I would like to welcome Christopher Austin back to NAG today. He is here to share another post about how public speaking can help both authors, freelancers, and entrepreneurs in general offline.

Enjoy!

When you own a small business, you’re always looking for ways to promote it. One inexpensive way to get your business in front of more people is with public speaking. If you belong to any community organizations you’ve probably seen some of the speakers they have at their events. Imagine yourself up there, too! Although many people see networking events as nerve-wracking, they are important for your business. Networking will help you build relationships and make connections. It’s an excellent opportunity for you to market your business and throw business cards at people willing to talk to you.

 

Be presentable! How you present yourself and your company at these social events is how others will remember you. Make an effort to impress your audience, come up with a powerful speech, and find a way to gain people’s interest with your words. Here are some tips on how to market your business by speaking to service clubs. The benefits of free public speaking: When you do a presentation for one of these organizations, you are doing your speech free of charge. You might wonder how it makes sense to spend the time and effort on putting a speech together and delivering it, when you’re not being paid. The answer is that this can be profitable for your business.First of all, it raises awareness of your business among people who may be influential in the community. Second, some of these people may want to take advantage of your products or services, or know other people who could use them. Third, giving a free speech can lead to more invitations to speak to other organizations, thus multiplying the benefits. Fourth, meeting people and networking can pay off in other ways besides direct sales.

Choosing a topic for your speech: You need to choose a topic that people in the audience will find interesting and useful. It should be something which is relevant to most or all of the people there. What do you know that could fit these criteria? You want to promote your business, but nobody wants to hear you do a half-hour sales pitch for your product. Try to find a topic which has a connection to your business, without being a direct pitch for it. For instance, someone who owns a travel business could do a speech about travel safety tips. That topic is relevant for most of the audience, and it’s related closely enough that they can work in some mentions of their business along the way. Another example would be a business broker who helps people buy and sell businesses. This person could do a presentation on how to know what your business is worth, and then work in a few mentions of his services, encouraging owners to see him when they are ready to sell.

 

How to get speaking invitations: First, plan out your topic and speech. You don’t have to have it perfected yet, but you need to have something to offer. Find a list of service clubs in your area and call each one to find out who is in charge of booking speakers for meetings. Contact that person, and offer to give your speech. Let them know why this would be a useful and relevant topic for their audience. These people are always looking for free speakers, so they will probably be happy to hear from you.
If your topic is a good fit for their group, they will slot you into their schedule. At the end of every speech, tell the audience “If you know of any other groups that would be interested in a speech on this topic, please let me know, or pass along my business card.”
Public speaking is an excellent way of marketing your business. It is cheapest offline advertising strategy you can implement to raise awareness. To attract potential partners and customers you have to be an expert in your industry. Know the ins and outs of your company, be ready to answer questions, and try not to make your speech to rational. Nobody wants to hear about the numbers. People want to relate to you, they want to meet the person behind the business, so it’s ok to let your guard down.

By Christopher Austin and LondonSpeakerBureau.com!