Business owners may wonder if it’s worth it to hire a speaker for their event. The answer is absolutely yes. A speaker can bring new enthusiasm to your business or product, inspire employees in their mission and performance, and encouage those getting to know your business to buy your product or invest.
Hosting speakers leads to more and better business. It can skyrocket your business! The secret is to implement a successful speaker strategy. There are five insane ways a great speaker can skyrocket your business.
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Become your own public relations speaker.
Business owners sometimes like to be in the background doing all the administrative work while hiring speakers, public relations specialists, front men, or pitch men to stand up front. Take a different approach. Do some public speaking about your company yourself.
Offer to speak in front of civic groups, volunteer organizations, or industrial meetings. Your talk may need to focus on specific topics aimed at each group’s prioitites but the focus is still the same: your business cares about them and can meet their needs.
For instance, member of a volunteer organization would enjoy how you were once helped by that or a similar organization or your charitable missions. An industry group would be interested in your company’s innovations. Be creative.
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Become an expert in your field.
The second insane way to skyrocket your business with public speaking is to become known as an expert in your field. This involves additional work like writing blogs, going on podcasts, being a part of a panel, or being interviewed by the media. Whatever the medium, focus on solving a problem posed by the person or audience. Understanding your audience or what questions may be asked is crucial to delivering expert conversation with confidence.
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Host a free public event with a well-known speaker.
This option is a huge investment because well-known speakers aren’t cheap. However, it works in that the place will fill up and the speaker will be entertaining. You should open up the event with an introduction to your company in the welcome. State there will be some closing comments the audience will want to stay for. That way they won’t be in a rush to leave.
Make closing comments something worth staying for like a prize drawing or hidden winning prize tickets attached underneath their seats.
You should also include where to buy the speakers items and your company’s products in the lobby in welcome, during intermission, and a reminder at the closing before you give away prizes.
Set up several booths for people to get to know your company and have employees ready to meet the crowd as they come in. They should hand them a program stating the company name hosting the event and an ad within it. The ad can do even better if it’s a coupon off your product or service purchase.
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Hire an entertainment speaker to promote your company at a large scale event like a fair or festival.
Many fairs and festivals have entertainment like magicians or comedians. You can hire one to perform at an event and reach thousands of people over a weekend. The entertainer should be doing shows every hour or two throughout the event. Some will perform shorter 15-minute shows three times an hour.
Be sure to put out excellent signage that your company is hosting the entertainment and have a MC announce reminders of showtimes to the crowd along with your company name throughout the weekend.
Also, work with the entertainer to work in your company’s name and product into the show. Make sure it’s done respectfully but in a fun way.
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Get media attention with a special speaking event.
Some speakers are highly unusual and make for a good news story even if they are just appearing at an employee function. These may include heroes, people who survived something traumatic like a plane crash, an overcomer living with disabilities, or someone with an usual talent like a hypnotist or mentalist.
The news media loves to interview these people and getting an advanced interview will promote your business, particularly if it’s a pubic event. Also ask that you appear with the guest speaker in all interviews so you can talk about hosting them at your event and promote your company along with your mission of the event.
Make Your Business Grow with Guest Speakers
Step outside the box of the boring data analysis speaker and liven up your company or public event with ideas that get people to take second look at your company, its services, and products. Showing the excitement your company has for hearing new concepts and learning will help jumpstart your business and launch it into a stratesphere of success.