The world right now looks nothing like it did this time last year. And it doesn’t seem like it’s going to go back to “normal” anytime soon.
This gives you three options…
Pretend like nothing’s changed and keep doing what you’ve always done with your marketing.
Do nothing proactive in your marketing in order to “save money”. Hide in your house. Hope you still have a job/business when things start to normalize.
Survey the new landscape. Find ways to take advantage of the craziness right now with new or previously unavailable opportunities.
Option #1 is “ok”. As long as you haven’t relied on in-person events or significant foot traffic you’ll most likely be able to maintain decent revenue for the time being. You’ll have a down year but you’ll survive.
Option #2 could be a death sentence. Zero positives can come out of doing nothing right now. This is worse than giving up immediately because you are ceasing all activities that generated revenue for you in the past.
This brings us to option #3. The option that the leaders of tomorrow will take. Those who understand that RIGHT NOW is the perfect time to grow.
Regardless of what you thought of the final season (don’t get me started), this quote from Littlefinger on Season 1 of Game of Thrones is not only part of one of the best scenes in the series, it also sums up how all entrepreneurs need to be thinking in 2020…
Opportunity is everywhere right now. But you have to be creative. You have to think in a different box than you’ve thought before.
Take the events industry. For 100+ years events were the main driver of business for many successful businesses and in an instant… it vanished.
If you were one of those businesses who have relied on in-person events you could give up... or you can climb the ladder of opportunity that’s been created.
What’s the opportunity? Find companies who relied on hosting conferences and events and lend your expertise to be a part of their virtual events.Fact: Virtual Events Are BOOMING
Even if you haven’t had events in your marketing mix at this point, the opportunity to start right now is better than ever as events are scrambling to transition to online-only events.
I’ve hosted webinars and been on virtual summits for years. The attendance numbers on our own online webinars have never been higher. And I’ve talked to dozens of other professionals in the space who are experiencing the same level of engagement.
Plus the hard costs associated with being a guest on an online-only event is only your time compared with the travel expenses and time that is needed to speak at an in-person event.
So How Do You Actually Land Online Speaking Opportunities?
This process is not all that different than you would use last year to get in-person speaking gigs…
...but there is some nuance to it.
To help give you a starting point I want to share the framework that we’ve used in the past to get in-person both in-person and virtual speaking gigs.
Simple Three Email Outreach Campaign
Perfect For: Experts, authors, & speakers, entrepreneurs, and those trying to expand their reach and get speaking gigs.
Outcome: Land guest speaking opportunities at online conferences, virtual events & summits, and/or webinars.
Positioning: Build rapport first and lead with what made you interested in their specific event or group. Be clear and direct about how you can help them provide a better experience for their members AND make their lives easier.
That’s the big picture. But let’s dive into each email in a bit more detail.
Email #1 - The “Kudos” Message
In this email you’ll want to reference your familiarity with their event, business, or operation and that you help a similar audience.
Why? Because they are going to want to know that you actually know what they do. That you are familiar with the wants and needs of their audience.
Then, when you make your ask, focus all of your phrasings around there, and their attendees, benefit.
Conclude the email with a clear prompt for them to respond. Something like, “Are there any topics that you would like to add to your upcoming event?”
Flatter.
Relate.
Ask.
Email #2 - The “Topic Drop” Message
Now, don’t be surprised if only a small percentage of people respond to the first message. They are likely busy. There’s no telling what kind of hectic day they were having when it hit their inbox.
And to be fair you did ask them to think about a topic they were missing.
So in email #2 is a brief email about what you’d like to speak to their audience about. Short and to the point. Only tell them the main topic. They should be able to read and respond to this email in 20 seconds max.
Email #3 - The “Pivot” Message
If you’ve not gotten a response at this point there are typically 3 reasons why…
Their event is full or they are not interested
They haven’t gotten around to reading your email yet
They are not the RIGHT person to communicate with about this. So they forward to the right person or, more likely, just ignore it because it’s not their responsibility.
Regardless of the reason. You need to get them to let you know who you should be communicating with.
So you ask them that question directly to give them a chance to refer you to someone else in their organization to discuss this further.
What you are doing here is changing up your messaging to ask a question they 100% know they answer to.
If they are NOT the right person… they can tell you who is.
If they ARE the right person… they can tell you that they are.
Either way, you are moving the conversation forward.
Using Automation To Send Personal Outreach Emails Efficiently
With any sort of outreach, this is a numbers game. The more businesses that you reach out to about their events the more likely you are to land a spot in their lineup.
Unless you have unlimited time, you’re going to want to find a way to automate most of this work.
Connect 365 is perfect for that because it allows you to send personal outreach emails in bulk using automated campaigns. And by personal I mean they look and feel exactly like you manually typed out each one.
You can schedule multiple email sequences like the one I outlined above. All you have to do is set the criteria for how long you’d like to wait in between each email, plug in your email copy, and tag your contacts into the campaign.
Then whenever someone replies or clicks a link, they are simply pulled out of the campaign so you can take over the conversation manually.
All you have to do is set everything up one time and it’s good to use forever. All you have to do is add contacts in as you come across them.
This not only saves you time but makes sure that none of the essential follow-up tasks slip through the cracks.
Lastly, you’ll also get access to dozens of templates pre-loaded into your account once you sign up. Including templates for the 3 email sequence that this post is all about.
Right now you can only join by invitation to create a test-drive account for 14-days.
If you’re interested you can request an invite here using this link.
That’s all for now.
See ya next week.
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