thought leader

Daniel Moirao On Thinking Like a Meeting Planner

Daniel Moirao

Daniel Moirao is the past president of the National Speakers Association Northern California (NSA/NC). As a professional speaker himself, he’s delivered keynotes to professional associations, public education institutions, as well as international curriculum associations and numerous start-up businesses.

“Nothing trumps the marketing power of face to face speaking engagements,” says Moirao. “Public speaking is the best way to establish a reputation, attract new opportunities and generate that leads that can turn into customers and clients.”

As president of the NSA/NC, he saw first hand that successful speakers understand how to position and market themselves to speaking opportunity gatekeepers. “Although technology has changed how people communicate, there’s still a need for speakers at events, meetings and conferences. New speakers must understand the key is blending traditional and online strategies to stand out and land speaking slots while building a long-term foundation for a successful speaking career.”

Build Your Foundation. “Many early stage speakers don’t recognize how much marketing is involved in getting speaking engagements, especially now that there’s fewer speaking opportunities than a decade ago,” says Moirao. “You can’t just post YouTube videos. As a beginning speaker you need to work hard to establish a reputation that gets people calling you.”

Companies need information from experts. This has led to more opportunities for speakers to present on webinars. “Webinars are a great way to get your foot in the door by delivering value that can lead to live speaking engagements,” says Moirao. “I recently delivered webinars to three organizations about all of which became face-to-face clients. Each time, after the second webinar, all three have said asked, “Can you do a live event for us?”

Thought leadership. Recognition from the outside world matters. “Speakers must project a credible brand. It’s not enough to declare yourself an expert. You need third party validation to get your foot in the door, facilitate conversations with meeting planners and will ultimately make getting speaking gigs easier.”

If you’re just starting out, Moirao recommends creating a one-year plan to position yourself as an industry expert. Generate and include media clippings in your speaking kit. Blog about topics that relate to your talks, publish articles in trade media, and create an overall platform designed to impress meeting planners.

Develop Your Online Presence. Meeting planners use the Internet to discover, evaluate and validate that speakers know their subject matter and that others recognize their expertise. Therefore, your website should clearly display your availability as a speaker, including your speaking topics and a list of past speaking events and recommendations from meeting planners.

Take steps to boost your online presence. Your blog should showcase key speaking topics to help meeting planners quickly grasp your expertise. Approach social media strategically to create a good impression with meeting planners who visit your social media platforms. Respond to influencer blog posts or participate in LinkedIn Group discussions. “I know one speaker who attracts speaking engagements from all over the world by posting articles from other experts in LinkedIn groups, says Moirao”

Connect with well-known thought leaders. Meeting planners judge you by the company you keep. Look for ways to affiliate and connect yourself with thought leaders so that meeting planners see you as a contributor to your industry.

“When you’re connected to reputable experts, your credibility skyrockets,” says Moirao. “I know a speaker who got several business thought leaders to write acknowledgments for her book. Now, she’s shoulder to shoulder with recognized thought leaders, which generates a powerful first impression when a meeting planner checks her out for a speaking opportunity.”

You have to be consultative. “Speakers can’t just entertain or motivate an audience,” says Moirao. “Now, meeting planners choose speakers who deliver practical value tailored to particular audiences. They expect speakers to research audiences beforehand to discover their challenges and concerns and develop presentations with useful information that attendees can implement immediately.”

Moirao advises speakers to help audiences see the big picture, overcome information overload and provide immediate actionable tasks. “Audiences are better informed and don’t want surface knowledge they can easily find online,” says Moirao. Speakers should see their role as helping audiences grow beyond their current capacity. This means staying current in their industries your industry and building a reputation to establish long-term relationships with gatekeepers that lead to more speaking opportunities.

Content Marketing: Earning Credibility For Professional Service Providers

Years ago, I published an article in a business magazine about self-publishing as a marketing tool. As a result I landed two clients, submitted several proposals, and made reprints for my marketing materials.

In one instance, a reader who later became a client had already made a decision to hire a competitor, but reconsidered when she came across my article. “It made the difference,” she said when she contacted me. “We knew from reading your article that you could help us.”

