Me speaking at Toastmasters. Photo by Claudette Ferrone.
“We promise you the ability to walk up to the podium and deliver a powerful speech with total confidence, authority, and flair…even if you have never spoken to a room full of people before.”
You’ll find that big promise on the homepage of my local Toastmasters club, CNY Biztalkers. But does becoming a confident, comfortable, and engaging public speaker pay off? Should you add public speaking to your content marketing arsenal?
First, let's get clear as to what we mean by content marketing. The Content Marketing Institute's definition is, "Content marketing is the creating and distributing of relevant content to attract, acquire, and engage a clearly defined and understood target audience to drive profitable customer action.
This is a powerful approach because it clearly links your business's content to what content marketing is ultimately all about...sales and added profit to your bottom line.
So consider:
You Can Speak at Industry Events to Position Yourself as an Expert
Think of the respect speakers get at the industry events you’ve attended. They’re the ones looked to as experts. If you want to be the "go to" business in your field, speaking at industry events will put you first on the minds of your prospects when they’re ready to buy.
Speak to Groups at a Seminar
Giving talks to groups of prospects can generate awareness of your company, interest in your product, and even direct leads from the people who want to buy what you’re selling. Anyone who’s done any cold calling knows the time it takes to contact individuals one at a time.
Imagine delivering the same powerful pitch to a room full of prospects. And just by attending your seminar you know they're looking to use your products and services to help make their lives and businesses better.
You’ll Make a Deeper, More Personal Connection
When you speak, you connect with your audience on a more intimate level than if you write an article or blog post on your website. Yes, you try to make that all important emotional connection with your writing, but it’s a heck of a lot easier when you’re right there in front of your prospects.
Also, most people learn more effectively from a talk than from written communications. The audience can learn from your Powerpoint slides, listen to your voice, watch video clips, and even participate in hands on give-and-take with you.
Talks Force You to Learn Your Subject
When you teach a seminar or class, you need to present your tips and money saving advice clearly and logically. Since you’re teaching potential customers, you want to present the material in a way that they can easily understand.
Giving talks forces you to learn more about your business and the way your customers think about your products or services. It’s good discipline and you gain insights into the train of thought your customers bring to your website, making it easer to lead them to a sale.
Your Speech is Content That Can be Profitably Recycled
You can repurpose your speech in a variety of formats. You can include your PowerPoint presentation on your website. You can record the speech and post it to your site edited down to the best, most hard-hitting clips.
You can even turn your speech into a blog post…as a matter of fact, this post is taken from a speech I delivered to Leadership Mohawk Valley during a Toastmasters presentation. You can make white papers, blog posts, and articles from your speech, recycling content over and over again.
So it’s clear that confident, comfortable, engaging public speaking has many benefits for you in your content marketing. But how do you get over the fear of public speaking and then hone your speaking skills?
One way is to join a local Toastmasters club. If you live here in the Utica area, check out our group, CNY Biztalkers. There are also books and online courses out there for you to take advantage of.
But I will say from personal experience, Toastmasters is an effective and very inexpensive way to get over your fear, improve you skills, and meet some great people and business contacts along the way.
So get going today on your training and start planning a seminar to get leads, spread the word about your business, and educate your marketplace on the benefits of your products and services.
Until next time,
Nick
Nick Burns specializes in SEO Web Writing, website information architecture, content marketing, consulting, and publishing. Face-to-face service in Utica, Rome, Syracuse, Central New York, Upstate New York, and the Mohawk Valley. Otherwise email, Skype, and phone works well for clients. Phone Nick at 315.738.1890 (toll free 1.866.738.1890) or contact here.
