If you asked a meeting planner what’s the number one thing they need to hire a speaker, do you know what they would say? If there’s only one thing they could look at, what would it be?
It’s not your speaker one-sheet, it’s not your speaker bio, it’s not your speaking topic, it’s not your good looks (that would be awesome though), and it’s not even your website. The single most important thing for you to get paid speaking gigs are your videos.
But most speakers do video marketing wrong. And most speakers don’t really have a video marketing strategy.
You’re about to read a full blown strategy for using videos to get booked as a speaker.
There are essentially two ways to get paid speaking gigs…
1. Contact meeting planners
2. Get meeting planners to contact you
It’s much better to have meeting planners come to you when they want to hire a speaker versus you having to go to them. And that’s what your video strategy can do.
If a meeting planner is looking for a speaker on the internet and they see your videos, they think, “Wow, this speaker is really good looking, lets hire him.” Ok…maybe they don’t think that. But they’re thinking, “Wow, this speaker is amazing. The audience loves him.”
And that will lead to you getting booked to speak.
So here’s your guide to using videos as a professional speaker…
1. What’s your end game?
Your first step is to know what your end game is. If you want to get paid speaking gigs then your video marketing will be different than if you want to be a seminar speaker and sell products.
If you want to get paid corporate gigs, you need video footage of you in front of corporate crowds. And you need video testimonials showing the reactions of the audience.
Corporate meeting planners don’t care about your book, they don’t care about how much you can sell from the stage (in fact, that’s a great way for you to piss them off), and they definitely don’t care that you’re Gods gift to earth. The only thing a meeting planner cares about is the affect you have on an audience.
And the only way for them to determine that, is to watch your videos.
2. Different types of footage
Now I’m going to go over the different types of footage you should get and what to do with it. If you do this right, meeting planners will naturally see your videos and be overwhelmed by the reactions you get from crowds…and this will lead them to hiring you as the speaker for their event.
These are the main types of footage you want to get:
-Unedited speaker talks
A) Video Testimonials
You should become a marketing beast when it comes to video testimonials. You should always be on the lookout for moments you can grab a testimonial and moments when you can create the opportunity.
Most speakers don’t get the importance of video testimonials because they don’t see the big picture. They think, “Written testimonials work for me.” But video testimonials have the advantage of having SEO built into it, it demonstrates the emotions people feel, and it allows you to increase your visibility to other video footage (which is what meeting planners want).
Here’s an example of two different types of reviews that are good…
The purpose of all your testimonials is to overwhelm the meeting planner with the reactions you get from an audience.
You want the meeting planner to think, “Holy shiznit…everyone is raving about this speaker.”
If you do it right, the meeting planner won’t be able to watch all your videos because there will just be too many and it will take too much time. And because of that, it will make them realize that you MUST be good…if so many people are talking about you.
Now there are different ‘types’ of testimonials you can get…but the basics is that you want testimonials to keep appearing like two rabbits got together and had some babies.
Ok…now I’m about to go over the demo and unedited clips fast because I want to get straight to the video marketing strategy you need to use when you have all these clips…
B) Speaker Demo Video
Your speaker demo video should be created by a professional. If you create one and you’re not good with video editing software then you will be doing more harm than good because the meeting planner will think, “This doesn’t even look professional. I can’t imagine what his actual presentation looks like.”
A bad speaker demo video will make you look like a scrub so make sure you get a pro.
But if you want details on how to structure your demo, read the blog post here
Once you have a great speaker demo, read the information below on what to do with it…
C) Unedited Speaking Clips
The reason you want a couple of unedited speaking clips is because it helps the meeting planner get a sense of what your presentation is really like.
You’ve probably seen a movie trailer that looked amazing. Then you went to the movie, and it sucked. The same goes for speaking.
What meeting planners realize is that, just like a movie trailer, you can make any speaker look amazing with quick cuts. But if they watch the entire thing, they get a real feel for whether or not you’re a great presenter.
