1. Promote Your Speaker
Finding the right speaker is the easy part, but promoting
your speaker is critical to the success of the meeting. Make
sure all your event marketing highlights the speaker and
their qualifications or past credits.
2. Create Tantalizing Titles
Develop a title that ‘sells’, short, catchy titles will
generate interest with a subtitle that will explain the
focus of the seminar. “Show me the money: The 10 secrets of
a bank branch manager”. Work with speakers in getting their
presentations to match the titles so attendees feel they
were educated in the areas they expected.
3. Use the technology you
have
Promote your event on your website – be as detailed as
possible with seminar content, duration, location, cost for
attendance, etc. When the event is over, have pictures of
the speaker or their presentation summary available for
those who were unable to attend.
Email is also a low cost way to promote your event and
speaker to potential attendees.
4. Can you hear me now?
One of the best ways to promote your speaker is to have
other members talking about them. Encouraging attendees to
talk about their upcoming attendance creates credibility
among their peers and other individuals.
5. The Write approach
If the speaker has been featured in other publications,
ask them for copies of those articles or press releases and
post them on your website. This builds the speaker's
credibility and offers value-added information for people
who may consider attending the seminar.
6. The Media: Lights
Gather everything you need to promote your speaker to the
media. In your search for the speaker you should have
received their picture, a bio, and topics they have
presented in the past. These are essentials for a PR firm to
use in the promotion of the speaker and overall event.
7. The Media: Camera
Find out when your speaker is going to be available and
when they are available for interviews. If you want local
media to cover the speech, you must determine the news angle
and pitch it hard. You want to get exposure for your
association as well as the event, so give your speaker some
short key messages to prepare them to discuss your group.
8. The Media: Action!
On the day of the event, write a media alert telling them
who, what, when, where and, most importantly, why their
audience needs to know about your event and your speaker.
Have a good place in mind to conduct the interviews and take
photos--try to get your company’s name or logo in the
background.
9. The beginning of the end
Professional speakers know that a program is not a
one-time event, but an ongoing process. They will often
offer to send an e-mail to attendees with some value-added
links to additional information. Attendees should be able to
benefit from the presentation long after it is over, and
your company should continue to gain exposure as well. Ask
attendees how they were touched or motivated by the speaker.
How do they plan to implement what they have learned?
10. May I have the envelope please …
Track your results, either from surveys filled out after
the event or by calling on attendees and asking them for
feedback on their experience. These details will help you in
planning future SUCCESSFUL events.
