319. Why I Stopped Using a Popular Visibility Strategy

Maximizing Your Marketing Efforts: Rethinking the Value of Summits

The Benefits of Summits

Visibility and Exposure: The Initial Attraction

One of the most enticing aspects of participating in a summit is the massive visibility it can afford you. Amy shares how being part of phenomenal summits skyrocketed awareness for her brand. The sense of being in front of a large audience is often thrilling. However, Amy cautions, "visibility and awareness are wonderful, but they don’t necessarily translate to sales."

The Downside: Misalignment with Ideal Clients

Who Are You Really Reaching?

Amy stresses the critical importance of understanding where your prospective clients are. Are they likely to attend the summits you are participating in? Amy's experience revealed a stark misalignment between summit attendees and her ideal clients, who are established business owners facing sales plateaus. In contrast, summits often attract early-stage entrepreneurs looking for free resources. This disparity caused a negligible impact on her actual sales.

Understanding Your Ideal Client

Why the Right Audience Matters

The key takeaway from Amy's experience is the necessity of recognizing who your ideal clients are and where they spend their time. For Amy, established business owners were not the ones attending summits replete with free webinars. Instead, they are individuals willing to invest in high-ticket services for the strategic growth of their businesses. Amy highlights, "You need to unpack exactly where your ideal client is. It's great to get eyeballs, but are those eyeballs from people who will invest in you?"

The Catch: The Short-Term vs. Long-Term ROI

From Ego Boosts to Real Metrics

While seeing an immediate spike in new email subscribers can feel great, the long-term implications often tell a different story. Amy pointed out that many new subscribers would download the free content and quickly unsubscribe, leading to long-term effects on email list engagement and deliverability. This cycle of instant gratification often doesn't translate into sustained business growth.

When Summits Do Work

Target Audience is Key

Despite these pitfalls, summits are not inherently ineffective. For businesses targeting early-stage entrepreneurs, summits can be a goldmine. Lower ticket offers, templates, and initial resources are of great interest to this demographic. But, as Amy wisely advises, it’s crucial to ask yourself why you're participating and what you hope to achieve from it. "If you sell to those earlier stage entrepreneurs, a summit might be a great fit for you," she shares.

Strategic Alternatives

Choosing Where You Invest Your Energy

Summits require significant preparation—creating presentations, coordinating with hosts, and recording sessions—all of which demand time, which could be invested elsewhere. Amy emphasizes the need to protect your time and energy while being strategic about your decisions. Leveraging data and numbers can guide you in assessing whether a summit aligns with your business goals.

Conclusion: The Importance of Due Diligence

Strategic Decisions Over Popular Trends

Amy’s insights make it clear that while summits can offer visibility and exposure, their effectiveness largely depends on who your target audience is. Business owners should question why they are participating in a summit and whether it will connect them with potential clients who are likely to engage and invest. Summits are not a one-size-fits-all solution; their success varies based on your specific business needs and goals.

In summary, your marketing efforts should not only focus on expanding reach but also on ensuring that the reach targets the right audience. Take the time to understand your ideal client, evaluate the platforms and strategies that best reach them, and make your decisions based on data. This strategic approach will lead you to more meaningful engagements and, ultimately, better ROI.

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Transcript for Episode 319.  Why I Stopped Using a Popular Visibility Strategy

Amy [00:00:03]:

In today's episode, I want to take the time to dive into a very popular marketing strategy, one that, in full disclosure, I have used multiple times in my business. And it actually was awesome for list growth, but really didn't do a darn thing in terms of sales. What is this? This is the summit. All of those summits that you see out there. And let me tell you, I have been part of some phenomenal ones. The hosts were incredible. The assets, the communication, the list building. It was fabulous until it wasn't.

Amy [00:00:49]:

And I think it again, is very important for you as a business owner to really zoom out and ask yourself, why? Why am I doing this? My experience in summits was, you know, it's awesome. It is awesome because I am getting massive, massive visibility and awareness on my business. But where they aligned potential clients, and the answer was no. I really think that you need to pause and analyze, are my prospective clients, are my potential clients? Are those the ones that are actually attending these summits? I sell to the established business owner, the business owner that has been at it but has hit a sales plateau that can't seem to figure out, okay, why are my sales so inconsistent? Why can't I get past this certain threshold? My ideal clients aren't attending the free webinars and having that knowledge is powerful. And this is why it is essential as a business owner that you take the time to unpack exactly where your ideal client is. Yes, it's great to get eyeballs. We talk about visibility being talked about, fun funnel. That is important.

Amy [00:02:21]:

But how can I get myself in front of those that, number one, are going to put in the work. Number two, have the ability to pay me for my services because at the end of the day, it's not cheap. It's not cheap because I'm attracting any certain level of client who views this money as an investment in herself and in her business because she realizes she needs strategy to get to the next level. Oftentimes at summits, you are inundated with so much information that a lot of times you don't even consume it. I'm guilty of this. I've signed up for plenty of them, especially when I was first starting out in my business. You know, sign me up for all the freebies and then your inbox gets flooded and what happens? A lot of times you unsubscribe. So while I saw this immediate spike in subscribers on my email list, which was awesome, it felt great for my ego.

Amy [00:03:31]:

What ended up happening is down the road. A lot of them would download the freebie and then unsubscribe right away. So what does that do? That then hurts my email deliverability. I know fellow entrepreneurs that absolutely have so much success with summits. That's because they're selling lower ticket offers. That's because that's where their ideal clients are located. If they're selling templates and low ticket products, that is an awesome place. So please don't get me wrong.

Amy [00:04:08]:

I am not saying that some summits in and of themselves are bad. I think they can be awesome for your business, for visibility, if that is where your ideal client is located. So you need to take the time and ask yourself, why? Why am I doing this? Where are these clients at? Are they likely to buy from me if I present this information there? Because as a business owner, it's more work on the back end for you if you're having to create a presentation, if you're having to find the time to record with the host. There's so many different formats and they all work. But really knowing why? Why am I doing this? Where are my prospective clients at? You need to take the time. There have been amazing, amazing facilitators out there. It really helped to increase my podcast downloads visibility of the podcast. It went up significantly and still does, like every time I put myself out there.

Amy [00:05:28]:

But knowing exactly why, why am I doing this? A lot of summits are targeted towards those early stage entrepreneurs. So if you have a business that sells to those earlier stage entrepreneurs, a summit might be a great fit for you. But for me, at this point in my business, that's not generating the ROI, that return on investment for my time. And let's face it, you have to protect your time. You have to protect your energy. You have to be strategic and look at the numbers, look at the data to drive your decisions, because that's what will help you. Is it cool to see your email list grow? Sure. Who doesn't like that? You know, we get that hit of dopamine, that ego gets inflated.

Amy [00:06:18]:

It feels great to see those numbers. But how much of your email list is engaged? Are you actually taking the time to look at your open rate, your click through rate, taking the time to remove inactive subscribers? Yes, your numbers will go down, but the people that are left are those that are actually interested in what you're selling. It is a noisy, noisy world out there. It's just a fact. So take the time and unpack your ideal client before you sign up to do a summit. In some cases, it can be great. In other cases, it may not be the best investment of your time. I am here cheering for you.

Amy [00:07:07]:

And until next time, cheers. To making the money you want so you can create the impact you desire.