Speaker Website Checklist: Branding

Transcription

1 Speaker Website Checklist: Branding You can create a single page on your existing website OR a whole website dedicated to your speaking. The first part of this checklist is for adding simply one page to your existing authority site or blog. See page 3 for checklist of tabs/pages for your site. Branding All elements are branded to the look, feel and experience that defines YOU! Your name in full Add those letters after your name! If you got em flaunt em! Your logo Keep it fresh and in line with what message you want to communicate. Your professional head shot And it better look like you TODAY, not 10 years ago. Your Fun photo Let your personality shine on your website! Welcome video Your website is your online home, so welcome visitors to it and tell them what to look for and expect. Simply fire up whatever video camera you have and talk from the heart. Links to social media pages /profiles They will be looking anyway, make it easier. Colors that are YOU! But wait there s more!

2 Speaker Website Checklist: Credibility Credibility Include elements that make you look like the pro you are! Your bio How cool are you? What makes you different? List the awesome things you have done that are impressive to potential clients and meeting planners. Past client logos If you have spoken at recognizable events and for big-name clients, let your experience shine! Past client list The longer you speak, the more you ll be able to add to your list. With every gig, keep adding to the list. Even if you re just starting keep a running list in a document on your computer until you have about 10 on your list to put online. Do not wait until you ve been at it for a year. You ll never remember them all! Membership logos If you re a member of a group that means something to event planners, include it. Book cover image(s) It can be a pro- or self-published physical book. Kindle book, or upcoming book, but if you re a speaker, you d better have one. Links to All Your Books Amazon and Sites Describe any and all books you wrote ideally you have at least one completely by you alone. Include any compilations you are part of and books you contributed to, wrote forewords to, etc. Photos and videos of you in action There s nothing like showing you ve been there and done that. These can be simple without a lot of frills. Media Showcase Have you been featured in the media? YAY YOU! Make sure meeting planners know it. Use magazine covers, post video of TV interviews or embed your YouTube playlist of all of your media footage, Links to podcasts and shows you ve been interviewed on If there are graphics or logos to go with it them, include some of the most notable for people in your industry But wait there s more!

3 Speaker Website Checklist: Sales Sales Let s make you some money! Sexy Title of Your Speech This needs to attract meeting planers and audiences alike! Description of your speech Use bullets and benefit language. Testimonial(s) for your speaking It goes a long way when someone else says something amazing about you! Include as many as you have. Overwhelming evidence is better than underwhelming lack. Sizzle Video A fancy, professionally-produced, high quality video of you with music, voice over, and footage of you on stage Your contact information Phone number, BUSINESS address (that means NOT Hotmail, or yahoo, or AOL, or even gmail), and snail mail address. Use your office, your home, or get a PO box or UPS box, but have an address. Call to action What do you want someone to do after they visit your site? Be clear and have a call to action on every page. But wait there s more!

4 Speaker Website Pages Checklist: Pages These are the pages or tabs for your speaker website *Home page *About page *Contact page Blog As someone who presents content (that s what your speech is!), you need to have a place online that does that in bite-sized form. You don t need multiple blogs, so if you have multiple websites, point them all to the same blog. Or if the look and feel of your sites doesn t match branding-wise, then have your webmaster do what Denise Wakeman, blogging expert says: I'd recommend a list of the most relevant evergreen posts with links to the original article. Good for Google, good for inbound links to the authority site and good for traffic. Testimonials Put in sidebar, rotating widget, on all pages, plus have a page of it s own For Meeting Planners/ Speaking Make it easy for a meeting planner to find everything they need all in one place. Don t make them hunt for what they need. Media Tab This is as much for credibility than it is for your media items more below FAQ If you get a lot of questions about what you do or speak about, this page is an obvious one! Awards Are there notable awards given to those in your industry that you ve won? You don t need a page if you only ever won one thing one time, but if you re like the Meryl Streep of your industry, go for it. Store Sell some stuff! Your books, physical and digital products, mp3, swag, whatever! * Home, about and contact tabs/pages are standard and a must on any website, for speakers included. From there the sky is the limit. Your branding and your market will determine the other pages/tabs. Listed here are common and most visited pages on other speaker websites.

5 Speaker Website Pages Checklist: Meeting Planners Page Meeting Planners Page Content Sexy Title of Your Speech This needs to attract meeting planers and audiences alike! Description of your speech Use bullets and benefit language. Testimonial(s) for your speaking It goes a long way when someone else says something amazing about you! Include as many as you have. Overwhelming evidence is better than underwhelming lack. Videos of you speaking Put them all on this page. Travel Details If you re building a speaker website, chances are good you will be speaking nationally and even internationally. List the major city you live near and what airport(s) you travel from. Speaker One Sheet This should be a downloadable and printable PDF so a meeting planner can bring it to committee meetings and other decision makers to promote you. Include as many elements listed as possible based on your background and assets you have available for maximum impact and best results.

6 Speaker Website Pages Checklist: Media Page Media Page Content Press releases News about you and your company is useful for visitors and meeting planners Video of TV appearances Often you can ask the producer of your show in advance if your interview will be on their website for you to share. Putting video of expert segments on their websites is very common now with local news stations. If not, there are national services that do this for a couple hundred dollars per recording. Tell them the station, date, and time of your interview and you will receive an mp4 via after your segment airs. Audio from media appearances Have you been interviewed on the radio or a podcast? Share those recordings on your media page. Links to media appearances In some cases you may not be able to get the video or audio for your site, but you can link to it. Be sure those links are set to open in another tab or browser so you don t inadvertently send your traffic away for good! Testimonials from producers or other media personalities When you do a media appearance, immediately after you ll receive verbal feedback Great job! or written via . Ask to record people in person using your phone or ask to share their words from a thankful . Questions for podcasters and interviewers about your books and area of expertise The best podcasters will look through your materials and come up with their own questions based on what their listeners will be interested in. But many need some prompting and help, so give it to them with a list of questions for each book you ve written or each topic you speak about. Your contact details you want the media to have so reporters are able to reach you when they are on deadline High resolution images that can be used in print Photos of you at various media appearances Get some photos of you on set or in studio doing your thing, and also with the media personalities who interview you.

7 Speaker Website Pages Checklist: Web Designer As you decide to hire a website designer here are the elements to look for before you sign on the dotted line. Hiring a Website Designer You like their design portfolio Your site doesn t have to end up looking like anything else they ve created but most designers have a style. If you don t like their past work, chances are you won t like what they do for you, either. They are recommended Either by someone you know and trust OR have plenty of recommendations and testimonials to share Contact several past customers to ask about the experience of working with that designer Do not skip this step! Just because a designer did a site doesn t mean the customer is happy with it or the work process They have excellent communication AND in your preferred language That means they get back to you in a timely manner during the proposal process, you can understand them, and they can understand you. Their fee is in your budget You can find website designers for every budget, including some who will simply customize a WordPress template to those who will hard code something incredibly fancy and everywhere in between. Often you can negotiate, but just as you don t want people to ask you to speak for free, don t think you re going to get a decent website for free either. They are a professional Yes, I know your neighbor s kid is artsy and studying graphic design at college and would love to work on your website for free. Politely walk away. Find someone who does this for a living. They are willing to work in your timeframe Most often, web projects are held up by YOU the client not providing what the designer needs. These checklists will help you get all that together so you can have it ready when you hire someone. However, ask for a firm turnaround time and get it IN WRITING in a CONTRACT before any work is done. They have their own contract or are willing to sign your contract or a letter of agreement This is a professional exchange and an important part of your business. Treat it as such.