8 Tips for Recruiting Speakers for Your Webinar

It sounds like a wonderful idea – a multi-speaker webinar event. And yes, it is a great idea, but it’s not as easy to arrange as you might think. Recruiting speakers is tricky because you want to find people who market to your niche but who aren’t necessarily direct competitors of yours. Plus, you want them to be good, honest people who offer amazing value to their audience. After all, you’ll be introducing them to yours.
Here are some tips for recruiting speakers so that both parties get the most out of the webinar.

Choose the Topic in Advance

Don’t invite anyone into your circle until you’ve already chosen the topic. That way you remain in control, and it makes it easier for those who wish to participate to create a presentation. And your speakers should create a presentation specifically for your audience as opposed to using a ‘canned’ presentation. Some people don’t want to do the extra work even though it will benefit them; they want to do what is easiest.

Define the Goals and Purpose of Your Webinar

In addition to the topic, it’s important to show them what your goals and purpose are for the webinar. Be specific. This will help the speakers that you invite know whether or not they want to participate.

Know Who Your Audience Is

Not only should you have a good understanding of who your audience is, but you should also share that with the speakers that you invite. They need to know who your audience is exactly, so that they can choose whether or not to speak at your event.

Find Speakers’ Bureaus in Your Niche

There are speakers’ bureaus in every niche so that you can find the right people to speak at your event. Find the people and send a formal invitation with all the information. These include, but are not limited to, National Speakers Bureau, Premier Motivational Speakers Bureau and the Leading Authorities Speakers Bureau.

Create a Temporary Agenda

Just so that the potential speakers know you’re on top of things, show them a temporary agenda. This will ensure that they’ll know how the webinar will unfold and where they might fit in to the event, and it will also show them that your event is going to be professional.

Explain the Benefits for the Speakers

Always lead with what the benefits are for the speaker to participate; larger reach, an audience that is ready to buy, or whatever other benefits you can identify for them.

Create Preliminary Sales Pages

You want to show them examples of how you’ll market the event. By creating a preliminary sales page you demonstrate that you already have the online real estate to market the event. When they see this attention to detail, they’ll want to participate.

Directly Invite the Speakers You Want

Finally, always give a personal invitation to the speakers you want. Give them all the information, an application to participate, an agreement, and a time limit to respond. Including all of these elements on line so they can complete the submission process quickly will not only save you time but will demonstrate once again that you are professional and organized.
You can have an amazing webinar and reach far more people when it’s a team effort. Don’t be afraid to give people direction as to what to do to make the webinar amazing and profitable for everyone. Having guidelines set up before you invite the speakers, marketing materials created, and preliminary marketing collateral developed, will make it a no brainer for those you invite to participate.