There are few better ways to make meaningful connections with potential clients than a speaking engagement or teaching a class at an event. In these settings, you gain access to a captive audience for a significant amount of time, and plenty of opportunities exist for organic one-on-one interactions where you can drive home your sales pitch.
But which is better — putting on your own event where there’s nothing to distract attendees from you and your company, or participating in an existing event at which you may be one of many?
Your Own Event: An Alluring Prospect
For many, the idea of their business creating an event is an exciting one. You’re in total control, there are no competitors, and everyone in attendance chose to be there for you. It’s a powerful form of branding and a dynamite sales tool.
But, there are downsides. First, it’s a lot of work to organize an event — even a relatively small one. And if you outsource that work, it can quickly become prohibitively expensive.
That kind of investment likely means you want to experience a significant return, but there are no guarantees. In fact, the first time you engage in any kind of marketing tactic will probably yield the worst ROI. It will cost more because you’re just figuring things out, and your turnout and conversion rates won’t match your hopes because you’re building everything from scratch, including interest from potential attendees.
Guest Speaking Gigs: the Art of Piggybacking
Participating in someone else’s event comes with its own drawbacks. As you’d expect, these are basically the flip side of the positives from putting on your own branded event. You won’t have as much control over how things go, others will be vying for attendees’ attention (possibly including competitors), and lots of people probably didn’t come to see you at all. Yikes!
However, this type of event also means that you have a higher likelihood of bringing your message to an audience who otherwise might not see it. Plus, if this is an event with some history of success, you’re almost guaranteed to be getting in front of more people. And, of course, there’s just way, way, way less work (and risk!) involved in being part of someone else’s event. So even if it doesn’t go amazing, there’s far less for you to lose.
Which Option Is Best for You?
Generally speaking, our advice is to start off by piggybacking. Lower reward, but also lower risk, and it can help you to grow your brand awareness and following to the point where maybe putting on your own event will make sense in the future.
As with everything, however, it depends on you and your business. Not sure which one is right for you? Curious how you even go about finding possible speaking opportunities? We’ve helped numerous growing businesses answer these questions, so don’t hesitate to reach out.
