Hi, my name is Lilly Ghahremani and I am a web strategist for TinyFrog and today I’ll be talking about what professional speakers need in a great website. I have worked on a number of websites for professional speakers and the considerations are interesting. And the main reason for that is that as a professional speaker that you are your brand. So the way that we approach the strategy for website is different and interesting. You’re looking to do three things on a professional speaker website.
The first is to demonstrate that you know things. You know something specific that the audience will be interested in. The second thing that you’re looking to do on your website is to show that you are good at talking about what you know. And the third thing you’re looking to do on your business website is to show that you are a fit for the event that they’re looking to find a speaker for. So your a fit for their event or for their need. So how do you balance everything you know with connecting it with what users may need. I call this what’s in it for me. So while it’s tempting to talk about everything you know and that you can share you really want to put focus in the results they can expect. So as a professional speaker the results that people are looking for a lot of times can be how do you make their audience feel. What do you do, are you entertaining, are you enlightening, are your talks information-packed.
So think about the what’s in it for me, for your audience and tailor the website strategy and the content to addressing that. How do you feature all of these capabilities on a site? There’s really only so much you can show on a website when what you deliver is in person. The way you can show it is through prior work. Show a list of places you’ve spoken. Show video of yourself speaking. Show endorsements, whether they’re written testimonials or video testimonials, you know it really helps to show not only that you’ve done things but how well it has been received.
It’s also wonderful if you have media coverage – make sure that – that they can see that you are a respected member of contributing to the media and being well received by the public. The biggest factor on your public speaking website is going to be your call to action, and your call to action again needs to be very specific to what it is you’re looking to have people do. For a lot of speakers it’s having them booked now. For others they have a suite of products, they may have books, they may have webinars, so if you want them to buy something make it very clear again what that call-to-action is.
And remember on your speaker website that people are typically engaging with the website at two different points. They’re either looking for a speaker so they’re in that shopping process but they’ve already hired you as a speaker they may be coming back for additional resources. In that case I often recommend that there be some sort of a speaker kit or a kit for event organizers where they can download your bio your photos and any other information they need to make your event their best yet.
So if you have questions about building a speaker site that will really impress – we’ve got the process down and we would love to talk with you. Contact us today!
