Let’s face it times have changed and it’s important for you to keep up! Not only keep up with the changing times but learn how to embrace the younger generation of meeting planners and organizers. When I look back many years ago (and still today) speakers were sending out their speakers kit to meeting planners and organizers in hopes that they would open up their packet of information and hire them to speak at their next event, unfortunately and in most cases, that’s not the way it worked and it became a frustrating struggle and still is for many speakers.
So, what happens to all those pieces of marketing material your still sending off? All the DVD demos you worked so hard on and invested so much money in, all the material you had printed and copied and spent hundreds of dollars doing so, what happens to all of it once it leaves your hands? The truth is they end up gathering dust on the planners shelf or possibly tossed out…Harsh, I know but true. Why? Because not only have times now changed but planners get hundreds of unsolicited packets of information that makes it impossible for them to get through nor do they want to, plus they have many other tasks on their plate besides finding a speaker for the their event. Best advice on this; do not send out all your marketing material unless requested by the hiring party.
So, how do you solve this problem and also how can you reach out to the younger generation of planners? First, stop sending your speaker kit information through the mail unless requested, I am not by any means saying not to do mailing campaigns but to do it effectively using simple campaigns such as postcard campaigns to a very targeted group. Second make sure you have a strong online presence and that you’re embracing social media. Who makes up the majority of planners today? Yes, it’s the younger generation and where do you find them? They’re online and hanging out in the social media crowd, they’re interacting, looking, searching and finding their experts online and a lot of them through social media outlets or through social media outlets that lead them back to your strong built platform on your website. Many of your younger generations of speakers are going to have this down to a science already, they are amidst the social media realm, they know how to use it and embrace it to benefit the success of their speaking business.
So, I say to those of you who may think using social media is a waste of time and you prefer to stay in ‘old school’ mode that you may want to really rethink your strategy because if you don’t get yourself online, build yourself a strong online platform which includes embracing social media today then you’re going to find that your speaking business is going to suffer, it will become a struggle for you to keep up with your competitors. You may think you have enough referrals to stay afloat and that’s great but what about new, what about keeping up with the changing times? My suggestion is to hop aboard, enjoy the ride and join the thousands of speakers that have learned to use social media to their advantage, leverage it and build a successful speaking business.
Perhaps you already set yourself up with a Twitter account, a facebook fan page, YouTube, Linked in and more but you’re not getting the results you thought you would and you just don’t know what the heck to do with it all, so much to do, so much to learn and so little time to do it especially when you’re trying to grow a speaking business, but this part of your speaking business is an important part and it’s called marketing today, something that needs to be learned, something that needs to be done on a regular basis and done effectively to get the results that you want. In my many years of working with speakers I have come to understand the top three important ingredients of speaking success. Be a specialist and know who your audience is…who you’re meant to serve. Know how to market effectively and keep up with the changing times (this builds a strong expert platform) Build relationships and follow up. That’s it, well there’s more to each one, but in a nutshell if you can figure out how to leverage and implement them properly you’re going to see amazing results.