It doesn’t matter if you’re a student or entrepreneur – building a strong personal brand online will help you achieve your goals. To help you every step of the way – from planning to posts …
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What does it take to be a successful marketer?
Turns out we don’t have to guess because someone’s already done the research. Fractl used IBM’s Watson Personality Insights API from 2019 to pick out the key traits and characteristics of 20 of the world’s most prominent marketing leaders (I even made the list!).
According to the study, the No. 1 trait shared by marketing leaders is adventurousness, followed by high energy levels, assertiveness, and intelligence.
One interesting thing about this is that you’d also find a lot of those traits in people with exceptional presentation skills.
To put yourself out there and present to a room full of people, you need to be at least a little adventurous. If you’re not a high-energy person, you’ll find it hard to keep people engaged. If you’re not assertive, you’ll struggle to communicate your points effectively. The list goes on.
That’s not a coincidence. To make it as a marketer, excellent presentation skills are pretty much nonnegotiable.
In a way, marketing is one big presentation. When we write a blog post or appear on a podcast, we’re presenting. When we research our audience, we’re trying to understand better what they want to see and learn from our presentations.
In other words, strong presentation skills underlie pretty much every aspect of marketing. If you can deliver an incredible presentation, you can:
What makes people trust brands? According to a global survey from PR and marketing consultancy Edelman, it boils down to three key factors:
However, an even more crucial point underpins all of this. Without strong presentation skills, potential customers aren’t going to know about any of those things!
If you don’t tout the quality of your product, or highlight your superb reviews and testimonials, or demonstrate your commitment to making the world a better place, how will anyone know whether they can trust you?
Ever wondered why personal social media accounts get better engagement than brand accounts? Because it’s easier to sell a person than a brand.
That’s why speaking at conferences, networking meetups, and other events can be such a useful tool for building brand awareness. It puts a human face on your brand, which instantly makes you more recognizable, relatable, and memorable. That’s why for many of us, when we hear the words Apple, Microsoft, or Tesla, we immediately think of Steve Jobs, Bill Gates, or Elon Musk.
Your presentation skills can be one of the biggest weapons in your armory when it comes to selling your product.
According to a study from Chief Marketer, live events are the second-biggest source of B2B leads, and also generate the second-highest ROI of any sales channel.
Granted, not all those respondents would have been guest speakers at those events, but to generate leads, they would have absolutely been speaking to prospects at their display stands, during networking sessions, and even while queuing to buy a hot dog or coffee. Their one-on-one presentation skills were crucial to breaking the ice with those leads.
By this point, you hopefully agree with me that presentation skills are essential for modern marketers. Now, let’s take a look at how to hone those skills to meet your marketing objectives.
If I told you to write me a blog right now, you’d likely find it pretty tough. After all, I’ve not given you any information. You don’t have a theme, or a title, or even an audience. In short, there’s no way of knowing what I’m looking for, so you can’t gauge what success looks like.
Alternatively, if I told you to write a blog about this year’s biggest trends in SEO, aimed at marketing leaders for SaaS startups, you’d have a much clearer idea of how to proceed.
The same thing is true for developing your presentation skills. Start by defining exactly what you want to achieve, such as:
Also, give yourself a deadline. Rather than generally building up your presentation skills, commit to improving your public speaking in time for a specific conference or networking event. Sign up as a speaker early; that way, you’re completely accountable for following through with your plans.
As well as simply “doing more of it,” there’s another extremely effective way to help you feel more confident about speaking in front of an audience: Do your research.
When you think about it, imposter syndrome is another big reason people shy away from public speaking. We worry we’ll be exposed as frauds and charlatans who don’t know what we’re talking about.
Thoroughly researching your audience will help guard against that feeling. When you know exactly who you’re talking to, it becomes much simpler to build an effective presentation.
If I’m speaking to a room of NASA engineers, I’m not going to tell them how to build a better rocket. I can’t tell them anything they don’t already know (and most of what I say would likely be wildly inaccurate).
However, I almost certainly know more about marketing than them. Maybe I’d tell them how, by sharing snippets of their work through their personal social profiles, they can build awareness and interest in what they do, which in turn, might persuade politicians that increased federal funding for NASA would be a real vote-winner. With that increased funding, they can go away and build better rockets.
