One of the biggest costs in event production is your keynote speaker, but what if that investment paid you back, many times beyond the event? This article looks at how you get ROI on your speaker investment…
Let’s say you invest £10,000 in a keynote speaker, knowing that they have the knowledge and personal power to bring value to your event and organisation.
Let’s say the speaker attended a meeting with you before the event so they could understand your goals, get to understand the organisation’s key values and get a sense of the business culture.
Let’s say they arrive early at your event. They meet you and get more of a feel for the people in the room. After they’ve wowed your audience from the stage in the way you would hope a thought-leader would, they are good enough to stay on and network with key members of staff.
Let’s say they’re asked a few deep questions over a drink. The speaker provides additional insights from their industry or cross-industry knowledge, providing your organisation and its team with fresh insights and ideas.
In summary, when the speaker leaves your event they understand your business, its key people and the general culture. Remember this is a highly successful person that you selected to bring their expertise to your people and you will want to get ROI on your speaker investment.
Why would you leave it there?
Utilising A Key Asset For Profit
The truth is, you will leave the relationship there because you don’t know what else is possible – or because the perceived fees scare you! So, let’s explore this and see what’s possible…
The speaker you just hired could become a voice for your company or industry, helping you push a key message out into the public domain.
Professional speakers are great communicators. Many are well-networked. Many have thousands following them on social media. Because they are well-respected and liked, and enjoy facilitating conversations they stand out, sparking debate, voicing an opinion and igniting a buzz surrounding your brand narrative.
In fact, according to Big Commerce report on The State of Influencer Marketing:
- 89% of marketers say ROI from influencer marketing is comparable to or better than other marketing channels
- 17% of companies spend over half their marketing budget on influencers
Brand advocates and influencers create new content for the business by posting about you on social media. They are promoting you through word of mouth and their reviews about the company’s products or services can help to promote the company to new customers.
Think about it… how much money, energy, and effort goes into marketing? How much of that is based on a push strategy, that fails to engage or ignite a conversation about your brand? Imagine if a third party sparked a debate about your organisation? What would you learn? What would you gain? Where could it lead?
Get ROI on your speaker: Using The Key Asset Internally
Imagine the keynote speaker you invited to speak at your event introduced a philosophy to your teams. Imagine if they introduced a phrase or a buzzword and now that phrase, buzzword or philosophy was repeated consistently and became ingrained in your organisation, supporting it through the latest project or launch and helping it to reach its goals and future growth.
This is especially powerful where teams work in silos and forget how each is part of the business ecosystem supports others or where there is unhealthy tension. It gets teams on the same page, working with the same philosophy and develops empathy and support and leads to cohesive solutions.
At Stellar Speakers, all our speakers have a framework of keynotes, workshops and trainings. Many also have books. These assets can be deployed to your advantage, supporting the growth of the business and helping to galvanise your teams around a product or philosophy.
The Investment of Utilising This Key Asset
Speakers working as brand advocates or influencers may not require the size of the investment you think. The investment in a brand advocate ranges from about £20,000 a year to about £60,000 on average – depending on your requirements. Meanwhile, influencers are slightly different: they are generally paid by the number of followers they have. They generally like an upfront fee and an affiliate commission for sales.
Stellar Speakers may be a bit unusual as an agency and we invite you to explore how to utilise your chosen speaker to greater effect – an effect that goes beyond a keynote and has people in your organisation talking for months, if not years.
What if the speaker you book this year helps elevate your organisation in new and unthought-of ways?
Stellar speakers are a unique speaker agency representing change-making keynote speakers. We provide expertise to help you manage your budgetary expectations and provide realistic options. We provide a preferred partner’s service base, so that partner clients get everything they need, lowering your risk as a booker of speakers, so you can make your choice about your next speaker with confidence. Mist importantly we help you get ROI on your speaker.
