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| Marketing.. |
Public Relations 101
Creating opportunities for speaking
 Gini Dietrich is president of Arment Dietrich Public Relations in Chicago.Gini can be reached at gini.dietrich@armentdietrich.com or 312-787-7249 |
One of the tools we use with most of our clients is speaking engagements. Without fail, when you get up in front of an audience, they perceive you as an expert and immediately want to do business with you. In my experience, I’ve never seen a PR tactic work as well and as quickly as a speaking engagement works. Yes, getting your name in print works. And yes, becoming an expert through the media works. But that takes time. If you want a quick hit, get out and speak.
I hear a lot, “Oh I can’t speak in front of an audience; it’s scary.” You may as well know now, don’t say that to me. All it takes is knowing your topic and a little bit of practice. You must make the time to practice. Not only will it make you more comfortable, your audience will know you’re comfortable and you’ll come across that much more credible.
Before I tell you how to find speaking opportunities, following are some tips on practicing your speech. That way you can go into learning how to find the right opportunity with an open mind to finding them.
• Stand in front of a mirror and practice. Stand as you will at the podium in front of an audience. Make eye contact with yourself. Watch how you present yourself both with body language and verbally.
• Videotape your speech and watch it. I do this during media training. It’s the most painful part of the training, but you learn more watching yourself than you do any other way.
• Pull your family into the living room and give your speech. If they’re nice to you, you’ll do fine. If they’re not, you’ll know you have some work to do.
• Give your speech in the shower. I do my best thinking in the shower (it might be the only time I actually think without being interrupted) and I can hear myself clearly. Just like singing in the shower, giving your speech there allows you to hear your voice as it will be heard by others. Plus you’ll have to have it memorized in order to give it in the shower, which means you’re really prepared to speak in front of an audience.
• Watch other people speak. In fact, watch athletes speak on SportsCenter. You’ll very quickly learn, by watching them, what you like and don’t like. Then emulate what you like about how they speak, but please don’t pick up the bad habits of some of them.
• Time yourself. You should know, within 30 seconds, how long your speech is going to last. And make certain you leave 10-15 minutes at the end for questions.
• Practice, practice, practice. Once you have it down, practice the entire speech, without interruption, every day for a week the week before the presentation.
Feel comfortable? I know this is a bit backwards, but let’s now move on to getting those speaking engagements that are going to help you achieve your business goals.
Who are your target audiences? More than likely you need consumers to come into your franchise in order for you to reach your business goals. Where do the consumers you are targeting gather for meetings? Is it church? Is it school? Is it local venues? Is it home and garden shows? Answer those questions and you’re ready for the next step.
Search on the Internet for the meeting and figure out who coordinates events. Go to the “contact us” page and you’ll find what you need. Either e-mail or call that person and let them know you’re interested in speaking at one of their upcoming events. Be prepared to discuss with the event coordinator what you are qualified to speak about and to sell your services.
Some thoughts on story topics:
What your business does better than your local competition;
What your business offers people locally;
How you can make a person’s experience in your business better than anything they’ve before experienced;
What kinds of talent and tidbits you have, as related to your business, that no one else has.
I’ll give you a couple of examples. We work a lot in the hospitality industry. I want to find hoteliers and owner/operators interested in doing PR. I attend all of the hotel conferences and I speak on panels that create me as an expert within the industry. Without fail, I always win a new piece of business after I speak.
I also speak to colleges and universities and to communicators at conferences because we bring on the best and brightest PR talent and that’s a good way to find them. So I may attend the National Restaurant Association show, but I won’t be speaking to restaurateurs, I’ll be speaking to their PR and marketing people to see if I can attract talent.
As you can see, there are many reasons you’d want to engage yourself in speaking opportunities. Get yourself out there and I promise you’ll see a fantastic return-on-investment.
