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How do you find speaking engagements in your marketing niche?
 
First, I want to thank Ellen Delap from Professional-Organizer.com for taking the time to post this question on my Facebook Page! I love it when my readers respond to questions or requests I’ve posted, too.

Next, I’d like to start at the beginning of business speaking before answering this question. There are typically three phases in the speaking arena.

The first one is where you want to hone your speaking skills. For this phase, any smaller, more forgiving group is best. In the beginning, you never want to do a “trial and error” engagement on your targeted audience. If you do (and you aren’t up to speed), you may never get another chance… so save the more targeted groups until you’re more experienced.

The second phase is when you are wanting to speak to groups in your marketing niche (as Ellen asked about). This is where you have to really do your homework. The biggest problem I see a lot of business people face is not having a true understanding about their targeted audience in the first place. You should be willing to do a lot of research to define this group first.

A good example of one of my audiences would be someone wanting to speak to their "targeted" audience. There are a lot of people that would never think of using speaking to market their business (or would be frightened to do so). Therefore, I don’t spend a lot of time (or money) marketing to that group. And if you're speaking to groups that aren't your audience, you could exhaust your energies trying to sell to the wrong group. So knowing your audience is key!

Once you determine your niche, though, you need to learn more about where they gather and about their interests. Knowing this will help you pinpoint some commonalities in this group. A great way to find some of this information is to ask your top ten clientele about their preferences. Let’s face it, if they fit the audience you’re trying to reach, their input will be golden!

After you’ve gathered your information, think of all the groups that fit this description, and contact them to see if they would book you as the speaker at one of their meetings. Groups could include church groups, senior groups, social clubs, non-profits, charities, associations, various organizations, garden clubs, book clubs, hobby groups, bridge clubs, volunteer groups, and on and on. The more creative you are at finding the right group, the closer you’ll get to finding your audience.

Another advantage in doing this type of research (since it can be very time consuming), is you’ll have an “in” with your audience and much less competition to worry about.

Of course, the third phase of speaking is getting paid to speak. I book these, too, but that’s a whole different topic and procedure. Who knows… maybe that will be a future topic, too!

Now, go forth and spread the word...
Carmen, “The Publicity Diva”


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