Mirror, Mirror on the Wall
Create Marketing Materials that Reflect your Brilliance

You've found your umbrella (what you stand for) and defined your audience. Now you need to articulate your positioning and the benefit of your speech to the person who signs the check as well as to each person in the audience. And this is where many speakers stumble.

Speakers really find it difficult to talk about themselves in glowing terms but that's exactly what you need to do. Put your words on paper in a way that really reflects your brilliance - for the moment, leave your humility in a sack on the doorstep.

"Use magnetic or highly compelling words" when creating your promotional material. People don't buy based on logic, they first need to be emotionally drawn in. Businesses depend on the impulse buy - that first "I want that" reaction. Speakers depend on this too but many don't realize it. Buyers' usually first are attracted to something. Then they justify their purchase logically.

But first you want your buyer to be drawn to your material, in a buying position, leaning toward you and then justifying the final decision from a perspective of logic. At this point, it's yours to lose...or win. The advantage is in your court.

You draw the prospective buyer in by creating the right emotional aspect, by using words such as 'essential conversations' rather than 'communication techniques' or 'effective communication skills'.

Begin to read your local newspaper with an eye toward the headlines - which ones draw you in, which ones leave you cold? Browse through a bookstore, which titles are you drawn to, which ones do not merit a second glance?

Do an Amazon search of book titles. They can be very compelling. David Foote, a Toronto based academic wrote a book on demographics. He called it 'The Foote Report'. He wisely got a co-author who named it 'Boom, Bust and Echo: How to Profit from the Coming Demographic Shift'. And it became a bestseller.

I met a woman who owned an investment company who said she was writing a book. I blurted out: "Don't make it boring. Why not call it 'Money Magnet'?" Two years later, a major publisher published her book to great reviews. The great reviews were due to the content - the initial interest was thanks to the title.

Titles such as 'The Upside of Down' are nothing short of brilliant and you immediately want to know more. That is your speech title's job - not to say exactly what the speech is about but to make the reader want to know more.

Brainstorm with a group of friends and toss all your bright ideas up in the air. After an hour or so, you'll have created a great short list to work with. Then let the final titles sit for a day or so and go back to them. The right one should jump right out at you.

Your subtitle will nail down exactly what your speech is about and this should provide some kind of promise. The stronger the promise (provided you can deliver on it!), the better your chances of being hired.

Good luck!

Cathleen Fillmore, owner of Speakers Gold bureau, consults with speakers who want to find the money in the marketplace and maximize the returns on their talents. Cathleen is a member of MPI, a certified consultant with the American Consultant's League and a consultant to some of North America's top speakers.

To contact her, visit www.speakersgold.com or call 416-532-9886.