We all know that whether you are a new business or one that’s been around for years, marketing is the key to building a brand and getting your message to the world. That said, there is no shortage of things that we “should” be doing to market our business. From blogging to writing a book to online advertising, it can be difficult for any business owner to know where to spend their time and dollars for the biggest impact. Today we are going to share 15 different ideas on how to market your speaking business.
15 Marketing Initiatives for Your Speaking Business
Before you even start thinking about marketing your business, you need to develop a strategy and marketing plan. As a part of that plan, you need to answer a few questions:
- What is my goal? (Is it list building, increasing profits, building community, etc.)
- What marketing efforts do I currently have in place and how effective are they? (Website, blog, products, etc.)
- Who is my target audience?
- What is my message?
Once you have created your marketing plan, we have 15 different ideas here for you on our 15 Marketing Initiatives Checklist. It includes a variety of ideas including:
- Doing other people’s podcasts (OPP’s)
- Blogging
- Asking for referrals
Keep in mind, to build a strong brand you need to ensure that the marketing initiatives that you take on are done well and delivering the results that you want. If you are doing a whole lot of things, but only ‘sort of okay,’ then pull back, focus in on the marketing tasks that deliver the best results and improve them. Once you have them working (and performing) well, pick the next initiative and implement that.
Here are some guidelines you should follow with your marketing to ensure that you are delivering a consistent message that will pay off:
FOCUS THE BRAND
Be sure that all of your initiatives have the same branded look and feel. When someone sees something, do they know it’s from you?
FOCUS THE MESSAGE
Participate only in conversations that pertain to things you want your brand associated with. I know that you have a lot of opinions, most of us do. That doesn’t mean that your clients need to know that you are upset that United Airlines changed their rules around upgrading. Think about what’s important to your clients before wading into threads that they may not care about.
FOCUS THE AUDIENCE
If your clients are seeing everything that you do, and the majority of your followers on any platform are fellow speakers, you might come across some issues. Be aware that when talking to your fellow speakers about an engagement, or whatever, your clients may be listening in. The best way to separate is to have two accounts, one for personal (friends, family, fellow speakers), one for business. And please don’t think I’m suggesting that you don’t share personal stories or ideas with your clients, I’m all for that, with a focused approach.
Now that you have your guidelines take a look at the marketing initiatives checklist and evaluate what you are doing now and what you can start to do to build your brand. There is no shortage of possible ideas to grow your brand and market your business. While you may have seen this checklist before, it may be time to review it again so you can reevaluate your marketing efforts to see what is working.
