The skills to market yourself as an expert speaker is without doubt the key to your success. Marketing implies that you have to advertise your skills and talents. Since many individuals do not do that, they finally end up leaving their career to the wind by default. You have to get your name out there. You ought to find ways to touch base with individuals who can and will hire you.

1. Network in speaking organizations.

If you are not networking, you’re not working. Building human relationships with your peers and prospective customer is a have to if you’re really serious about your work as an expert speaker. (Some of the larger speaking organizations include: Toastmasters International, National Speakers Association, and World Champions’ EDGE.)

2. Have a company business card.

As you take time to network and build relationships with people, you’ll wish to provide them with something to remember you by – your contact facts. Your business card should have a specialist look to it. Since it will be the way people don’t forget you, what have you ever wanted them to don’t forget?

3. Create your marketing portfolio.

Also called your promotional kit or your media kit, this portfolio will have everything that speaker bureaus and meeting planners need to decide if you are the announcer for them or not. Your portfolio consists of the next elements: a content sheet, a demo video of previous speaking engagement, your bio, testimonials from previous engagements, a price list of your products and resource materials you sell, a sample client list, and your fee schedule.

4. Develop a website.

With so many people and businesses flocking to the internet for info, you’ll need to have this as a methods to market yourself. You don’t have to have a internet site with all the bells and whistles. While your website should look professional, you can however get a started internet site with low to no monthly expenses. Use your website to be an additional location where you sell your resource materials as well as supply info about your topic. (Good resource for building an excellent, effective speakers’ website: www.theButterflyHerder.com.)

5. Use online social networks…

…like LinkedIn, MySpace, Twitter, and Facebook to begin making connections with your industry peers. You can likewise use speaker forums as a place for additional resources, sharing speaking suggestions and tricks in addition to getting to know others in your field.

6. Create and use an instantaneous marketing strategy.

Send mailers and postcards to past customer along with prospective future customer. While many speakers aren’t hired as an effect of their mailers, they are still a painless way to hold your customers connected with your business. Additionally, junk mail pieces are relatively inexpensive to create and send and so, they’re a good method to canvass organizations and get the expression out that you are accessible for hire.

7. Market yourself through articles and product materials.

Using other resources as a means for getting your name out will help to spread your name like wild fire! Think of it this way, you create the article one and comprise a short 2 – 3 sentence bio and you’ll have that help you for on condition that it’s available!

The direction you market yourself will determine whether you will have a great career or not. Start employing these avenues of getting your name out there and begin to get noticed by meeting planners and speaker bureaus. Start marketing yourself right now!

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Barney has been writing articles online for nearly 3 years now. Not only does this author specialize in weight loss, fitness and diet, you can as well check out his latest website on Outdoor Chair Covers and Padded Folding Chairs

Writing your first speech will serve to position you in the marketplace so what you choose to talk about is of critical importance.

What’s your area of expertise, what do you want to be known for? That could range from some aspect of marketing to technical expertise or an inspirational or motivational message.

Find a Great Title

Whatever it is you want to talk about, you need to find a provocative title for your speech. It’s the title that will stick in the head of your prospective client and help to sell your speech.

I once sold my services as a speaker on the basis of my speech title alone. I had a speech called “Mindset for the Millennium” that a pharmaceutical association wanted for their millennium conference.

The title should be something that captures the imagination of the audience and the subtitle should be absolutely clear.

I once saw a seminar advertised as:
‘Preparing for Incapacitation and Death’
Wednesday March 17th, 2-5

Well, it captures the imagination all right but not the way you want!

After deciding on your title, make an outline of the points you want to cover. Then fill in the outline with the more detailed information you want to convey.

Now that you have the basics of your speech, you’re ready to prepare it for the spoken word.

Tell your Own Story

In terms of either writing or delivering a speech, authenticity is key to establishing a rapport with your audience. Audiences can love saints or sinners as long as they’re not misrepresenting themselves. There’s something about being who you say you are that is very appealing. As far as I’m concerned, this is the only unbreakable rule.

So make sure you take yourself to the platform in the sense that you tell a little of your own personal story as well. Tell a story about yourself where you weren’t a hero, a story where you stumbled and fell…you’ve placed yourself on the platform as an expert – the audience also needs to know you’re human. They’ll identify with you then.

