Building Your Brand Through Presentations - 4 Critical Tips

Posted on October 11, 2014 by Michael Harkin, One of Thousands of Business Coaches on Noomii.

In a talk I recently gave, I’ll admit it – I was nervous.

I was providing a short presentation. I’ve given a lot of talks but this one was giving me the willies. The topic was wonderful – filled with a number of great insights. The audience was local business owners from my home state. All things that should have made me feel confident. But I wasn’t.

Thankfully, the talk went well. The reviews were positive and I made a number of connections. How did I overcome my hurdles? Here are a few things that I think helped make a difference:

Presentations are a great way to build your brand and establish yourself as an authority in your market. They do, however, ‘present’ some challenges.

In a talk I recently gave, I’ll admit it – I was nervous.

I was providing a short presentation. I’ve given a lot of talks but this one was giving me the willies. The topic was wonderful – filled with a number of great insights. The audience was local business owners from my home state. All things that should have made me feel confident. But I wasn’t.

Thankfully, the talk went well. The reviews were positive and I made a number of connections. How did I overcome my hurdles? Here are a few things that I think helped make a difference:

1. Do a rehearsal- I went a day before and checked everything out at the location. The folks at the venue let me set up the room the way I wanted and I was able to do a practice run. Really helped boost my confidence.

2. Find a sponsor- In my case, I worked with my local Small Business Development Center (SBDC) to sponsor the event. They coordinated and marketed the event through their own network of business owners and setup the venue. This gave me instant credibility and saved me a ton of admin hassle. Do you have a local, regional, or national organization for the type of service you provide? Go to them and ask to provide a presentation on a topic related to your business. Of course, make sure it is one that you really love to discuss and can speak about with true authority. The topic is not as critical as is your passion for the subject.

3. Encourage interaction- I blocked out plenty of time for discussion and interaction – both with myself and between the attendees. This really raised the interest level. In the past, I’ve focused on just trying to provide as much material as I possibly could – but the feedback I received indicated that there wasn’t enough time for discussion. So this time I cut out some of the material. The enthusiasm level amongst the participants seemed to increase dramatically.

4. Use help – I brought my son (Blake) to run my slideshow and hand out material. This was a lot of fun for both of us but also kept me from being distracted from some of the admin tasks associated with running a presentation. And, YES, I did compensate him well!

Presentations can be a key tool in your marketing kitbag and can be a very helpful and natural way to build your brand. They take some work to prepare but are invaluable as you seek to establish your reputation as the ‘go-to’ company for your service or product.