How to Create Virtual Events to Build Your Email List and Generate Revenue – In Just 7 Minutes with Liam Austin

Resources/Links:

• Learn more about why a virtual summit will be a game-changer for your business
  through this Virtual Summit Guide (Tips, Videos, Worksheet and Cheatsheet available): https://entrepreneurshq.com/virtual-summit/

Summary

You would have attended many conferences in the past (before this pandemic happened); and realize that as much as they are important for your business, they are also a big drain on your valuable time, energy and resources.

Could there be a better way especially now that most people are asked to stay at home?

These high time and financial costs have business owners looking for different ways to up-skill their employees and help them dramatically increase their network.

Liam Austin is a virtual event strategist, having launched over 15 virtual summits and online business networking events, hosting over 400 speakers whilst educating 100,000+ business owners through his programs.

In this episode, Liam shares how he make it easy for people to create their own virtual summits and online conferences to grow their email list, authority, impact, and revenue.

Check out these episode highlights:

• 01:17 – Liam’s ideal client: “So right now, we’re seeing a lot of in-person conference or event organizers coming across and creating their own virtual conferences or virtual events. So, it’s those anyone that’s doing an offline event, plus typically, those people who do really well, coaches, consultants, agency owners, any type of community, thought leaders, so we are talking about authors and podcast hosts.”
• 01:57 – Problem Liam helps solve: Growing email list, connecting with key influencers, generating revenue, more clients and so on.”
• 03:35 – Typical symptoms that clients do before reaching out to Liam: “Yes, so we’re seeing that a lot of businesses now, especially offline businesses, are struggling at this time, they haven’t really diversified their income or looked at other options.”
• 04:50 – What are some of the common mistakes that folks make before finding Liam and his solution?:”I think it’s really just spending too much time on the content or the structure or laying around and that’s very important. That’s the foundation. We got to spend some time on that. But really the benefits and to achieve the goals of your event and achieve all those benefits I mentioned earlier, you really need to spend most of your time on marketing.”
• 05:53 – Liam’s Valuable Free Action(VFA): “think about that top influencer in your market who you’d love to build a relationship, have their support and maybe even partner with them, figure out a way to be either introduced to them or build a relationship with them. Start a virtual event and invite them to be an expert person in front of your audience doing possibly an interview or something as simple as that.”
• 06:31 – Liam’s Valuable Free Resource (VFR): Learn more about why a virtual summit will be a game-changer for your business through this Virtual Summit Guide: https://entrepreneurshq.com/virtual-summit/
• 07:09 – Q: Why now? And why should people be doing a virtual event? A: Now is the time. If you are struggling where’s the next revenue source going to come in, where’s your income coming from, start building your authority and your email list now. Start generating revenue instantly now from home.

Tweetable Takeaways from this Episode:

“Now is the time. If you are struggling where's the next revenue source going to come in, where's your income coming from, start building your authority and your email list now. Start generating revenue instantly now from… Click To Tweet

Transcript
(Note, this was transcribed using a transcription software and may not reflect the exact words used in the podcast)

Tom Poland: 0:09
Hello everyone, and a very warm welcome to another edition of Marketing The Invisible. My name is Tom Poland, joined today by Liam Austin. Liam, many happy returns. Second time I’m interviewing you must be good. Very warm welcome, sir. Where are you hanging out?

Liam Austin 0:22
Yeah. I’m hanging out in Malta right now, the quarantine on an island in the Mediterranean.

Tom Poland: 0:26
Wow. Well, like if you could think of worst places to be quarantined. No cities mentioned in case we offend some listeners.

Tom Poland: 0:34
For those of you don’t know Liam, or didn’t hear the last interview, he’s a virtual event strategist, having launched over 15 virtual summits and online business networking events, which is very interesting in itself, online business networking. He’s hosted over 400 speakers educating over 100,000 business owners through his programs. He’s a co-founder of Entrepreneurs HQ. He’s a specialist at making it easy for people to create their own virtual events and online conferences to grow email lists, authority, and impact revenue.

Tom Poland: 1:04
Which brings us, Liam, quite nicely to our title which is, “How to Create Virtual Events to Build Your Email List and Generate Revenue.” Liam’s going to tell us how to do that in just seven minutes. Liam, our time starts now. Question number one, who is your ideal client, sir?

Liam Austin 1:17
So right now, we’re seeing a lot of in person conference or event organizers coming across and creating their own virtual conferences or virtual events. So, it’s those anyone that’s doing an offline event, plus typically, those people who do really well, coaches, consultants, agency owners, any type of community, thought leaders, so we are talking about authors and podcast hosts.

Tom Poland: 1:40
And at the time of recording, we haven’t quite hit peak COVID-19 infection rates in many countries so your timing is pretty, pretty spot on. Great time to be in the virtual event business. So, question number two, and we’ve got six and a half minutes left, what’s the problem you solve for those people?

Liam Austin 1:57

So, we really look at five core benefits of running a virtual summit. So, we can think of these as the answers to your problems. So, your email list, if you’re looking to grow your email list, build your audience, virtual event is perfect for that. The second one is connecting with influencers, the top influencers in your market, inviting them to be speakers on your show at your event.

