How to Generate Clients with Virtual Summits – In Just 7 Minutes with Liam Austin

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• Learn why virtual summit is the game-changer for your business
• Learn the best lead generation strategy that actually works for virtual summits
• Know virtual summit secrets so you too can launch a profitable virtual event

Resources/Links:

• Why Virtual Summits Are Going To Be A Game-Changer For Your Business (And How To Host A Successful Online Summit): https://entrepreneurshq.com/virtual-summit/

Summary

Liam Austin is the co-founder of Entrepreneurs HQ, an online community and resource hub for entrepreneurs featuring over 175,000 members in their LinkedIn group, an email list of 50,000 subscribers, and tons of content in the form of video tutorials, blog posts, digital guides all geared toward helping entrepreneurs grow their businesses faster.

In this episode, Liam shares why virtual summits generate audiences that webinars can only dream of and his simple, foolproof system to launch a summit in just 90 days.

Check out these episode highlights:

• 01:28 – Liam’s ideal client: Someone who wants to run a virtual summit is anyone who is looking to get more clients, increase their authority, generate more revenue and build relationships with influences in their niche
• 02:22 – Problem he helps solve: Getting more clients
• 03:38 – Typical symptoms people experience with that problem? Struggled quite a bit trying to get a business off the ground. It was just wasn’t getting enough traction, it’s struggling each day to bring in more clients, more revenue, putting more dollars in my pocket
• 04:35 – Common mistakes they’re going to make? A lot of people are looking for just that quick win.
• 05:48 – Liam’s Valuable Free Action(VFA): Building something that’s really going to work for my business long term. But be really valuable because it’s that high conversion rate, right, into the opt-in, into the email list. But what you’re building is relationships with some influences in your niche
• 07:06 – Liam’s Valuable Free Resource(VFR):Why Virtual Summits Are Going To Be A Game-Changer For Your Business (And How To Host A Successful Online Summit): https://entrepreneurshq.com/virtual-summit/
• 07:37 – Q:’What is the best lead generation source, what actually works for the summit?’ A:It’s all about partnerships and relationships.

Tweetable Takeaways from this Episode:

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, a very warm welcome to another edition of Marketing The Invisible. My name is Tom Poland, joined today by Liam Austin. Liam, good day, thanks for being here. Where are you hanging out?

Liam Austin 0:19 Hey, good day mate. I’m hanging out in Malta right now, which anyone doesn’t know it’s just south of Sicily in Italy.

Tom Poland 0:26 Having just come back from Croatia for three weeks, I’m feeling very jealous right now. But I’m sure you work pretty hard over there. And if you’re in an office, well, it’s nice to step out the door into the sunshine in Malta, I’m sure. So, Liam, we’ll skip off geography and get back on to you as the subject. For those of you don’t know Liam, he’s, I’m surprised he’s still smiling because he’s actually put together 15 virtual summits. Now, if you as a listener know anything about the virtual summit, you will know it’s like trying to herd about 100 cats. And then so it’s, you know, it’s hair losing stuff. So, if Liam has done 15 of these and have had over 100,000 people go through his summits and his training on virtual summits, we are speaking with a world authority on the subject right here. So, a pleasure to have you on the show. Liam, again, thank you for showing up. The title is “How to Generate Clients with Virtual Summits”, in just seven minutes. Liam, our time starts now. Let’s go with question number one, who’s your ideal client?

Liam Austin 1:28 The ideal client of someone who wants to run a virtual summit is anyone who is looking to get more clients, increase their authority, generate more revenue and build relationships with influences in their niche. So, lot of the time virtual summits are virtual so they’re online. So, we’re setting, a lot, up a lead generation source, which not just works in the short term for your business, it takes about 90 days to put together a summit getting the right speakers involved, get the promotions and marketing done right. And then from then, we turn it evergreen so you can start bringing in leads into your business continuously.

Tom Poland 2:03 Turning it evergreen, that’s magical. That’s such, there’s more than cream on the cake, it’s another whole cake in itself. Would it not also be true, though, that one of the biggest challenges most people have in starting to do marketing online is they don’t have an email list. And surely, a virtual summit must be one of the fastest ways to grow and build a big list. Would that be true?

Liam Austin 2:22 Absolutely. I mean, I think the title talks about is getting more clients, and one of the best reasons for doing a virtual summit is to build your email list, build your list of prospects, bring in more clients into your business. And one other thing I probably forgot to mention is to make an impact on the world. I think one of the greatest benefits of the virtual summit is that it is free, you’re throwing it out there to the world. So, they’ve got free access to it, there is a map upgrade where you make your revenue from and sponsorships and things like that. But it’s out there for free, you’re giving a ton of value, which obviously brings in hot prospects, clients, leads, that are willing to purchase from you as well.

