I’m really excited about this blog post because I know so many people who want to plan a virtual summit but may not have any budget for it. What inspired this blog post is the fact that I once organised an in-person event with zero budget and asked myself “what would I do if I have $0 to plan my virtual summit?” Let’s get started!
1. Invite Speakers for Free
First and foremost, I’ll invite amazing speakers for free. I know that Facebook groups have tons of amazing speakers who are ready to volunteer their expertise to reach out to a bigger audience so I’ll start there and secure a minimum of 15 speakers for my event.
2. Use EventBrite as Event Page and Payment Processor
Long before LeadPages and other beautiful event landing pages, I’ve always used EventBrite to promote my event and to accept registrations and payments. But here are all of the things that I love about this platform:
Attendee Management
It's basically an in-built event pipeline all ready for you to use! On the backend, you can: - download an excel database of all of the attendee details so you can use these to promote future offerings and update your subscribers' list - send a customised e-mail blast to all attendees for event reminders within EventBrite itself (no time wasted to copy and paste to Gmail and send emails in batches!) - set an automated email response with every registration so you can include the link to your private Facebook group for attendees to immediately join before the event starts
Accepts Paypal & Credit Card Payments
There is a payment processing fee for every ticket purchased which is unavoidable so remember to account for that. You can check out the payment processing cost which differs by country here:
EventBrite also allows for different ticket tiers with a small paid upgrade so you can create Early Bird Tickets, All Access Pass Tickets or VIP tickets with different perks for your audience.
Help Market Your Event to A Bigger Audience
People specifically go to EventBrite to look for events to attend which means free marketing! There are certain events that I help other people promote and did nothing other than just put it on this website and I saw registrations rolling in. Remember to put your event in a specific category (classes, workshops, leisure etc) so that your event will show up in front of your target audience.
3. Use Private Facebook Group as Event Platform
It’s custom for FB groups’s host to ask a couple of questions before accepting the user into the group so consider creating a special code word specially for your attendees to get access. You can also add in questions like "Email used for event registration" as an extra security layer so that you can double check for payment verification (:
4. Only Execute FREE Virtual Summit Marketing Strategies
Depending on the type of virtual summits that I’m planning, I’ll focus on promoting the event through personal outreach, free event listings and social media platforms while also roping in my speakers to promote the event together. I’ll also reach out to relevant blogs, websites and podcasts that have the same type of audience I’m targeting and who can truly benefit from my event content.
Now that you got all of the tools to successfully organise a virtual summit with zero costs, I’m so excited for you to use this marketing strategy to take your offers in front of tons of new audiences!
Cheerios,
Rashidah
