In the past few years, it seems like virtual summits are in vogue. Everywhere you turn there is another virtual summit happening. There is a simple reason for that. They are great events for everyone involved — the organizer, speakers, audience, and affiliates. Today I’m going to share with you 5 reasons that you should promote virtual summits as an affiliate.
In the past few years, my team and I have run affiliate launches for several virtual summits for people like Ray Edwards, Claire Diaz-Ortiz, Ron Friedman, Chandler Bolt and many others.
In addition to those summits we have run, I have also promoted several affiliates personally and spoke at several more.
It is safe to say that I have been a part of dozens of virtual summits in the past few years.
RELATED POST: Interested in using affiliates to promote your virtual summit? Read this post to get the most out of your affiliates.
After all of those experiences, I am more convinced than ever that virtual summits are great affiliate promotions.
But first, the big question that you may be asking…
Are Virtual Summits Dead?
There is a lot of talk in the online world about how virtual summits are dead.
That is simply not true.
The reality is, go find 100 business owners in your community, or ask someone at the restaurant the next time you go out to eat. Most people have never even HEARD of virtual summits, let alone attended one.
So NO, they are not dead.
The same thing has been said about every new technology or idea that has shown up on the internet.
“Email Marketing is Dead.”
Go Google that phrase and look at the results.
You’ll find articles all the way back to 2002 arguing that email marketing is on it’s way out…or why it is not on it’s way out.
It is obviously a hotly contested question.
And yet it’s still the #1 way to sell anything online.
So for 15-20 years, people have been saying email marketing is dead, and it’s still not.
The same has been said for virtual summits.
Here’s the simple reason why it feels like there are so many virtual summits:
You and I are hyper-sensitive to these type of things because we are in this world.
The reality is, most of your audience has never even HEARD of a virtual summit, let alone attended one.
I wanted to get that out of the way up front.
No, virtual summits are NOT dead.
So here are 5 reasons why virtual summits are good affiliate promotions.
1. There is No Hard-Sell For an Optin
This is a total give.
The typical virtual summit has 30-50 amazing speakers. Many of them will be people your audience will have heard of and want to see.
More than likely there will be at least one very recognizable speaker that they will really want to see.
And they get to watch them speak for free.
You get to offer your audience this amazing opportunity to hear amazing speakers, without paying a dime.
Like I said above, this is a total give.
You don’t have to convince them to pull out their wallet, they just have to register.
2. Super High Value
This ties into what I said in the last point.
Let’s say that the average virtual summit interview is 30 minutes long and there are 70 speakers (Like Claire Diaz-Ortiz’s summit coming up).
That is 35 HOURS of amazing content that you are offering your audience.
You can’t tell me that GIVING your audience 35 hours of FREE content from thought leaders in that industry or niche wouldn’t be insanely valuable to them.
And as the affiliate, you get to be the one to share it with them.
That makes you the hero to your audience.
3. Multiple Entry Points With Different Speakers and Topics
Typically speakers will be grouped into a few different categories.
You will have big name speakers grouped with lesser known speakers and each group might be on a slightly different sub-topic and each speaker will speak about some aspect of that sub-topic.
This gives you multiple entry points into the summit.
You could literally send a specific email about a specific speaker, then send an email about the virtual summit as a whole, and then another one about another specific speaker that is talking about something that your audience would be interested in.
When we are running the launch for a summit we tell our affiliates to pick 3 or 4 speakers that they have a personal connection with, meaning they either know them, have read their book, taken their course or otherwise been influenced by them, and then send an email specifically about them speaking.
This allows you to share personal experiences and help your audience see why this virtual summit is perfect for them to attend.
Looking for Summits and Programs to promote? Click Here to check out our recommended upcoming promotions.
4. You Can Connect With the Speakers
Many of the speakers for the summit will also be promoting the summit to their list.
That means they will most likely be in the affiliate Facebook group.
If you’re promoting the launch and doing well, maybe you’re on the leaderboard, that is a great way often to connect with the speakers that are promoting.
This allows you to connect with some of the all-stars in your industry and maybe even get podcast or YouTube channel interviews with those speakers that you would otherwise have a hard time getting.
You also might find other opportunities to promote their products and possibly even get some of them to promote your products.
The bottom line is promoting virtual summits will allow you to connect with thought leaders and other experts in your industry that could have a huge impact on your business going forward.
RELATED POST: How to Recruit Affiliates For Your Virtual Summit.
5. Top Promoters Get Invited to Speak at the Next One
When you promote a virtual summit and you are one of the top promoters, it is very likely that you could be asked to speak at the next summit they do.
And if you’re not, you can certainly approach them about speaking, because you now have some leverage.
And, of course, speaking at a virtual summit is a great way to grow your list because now you get to speak in front of ALL the people that attend the next summit.
So let’s say there were 100 affiliates that sent 200 registrants each.
That is 20,000 people attending the summit.
Now, of course, some people will send 5 and some people will send 500 or 1,000. But let’s say the average was 200.
If you were one of the top affiliates and you sent 1,000 and you get the opportunity to speak at the next summit, not only are you speaking to the 1,000 people you sent, but also to the 19,000 people that you DIDN’T send.
Not to mention all the new people that register for the new summit.
Now when you speak you get the chance to offer a great incentive for those 19,000 to come over and join your list.
RELATED POST: How to Run an Online Summit (And Get the Most From Your Affiliates).
6. BONUS: Upsells
Ok, you know, I like to give more than I promise, so here’s a bonus reason that virtual summits are great affiliate promotions.
Upsells.
If you’ve never promoted a virtual summit, you may have been reading through this post and wondering how you can actually make money as an affiliate when you’re promoting a free registration to the event.
That’s the beauty of it.
Almost every summit will have multiple upsells that will be offered to your audience when they register as well as during and after the summit.
The great part about it is they can decline all the upsells and still get all the valuable content for free.
But they will most likely be given the option to get an “all-access pass”, which will allow them lifetime access to all the interviews along with other resources, such as transcripts, audio recordings and more.
In the summits we have run, these tend to be very popular upsells.
Many summits will also have a backend offer after the summit to purchase a related course or other product.
These upsells allow you to not only provide insane amounts of value to your audience for free but also earn some good commissions in the process.
So, summits are great affiliate promotions, and no, they aren’t dying or dead.
If you come across a virtual summit that is perfect for your industry or audience, I highly recommend you consider promoting it. There are are countless benefits to your and your audience for doing so.
Have you promoted a virtual summit? If so, what was the biggest benefit you saw from promoting?