7 Benefits of Being a Virtual Summit Speaker

Virtual Summits are basically conferences that take place online. So you get the benefit of reaching a wide audience without the hassle of traveling and booking a hotel.

I’ve had the good fortune to speak at both in-person conferences and virtual summits and while I love both, a virtual summit is definitely easier in terms of time and cost commitment.

In this post, I’m going to share seven reasons why you should jump at the chance to speak at virtual summits.

1. You Reach a Wider Audience

The more speakers and affiliates there are for an online summit, the bigger reach you’ll have as a speaker.

Imagine you told your audience about the summit, you likely wouldn’t grow your audience much more by participating in the Summit. However, if you and 100 others all tell their audience about the summit, your reach by being a speaker becomes much larger.

Plus, as a bonus, you’ll likely be introduced to an audience that is part of a complementary niche giving you a whole new group to market to.

2. You Can Make Money Multiple Ways

Virtual summits can be a great way for you to make money and not just as an affiliate for the summit’s All-Access Pass. Most summits are free to attend while they are live, but will also sell an All-Access Pass to give attendees lifetime access to the sessions. 

As a speaker, you can make money as an affiliate for the summit but also by sending people to your site. Most Summits will allow speakers to offer a free offer to attendees on their site. When people sign up for the free offer you can do a tripwire to make money as well as through your marketing funnel.

3. Speaking Helps You Build Authority

Being asked to speak at a summit, shows that someone thinks you have something of value to teach. It can help to build your authority as an expert in your niche. 

Authority and credibility can go hand in hand and help to grow your site and whatever projects you are working on, including product launches.

If someone trusts you to speak at a conference, then others likely will trust you too.

4. They Help You Grow Your Email List

Even if some summit attendees don’t attend your session, being featured as a speaker means they might visit your site just to learn more about you. Which gives you an opportunity to get them on your email list with smart opt-ins. 

This is on top of attendees visiting your site for your free offer. As you can see, being a summit speaker can provide you with lots of opportunities to grow your email list.

5. Connect And Network With Others In Complementary Niches

I’ve touched on this a bit already, but being part of a summit can help to introduce you to others in complementary niches. Which could lead to some great collaboration opportunities. 

Having something in common, like the summit, can make it easy to reach out and connect to other speakers that you admire and would love to work with.

6. Helps Fill Your Editorial Calendar

As content creators, filling our editorial calendars is a never-ending job. Which is why given the right pitch we love guest posts and promoting things that would serve our audience. Summits can be perfect for helping to fill your editorial calendar.

Summits will often provide speakers and affiliates with swipe copy for social media, emails, and even blog posts. This makes it easy for you to fill your editorial calendar.

Related: 9 Super Simple Strategies to Brainstorm Better Blog Post Ideas

7. Leads to More Speaking Opportunities

Being able to show that you are an experienced speaker can help you to get even more speaking opportunities. 

Those putting on events can be open to speakers with little experience, but they would much rather have a proven speaker on the agenda. It helps with showing the quality of the event and building the event’s authority in the space. 

The more successful the event, the better it looks for both you and the event. It’s a win, win.

Bottom Line

Being a speaker at a virtual can provide tons of benefits for a relatively low investment of your time. Unlike a typical conference, there is no travel involved and you can usually pre-record your session when it’s most convenient for you. 

As a virtual summit speaker, you commit maybe 2-10 hours of your time. Though this depends on the amount of promotion you want to do and in return, you get to:

• Reach a much wider audience
• Make money
• Build authority
• Grow your email list
• Connect and network with other authorities
• Fill your editorial calendar
• Open you up to new speaking opportunities

So if you’ve been asked to speak at a virtual summit – take advantage of the opportunity. Or if you see a summit that you believe you could add value to as a speaker – pitch yourself! It could lead to some other great opportunities as well.