Do you know that you can grow your business extensively by engaging in strategic public speaking? Are you aware that many big-time entrepreneurs have used public speaking as a key strategy to put their business in the eyes of their target audience? You can also use the proven strategy of public speaking to grow your own business no matter how small it is.
One of the biggest headaches of entrepreneurs and business owners is how to grow their businesses at the lowest possible cost. As a business owner, you definitely understand that you can grow your business with advertising and other marketing strategies. However, there is a growth strategy that many businesses and entrepreneurs are not taking advantage of.
Public speaking is a simple, and cost-effective way to spark your business growth without spending a dime. It is a non-intrusive way of selling your business without necessarily being too “salesy”.
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Imagine this, you are at an event where you have been billed to speak. The host introduces you as the founder of XYZ Company and then you go on to speak helpfully and tell the audience your story. After the event, do you think you will get calls asking about your services and how you can be of help? Absolutely! That is the power of public speaking as a growth strategy. But before I explain further, let me tell you exactly what public speaking is.
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What Is Public Speaking?
Public speaking is the act of speaking to a live audience either face to face or using web conferencing technologies like Zoom, Twitter Space, Messenger Rooms, YouTube Live, Instagram Live, and the likes.
How To Use Public Speaking To Grow Your Business
Let’s cut to the chase, public speaking is a fantastic way to grow your business and this is how it works:
When you speak at a public event, chances are that when introducing you, the host will mention your business name and what you do. That alone is enough publicity for your business, but it doesn’t stop there. When you are delivering your speech, you’d have the opportunity to talk about your business as well. Subsequently, if you are able to deliver a good speech, you will also stand out among the speakers, and members of the audience will remember. That means that you stand a chance of them patronising you if your business caters to their needs.
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Set Your Goals
If you are going to use public speaking as a growth strategy, then you have to treat it like any other marketing strategy. To start using public speaking as a growth strategy for your business, you need to set your goals from the start. What are you aiming to achieve with your public speaking strategy? Do you want to build more awareness about your business? Are you looking to boost product trials? Do you want to increase sales? Or are you looking to grow the number of signups to your email newsletter? Whatever goal you are trying to achieve, make sure that you set it in the beginning.
When setting your goals for public speaking, make sure that the goals are SMART- that is specific, measurable, achievable, realistic, and measurable. Making sure that your goals are SMART will help you achieve them easily.
Choose Your Target Audience
Like I said earlier, if you are using public speaking as a growth strategy, then you must treat it like any other marketing strategy. And, the first step of most marketing campaigns is identifying your target audience. When setting out to start using public speaking as a growth strategy, you must make sure that you identify your target audience first. Identifying your target will consequently help you know which speaking engagements to go for, and which ones to turn down.
For example, if you have a business that sells software to accountants, it is futile to speak at a medical conference. No matter how good your speech turns out to be, you have the wrong audience and will not achieve results. So, make sure that you identify your ideal customer(s) before you start speaking at events.
Identify The Events You Want To Speak At
Like we already established, Identifying your target audience will help you know the type of events to speak at and also help you know the kind of invitations you should take and the ones to turn down.
Ultimately, the type of events you will end up taking should be influenced by the goals you have set, your ideal customers, and where they are located. So, if you get an invite to speak at an event that has your target audience but will not help you achieve the goals you have already set, you might want to turn that down.
Identify Your Story Angle
The best way to do public speaking is by infusing storytelling. Storytelling in business is so important that Chris Brogran, a popular marketing consultant once said, “Stories are how we learn best. We absorb numbers and facts and details, but we keep them all glued into our heads with stories.”
Storytelling is the best way you can pass your brand message without putting people off. Think about it, if you come in contact with someone who is always trying to convince you to buy something, will you not get turned off at some point? Now, imagine that another person met you, and wanted to know more about you, was very friendly, is always ready to share helpful information, and always there to help, who will you be more open to patronising? The second person of course! The truth is that people don’t want to be sold to, so make sure that when you engage in public speaking, you use storytelling to get the audience interested.
Now that you understand the importance of storytelling, you need to choose the angle of your story for your public speaking. Do you want to focus on your company’s story? Are you considering telling stories of how your solution has helped other businesses to grow? Do you want to talk about problems and how your product is solving the problems? The choice is yours to make, but make sure that it aligns with your goals and it’s something that will produce results.
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How To Get Public Speaking Engagements
Now that you understand what public speaking is, and how you can use it to grow your business, you might be saying to yourself, I really love this idea, but I don’t know how I can get public speaking engagements. Well, I will show you three strategies that you can use to get public speaking engagements.
Cold Pitching
Cold pitching to get public speaking engagements is pretty straightforward. All you need to do is find some events that are within your speaking jurisdiction, then contact the organiser to pitch. When pitching to an organiser, make sure that you demonstrate some level of expertise, as organisers won’t want to invite people to be on the podium when they are not experts.
Take Advantage Of Events Websites
Another great way to score public speaking engagements is by taking advantage of events websites. The strategy is simple; look for upcoming events in your niche, then message the event organiser and tell them that you want to speak at the event. Event platforms like Eventbrite.com allow users to message event organisers on their platforms. Again, to be successful with this strategy, you need to show that you have expertise in the field.
Use Linkedin
Is there an event that you will to speak at, but don’t know the organiser? Don’t fret, you can take advantage of LinkedIn to get in touch with the event organisers. Here’s what you can do:
- Find out the name of the event
- Next, find out some of the speakers at the event
- Then search for them on LinkedIn.com
- Send them a message, requesting the email of the event organiser
- Pitch to the event organiser
I am not naive to think that everybody you send a message will respond, but it is worth a try nonetheless.
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Conclusion
Public speaking is a strategic way that you can use to grow your business astronomically. With the right goals and the right approach, you could use public speaking to stand apart from your competition.
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