How unfair is it that you have the ability to sky rocket your business success by public speaking, and yet 75% of the population are afraid to do just that. If you’re one of the few that have overcome your speaking reluctance to grow your business as I have, here are a few things you can do to make your success on stage even brighter.
Why Is the Title so Important?
Before you even make it on to the stage, as a public speaker, you have to sell what you’re speaking about. The best way to do that? It’s to have the right speech title, of course. For one thing it allows conference organizers to decide on whether the topic is relevant enough to include in their event. Next, it determines who your audience will be. It informs of your own niche and specialty and can go even as far as showing your brand voice. Your title can make or break your conference ROI, meaning pay off for the money you’ve spent travelling to and registering for the conference or even you’ll be speaking at. So here are some golden title tips to pack rooms…
Unexpected and Controversial
When you take a stand and a risk of offending a group of people, sadly controversy sells. Just listen to any news channel. Here are some titles I’ve used or written for clients to use: Fire Your Sales Staff…put your SEO to work. Attract, not Attack, a Gentle Way to Get Clients, Corporate Confidential: What HR doesn’t want you to know, Stop the Facebook Ads Insanity, How to Sell Organically Without Spending a Dime. These are all guaranteed to wake people up and take notice. And getting attention fills conference breakout rooms.
Make It Rhyme
For unknown reasons, rhyming works to stay memorable in ads, jingles, popular songs, you name it. Why should it be any different for speech titles? In fact, you can use https://www.rhymezone.com to help you find words for your speech title. Here are some examples: Wow That Crowd, Breakout of Burnout, Communicate or Dictate.
Be a Reverse-Copy-Cat
Google and flip your competitor’s speech titles to make sure that you are breaking the expected mold. Here are some examples: 90-min Marketing Plans That Get Results becomes The Un-Marketing Plan, a Different Way to Stand Out. Stop Self-Sabotaging Your Success becomes Sabotage The Competition Using AI.
Change a Cliche
A cliche is a common saying that gets repeated in popular culture over and over again. There are a multitude of lists of these and even have genre niches like those used in movies or songs etc. By using a word-play on the cliche’s your speech titles sound clever and timely. Here are a few I wrote: Burn the Candle at Both Ends (a speech about time management). Leave No Client Behind (a speech about business development). Between a Wallet and A Soft Place (a speech about fundraising).
Quote Their Pain
Perhaps the easiest and the most effective way to capture an audience’s attention is to take their pain-sound-bytes around your specialty topic and to quote them. Examples are: Exhausted and Overwhelmed About Your Marketing? Are You Losing Money Because You Can’t Control Your P&L?
Once you have a keynote with a sizzling title, you’ll see event organizers and breakout attendees running to your sessions and filling rooms with your prospects.
Want to reposition your messaging to grow your leads? Follow me on Twitter, friend me on Facebook, watch my Podcast on YouTube or connect with me on LinkedIn –and let’s talk.
