3 Places to Promote Your Business Through Speaking that You Might be Missing

The most common question I see on business forums and Facebook groups is, "How can I get more leads for my business?" As you can imagine, the typical responses are:

• SEO
• Facebook ads
• Guest posting on blogs
• Webinars
• Social media posts and replies
• Referrals

All of these are valid traffic generators and lead gen producers. And, if you really want a complete list of traffic builders, you can get our most updated list of 101 Realistic Traffic Methods for Your Website at 101TrafficMethods.com.

But, this post is more about three specific promotional opportunities that people seem to be neglecting, or missing entirely, from their list of possible traffic and lead generators. How can I be so sure so few people use these methods? By the responses I get after replying to their requests in the forums. Everyone seems so surprised when I bring them up. So, here they are:

#1. Association Events - Associations typically have a monthly meeting held in a city near you. Find the top 5 associations your potential clients hang out at. Then, attend an association meeting of each association. First-timers are sometimes offered a discount or free tickets, so ask about discounts for first time attendees. Select one or two and become a sponsor. The price tag might be a bit steep in the area of $500-$1,000, but remember, if you choose the right associations, you will have hundreds or even thousands of potential customers to be in front of every month. Even the worst closer will get at least a couple of business deals per year by sponsoring an association. So, don't worry about the money. Focus on what you can do for attendees of the association events. As your face gets to be consistently visible at those events, people will start conversing with you.

The opportunity of being an association event sponsor is the opportunity you will have to get on stage for 30 seconds and tell the audience what you do. But, this is where I see almost everyone make a terrible mistake! They actually DO tell the audience what they DO! Don't ever do that in your 30 seconds as a sponsor.

Instead, do something they will remember.

When I was an SEO guy for hire, I would attend the event, and wait for one of the main speakers to be introduced. I would then take a picture of the speaker and then crank out a blog post about what the speaker was talking about. Within minutes, my blog post would be in competition with the speaker's website because my post would always show up on top or near the top of SERPs (Search Engine Results Position). I would turn to a neighbor, who politely would be pretending not to notice my working on a blog post, and I'd say, "Well, would you look at that. Ten minutes into her speech and I already have a post right next to their website."

The response would always be of amazement! Then, when it was time for me to get on stage to present my business as a sponsor in 30 seconds or less, I would say, "While Sandy was speaking, I added a blog post and in 15 minutes, that blog post is right next to Sandy's website when you search search Google for Sandy Whatever speaking. If you'd like to know how, come back to my back table and I'm happy to show you. My table would have 20 people around it at the first break.

#2. Podcasting - Ten years ago, podcasting meant a recorded audio file with a radio-style interview that the host could edit before posting. Podcasts were always audio-only. Today, podcasting has a much broader definition...particularly with the addition of video. Here is a video podcast I was recently featured on.

Watch the Full Podcast here: https://youtu.be/jBaaL5XmqfI

Susie (host) does a great job of making me (guest) look good by giving a proper introduction and asking me a few planted questions so I am sure to get a mention of my business into the interview.

I made it a point to make my host look good by showing her book in my hands and using the example of her workshop in one of my responses.

A good podcast "unveils" something new. See if you can spot what I unveiled during the early part of her asking questions. Spoiler alert: It's mentioned in the next section below too.

Podcasts have become extremely valuable as marketing tools and opportunities for you to put your public speaking skills to work. Join some Facebook groups and look for people who are asking for podcast guests and ask to be interviewed.

#3. Online Networking - The third neglected lead generator where speaking is involved is online networking. Consider this option to be much more than just "live video" on Facebook or giving a webinar. Online networking has everyone's face who's in the meeting...ON the meeting screen.

The problems with traditional networking, of course, are that you have to go somewhere to meet the people, introverts wind up standing in a corner not meeting anyone, and you're lucky to meet two new people per event.

With online networking, you have a much larger pool of people to invite to each meeting, so meeting many more new people at each event is likely. If you didn't catch the "something new" unveiled in Susie's podcast, checkout our new method of online networking we are calling ReferralRally.com where every person on the call gets to meet you and you get to meet everyone.

I say it's "new," but I ran a similar string of events for six months last year where the goal was to practice our online presentation skills. What's kind of funny, is that nobody knew each other when we started. But, almost all of us wound up doing business with each other and referring each other! Starting to see where this is leading?

As the host for the event, I learned several critical things about running online networking events as the Host.

• You have to always be present for the events. You arrive early, give first-timers some guidance before the event, and then you're staying on after to answer questions. This probably explains why you don't see too many "weekly" or "monthly" online networking events. Someone has to commit to hosting them.
• You spend the rest of the week marketing. Outreach is a challenge to conduct an online networking event, even with social networking. I would spend my whole week announcing the next event. It's worth it, of course, I'm just saying someone has to do it.
• You have to be a good MC (Master of Ceremonies). You cannot waste time talking about yourself when you are the host. You have to get right into the event. And, you have to monitor your event as others are networking so that all participants are assured a positive experience.

I say all of that about being the "Host" because you might become interested in hosting your own online networking event. That's fine. I'm just suggesting you sit in on a few to see how they're run before you go off on your own. You are welcome to participate in ReferralRally.com events.

Summary

All of these neglected speaking opportunities require one thing. You need to be developing your speaking skills to make a good impression on your audiences. There are two ways to do that. You can join a Toastmasters club in your area or you can start speaking to groups who need speakers every day.

If you are in Colorado, you can get 400 contacts of people who need speakers every week and learn how to converse with people who need speakers on your topic of expertise.

Checkout this workshop coming next week in Denver.

People buy from people they know, like, trust...and are visible. Get speaking and use those opportunities where other people are neglecting them.

Author Bio: Marty Dickinson is the co-author of Web Marketing All-in-One for Dummies (Wiley) and hosts events at ReferralRally.com. He is a 22-year business owner who produces non-fiction books for industry experts to showcase their expertise in a written form where the main content is developed usually in under a week.