Liam Austin 2:12

The third is growing your own authority and influence in your marketplace by being the host of such experts in your marketplace and bringing together all those experts and providing an event that really has a big impact in your marketplace.

So that’s really the next one is about making impact, purpose driven, mission driven type of topic that has a massive impact on your prospects. And really the final one is about making money and generating revenue directly from the event as well as further down the funnel as you filter those email lists leads coming into business into your funnel and ultimately into a paying customer.

Tom Poland: 2:59
Solving five problems with five benefits, growing email list, connecting with key influencers, generating revenue, more clients and so on. Thank you. Question number three, five minutes left. When someone’s looking to solve those problems, well, let’s look at virtual events, specifically, I guess, what are some of the typical symptoms that people will be experiencing in their businesses which will make them go, “Oh, I need Liam, Liam’s got the answer to this problem because he can make these symptoms disappear.” What’s going on, obviously, that maybe they’re concerned about their email list size, but what else is happening?

Liam Austin 3:35
Yes, so we’re seeing that a lot of businesses now, especially offline businesses, are struggling at this time, they haven’t really diversified their income or looked at other options.

And so anyone that’s looking to create a diversified income stream, and make money maybe online for the first time, even if you’re just starting out, virtual events are perfect for that because it can really just catapult you from being a nobody to that go to expert, or that authority in your marketplace, purely by being the host of one of these events.

Liam Austin 4:05
And there’s various different types of events that we can solve with this. But really, it’s those, right now we’re seeing people who are doing in person events and trying to figure out, well, how do I do this online? How do I create a virtual product and make money even online for the first time? That’s, you know, a great impact that I feel like we’ve had with our clients in our business over the past few years.

Tom Poland: 4:27
Right. So, someone who’s asking themselves that question that would be a symptom in itself. So, let’s go to question four, three and a half minutes left, what are some of the common mistakes people make? So, the clients you pick up, they will have tried stuff before and some of it will have failed. So, what are some of the pitfalls or things that you’ve seen people do that you could advise people against doing?

Liam Austin 4:50

I think it’s really just spending too much time on the content or the structure or laying around and that’s very important. That’s the foundation. We got to spend some time on that. But really the benefits and to achieve the goals of your event and achieve all those benefits I mentioned earlier, you really need to spend most of your time on marketing.

Liam Austin 5:10
And if you’re not spending 80, 90% of your effort in marketing, bringing onboard partners, and we talked about three different partners in our training; your speakers, your affiliates, who may be media partners, they may be sponsors as well. And then finally, turning your attendees or your email subscribers into ambassadors to promote your event.

Tom Poland: 5:34
Car sophisticated. Thank you. So, question five is, let’s give people a way to step forward. Question five, and two and a half minutes left, what’s a valuable free action someone could take who’s thinking about running virtual events? Not going to set up the whole event, not going to solve the whole problem but might take him a step in the right direction.

Liam Austin 5:53
I think if you think about your dream speaker or your dream influencer, that top influencer in your market who you’d love to build a relationship, you’d love to have their support and maybe even partner with them, why not figure out a way to be either introduced to them or build a relationship with them?

And a great way to do that would be to start a virtual event and invite them to be an expert person in front of your audience doing possibly an interview or something as simple as that.

Tom Poland: 6:21
Perfect. Indeed. Thank you. One and a half minutes left, two questions to go. A valuable free resource we could direct people to that’s going to help them even more. You got a landing page somewhere.

Liam Austin 6:31
Yeah, we’ve got a 23,000-word guide around creating a virtual event, or virtual conferences, virtual summits, and you can go to entrepreneurshq.com/summit to get access to that free resource that’s really valuable there. It’s got some videos, got some downloads, some checklists and worksheets there for you.

Tom Poland: 6:52
Perfect. And we’ll make sure we have that link under the video at www.leadsology.guru/podcast, but it’s entrepreneurshq.com/summit, was it correct?

Liam Austin 7:04
That’s correct.

Tom Poland: 7:04
Perfect. Thank you, sir. One minute left. Last question. What’s the one question I should have asked you, but didn’t?

Liam Austin 7:09
So really like, Why now? And why should people be doing a virtual event? So, I mean, people are locked in doors now, and I’ve been running this business from Australia, from Thailand, from Sweden, and now Malta, and all my travels to the US and abroad.

Liam Austin 7:26
And I think, now is the time to, if you’re struggling, where’s the next, you know, revenue source going to come in? Where’s my income coming from? Why not start building your authority, building your email list now, and even start generating revenue almost instantly now from home. And this is something that’s we’ve been doing successfully for years prior to this crisis, and it’s going to increase even further in the future.

Tom Poland: 7:52
Liam Austin, thanks so much for your time.

Liam Austin 7:54
Cheers, Tom.

Tom Poland: 7:57
Thanks for checking out our Marketing The Invisible podcast. If you like what we’re doing here please head over to iTunes to subscribe, rate us, and leave us a review. It’s very much appreciated. And if you want to generate five fresh leads in just five hours then check out www.fivehourchallenge.com.