Use Fresh Humor

Introducing some humor and even pathos into your speech is fine as long as it’s not done solely to manipulate the audience into either laughing or crying. And once you’ve used a particular joke a few times, think about replacing it with something new. People travel widely these days and you may have the same audience member in one state as you’ve had in another.

One of the most common complaints I’ve heard about speakers is this – “I heard her tell that story before.” Don’t let it be said about you.

Humor should be fresh and authentic and, if possible, personal. Stale jokes don’t do it. Ideally, humor should flow right along with the speech. Let me give you an example:

When it was my turn to speak at a nurses’ convention, I was handed a lapel mike from the previous speaker. And, as an opener, I told this story.

At a convention earlier that week, a doctor presented his technical topic to a group of MD’s and got subdued applause at the end of his speech. He then visited the washroom without turning his lapel mike off. When he returned to the room, he got the standing ovation he’d always dreamed of.

Needless to say, the nurses loved my story – which I was told by the sound assistant five minutes before my speech. That’s an example of incorporating natural humor into your presentation and also of fitting the humor to that particular audience.

Tell Stories

Once you’ve written the bare outline of your speech, turn your points into stories. They’ll be much more memorable to your audience because it’s easy to identify with a personal story. Stories also lend themselves to the physical acting-out that goes over so well on the platform.

Write as though you’re speaking to a friend. Don’t make your speech academic. Use action-based words rather than passive words, use common language instead of latin-based words. And make it colorful. If your speech has colorful imagery, it will be much more captivating and memorable.

Speech Structure

Hall of Fame speaker Donald Cooper suggests writing your speech with the end in mind – “Focus on outcomes that have compelling value for your audience. Write your ending first in which you summarize your key points, reinforce the benefits, lay down the challenge and gain commitment to change!

Then, write your opening in which you will grab them and build rapport by quickly and clearly communicating how their time with you will benefit them, will be easy to understand…and entertaining.

Now that you have your opening and closing, structure your main points into a sequence that creates natural building blocks of learning like the chapters of a book. The structure, sequence and “flow” of your presentation is so important to folks getting it.

Then, flesh out each point with benefits, definitions, stories and examples (good and bad) that reinforce the point and make it memorable. Finally, summarize each point before moving to the next one.

Once you have your speech down in writing, things will begin to coalesce around it. Your prospective audience will become much clearer to you as will the benefits of listening to your speech.

Writing a speech is the first step in marketing.

So how much do you charge? I recommend you create a menu of services. A limited menu, though, you don’t want to confuse the buyer with too many options.

As an example of a menu, you might offer your consulting services along with a keynote for one fee, simply a keynote for another fee, and possible a quick lunch and learn talk for a lower fee. So now you have a range from high end (consulting & keynote) to affordable (lunch and learn).

As long as you’re not going TOO low, you’ve just made yourself very flexible and easy to market.

If you have NO experience in professional speaking before a group, get your feet wet before you think about charging. Start offering your services to community groups and wait until you get great audience feedback before you put a fee to your services.

Once you consistently get good feedback (doesn’t really have to be great, that will build up as you gain experience), you’re ready to charge.

And of course, you’ll use that great feedback on your promotional material.

I recommend starting out at anywhere from $2,500 to $3,500 for a keynote. Much depends on your location and much also depends on the cost of living in your part of the country. The cost of living is high in major cities, so speakers who live in urban areas tend to charge more.

Where ever you live, once you get past the beginning stages, you should focus your marketing efforts on urban areas. You’ll get fewer objections to your fee.

Once you’ve become fairly credible and well established and have written an article or two – in other words – once you’re known as an expert in your field – it’s time to bump your fee up to $5,000 for a keynote. Travel expenses are extra.

This is where many speakers get stuck. There’s a real bottleneck at of speakers at the $5,000 level and so at this point, there’s a surplus of speakers to choose from and the competition is stiff – all the more reason for you to really stand out and offer something totally unique.

Here’s what I want for you. I want you to move up that ladder quickly and plan ahead for the time when you can name your own fee and no-one will object. You’ll then be in a rarified atmosphere with a small select group of speakers.