With that in mind, before you start working on your next presentation, ask yourself the following questions about your audience:
The idea here is to identify the “thing” you know that’s of most value to your audience. The more you can niche down, the better. If you can’t answer some of those questions, speak to the event organizers; they should be able to help.
Throughout human history, storytelling has been one of our most effective tools for influencing, inspiring, and teaching one another.
Paul Smith, author of “Lead With a Story: A Guide to Crafting Business Narratives That Captivate, Convince, and Inspire,” put it better than me when he wrote:
In any group, roughly 40 percent will be predominantly visual learners who learn best from videos, diagrams, or illustrations. Another 40 percent will be auditory, learning best through lectures and discussions. The remaining 20 percent are kinesthetic learners, who learn best by doing, experiencing, or feeling.
Storytelling has aspects that work for all three types. Visual learners appreciate the mental pictures storytelling evokes. Auditory learners focus on the words and the storyteller’s voice. Kinesthetic learners remember the emotional connections and feelings from the story.
With that in mind, another key way to improve your presentation skills is to work on your storytelling. Don’t just tell your audience how a certain tactic can get them more sales; give them specific, real-world examples that help them relate your advice to their own circumstances.
Also, don’t overlook the power of humor to engage an audience. As the British comedian John Cleese said:
If I can get you to laugh with me, you like me better, which makes you more open to my ideas. And if I can persuade you to laugh at the particular point I make, by laughing at it you acknowledge its truth.
I’m not suggesting you go away and write a 30-minute standup set, but if you can drop a couple one-liners here and there, it can go a long way to getting your audience on your side.
Glossophobia, or fear of public speaking, is a common complaint. One much-quoted (and very old) Gallup survey claims it’s the second-most prevalent fear in Americans, affecting 40 percent of respondents.
Clearly, it’s not the “speaking” element that puts us on edge. It’s the idea of doing it in front of an audience. What if we make fools of ourselves, or say the wrong thing and get booed off stage?
Painful as it might sound, in my experience, the best way to overcome this is to seek out opportunities to speak in front of an audience. This can be in your professional or personal lives. It can be as simple as saying a few words at family gatherings or giving small presentations to your team at work.
You’ve set goals for improving your presentation skills, done your research, crafted a handful of engaging anecdotes, and practiced in front of an audience. Now, it’s time to weave all those things together to create a killer marketing presentation. Bear these five tips in mind while you’re doing it:
According to one study, you’ve only got 30 seconds before your audience’s attention starts to lapse. That means you need a strong start to persuade them you’re worth listening to. Lead with your most eye-catching statistic, your best joke, or your punchiest anecdote, and keep it short. On average, we speak at up to 130 words per minute, so that only gives you a maximum of 65 words to play with.
Presentation skills aren’t just about what you say. They’re also about how people perceive you.
A study at California State University, Northridge, found students followed instructions far more accurately when those instructions were given by someone who was dressed casually rather than professionally.
Why did this happen? One interpretation from the study’s authors is that the students responded better to someone dressed similarly to them:
Perhaps the participants in our study felt that they were better able to relate to the experimenter in the casual-dress condition, thereby lowering their anxiety and increasing their ability to follow directions correctly.
In short, there’s no such thing as a right or wrong way to look or dress for a presentation. Rather, we should reflect our audience.
Don’t kid yourself it’ll “be alright on the night.” If you don’t prepare properly, it won’t!
Figure out what works best for you by running through your presentation multiple times. Do you find it easiest to work off cue cards? Do you need visual aids? Or is it better for you to run lines until you’ve memorized your presentation word for word?
There’s no better way to guarantee people are paying attention than to ask regular questions throughout your speech!
This isn’t about putting people on the spot. Instead, it’s about turning your presentation from a one-way narrative to a two-way conversation.
Say you’re giving advice on tackling a specific problem. Ask how many people had experienced that problem, when they first noticed it, and why they’re so keen to fix it.
There are very few instances in which you shouldn’t be supporting your claims with real evidence. Even if you’re giving your personal opinion on a topic, those opinions should be backed with actual data from reputable sources.
If I’m telling you that Facebook is the best platform to grow your business, you likely wouldn’t just take my word for it. You’d want to hear evidence about Facebook’s audience, the effectiveness of advertising on the platform, and how much it’ll cost.
No one is born with incredible presentation skills; not even Steve Jobs.
