In today’s competitive business landscape, leveraging speaking engagements can be a game-changer for your brand. While our last discussion focused on adding public speaking to your business and marketing model, this post will explore how you can use speaking engagements as a powerful marketing tool.

The Impact of Speaking

For many, entering the public speaking world is quite an accomplishment—a recognition of popularity and authority. Speaking allows you to educate, serve, and reach even more people with your mission. One event can literally allow you to share your message with hundreds if not thousands of new people in a matter of minutes.

Beyond that, speaking engagements are an exceptional marketing tool. As a Visibility Coach, I consider public speaking to be one of the most sustainable marketing and visibility strategies that create the most impact.

Visibility vs. Marketing

Let’s break down the distinction between visibility and marketing. Marketing involves actively communicating your services and how you can help people—a blend of marketing and selling. Visibility, on the other hand, is about getting eyes on you, your content, and your brand. These two concepts often overlap; you can simultaneously work on visibility, marketing, and your sales all at once with the right strategy.

Speaking as a Funnel

Speaking engagements function like a funnel, at the very top, even beyond lead magnets and opt-ins. They introduce new audiences to your brand’s mission. Whether addressing existing or new audiences, your speaking engagements should deliver value, entertainment, connection, or an educational transformation. This can be done by sharing your perspective, tips, stories, or your unique frameworks.

Transitioning from Speaking to Sales

The amazing thing is that public speaking can lead listeners to take action, such as signing up for lead magnets, your newsletter, or other platforms where you continue deepening these new relationships. The goal is to foster trust so that when you introduce your offers, your community sees them as the natural next step in their journey.

Tune into episode 187 of the Whole Damn Vibe Podcast for a riff on this.

Realizing Success Through Speaking

Many clients I’ve coached have experienced significant success from speaking engagements. While not all speaking gigs directly lead to sales, they can generate far-reaching opportunities and connections. It’s all about intentionality. When you align speaking opportunities with your expertise and marketing strategy, speaking engagements can convert into more collaborations, speaking engagements, a growing community, passive sales, and new clients!

Embrace Your Speaking Identity

The first step is embracing your identity as a speaker. Go on a Visibility Tour, book speaking engagements, and build brand awareness. By consistently showcasing your brand as a speaker, you attract both public speaking opportunities as well as clients who are perfect fits for your offerings, cutting through the noise and increasing your revenue.

Remember, you don’t have to wait for an invitation to speak to become a thought leader. Decide now to make speaking an integral part of your marketing strategy, and watch as it transforms your business.