How To Market Yourself As A Speaker: The Ultimate Guide

The ultimate goal as a business owner is to bring more positive attention to your business. That said, whether it’s through advertising, networking, or content, it’s no secret that this isn’t easy. Similarly, there are many ways to gain exposure for your speaking business, all of which are constantly evolving. In light of this, let’s break down the ways to effectively market yourself as a speaker.

Currently, speaking business marketing is concentrated primarily in the digital world. Over the last decade, we’ve seen these changes for several reasons. However, many of these reasons still have yet to be fully utilized in the speaking space. Website analytics and tracking, for example, are two huge pieces of digital marketing that not only bring new clients. They also allow you to quickly analyze and adjust your marketing processes where needed, reducing cost in the long run.

Creating & Maintaining A Speaker Website

First and foremost, let’s talk about websites. As far as marketing is concerned, if you don’t already have a website, this is your top priority. Without a website, not only are you unable to attract potential clients through other marketing channels, such as paid advertising. You’re also unable to showcase your credentials and speaking experience without having a conversation. As a speaker, the latter is especially important because of your busy schedule. After all, if you’re bouncing from event to event and trying to make sales in between, you don’t have a lot of time to spare. A website allows event planners to find you and get a sense of whether they want to hire you within a quick glance. Because of this, to market yourself as a speaker, a website is key.

On the flip side, if you already have a website, refreshing or rebranding it can be equally useful. Besides updating your list of past clients, redesigning your website allows you to put a new face on your speaking business. Still using stock photos from the early 2000s? Is your website mobile friendly and designed to adapt to different devices? These are just two reasons, among many, to give your website a facelift and get it up to speed with today’s design trends.

Designing Your Personal Brand

That said, before rebranding your website, it’s important to focus internally. Because speaking businesses are highly personal, rebranding or creating your brand has to represent you. This means that in working to market yourself as a speaker, you have to first define how you want people to see you as a person. 

Ultimately, your personal brand should encapsulate your traits, values, and audience. Identifying your traits is arguably the easiest of these and involves your appearance as well as your actions. For example, looking at George Clooney, we see by his body language and tone that he is self-assured but approachable. In his attire, we see his class. In the same way, look at your own brand and comportment and ask yourself, “What words do I want people to use when describing me and my speaking business?” These words tie in closely to your values, the key issues and topics that are important to you and your stance on each one.

Finally, the last step of your personal brand is identifying your audience. When you begin to market yourself as a speaker, the more efficient path to prosperity is specificity. Look at your character traits and your personal values and ask, “Who can benefit from my knowledge the most?” In some cases, there can be a variety of industries waiting to benefit from your work. However, it’s important to narrow your focus to a few select groups, so you can tailor your marketing efforts to them later on. One of the most common phrases our chief marketing officer, Taylorr, throws around is “niches lead to riches” and he’s right! The more specific your focus, the more efficiently you can explain your value to the people in question and the more easily you can sell your services.

Building A Social Media Presence

At this point, you have your brand, and you have your website. Now, let’s start bringing people to it! Increasingly over the last few years, because so many event planners and decision-makers search for speakers online, one of the most effective ways to catch their attention is through social media. In addition to posts about your message and area of expertise, maintaining a social presence also shows the world who you are. What companies have you worked with? Do you work nationally or internationally? Are you more of a strict presence on stage or a funny one? Each of these questions can be answered through social posts. However, depending on the social platform you’re talking about, one strategy may be more appropriate than another. 

Facebook Strategy Basics

To begin with, let’s look at Facebook. Launched by tech lovers and then Harvard students Mark Zuckerberg, Dustin Moskovitz, Chris Hughes and Eduardo Saverin in 2004, Facebook exploded almost immediately. In fact, by the end of its first year, the platform had over one million users across the world, providing fast and convenient connections on a scale unheard of before. Since then, Facebook has grown to more than 44,000 employees across North America, Latin America, Europe, Middle East, Africa and Asia and more than a billion user profiles. Nevertheless, despite their size, their goals remain the same, including “Give People a Voice,” “Build Connection and Community,” and “Promote Economic Opportunity”. 

In the context of speaking, the promotion of economic opportunity is especially important. Because of this, it’s important to strategize your Facebook presence. That way, you can use your Facebook profile for connecting with friends and family and your Facebook page for connecting with potential clients. On your Facebook page, remember three things above all else: be consistent, diverse, and engaging. Consistency is important both where posting and branding are concerned. Essentially, in order to market yourself as a speaker on Facebook, you need to post regularly and keep your posts’ content on-brand. 

That brings me to the second tip: diversifying your content. Including images, articles, or videos in your posts is not only eye-catching. It also allows you to share more with your viewer. In the same way, remember, in each post, to engage with people. If you can tag another speaker or client, do it! If you can mention, “Comment your thoughts👇” have at it. The more you can connect with your audience on social media, the more likely one of them will want to be in your audience when you’re on stage, too.

Using Hashtags in Facebook Posts

Another way to attract attention to your Facebook page is through the use of hashtags. Fundamentally, hashtags are words or numbers written without spaces and preceded by the pound (#) symbol. Within the speaking industry, a few commonly used hashtags are #professionalspeaker, #speakingbusiness, and #conferencespeaker, for example. For decision-makers, tracking these hashtags means easily finding speakers for their events. This makes it crucial that you include appropriate hashtags in your Facebook posts. That way, event planners can effortlessly find your Facebook page, see how great you are, and hire you.

Twitter Strategy Basics

After Facebook, let’s move on to Twitter. Like Facebook, when it was originally launched by Jack Dorsey, Noah Glass, Biz Stone, and Evan Williams in 2006, Twitter was intended to act as a platform for personal connections. Allowing for only 280 characters per post, the interface is best used for succinct messages and thoughts. This originally made it the perfect platform for sharing personal thoughts and opinions and breaking recent news. Because it’s considered socially acceptable to post more than once a day on Twitter, or “tweet,” rather, this trend has continued into the present. 

That said, in addition to personal thoughts and news, in recent years, Twitter has been used more and more for business news as well. For better or for worse, with the election of Donald Trump to the US Presidency in 2016, the world saw Twitter used for the first time as a way to communicate to the masses, share personal and professional ideas, and influence public opinion. 

In your speaking business, the same principles and opportunities apply. Although on a smaller scale, using Twitter effectively to market yourself as a speaker allows you to reach a broad audience and share your message with them. Just as with Facebook, using Twitter means setting up a unique profile for your speaking business, keeping it consistent with your brand, and posting regularly. On the flip side, unlike Facebook, you can tweet more than once daily, making it especially useful if you’re promoting an event while on site.