Sure, some of us are more confident than others at talking to an audience and getting our points across effectively. However, it takes work; and if honing your presentation skills is taking you away from other important work, like content marketing or SEO, our agency is here to help.
The good news is the harder you work at it, the more confident you’ll feel, and the better your presentation skills will become. It’s a virtuous circle!
What tips have you used to level up your marketing presentation skills?
While on the surface it may seem that business borrowing from family and friends is a simple solution to a hard problem, there is actually a lot more to it. It can be tricky, and many unforeseen issues can arise.
There are some outside-of-the -box methods however, that allow for business borrowing from family and friends without all the drama. These options are much better than borrowing directly from loved ones. Of course, mixing business and family or friends will probably never be drama free, but these tips can make it a lot easier.
This option does include getting funding directly from friends or family. However, it works differently than a loan. Angels tend to be a lot more informal than most types of funding. They can be people you know. They can also be people you connect with through networking or other means. Your mom, dad, brother, sister, aunt, uncle, best friend, cousin, pretty much anyone can be an angle investor!
Angels are not covered by the Securities Exchange Commission’s (SEC) standards for accredited investors. But a lot of them are accredited investors anyway.
Check out our best webinar with its trustworthy list of seven vendors to help you build business credit.
To become an accredited investor, a person has to have a minimal net worth of $1 million, and an annual income of $200,000.
But, they don’t have to be millionaires. They could be friends or colleagues sitting on home equity, or local professionals who are looking to invest. Consider people you know well and people you don’t know so well. Angel investors could be people you grew up with or have done business with.
Even if you do not use friends or family as investors, finding an angel investor could convince those closest to you to help in another way.
Here’s how crowdfunding works. You market your business on a crowdfunding platform, and anyone who wants to can invest in the company. Some platforms will even accept donations as low as $5 or $10 dollars, though most do require more. With rewards-based crowdfunding, you get some token of thanks for your donation. With equity-based crowdfunding, which almost always requires $500 or more, investors get an interest in the company.
This is not a sure thing. While there are a lot of successful crowdfunding campaigns, the majority are not able to fully fund their business through crowdfunding. According to Startups.com, the average success rate of a campaign is 50%, and 78% of crowdfunding campaigns reach their goal. It’s a good way to give friends and family a chance to help fund your business without them having to give a large sum of cash at one time.
Kiva is an online lender that is a little different. For example, the interest rate is 0%. That means even though you have to pay it back, it is absolutely free money. They don’t even check your credit. However, there is one catch. You have to get at least 5 family members or friends to give to your business. In addition, you have to pitch in a $25 loan to another business on the platform. This is another way those you love can help you fund your business without giving up a pile of cash all at once.
A guarantor loan is a loan that you get, but someone else signs on to guarantee that they will repay if you default. It could be a business partner, a friend, or even a family member. This is sometimes a better option for having a family member help with funding than getting funds from them directly. Still, the same caveats exist when a guarantor is using their credit to help you out. If your business fails, or you default on the loan, then your guarantor will bear the brunt of that – and they will, most likely, come after you to make up for any losses they incur.
If you have friends or family that qualify as a guarantor, they may be more willing to go this route. They can let you piggyback off their good credit without giving up any cash initially. Hopefully, they never will.
Check out our best webinar with its trustworthy list of seven vendors to help you build business credit.
This is a type of loan that you can use a guarantor to get. The credit line hybrid may be for you if you have a credit score over 680 or have friends or family that do and are willing to cosign. You can usually get a loan of 5x the amount of your highest revolving credit limit account, up to $150,000. Honestly, this is more than what you could get on your own when applying for credit cards. Furthermore, you can get cash out on this program.
Also, there is no impact on your personal credit with this type of financing. It will not even affect a guarantor’s personal credit. A lot of business owners use the good credit of friends or family to help them get the funding they need. All payments report to the business credit profile, so you can build business credit at the same time.
Once you get the funding you need, work on building your business credit score. There are a few things you need to do to make this happen. However, once it’s done, you will have access to the funding you need, and you could be in a better position to help others rather than asking for help.
The first step in the process is to establish your business credit profile. You do that by setting up your business to be a fundable entity separate from you the owner. That includes having separate contact information, using an EIN rather than your personal SSN, formally incorporating, and opening a separate, dedicated business bank account.