That’s where you want to be. I’ve worked with other speakers to plan a winning and unconventional strategy to get there, I can help you too. If you’re really serious about providing great value and making big money on the circuit, call me at 416-532-9886. I’ll tell you how I’ve worked with other speakers to dramatically increase their income.

Once of the best way to get new clients is by speaking to organizations. There’s something about the immediacy of being in front of people that has great spin-off benefits. So whether you do it for the fees or for the contacts or both, you really can’t lose. Another bonus is that speaking professionally will take you out of your comfort zone into learning new valuable skills.

If you’re new to public speaking, then the first step is to get training. Start with Toastmasters or with a private coach. Once you’ve reached a certain level of competence and are getting great feedback, offer your services as a speaker to non-profit or community groups.

Maybe you’re a good story teller and feel you’re a natural on the platform. Not so fast! Are you also good at structuring your speech and sticking to the time frame?

Maybe you’ve been well trained and even have your own staged choreography: arms open here, two strides forward there. Stop! You need to unlearn all this.

You can do almost anything on the platform and get away with it as long as you’re authentic. Please don’t be staged or fake.

Perhaps you have a string of degrees and have done tones of research. You really know your stuff and you’re very earnest about it. Stop! You have to unlearn all this too.

Be authentic. Be conversational without being patronizing.
Involve your audience. Forget about yourself and focus on what value you’re brining to your audience. That’s all that matters.

Take your speech as seriously as you would if you were being paid big bucks for it. Because it’s that serious!

Find a wonderful title for it. You know that buying decisions are based on chemistry, not intellect, so create a title that appeals to your buyers. Your subtitle should clarify the title.
That’s exactly the approach I’ve taken to writing this article.

Make sure you get testimonials from audience members to use later in your promotional material.

Now that you have some expertise and know exactly what you want to say, use the contacts you’ve gained to find your audience. Ask them for referrals to the associations they belong to. Ask your local librarian for The Association Book.

When calling a Conference Organizer, ask what the theme of their upcoming conference is and whether they’ve got their speakers lined up. Large conferences usually plan a year in advance. Let them know what you have to offer.

The trick here is to find ways to keep your name in front of them with periodic phone calls or brief mailing updates.

Approach many different organizations at the same time so you keep the momentum going. Your promotional kit should contain a bio including your accomplishments and qualifications along with three of your speaking topics.

The third page should contain short testimonials from clients and/or customers along with a list of clients. Now that you’re all set with training, a promo kit and contact information for your target audience, go for it!

Mirror, Mirror on the Wall
Create Marketing Materials that Reflect your Brilliance

You’ve found your umbrella (what you stand for) and defined your audience. Now you need to articulate your positioning and the benefit of your speech to the person who signs the check as well as to each person in the audience. And this is where many speakers stumble.

Speakers really find it difficult to talk about themselves in glowing terms but that’s exactly what you need to do. Put your words on paper in a way that really reflects your brilliance – for the moment, leave your humility in a sack on the doorstep.

Use magnetic or highly compelling words when creating your promotional material. People don’t buy based on logic, they first need to be emotionally drawn in. Businesses depend on the impulse buy – that first “I want that” reaction. Speakers depend on this too but many don’t realize it. Buyers’ usually first are attracted to something. Then they justify their purchase logically.

But first you want your buyer to be drawn to your material, in a buying position, leaning toward you and then justifying the final decision from a perspective of logic. At this point, it’s yours to lose…or win. The advantage is in your court.

You draw the prospective buyer in by creating the right emotional aspect, by using words such as ‘essential conversations’ rather than ‘communication techniques’ or ‘effective communication skills’.

Begin to read your local newspaper with an eye toward the headlines – which ones draw you in, which ones leave you cold? Browse through a bookstore, which titles are you drawn to, which ones do not merit a second glance?

Do an Amazon search of book titles. They can be very compelling.
David Foote, a Toronto based academic wrote a book on demographics. He called it ‘The Foote Report’. He wisely got a co-author who named it ‘Boom, Bust and Echo: How to Profit from the Coming Demographic Shift’. And it became a bestseller.

I met a woman who owned an investment company who said she was writing a book. I blurted out: “Don’t make it boring. Why not call it ‘Money Magnet’?” Two years later, a major publisher published her book to great reviews. The great reviews were due to the content – the initial interest was thanks to the title.

