Are You Maximizing the Opportunities From Your Speaking Engagements?
If you enjoy speaking and are decent up in front of a crowd, your marketing plan should include regular speaking engagements from which you’ll be able to convert attendees into clients.
Too many lawyers aren’t using speaking at all to build their firms. And the few of you who are, are often spinning your wheels spending a lot of time without a lot of return on your investment.
That’s because there’s a lot more to putting on a successful speaking engagement than just booking a venue (or finding someone to host you) and writing out talking points.
On the flip side, when you know how to speak strategically, it’s a lot easier than anything you are doing right now to market.
So what steps can you take to ensure you’re truly making the most of your speaking opportunities? Try the following:
Before the event:
- Have a special phone number or web page where people can register in advance. This is your first chance to capture contact information and get a rough idea as to how many people will be in attendance.
- If you’re collecting information by phone, be sure your team logs everything into your database or on a spreadsheet so you can readily access the data a few days before, and after the event.
- Be sure to let people registering for the event know you’ll send a reminder before the event and that they’ll begin to receive your weekly email newsletter as well.
- Send a friendly reminder of the event 24-48 hours in advance by email and strongly consider having someone in your office make a phone call as well.
- Strategize the offer you’ll make during the speaking event (this does not have to mean you are selling something. Your offer can be for a very high value something, like an article, a report, or even an appointment with you that you give away.)
- Collect the contact information of anyone who wants your free giveaway (this can be done as simply as having people hand you their cards if it is a business event, or you can use a form you’ve created or even simple index cards). These people are all leads who have raised their hand to tell you they may need your services down the road.
Of course, your fortune with these fresh leads (or prospects if they’ve made an appointment to meet with you) is in the follow up. Next week, we’ll cover exactly how to follow up to convert these leads and prospects into money in the bank.
In the meantime, you may want to check out my most recent article on lawyerist.com. You can read it here:http://budurl.com/pc28
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