In my previous post, I covered how to create a speaker one-sheet.
Now let’s discuss how to create a speaker page for your website, which is essential if you want to break in to professional speaking.
As an author myself, I never set out to be a speaker—it’s just something that sort of happened for me. After my first book was released, I began receiving invitations to speak at events and I quickly realized that speaking could be a powerful way to promote books and generate more income.
The biggest leap forward in my speaking career happened when I simply added a Speaker page to my website. Soon after, the number of invitations to speak increased and it became a tool for attracting new opportunities.
If you want to book more speaking engagements, your speaker page can become a powerful marketing tool. Here’s a list of what to include.
1. Page Introduction – Take the opportunity to welcome visitors to your page and quickly summarize your areas of expertise and what you have to offer. Remember, we have just a few seconds to capture the interest of website visitors. Make your introduction as compelling as possible.
2. Presentation Title and Description – Your event host would likely use this information to promote your appearance in event literature so your title and description should be enticing and feature thebenefits for attendees. Ideally it should include bullet points explaining what the audience will learn. Make sure to list title and description for each presentation topic that you cover.
3. Testimonials – Collect testimonials from past engagements and continue to add them to your page over time.
4. Past Clients – Once you’ve built a good-sized list of past clients, list them to improve credibility.
5. Video – In order to get booked by speaker’s bureaus and many other organizations, you will need to provide a video of a past presentation. Of course you should highlight some of your best work. You may also want to edit videos so that you offer brief clips for viewing since most won’t watch an hour-long presentation. Note: It would be a good idea to create a video channel on YouTube and share them there too!
6. Fees and Booking Information – While you can list your speaking fees on your page, I’d suggest that it’s best to leave rates off. When you receive a call from a prospect, one of the most important questions you will ask is, “What is your budget?” This allows you to set fees accordingly or negotiate other terms, such as a bulk purchase of your books. Instead, you might simply list the following:
“Please call or e-mail for speaker rates. A 50% deposit is required to reserve the date with the balance due on the day of the event. Special considerations may be made for non-profit organizations.”
7. Search Engine Optimization – Make sure your page is optimized with the key words and phrases your potential customers would use to find you. For example, if you speak about cloud computing, incorporate “professional speaker cloud computing” into the page title and description, as well as within the test on the page—at least two or three times. This will help Google understand what you do and will increase your chances of being found by the search engines.
8. Contact Information – Make it as easy as possible to reach you by providing a direct phone number, e-mail address, and mailing address. Also, if you live in a small town near a major metro area, then you may want to make note of the nearest major city in case a client is looking for a speaker from a specific demographic. For example, I’m from a small town (Gold River, California), but on my speaker page I mention: “Stephanie Chandler travels from Sacramento, California.”
9. Printable Speaker Sheet – Often times a client needs to present possible speakers to a panel for approval. Make it easy for them to learn about you by providing a printable (PDF) version of your speaker one-sheet. More details about how to create a speaker sheet can be found here.
10. Photo of You – Include an attractive, professional photo of yourself. If you have any shots from an actual live event, you may want to include those too.
11. Bonus: Share Your Slides – If you have a PowerPoint presentation prepared, you can load your slides to SlideShare, and link to them from your speaker page. Note that you can also share your SlideShare presentations via Facebook and on your LinkedIn page. Why not give potential clients a preview?
If you would like an example of a speaker page, you can view Stephanie Chandler’s Professional Speaker page here.
Good luck!
If you like this blog post, you’ll love our Professional Speaking Course! Learn more about our courses for authors here.
