How to Create Virtual Summits as a Course Creator on HeySummit

As a course creator, you’ve likely got loads of content already. And you know the disappointment of putting in hours, days, weeks, of work crafting the perfect course, only to sell fewer-than-expected copies of it. 

Instead of letting what you’ve worked so hard for simply fall by the wayside, you could turn that rich content into something that will increase engagement, drive conversions and boost revenue – a virtual summit.

What is a virtual summit?

A virtual summit is a great tool for lead generation. It’s an event that features content delivered in a virtual space, either live or on-demand, to a global audience. As a course creator, you likely know your stuff. Of course, you can’t cover everything under the sun, and a virtual summit often centres around one particular area within your space, and branches into different topics within that area. Some examples of virtual summits include how to craft a plot for your novel and growing a SaaS business through marketing and automation. Specific enough to bring added value to your audience, but broad enough to have a wide target demographic.

As for the content itself, often referred to as ‘Talks’ or ‘Sessions’, they’re usually in the form of a video presentation by speakers/ experts in your niche. They could also be in the form of a panel discussion, a live Q&A, fireside chat/ interview, etc. This might mean adding some tweaks to your existing vault of content if you only have written or audio content, or getting some other people in your network to lend their expertise for variety as well – it’s all up to you!

Why Host a Virtual Summit?

Reach More People

A summit will help you get more eyes on your content. “Why not just host my content on my personal website?” you ask? While you definitely could be doing that, you’d still need additional platforms to manage all aspects of your event – from getting it behind a paywall, collecting payment and registration details, sending out schedules, and giving you flexibility with incentives such as giveaways to boost your attendee numbers. 

More importantly, when you only upload your videos on your site and leave it at that, hoping people will find your content, you’re not being proactive. Instead of creating a meaningful experience for your audience, it’s a passive, one-way communication; content that’s neither exclusive nor available for a limited period of time. Sure, the casual internet surfer might have your video open as a tab, but what’s the likelihood of them actually watching it through the end?

By creating a virtual summit, you’ll have a direct line of communication to an engaged audience – after all, they’re registered for your event at that specific time and place, they’re eager to find out what you’ve got to say.

Grow Your Network

If you choose to branch out and have external speakers at your summit, you’ll be putting yourself in front of key influencers and major players in your space. Participating in a summit is as lucrative to you as it is to speakers – giving them credibility, visibility, and a new audience to engage with.

Generate Revenue

Summits make money. Even if you start with a free pass, you can always sell all-access passes or additional offers that add value to your summit. Here’s where you can repurpose and upsell even more content, for example – additional workbooks, presentations, 1-1 consultations. 

A virtual summit is a time-efficient, impactful way of getting you, your passion, and your brand in front of your target audience. The best part? If you’ve run courses in the past, you’ve already done the bulk of the work – come up with the content. All that’s left to do is choose an event management platform to build the virtual summit for you – a platform like HeySummit.

What is HeySummit?

The first time setting up and running a successful virtual summit can be tough. There are lots of moving parts, from your event strategy to your summit configuration, right down to the tools you use to maximize engagement. 

HeySummit turns your quality content into a meaningful part of your marketing strategy. Its baked-in features are designed to simplify the process of producing a successful summit. They make it easy for people to register and discover your content. Their platform puts you in charge, allowing you to activate a community, offer viral referrals, giveaways, and more. 

Uploading your content is easy – HeySummit integrates seamlessly with both live-streaming platforms and video-hosting platforms. Attendees are also able to easily access all sessions they’ve signed up for with just one unique link, and you can configure email communications to stay in contact with them in the lead up to the summit, during, and after.

Now that you’ve learned a bit more about how virtual summits can help you grow your influence and brand, why not give HeySummit a go? All its plans come with a 14 day no-strings-attached free trial – have a play-around and test its suite of tools for yourself!