Titles such as ‘The Upside of Down’ are nothing short of brilliant and you immediately want to know more. That is your speech title’s job – not to say exactly what the speech is about but to make the reader want to know more.

Brainstorm with a group of friends and toss all your bright ideas up in the air. After an hour or so, you’ll have created a great short list to
work with. Then let the final titles sit for a day or so and go back to them. The right one should jump right out at you.

Your subtitle will nail down exactly what your speech is about and this should provide some kind of promise. The stronger the promise (provided you can deliver on it!), the better your chances of being hired.

Good luck!

Are you a conference professional speaker? Is your present marketing working? Working well enough you have enough profits to vacation each year, buy a nice car, or pay your child’s tuition? Now you can replace low results marketing with these five solutions. It will change the way you do business if you are willing.

Perhaps you’ve tried high-cost, but low results marketing already. In person networking groups can steal your time and not yield big results. Free talks and book signings are fun for the extrovert, but don’t yield a lot unless you give at least six talks a month.

Replace low results marketing with these five solutions. It will change the way you do business!

Top Five Questions Answered So you can Update Your Authentic Marketing Messages

1. How can I update my email signature file to attract more clients?

Remember, to engage your audience and get action you need to include a signature file at the bottom of every email. Without it, you miss possible sales and clients. Don’t just taut yourself or your book; show some benefits of your service with a written concept statement such as “I help business people manifest their book dream.” Offer a free report or white paper through a link either to a squeeze page or to your free ezine. Your purpose is to capture your visitor’s email and add it to your growing data base. From the report they will see you as the trusted expert in your field.

2. Should I brand my speaking business with a short book?

Yes! Either an electronic book or print book, or both. Test your ideas with an eBook; then write your print book for in person programs. Many authors waste a lot of money printing too many copies and don’t realize even the printer makes mistakes. Know your book is your best business card and you can even write a short version to give away or sell for under $10.00. Many speakers I know practice this. Your target audience is hungry for your information and they will buy your books. Books are the #1 product bought online. Your audience is out these awaiting your wisdom. And your book will bring you higher paid speaking jobs.

3. Why is knowing my preferred audience so important to know before I start a book or web marketing project?

The biggest mistake speaking professionals make is to not to be clear on who their audience is. This is the kiss of death. Aim each print marketing message to a particular audience. That includes short sales messages for each book, seminar, teleseminar, web site product sales and your soft sales letter on your website for your service.

Your headlines and titles matter. Make sure they include hot key word phrases that are low competition only and benefits to your audience. You’ll write much better copy when you slant your materials toward just one audience. If more, your copy withers away, and no one is satisfied.

4. Why should I write short articles to submit to the top high-traffic article directories or blogs?

Your targeted audience visits these websites and blogs because it wants free information in your field of expertise. When they like your article, and if you have a powerful original resource box, you will attract droves of unique visitors to your Web site.

The most popular length article is from 250 (blog entry) to 800 words. Before you post these articles on your own site, make sure that EzineArticles gets the first version. Google knows who the biggest sites are, and will get your article page up from this source. Isn’t it better to do just a little work in the right place than to shotgun your marketing and spread yourself thin with far less customer following?

Know that the top sites offer multiple categories that are sure to fit your niche. You give the article; the resource box brings your target audience to you.

Article marketing is faster and easier, because you already have content from your talks, books or programs to put into your articles. And, with the new rules today, you only have to submit to a few high-traffic sites–much less time with a lot more credibility and unique web visitors.

It’s great that article marketing is free except for your time. I recommend that you start key word research before you submit because the game has changed. You must only use 3 keyword phrases that are in the low competition scale. I recommend you delegate submissions to a VA or webmaster when you can. I credit my Google rating as still #1 with the keyword “bookcoaching” from the 290+ article submissions we sent out over the past eight years.

5. Why should I write a benefit driven sales letter for each product and service?

You have the marketing down with articles. But, when your unique visitor comes to your site, do you get low sales conversions? Maybe it’s because you haven’t let your visitor know the benefits of your products or service.

A list of talks doesn’t motivate sales. You won’t get many tele-coaching attendees if you don’t share how you’ll solve your audience’s problems. The same thing goes for your service. Although it’s a bit softer, you still need a unique marketing message for it. How will your customers choose you if you don’t show your values and solutions to their needs?