Here’s an example of a 5 minute ‘unedited’ video so the meeting planner can get a feel for what I do…
Now…lets get to your video strategy (yea buddy)…
2. Video Keyword Strategy
A) Uploads
Ok…what I’m about to tell you is stuff that I don’t tell other speakers. These little tidbits are the small details that makes it all work.
Most speakers know they should have video. And most speakers upload the video to YouTube. But let me ask you this…how do you upload your videos?
Lets take a video testimonial for example.
You edit the video testimonial and it’s on your computer. The file name says something like “Testimonial3” ….WRONG!!!
The file name of your video has an effect on the ‘seo’ of that video.
If you want to show up when someone types in “Motivational Speaker” then somewhere in the file name, you need to have ‘motivational speaker.’ YouTube looks at EVERYTHING when it comes to video seo. Here’s a picture of a few video testimonials I have with their raw file names:
See how the file name says “Motivational Speaker” in all the videos? That’s what you want. You want to include the keyword that you want to dominate, in the file name.
B) Title
Now you want to make sure that you have your keyword in the title of the video.
Word on the street is that the first few words of the title are the best. But you don’t want to come across as ‘spammy’ so you need to mix it up. The hardest part is to make your title with your keyword, and at the same time, it has to be something that will make people want to click on the video.
Notice in the picture that I have the word “Motivational Speaker” in the title
Always remember…
No matter how smart you are when it comes to SEO, Google will kick your butt and beat you like you stole something if you try to trick them. So just keep in mind that you’re optimizing for ‘people’ and not to ‘trick Google.’
Mix up the way you title your videos, but make sure you keep including your keyword.
C) Description
Now that you’ve put the speaker keyword you want to dominate in the title, now you have to put it in the description.
Once again, word on the street is that the first few words of your description matter the most important.
You want to make your description so when someone clicks the ‘show more’…they’re excited to see more videos of you as a speaker. You want them to click on your speaker website and check you out…and the way to do this is to shamelessly promote yourself at every chance you get.
And btw…make sure you have a link to your website somewhere near the top.
Notice in the picture below, I’ve circled the first few words. And those first few words include the keyword I want.
https://speakinglifestyle.com/best-dating-websites-uk/
You’ll also notice that the words ‘blew them away’ are hype words. You want to convey emotion when you type up your descriptions. Do your best to convey how people felt when they saw you speak.
And you can also include words from the video themselves. A lot of the testimonials I upload usually have a description that relates to the video itself. So if they say, “Benji just blew them away.” Then that’s something I will include in the description.
D) Tags
ALWAYS ALWAYS ALWAYS tag your name. And…when you upload video testimonials, include the tag that says something like ‘Benji Bruce Review’… “[insert your name] Review”
The reason for this is because as a professional speaker, people will type in your name and then ‘review’ afterwards. Or maybe they will type in something like “Review of Benji Bruce.” So when they do this, reviews will pop up of people who have a secret speaker crush on you.
Also, your videos are much more likely to show up on the ride side of the column in the ‘suggested videos’ because when you have the tag ‘insert your name Review’…it will notice other videos with the same tags and put those in the videos to the right.
Make sure you include relevant tags in your video…like ‘motivational speaker’ etc.
And you also need to understand that each tag is it’s own thing. So you can put tags like ‘motivational speaker’ ‘Florida motivational speaker” “hire a motivational speaker” etc etc.
Just think in terms of, “What would someone search for if they were looking to hire a speaker like me?”
Once again, don’t try to trick Google because they will crush you like a cockroach.
Whatever you do, don’t skip the title, description, tags part. Most speakers just run through it like it’s nothing. They just want to get their video up and have YouTube fame…that’s not how it works.
It’s like saying you want to get booked as a speaker but you have a horrible presentation. You just won’t make it far in the speaking industry.
3. Watch Time
This is one of the biggest factors that YouTube uses to determine which videos to show when someone does a search.
If someone clicks on your speaker video and they watch 2 seconds, then click away, it’s like someone just pimp slapped you. And if YouTube notices that lots of people don’t watch most of your video then it will stop showing it.
