Weekly VA Marketing Tip: Develop Your Speaking Topics

May 4th, 2009 by Cristina Favreau

Click here for the audio version of this post.

Welcome to the first edition of Weekly VA Marketing Tip! This series is specifically designed to help virtual assistants avoid marketing insanity. Every Monday, my posts will prompt you to accomplish one specific marketing action to promote, brand or position your professional virtual business.

Implement these tips each week and I guarantee you’ll sustain your marketing momentum, increase credibility and visibility in your field, build stronger relationships, boost your ‘know, like and trust factor,’ get more ideal clients looking for you, and have a consistent marketing game plan for your virtual assistant business.

You might even start to like marketing!

This week’s installment sounds fairly easy (and it is), but don’t let its simplicity fool you. Simple does NOT mean ineffective. I’ll be building on this strategy in future installments. Don’t dismiss it or put it off just because you don’t see the point or because you’ve done it before. (Remember I told you that some week’s I’d go easy on you? Well, this is one of those times!)

Develop One to Three Speaking Topics.

If you don’t like talking in front of people, don’t let the speaking part scare you —not yet, anyways ;)

Public speaking is a marketing tactic that can singlehandedly catapult your business, give you instant expert status, and help you close the sale before you even leave the room…

But… I’ll save that schpeel for another time!

The point of this week’s marketing strategy is, not only to get you thinking about the possibility of speaking, but also to think in terms of leveraging and repurposing —that’s where I’m ultimately taking this (think: multiple streams, info products, spin-offs, etc…).

How do you come up with topics? Easy! What are the questions you get asked over and over again from clients, potential clients, or colleagues? Maybe you’ve already written about them.

If you’re still not sure what those questions are, just ask. Use social tools like Twitter, LinkedIn or surveys to find out what burning questions people in your industry are seeking answers to! Those are your topics.

And please, PLEASE,  P-L-E-A-S-E — If I see another How To Delegate To A Virtual Assistant topic… I’ll scream! Don’t do it… it’s been done to death.

It goes against this simple marketing rule: Marketing is all about the people you help, NOT about you! If your topic is about how to delegate work to you… your end product (speech, article, info product, etc.) will end up sounding like it’s all about… you!

When brainstorming speaking topics, think in terms of what’s unique about your services. Then come up with topics around the solutions you provide OR the problems and pains your prospects face. Make your topics about your ideal client.

If the How To Delegate To A Virtual Assistant topic legitimately is a question that comes up often (and not just something you feel your prospects are asking because everyone else has written about it), think of a topic in terms of WHY they are still asking the question… If your potential VA clients still want to know how to delegate to a virtual assistant, there’s an underlying question that has still not been answered. Let THAT be one your topics.

That’s it! (did I promise it would be easy?)

For an added step of accountability, list your topic(s) in the comment section! If you’re resisting this week’s marketing strategy, let me know about it either by leaving a comment or by contacting me directly.

Make this week a great one!


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Category Weekly VA Marketing Tip | 13 Comments »

  • http://twitter.com/TMarieHilton TMarieHilton

    Reading: “The Savvy Entrepreneur » Blog Archive » Weekly VA Marketing Tip: Develop Your Speaking Topics” (http://twitthis.com/o29qzy)

    This comment was originally posted on Twitter

  • http://twitter.com/rightclickos rightclickos

    Weekly VA Marketing Tip: Develop Your Speaking Topics – http://bit.ly/h7Avr (via @brainstormist) #vatip

    This comment was originally posted on Twitter

  • http://twitter.com/mainebusiness mainebusiness

    Develop speaking topics as part of your marketing strategy: http://ow.ly/52Fj

    This comment was originally posted on Twitter

  • sara_carbaugh

    This was hard for me because it's difficult for me to see myself as an “expert” in a field. This actually was a great exercise for me to think about my skills and how I could ultimately help educate my target market! I'm not sure if these are the best topics but I think these are a good start.