Tom Poland 2:59 Thank you. So, five minutes, 20 seconds left. I’ve probably stolen a bit of your time there. Question number two is, what’s the problem you solve? One of those problems must be I don’t have an email list. How do I get one? You can do that within 90 days. What other problems are you solving with the virtual summits, that, anything we haven’t mentioned, or should we just skip on to question three?

Liam Austin 3:17 Yeah, we probably, actually answer that.

Tom Poland 3:20 Yeah, I figured. Okay, so let’s go to question three is, what are some of the symptoms that people experience if they haven’t run a virtual summit? Are they struggling to build their email list? Are they struggling to get a consistent flow of clients? What are some of the symptoms that they’re going to experience that will go away if they work with you on virtual summits?

Liam Austin 3:38 Yeah, so personally, I struggled quite a bit trying to get a business off the ground. It was just wasn’t getting enough traction. I was struggling each day to bring in more clients, more revenue, putting more dollars in my pocket. And the thing that really changed everything for me because I’ve been doing this since 2001, online businesses, trying to start businesses. It was 2015 when we ran our first virtual summit. It brought in 15,000 leads and made us $50,000 just on the sales of the all-access pass. And then the next 12 months, we easily made another six figures from that.

Tom Poland 4:16 Monetize that. Fantastic. So, question number four, just under four minutes left. What are some of the common mistakes people make when they’re trying to grow email lists or run virtual summits? In other words, the people that become clients of yours, what are they telling you about the mistakes they made before they became a client?

Liam Austin 4:35 I think a lot of people are looking for just that quick win. And thinking that they’ll do this quick lead magnet, throw it up there and it will convert, and leads will start coming in, the phone will be ringing. And I think what you really need to do is think about, well, what are you offering, is that attractive enough to generate leads. So, when we have our free ticket offer on a landing page that converts a visitor at 60 to 75%, generally across our 15 summits that we’ve done, as well as for our students’ summit. So if you’ve got a lead magnet that’s, you know, you’ve got say 10 visitors visiting that page and only two, three or four converting, think about what would happen if you build a virtual summit and 60% to 75% of those visitors were turning into email subscribers, into prospects, into clients for you. And that’s what a virtual summit does. It’s a super attractive offer, which you know, has the marketing glitz around it that really allows you to turn those visitors into email subscribers.

Tom Poland 5:34 Perfect, thank you. Two minutes 40 seconds left, question number five, what’s one valuable free action that an audience member could take that’s going to help them with this problem? It’s not going to give them a virtual summit overnight but what’s one idea they could move forward with?

Liam Austin 5:48 I think, for us, in terms of virtual summits, yes it sounds like okay 90 days, I’m building something that’s really going to work for my business long term. But be really valuable because it’s that high conversion rate, right, into the opt-in, into the email list. But what you’re building is relationships with some influences in your niche. You’re inviting them as speakers into your summit. And I think your podcasts are a great way to build relationships with influencers, maybe you’re reaching out for blog posts. But that’s probably, the quick win here for people is reaching out and offering someone and influencing your niche. You want to build a relationship; you want to maybe do a JV partnership with or do some kind of deal with. Invite them to be a speaker on your summit and they will love you forevermore. We’re still doing business with speakers who spoke on our first summit back in 2015. And it’s easily brought in just from one of our relationships with one of those speakers, six figures into our business. And we’ve done this with multiple different speakers.

Tom Poland 6:53 Yeah. Those figures are believable and they’re solid, and they’re also highly desirable. So, thank you. Question number six, and we’ve got 70 seconds left. One valuable free resource we could direct people to that’s going to help them even more.

Liam Austin 7:06 Yeah, so simple one-page plan to set up the foundation for your summit. As well as our guide for every step of the process for creating your virtual summit. If you go to entrepreneurshq.com/summit, so, entrepreneurshq.com/summit and you’ll be able to get access to those resources there.

Tom Poland 7:26 Perfect, thank you. 41 seconds left. Last question, what’s the question I should have asked you but didn’t?

Liam Austin 7:34 So, for us, it’s what is the best lead generation source, what actually works for the summit? And for us, it’s all about partnerships and relationships. And I touched on this a little bit but we’re looking at three different partnerships. I spoke on speakers, but then also affiliates. And then thirdly, turning your subscribers or your attendees into ambassadors for your brand, and in this case for your virtual summit.

Liam Austin 8:00 So, your subscribers are really being turned into affiliates, if you like, and being rewarded or incentivized for sharing your summit, your lead magnet out with friends, colleagues.

Tom Poland 8:00 Perfect.

Tom Poland 8:11 Liam, thanks so much.

Tom Poland 8:13
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.