Once that is said and done, you can rest assured that your business accounts that are reporting will show up on your business credit report, thus causing your business credit score to climb. Not all accounts will report, but the Credit Line Hybrid does. That’s a good start. A business credit expert at Credit Suite can guide you through finding other vendors that you qualify to get an account with that will report as well.
Check out our best webinar with its trustworthy list of seven vendors to help you build business credit.
It’s not a long term solution. There are many business owners who get their start with the help of friends and family. That’s a good thing. It’s a great way to get the ball rolling when your own resources are limited.
However, you don’t want business borrowing from friends and family to be your primary solution for the life of your business. Not only will this source of funds eventually dry up, but it can also cause some major drama.
The key to being able to fund your own business, and keep everyone else on your side, is to work toward building a business that is fundable on its own. As you do so, you will see that your friends and family continue to cheer you on, and eventually that’s the only help you’ll need.
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To Successfully Obtain Business Capital Every Business Needs A Coach
, if you are an organization proprietor the job of getting company resources can be extremely difficult.. Due to the fact that they have actually never ever been shown just how to acquire funding and also as a result they have no hint where to start, many organizations stop working. The Small Business Administration reports that 97% of company financing applications stop working.
The relevance of looking for specialist support when establishing up organization credit report has numerous organization proprietors transforming to a service financing instructor to assist them develop their organization credit rating. One of the largest errors made by service proprietors is that they try to get company funding utilizing their individual credit scores.
Up until your service has 3 different service credit rating ratings, any type of funding that your company obtains will certainly be based exclusively on your individual debt ratings as well as your individual possessions. You require to have organization credit history ratings developed to also obtain looked at for an organization car loan. Having organization debt ratings developed are simply a beginning in the money procedure.
” Missing simply among the 20 products will certainly obtain your organization rejected,” states Finance Specialist James Christy. “If you adhere to the action in an excellent service money trainer you will certainly ensure that you have every one of the products finished.”
Lenders will certainly reject an organization funding application if the company lawful name is not detailed appropriately with the 411 Directory Assistance. An additional means funding can be refuted is if your company has a financial institution ranking listed below a reduced 5 or if your company does not have credit score documents open with the 3 organization credit report reporting firms.
The procedure of developing service credit report is a lot extra challenging than establishing up individual credit rating. There is one company credit score firm that will certainly attempt to bill you $500 simply to open your credit report data.
A company financing train advises local business owner in a detailed layout on specifically what they should do to obtain their company all set to be accepted for funding as well as just how as well as why to develop business credit report they require to obtain accepted. An instructor will certainly reveal a company just how to not just construct service debt, however to develop excellent company credit scores that the financial institutions as well as various other financing firms will certainly utilize to accept your funding demand. A great money trainer will commonly guide you to resources for service bank card, supplier credit lines as well as for various other innovative kinds of funding.
To locate an organization financing trainer to aid your service develop exceptional company credit rating you could most likely to your preferred internet search engine Google, Yahoo, or MSN as well as do a look for the expression “organization financing train”.
The value of looking for professional aid when establishing up service credit history has lots of organization proprietors transforming to an organization financing train to aid them develop their service credit rating. Till your service has 3 different organization debt ratings, any kind of funding that your service obtains will certainly be based entirely on your individual credit report ratings and also your individual possessions. One more method funding can be refuted is if your company has a financial institution score listed below a reduced 5 or if your service does not have credit scores documents open with the 3 organization credit scores reporting companies. A service money instructor advises company proprietors in a detailed layout on specifically what they should do to obtain their service prepared to be authorized for funding as well as just how and also why to construct the company debt ratings they require to obtain accepted. A train will certainly reveal a company exactly how to not just develop service credit scores, however to develop excellent service credit history that the financial institutions as well as various other loaning companies will certainly make use of to authorize your financing demand.
It doesn’t matter if you’re a student or entrepreneur – building a strong personal brand online will help you achieve your goals. To help you every step of the way – from planning to posts … The post The Personal Branding Playbook: Join The Creator Economy appeared first on Paper.li blog.
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By now, you’ve probably heard a lot of buzz about Gen Z’s favorite social media app, TikTok. TikTok is a video sharing platform that allows users to create and share dynamic short-form (maximum of 60 seconds) videos. Users can add song snippets, special effects, and filters to their videos and then share them with a …
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