How to promote yourself as a paid speaker

by Jaimie Abbott

If you’ve spent a considerable chunk of your life dreaming of standing on a stage while hundreds of people listen to you with rapt attention, you’d have to work your way up to the top. This is especially important if you want your account balance to get fatter after every speaking engagement. 

So, the key to becoming well known as a paid speaker is to be as visible as possible. We can all agree that we easily forget people when there are no conversations surrounding them.

So, how do you keep people talking about you enough to hire you as a paid speaker at their events? It takes proper marketing, and here are some of our best tips for you. 

1. Prepare your media kit. How would you want your audience to see you? As a paid speaker, you should be in charge of the image you would like to project, and that’s where printed marketing materials come in. Prepare a foldable printing material containing your experiences, speaking topics, past speaking gigs, testimonials, and contact information. Make the content as light-hearted as possible without overwhelming your target audience with too much information. 
2. Always provide value. Promote yourself as a paid speaker by ensuring that everyone sees your relevance and experience through the information you share out there. Think about it. There’s a famous story about a man named Mike who wanted to apply for a sales position. The interviewer handed a pen over to Mike and said, “sell me this pen.” Mike’s answer was simple. He told the interviewer to write his name on a paper, which drove demand for that pen. So, how do you drive demand? Get your name out there through valuable content that will always be connected to your brand as a paid speaker. You can start by keeping track of various events and regular hot topics so that you can jump on them with relevant content as a guest blogger. The internet is a powerful tool, and it’s okay to explore blog posts, webinars and podcasts as your marketing strategy. At this point, you’ll have to understand that you may be churning out a lot of free materials to gather the attention you need and probably seal this with a paid e-book to test the waters. 
3. Create your online footprint. Almost everyone has an online footprint, especially if you’re active on at least one social media channel. As a paid speaker looking to promote yourself as much as possible, you should control what others see about you online. Make sure your name pops up in as many relevant conversations as possible. Every time you post content on your social media, use tactics that drive engagement, like Instagram quotes or creating a social media challenge. 
4. Advertise your services. Investing in social media ads is also a great idea. This takes you beyond the borders of your country and is an excellent opportunity to grow your email list of attentive subscribers. So, feel free to talk about your services as a paid speaker on blog posts, podcasts and various social media platforms.
5. Always look the part. As a paid speaker, your appearance matters more than you can imagine. You have to sell the image of luxury and exclusivity, which will convince people that you’re worth paying to listen to. Match your air of confidence and decent wardrobe with a website that puts the spotlight on you. This is your digital marketplace, and tons of features are a must-have. Your website should include links to all your social media pages, a contact form that makes it easy for people to reach out to you, a simple yet attractive hire me button, and pages highlighting your experience. Nothing is really too much when it comes to promoting yourself as a paid speaker, especially if it drives positive conversations around you and inspires people to want to listen to your expertise on a topic.

To join the waitlist for my new course PAID TO SPEAK click here.