notification, I knew I was onto something.
In the end, my first virtual summit generated:
- 3,000 new and engaged email subscribers
- $20,000 in profit from All-Access Pass sales (enough for me to quit my part-time job and move abroad.)
- An additional $40,000 in revenue the month right after the summit, mainly by promoting an affiliate product on the backend.
