Whether you’re a beginner at speaking or your speaking career is already on a steady course, it’s crucial to market yourself properly.
Long gone are the days of business cards, word-to-mouth, flyers, TV commercials, and so many different marketing strategies. The times have changed and so have the means of communication (except the mic).
In this day and age, you can google just about anything on anyone, and that’s why you need a stellar speaker website – the one place that will tell your story and fill up your schedule!
Why Does A Public Speaker Need A Website?
The answer to this question is fairly straightforward: a speaker’s website is a speaker’s portfolio. When someone is looking for you or looking for a speaker for their event, they should quickly come across your website. A website should be one of the ways to establish yourself as a speaker, and also serve to provide information to event organizers or other people interested in engaging the speaker.
If you’re struggling to start working on your own website, take a look at the questions below. The answers to these questions will help organizers get to know you better and entice them to hire you for their events:
- Have you spoken at an event before?
- Where have you spoken before?
- What topic did you speak on and what topics can you speak on?
- Are there any recordings of the events I can watch?
- Do you have any photos of the past events?
- Can I schedule a meeting with you?
- How can I book you?
Are you getting the idea? While you think about the answers, we’ll share some guidelines for “must-haves” on your speaker website.
What To Include On Your Speaker Website
Whether you opt for a single- or a multiple-page website, there are some essentials you should not omit from your speaker website.
Your Bio
There’s no need to share the story of your life, but including things like your education, what got you into speaking, or what inspires you will make a nice starting point for those who do not know you personally or have never heard you speak.
Do not go into details and pick your words wisely. As with every other website, you only get a couple of seconds to make an impression.
Testimonials
As everyone already knows, testimonials and reviews are really important in the online world. A positive review or a good testimonial can sometimes speak more than a thousand words. However, we realize asking someone for a testimonial can be awkward.
We can assure you that a couple of minutes of that icky feeling will be replaced with a long-term feeling of satisfaction once someone gives you a high rating. Here’s a recent Forbes article on how to ask for reviews to help you get started.
Showcase Your Work
The showcase page or section of your website should display your previous work. Add as much material – video and/or photo – as you can. Make sure you mention the event, venue, topic, and other information about your speaking gigs. You can even mention how you felt during the event and why you think it was important for your career or your personal growth.
Make sure to include photos of the audience as well. Yes, the site is about you, but you want to share the emotions the audience experienced while listening to you.
Area Of Expertise
Don’t forget to mention what your areas of expertise are. Back up your claims by mentioning relevant education, work experience, or even life experiences that made you an expert on the subject.
Contact Page
Include several contact methods on the contact page, such as:
- Contact form
- Email address
- Phone number
- Physical address (if you have an office)
Providing different ways to contact you will enable the organizers to get in touch with you quickly and efficiently. The only thing you have to do is regularly check your email and phone.
Blog
Writing a blog shouldn’t have to be an issue: write down what you speak and make it available to just about anyone.
As far as the topic of your blog goes, you can write about topics that you speak about, or make it a bit more personal and write about the things that may concern you such as environment, education, or even traveling.
The goal of the blog is to gain an audience and people who follow you. The more people like you, the more engagements you’ll get.
Homepage
You might be wondering why the homepage is the last one on our list. Well, if you’ve been doing your research on how to build a speaker website for some time now, or if our article is the 10th you’re reading today, it’s likely that your attention is at a low point by now and you don’t remember the first point in our article.
That’s why we’re talking about the most important page/section of your future website here and now. The last thing will stick with you for a while.
A recent Google study shows that a website has less than a second to make a first impression on a visitor and to make them interact and come back.
In order to make that lasting impression, you’ll need to get all the pieces of the puzzle together, so we found some articles to help you out:
- Website color schemes
- Online image creator and photo editor
- Inspirational quotes that will inspire you to succeed
Since speaking has a personal side to it (unlike buying something material), and your personality, as well as your appearance, plays a part in the entire experience, we think it’s important to use your own photos and quotes that you feel really resonated with your audience.
Adding a personal touch will make the bond with your audience even stronger.
Final Thoughts
At the end of the day, you have two options: building your website from the ground up (with the help of a developer or by yourself) or using a WordPress theme specially developed for public and motivational speakers.
Themes Kingdom’s team has recently added a speaker website theme called Loqui to their portfolio. Take a look at the demo and let us know what’s your first impression of the theme!