What really made the difference? My article was published in a trusted media outlet, not merely on my own website. This bestowed a level of credibility and gravitas that tipped the scale in my favor and closed the sale.

Validate Your Expertise

Building trust is never easy, especially when everyone claims to be an expert. As more and more professional services firms flood the Internet with e-books, blog posts and webinars, professional service firms must do more to establish their credibility than (according to the current mantra) creating and distributing “quality” content.

What others say about you matters more than what you say about yourself. For professional services firms, it’s not enough to publish content on your own website or blog. It’s imperative to establish a presence on credible third party media.

Have a Strategy

Content marketing programs should be designed to achieve specific business goals and tailored to your marketplace and prospects. Professional services firms in particular should build their content marketing strategy around the following goals:

  • Establish industry expertise and thought leadership

  • Attract inbound sales leads through traditional and online channels

  • Boost search engine findability and optimization

  • Provide materials to aid the sales process

Once you’re clear on your business goals, you can develop a content marketing strategy to lead your efforts. For example, I’m currently helping a healthcare management consultant launch a new firm. Our primary goal: establishing his firm’s national reputation around helping companies implement the Affordable Care Act (aka Obamacare).

To achieve this goal, our marketing strategy includes securing speaking slots at business conferences, publishing op-eds in national newspapers and pitching articles and webinars to industry associations that position my client as a credible thought leader (and potential consultant) among corporate decision makers.

Of course, content plays a role. Our blog posts, articles and webinars support our overarching strategy of establishing my client as a thought leader around businesses healthcare reform and helping corporate America interpret, navigate and implement the Affordable Care Act.

Media Still Matters

Credibility (not content) is king. A blog is a great place to demonstrate your expertise, build your personal brand and expand your network. But anyone can publish a blog. Not everyone can earn a platform for their expertise in top media and trade outlets, earning an implied endorsement from sources your prospects trust.

Despite the rise in social media and online news sources, gaining earned media coverage still remains one of the most effective ways to reach buyers and build an industry-wide platform. When you develop a strong message around your expertise, and approach the media as a partner in the newsmaking process, your ideas, opinions and content can appear in newspapers, trade magazines, top blogs and websites that position your business as a true thought leader.

My clients are often surprised to learn that media outlets will help you spread the word about your business. Moreover, by combining content marketing with public relations, you’ll leap ahead of your “online-only” competitors who believe that third party credibility is no longer necessary.

A Journalistic Approach

Many content marketer evangelists tell businesses to see themselves as media companies. They applaud the “death of media intermediaries,” instructing companies to communicate directly with customers and prospects who desire nothing more that a compelling “story” and relevant information.

Yet, prospects are not stupid. They know content marketing is meant to advance sales. And as more firms develop and flood the Internet with content marketing e-books, blog posts and webinars, professional service firms it’s getting harder to establish credibility.

The most effective content marketing takes a journalistic approach. This means being as objective as possible, proving both sides of a story, and providing context. It means telling prospects not only what to do, but when not to apply your advice, even if it means turning away a potential sale. Fill your content with research, data, studies and statistics. Interview other experts and find case studies that support your thesis.

This is how the traditional media make the news. It’s also how to get increasingly savvy prospects to embrace your content marketing, which should avoid overt (or subtle) sales pitches, hyping one approach (yours) or providing irrelevant proof points that stretch your case.

It’s not enough to articulate your expertise. Your content marketing program must be build around third party project a credible halo of authority and trust within your industry.

I’m On LinkedIn, Now What?

Jason Alba is the author of I’m On LinkedIn, Now What???, a popular primer on how to get the most out of LinkedIn, the powerful online networking site with over 32 million members that can help you cultivate business connections and opportunities. Alba experienced the power of LinkedIn in his role of CEO of JibberJobber, an online job search tool. He used LinkedIn to proactively build his business and boost his reputation as a thought leader in his field. Jason shares his experiences and provides tips and strategies to harness LinkedIn to develop professional relationships in your business life

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