How many times have you caught yourself thinking about your business goal list and saying, “Oh, but there’s just not enough time.” I’m always keeping a listening ear for new strategies to improve my marketing and client processes. My first thought is, “Oh my God, this is fabulous. I am going all in!” But then in the same breath I remember, “That’s going to take so much time.” The truth is, there is a time when you work smarter, especially incorporating Micro Audio Summits ™ for lead generation.
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Traditional Lead Generation Strategies
Podcasts
Maybe you’ve been told to jump onto podcasts as a way of getting new leads for your business. Personally, I think are great. I love listening to podcasts because they are easy to consume on the go. The catch is as a podcast creator, you have to be consistent.
Consistency may or may not work for you, your business, or your lifestyle. Of course, it sounds great in theory. Everyone tells you that you can batch create your podcasts and have content ready-to-go for the month.
The reality is, producing a podcast takes a lot of time between writing the script, recording, editing, and creating the images. So the consistency piece can be really challenging to keep up with. For many entrepreneurs, myself included, blocking off several hours to produce podcasts can be overwhelming and near impossible.
Summits
Summits are usually given over a span of four to five days and include 15 to 25 speakers of various topics.
Between 2019 and 2021, I was on the summit circuit as a participant. It was a lot of work. I had to create a presentation which included creating the slides, recording the presentation, and editing it. Oftentimes there’s an upsell where the summit producer asks you to do a giveaway for VIP ticket holders. There’s a lot of work from a summit guest speaker standpoint.
From the hosting perspective, you have to wrangle in a ton of people, their presentations, all the links. If you’ve done an upsell, and then possibly a VIP pass, you’ll have to gather all the donations to go along with the upsell and VIP pass. You’ll definitely need a Virtual Assistant, possibly a Tech Virtual Assistant, and potentially a video editor. There are a lot of moving parts that need to be coordinated so the summit runs smoothly for you, your participants, and your audience. The lead time on planning summits can take up to 12 weeks or 90 days to really pull together and execute.
From an audience standpoint, I find I rarely buy into summits. Replays are available for 24 hours, but who is sitting at their computer all day for five days straight? I mean, do people really block off a week of their calendar to watch all the presentations? The upsell is access to the recordings. But often they end up in the content graveyard along with all the freebie PDF’s you opt-in for and never open.
As a consumer, summits are too much time and create too much overwhelm. And speaking of overwhelm, when you DO watch the presentations, you get hit with so many new strategy ideas you can’t decide what to implement first. Talk about shiny object syndrome!
Can creating a summit be profitable and good for lead generation? Yes on both accounts! You’ll have access to your summit participants’ audiences because part of being a guest speaker, is to share the summit with their audience which can be a big audience if you have 25+ speakers. As a host, there are upsells and VIP access which can create substantial income. As a participant, you may earn an affiliate commission and you’ll also have access to a new audience who may sign up for the free lead magnet that you are usually allowed to pitch to the audience. But I have been in quite a few summits that disappointed from a lead generation standpoint.
You’ll also want to consider the audience may be stretched a little thin. If they have a limited budget and they saw other speakers, they may have to choose which one to purchase from. You could be facing potential burnout or fatigue from your audience. When you actually launch your program, they’ve already had this overwhelm of a week straight of presentations. Plus, they’ve already spent money for the upsell and the VIP day and whatever else, they may not be as receptive to buying your offer.
How to Use Micro Audio Summits™ for Lead Generation
So you may be asking what is the alternative? Meet my minimalist strategy: a Micro Audio Summit™ for lead generation.
Wendy Breakstone created this framework. It’s essentially the combination of a summit and a podcast to Micro Audio Summit™. They are small-scale, interview-style, virtual events in an audio format.
This works in so many different ways.
Gather four to seven guests who will share presentations around a specific strategy or topic. A Micro Audio Summit™ for lead generation is around a very niche topic so your attendees most likely will be a fit for your email list.
People will need to register just like they do for a summit. In this way it becomes a way to grow your leads, but there are no upsells to VIP access.
The attendees get full access through their favorite podcast software. It’s not going away after 24 hours. It’s “bingeable” when they want to. No more waiting until a specific time for a speaker they are interested in learning from.
As a host, it’s easy to coordinate. I have a Virtual Assistant who can help me with editing after I do the interviews.
Plus…I LOVE talking! Interviewing is so much fun for me! I think as women, we can talk to other women about anything for a long point of time. My kids are always like, “You talk to strangers way too much!” That’s why an audio summit is right up my alley.
The production time is five to six weeks, instead of 12 weeks for a summit so you can host multiple Micro Audio Summits™ for lead generation throughout the year. I plan to do five throughout the year. You can create a series or host summits on different niche topics. It’s totally up to you!
You’ll grow your email list by leveraging other people’s audiences. This is very similar to a traditional summit. Every speaker will share the summit with their audience. This creates an influx of new leads for you.
After the summit, you can launch an offer. This is completely optional depending on your goals. You may be in a place where you simply want to grow your email list. Don’t forget to keep your audience warm by sending a weekly email!
The Micro Audio Summit™ could serve as your launch runway leading up to your sales event. There are no additional slide presentations to create. Just show up, interview your guest, and share your knowledge.
Presenters will be eager to participate because they are getting in front of other people’s audiences. They have a lead magnet that will be shared in their contact information and they can share their genius as a speaker.
This is going to be a new trend for business owners going forward because of all the benefits as a host, a presenter, and a consumer. Click over to learn more about Micro Audio Summits™ from Wendy!
Micro Audio Summit™ is a trademark of Wendy Breakstone, Wow Your Prospects, LLC. All rights reserved.
