5 ideas on how to build your speaking business and get booked

Being on stage, captivating audiences, sharing your expertise, and passing your knowledge on is what is exciting about being a speaker. And for most, it is a dream come true to get the chance to speak in front of so many people and get paid for it as well.

But at times our passion and motivation towards speaking may start to fade away when we are not getting enough opportunities to speak.

You are trying your best to get more speaking opportunities, but then why are you not able to land them?

In this article, we have rounded up some tips to help you get more speaking opportunities.

1. Create a speaker profile on SpeakerHub

SpeakerHub is a medium for event organizers and speakers to connect.

Your chances of bagging more speaking events will be greatly enhanced if you create an effective speaking profile on the website.

There are certain tips that will help your profile stand out’ and it’s best you use them to create a great profile that will help organizers sift you from the crowd of other speakers. You need to give them a reason to choose you.

On the same topic, ensure you have all the right marketing materials in place, including having essential elements like active social media profiles and a demo reel of you speaking.

2. Showcase your expertise

Having testimonials is a good way to let people know what others think about you, but in this day and age, living in the digital world, we need to go beyond that.

One of the best ways to showcase your expertise would be to maximize the usage of your blog.

Your blog showcases your authority over your subject matter, and it is a way for people to see how you think and work, even before talking with you.

If you are blogging, you can even try getting your content posted on other websites, or write guest posts. This will help you get your name known in the market and give you more exposure.

Another good way to get exposure is through podcasts. Speaking on a podcast as a guest could get the word out about you.

But when you are speaking on someone else’s podcast, be sure to add value to their podcast as a guest first, and only promote yourself as a speaker on your own podcast or when the host asks you about your expertise.

You should also create a video of yourself so that people can see how you speak and decide whether they would be interested in hiring you. Videos are a great way of showcasing your talent to event organizers, especially if you are new to the market or if the event organizers don’t know of you. So make sure you put in the effort to make a great demo video.

3. Apply for events

SpeakerHub has been working diligently for many years to connect speakers with organizers. As the centerpiece of our efforts, we launched SpeakerHub’s Marketplace back in 2016, and this has proved itself to be a great platform to help speakers build their businesses.

We have been working continuously on making the Marketplace as effective as possible, and we love to incorporate our users’ feedback to make it ever more suited to their needs. As part of this effort we have added a plethora of international speaking events to the list.

In the Marketplace you can find information on numerous speaking events, their locations, subject matter, fees, and all the other details you require to assess whether it would be a good match for you.

The key to landing a speaking opportunity is how you present yourself in your speaker application. It is essential that your speaker application grabs the attention of the event organizer so they want to learn more about you.

If written correctly, your speaker application is the gateway to landing a speaking opportunity.

You can find 7 tips for writing a great speaker application in our Skillcamp.

4. Get referrals

Sometimes all you need is a good old-fashioned word of mouth recommendation to bag more speaking opportunities.

If people in your network are talking about you and your capability as a speaker to other people then surely you are not far away from getting a speaking opportunity? Event organizers are quick to hire a speaker based on a referral from someone they already know and trust. It can cut their job time in half. Rather than having to search and find a speaker, they can simply do a quick search on the referred speaker and make a decision on whether the speaker would be a good fit based on the referral and their research.

You have to get your name out there. You could spend hundreds or thousands of dollars on Facebook advertising, but this can be a risky approach for a solopreneur speaker who has to manage their budget carefully.

Word of mouth is still the best foot in the door: meaning getting personal recommendations is the best way to make initial connections with businesses.

Go to networking events (live or online) and meet people, check back in with past clients and ask for referrals, reach out to businesses who are similar to businesses you’ve worked with in the past, and get your name out there.

We’ve talked a lot about networking and building offline connections in previous articles. See some of our best tips here:

Also check out these three podcast interviews on how to use your network to build your business:

5. Use LinkedIn Groups

LinkedIn is just like a big networking room, only better. You can choose who's going to be in that networking room and you can choose what you're going to say to those people by using LinkedIn Groups.

Focusing on your niche can help you harness the power of LinkedIn groups.

You won’t be able to become part of industry-specific LinkedIn groups if your profile has nothing to do with the particular industry, so only attempt to join the groups that are related to your niche.

When you specify your targeted niche topic, make sure to mention it on your profile, and show how your speeches are related to it.

You can choose one or a few industries and start joining relevant LinkedIn Groups.

There you can read and join discussions between the members. It’s a nice way to get noticed, and with patience and grace, you can start connecting with the members.

To get started, join us (and 23K+ speakers) on our LinkedIn Group. Check out “Need A Speaker / Be A Speaker”

When you join various LinkedIn groups, it will also give you a chance to increase the number of connections you have. Make sure you always add reliable connections, as when others view your profile it is impressive if you have many connections who are experts in their fields.

Another thing to note is that just being on LinkedIn and joining groups is not enough. You need to be productive on it as well. Be sure to post good content and post it regularly, as it will help you increase user engagement.

You need to be consistent and available. Signing up is half the job, but utilizing the platform to your advantage is the best way to land more speaking opportunities.

We have talked about the use of social media platforms, specifically LinkedIn, in our previous articles. You can find out more here:

Wrapping it up

So before you lose heart and get demotivated, try implementing these tips. When all the tools and resources available to you are used to their fullest, surely you will bag a speaking opportunity soon. And sometimes all it takes is one event to get your name out there ensuring that many more bookings will follow.