Leverage Your Publicity Into Professional Speaking Profits

by Pam Lontos

One mistake professional speakers and aspiring speakers make is not using the publicity they gain with print and other forms of media to help them gain more speaking. If you have been quoted, published, interviewed, or mentioned in news or industry media all that effort wasn’t for just for fun, it was to position you to get more speaking engagements and higher paid speaking engagements. Here are five tips for using your publicity to get you hired.

1. Put your best publicity efforts on your website media page. Your website, information sheet, brochures, and email signature should tout you as an expert. All the publicity you get in print media is evidence that each publication deems you to be an expert. Make sure that your professional speaking information is accessible and able to be downloaded by meeting planners from your website.

2. Follow up with past clients and potential clients. People you’ve worked with in the past are always the easiest to market to. They need to know when you get published or interviewed in an article. This keeps re-establishing your worth to them and makes you a valuable resource for their business.

3. Contact the association directors of the industries in whose trade publications your articles have been featured. Many publications are the journal of the trade association for that industry. If the editor felt that the membership was interested enough to print your article or interview you, then the executive director may be interested in hiring you to speak at one of their conferences. Contact the right people with the right information and you may well be on your way to a completely booked year.

4. Send a letter to professional associations associated with the industries in which you have had past clients or in whose industry publications you have been featured. If a publication isn’t in a particular association’s own journal but one of interest to their industry you can still find the professional association and pitch them. Note that a related professional magazine had your article recently and you know this is a topic of interest to their members.

5. Send your updated information to speakers bureaus or meeting planner services. Speaker’s bureaus are in the business of promoting their clients. They promote with vigor those who are the easiest to get booked. Each bit of data you give them to pitch you to their clients makes you one of the easy ones. Meeting planners often also use online sites and services to find and book speakers too. Make sure you are listed with online services as well.

Good luck in your efforts to become a professional speaker or take your speaking career to the next level!

Pam Lontos is president of PR/PR and co-author of I See Your Name Everywhere – Leverage the Power of the Media to Grow your Fame, Wealth and Success. Pam has been recognized in her industry with the Irwin Award for Book Publicist of the Year as well as the George Morrisey Lifetime Achievement Award. As a former vice president of Disney-owned Shamrock Broadcasting and with a master’s degree in psychology and advertising, Pam knows how to get you publicity. You can reach Pam at www.prpr.net or emailing pam@prpr.net.