How to Promote Your Business With Community Speaking Engagements

January 27, 2008 By

As a small business owner, one of the most important things you can do to establish and build your business is to talk about it. Communication is the most powerful tool you have to let prospective customer know exactly what it is that you do.

Spread the Word
If you’re like most small business owners, however, you don’t have a bottomless supply of money to throw into advertising. What you do have, however, is yourself. One of the most effective “guerilla” marketing techniques is to go out into the community and let people know everything they could possibly need to know about your business.

You don’t have to go stand on the street corner with a megaphone to spread the word about your business. There are many more subtle and dignified ways to let people know about your company. If you’re smart about your strategies for spreading the word, you might even find that people start inviting you to talk to them about your company.

Civic & Professional Organizations
Civic groups, for example, are excellent resources for finding captive audiences who want to hear about what you are doing. Your local chamber of commerce probably publishes a directory of civic and community groups, such as Kiwanis, Rotary, and Optimist Clubs. These directories also usually include contact information for professional associations, such as the American Business Women’s Association, the Society for Human Resources Management, and other groups.

If you’ve ever been in charge of programs for an organization, you know how difficult it can be to find speakers for weekly or monthly meetings. One of the best things you can do from a communications and community service perspective is to get your hands on a copy of the directory and send out letters to each general interest civic or professional organization offering your services as a speaker. Come up with a good list of non-salesy topics you can speak about, and you’ll probably be pleasantly surprised by the amazing response you get.

Topic Ideas
Keep in mind that civic and professional organizations will be thrilled to have you speak, as long as you are going to share information that is of interest to their members. For example, say that you own an office furniture retail store. If you tell program chairs that you want to speak to their members about the great discounts you offer on office furniture, you’re not going to get any speaking information. However, there are many topics relevant to your business that they will be interested in.

Try topic ideas like:
• Ergonomics in the Workplace
• Tips for Outfitting a Home Office
• Proper Seating and Back Health
• Tips for Reducing Computer Eyestrain

These topics all relate to your business, but are of general interest. You’ll have a chance to get your name and your company name in front of a captive audience, and you’ll be providing interesting information that is likely to help position you as something of an expert in the community. You can pass out business cards, sales flyers, and even coupons, assuming that this practice is acceptable to the group.

Once you have a successful civic or professional organization speaking experience, it’s likely that you will start to get invitations from all sorts of groups. As you reputation as a speaker and an expert grow, you’re business will reap exponential rewards.

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