Promoting Your Business by Speaking in Public

Hello All

As an entrepreneur, public speaking has to be one of the most
effective ways of marketing yourself. There are countless opportunities
out there for you to get yourself in front of your target market.
There is no better way to have a captive audience full of prospects.
It is the fastest way of establishing yourself as an expert.
You don’t have to be a professional speaker to speak in public.

Just doing a reasonable job is better than not doing anything at all.
Prospects are much more likely to engage your services if they’ve
seen you speak. Let’s look at the following example. Say you were
looking for an accountant. Would you be more inclined to trust someone
you had found in the Yellow Pages, or someone you had heard speak
knowledgeably at the local Chamber of Commerce?

Look into opportunities in your local area where you can offer to
speak for free. Professional associations, networking groups,
Chambers of Commerce, educational bodies and Rotary Clubs
are all potential public speaking venues. They often look out for
speakers for their events, meetings and workshops. Also research
the audience that is going to be at your talk.

For example, what industries are they likely to represent?
Are they from large or small companies?
What would interest them?
What angle should your presentation take?

When it comes to finalizing your speech topic, be sure to make
it sound enticing and interesting. People often decide whether
to attend a talk based on just the title so put some serious thought
into this. Practice is key to coming across in a professional manner
and reducing nerves.

Write your speech out in full, but never read it verbatim. Have an
outline prepared and available for you to refer to. Check with the
event organizer how long you have for your talk. Include timing in
your practice runs. There is nothing worse than having a speaker
run over time. Get the most mileage out of your presentation by
having some promotional material at the back of the room, for
example some business cards, flyers or brochures that people can
take with them if they wish.

You can be even more proactive and set up a newsletter before
starting to give speeches. At the end of your presentation you
can encourage your audience to sign up for your newsletter in
exchange for a promotional gift or free e-book. That way you have
also added valuable contacts to your database.

For more Information on speaking also checkout my website:
www.21stcenturyspeaker.com
johnny Campbell, DTM, Accredited Speaker.