    - Social Media for small businesses
    - How to organize your e-mail and make it work for you
    - Using SWOT (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats) analysis to help build your business

    Thanks Cristina for a great first marketing tip!

  • http://twitter.com/brainstormist brainstormist

    Happy Friday! How did you do with this week’s VA Marketing Tip? http://ping.fm/k19Yu

    This comment was originally posted on Twitter

  • http://www.janetbarclay.com Janet Barclay

    Because I was a professional organizer before I became a VA, I have quite a few presentations prepared on various organizing topics which I'm still asked to present from time to time. Since this doesn't really demonstrate my expertise as a VA, the next topic I work on will be Blogging and/or Using WordPress as a Content Management System.

  • http://blog.cristinafavreau.com/ Cristina Favreau

    Way to go, Sara. The whole “expert” challenge you face is a common one. The thing is, how can you expect to be seen as an expert by others if you don't first see yourself as an expert. The key lies in claiming your specialty — what is it that you do that no other VA does better than you? You'll notice a huge shift in your attitude and will begin to see yourself more and more as the expert in your claimed field.

    I'd like to challenge you to take this marketing tip one step further. Replace “small businesses” and “business” with a particular audience. The best place to start is to think of a current or past client whom you've helped with one of the topics you mentioned.

    For example, let's say you have a real estate agent for whom you've done social media projects. Spin your first topic for real estate agents. So now your first topic would be “Social Media for Real Estate Agents.”

    The next step is to name the benefit… what will your speech help them achieve? For example, it could be “to get more listings” or “to close more sales” or “to gain local visibility.”

    Finally, you don't just want this to be a list of topics and do nothing with it, so you'll need to start developing this topic into a speech.

    Let us know how it goes!!

  • http://blog.cristinafavreau.com/ Cristina Favreau

    Janet, I love that you said your current speaking topics don't really demonstrate your expertise as a VA. That is the point, isn't it??

    As I suggested to Sara, I highly recommend you narrow your topic down to a particular audience.

    The good news is, once you've written a speech for one target audience, you need only make small changes to address another set of prospects.

    I know for myself, I would definitely be interested in your topic!!

  • http://twitter.com/rightclickos rightclickos

    RE: Thank you so much for your insight! My problem with narrowing the subjects down though is the fact that I am VERY new… http://disq.us/yu

    This comment was originally posted on Twitter

  • http://www.rightclickofficeservices.com sara_carbaugh

    Thank you so much for your insight! My problem with narrowing the subjects down though is the fact that I am VERY new and have not had any clients as of yet. I think I will need to discover who I like working with and who I don't before I can narrow down a niche.

    That is the main questions though, how does one FIND their niche?! I am unfortunately a Jill of all trades and a master of none in my opinion. I LOVE social networking and social media and, like Janet below, I love organization but I'm not sure how to market either of these topics to a specific type of audience.

    Hopefully in these weekly tips you can touch on finding your niche a little bit, that would help me SO much! : )

  • http://blog.cristinafavreau.com/2009/05/weekly-va-marketing-tip-turn-it-into-an-article/ The Savvy Entrepreneur » Blog Archive » Weekly VA Marketing Tip: Turn It Into An Article

    [...] week I’ll show you how by simply turning one of your speaking topics into a Top 5… or How To… article. If you haven’t already developed speaking [...]

  • http://blog.cristinafavreau.com/ Cristina Favreau

    Yes, defining a target market, niche and specialty are all questions that come up quite often, and I do have plans to address this topic in more detail.

    While I emphasize the importance of defining a target market, I don't advocate choosing one blindly. Most new VAs need to get a little experience under their belt before claiming a target.

    In fact, I'm a firm believer that, if you clearly define what makes you different, your target market will find you.

    My suggestion about drilling down on one audience was not for your VA business but for your speaking topic.

    So let's say you have a lot of real estate agents in your local networking group and tailor your topic for them, it'll be far more impactful (is that a word?) than a too broad topic.

    I hope this helps!

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