A beneficial and fun way to leverage your competition is to co-host an event together. If you have a really good idea that would be interesting to your competition’s audience (and yours) and set it all up, so all they have to do is say yes to your terms and conditions, you’re going to get a lot more people to say yes.
- Divide the Work – You don’t have to do all the work, but the more work you do, the more promotion they’ll do. Ask them to do things you know they’re really good at or ask them to choose from a list of tasks that need to be done, and then you do the rest. Make it easy and let them guide the way.
- Determine a Theme – Before you even approach the competition to co-host an event with you, determine the theme. Make sure you’ve studied their audience well and found a match with yours where your two approaches and businesses intersect or complement each other.
- Set a Budget – If you already have the budget worked out and how much you want each participant to contribute, and how those contributions will be made, it will make everything else simpler. Sometimes a better way when you’re first starting out is to pay for expenses upfront and ask for it to be paid first out of profits before splitting the rest.
- Divide the Investment – Once you have worked with a group before, you can simply divide the investment fairly for all the participants. Equal is not always fair sometimes; allowing some people to pay with sweat equity is helpful too.
- Set an Attendance Fee – Determine how many people you think you can get to the event by using your stats. Then set a fee that allows you to earn a return or at least break even on the event’s cost. You can all make real money by promoting your products and services at the event.
- Find the Venue – Having an online event works great, but so does having an in-person on-location event. The on-location venue may cost more to put on but can often be more profitable if it’s a location that people really want to go to.
- Build Your List – Once you have the information needed to market everything, it’s time to start building your list to start making sales. You can test interest before you even book the venue by hosting shorter webinars about some of the topics and promoting the webinar and the event.
- Share List Members – Once you have a list to promote, you’ll want to ensure that each co-host and speaker or trainer at the event also promotes the event to their perspective lists.
- Invite Speakers – It’s really best to start inviting speakers as soon as possible if you’re not going to offer a speaking fee. Many speakers will be happy to use the venue to promote their programs instead of being paid but only if you can prove a return on investment due to your audience’s size or demographics. If you can offer expenses, it’s a start.
- Set Up an Affiliate Program – Add the event to your affiliate program so that even people who cannot attend can earn money promoting your event. The value of the event goes far behind the actual event to the reputation of the event.
- Create a Joint Product to Launch – Another fun way to make money and create a memorable event is to launch a joint product with your co-hosts, such as a membership site or coaching group.
Don’t forget to cross-promote your event with any audiences that will be interested in it. As you discover new audiences, you’ll develop more fun ideas that leverage your competition to grow your business.