YouTube put more emphasis on this because of Fiverr. Lots of people tried to pay $5 to get ‘views’ on their video to boost their seo but once again, Google is smart. They realized that you can’t fake ‘watch time’ because the video has to actually be playing.
This is why it’s important to be relevant with your title, description, etc. You don’t want to do a bait and switch by saying that your video is about a naked celebrity and then it shows you speaking at an event. People put that baby powder on their hand, pimp slap you, and will click away.
Since you know that ‘watch time’ is important, don’t make your videos too long.
More people are willing to watch a 2 minute video versus a 30 minute video. But people will watch that 30 minute video if it’s something very specific and very interesting.
When it comes to meeting planners who are looking to hire a speaker…they want the quick clips to determine if you’re good or not. They’re not going to sit down and watch 10 speakers who have 30 minute videos. Maybe…when they get down to one or two, they will watch the longer video…but to attract the meeting planner to book you in the first place, you have to make your videos shorter.
4. Your YouTube Channel
A) Channel Look
Does your channel look sexy? I know you’re good looking and all…but does your channel show how much of a sexy devil you are?
If you haven’t, you want to make sure your channel has your main speaker demo video as the first thing they see on the page. Then, you can set up your page to have other videos below it with specific tags (like putting ‘publicity’ as a tag and then having only those videos show up on your channel).
Take a look at the image below of my channel and you’ll notice that it has the same look and feel as my motivational speaker website
Look…
This might be overwhelming but if you want to book paid speaking gigs then you need to step your game up.
Most speaker don’t get booked because they don’t take their business seriously. They sit around in the house all day (or at a job) and play around on Facebook, email, etc rather than doing little things that will get them booked.
Of course this won’t happen overnight. It will take time. And that’s why you need to start all this right now because in a year from now, you can take over.
B) Channel Description
Do you have the description filled out in your YouTube channel?
Once again, include the keyword in your description of your YouTube channel. Notice the description of my channel in the picture…it has the keyword and it points them to my speaker website. In the end, I want meeting planners to go to my website so they can book me for their event…
Now I also want you to notice that the description gives a simple benefit of hiring me. It lets them know that my presentations are really engaging because I incorporate mind reading into it.
And guess what?
They can see the response I get when they check out the videos on my channel. So everything goes together seamlessly.
You will also notice that the header of my channel has a quote from a company I was hired by. The reason I do this is because I want to include as much social proof as possible…whenever possible.
5. Sharing Is Caring
There are lots of other things you need when it comes to video marketing but sharing is also something you should think about.
YouTube pays attention to whether or not your videos have interaction. Do people share it? Do people comment on it? Like it?
The more interaction you get, the better.
And that’s why you want to share your videos on your social networks and if you have a mom…tell her to share it to. I’m not joking.
6. Keep Uploading
Ok I saved this for last.
You might be wondering…what if I don’t have that many videos to upload?
Well… you can make it look like you have tons of videos if you edit it the right way.
Video testimonials can be edited to look like several different videos. You can take one testimonial and make one video out of it. Then you can combine two testimonials into one video. Then you can combine 3. Then you can combine the first one with the third one…and so on.
Take a look at the video below…it’s 2:09 …I could easily take all those video testimonials and split them up into multiple videos that stand alone. Each would have a different title (with the motivational speaker keyword) and that means I’m more likely to be seen by meeting planners.
Whether or not you need to do this will depend on how many videos you have. If you have a hundred videos, you don’t really need to do this. But if you only have 5 videos, you probably should.
YouTube also looks at how often you upload videos. So if they see that your channel is active and you’re constantly uploading new videos then you’re more likely to get noticed.
If you want to get hired a professional speaker and you want to fill up your calendar, you need a video strategy. Videos are the number one way you’re going to get booked to speak and this is just a taste of what you can do with videos.
That’s it for now…Make sure you share this post with other speakers who need help getting paid speaking gigs.