What Should be Included in Your Brand Guidelines?

Brand guidelines are clearly defined standards showcasing how you and others should talk and present your company to the world. These guidelines are a physical or digital booklet to share internally with your entire team and with any vendors or partners.

What is it good for?

Absolutely nothing. Just kidding! By providing a guideline for your employees, vendors, and partners to follow when representing your company, you are establishing consistency. And consistency is no small feat. From your logo and colors to your mission and messaging, your brand guidelines provide direction allowing employees to establish an “on-brand” decision without always needing to consult upper-level management.

The Power of Consistency

Consistency breeds recognition. This recognition generates feelings of understanding and trust that help drive consumer brand loyalty. If you think about some iconic brands, can you recognize their ad campaigns without a logo? In a lot of cases, yes! This is because of their consistent brand elements and messaging. For example, can you recognize the saying “Just Do It?” Doritos took this concept even further and launched an ad campaign that didn’t show their logo or name, but still clearly represented their brand identity. These companies established that iconic recognition by presenting a consistent brand identity outlined in clear brand guidelines.

What should be included in brand guidelines?

What you include in your brand guidelines might differ slightly for each brand. However, as a general rule of thumb, you want to have anything that helps people understand your brand. Remember this document will help guide individuals inside and outside your company, so be sure to include information you assume is even basic company knowledge.

The Basics

No matter your industry, company size, or location, there are certain brand aspects that every brand guideline should include.

  • Company History | Your company story, including why you got started.
  • Logo | Variations of your logo, color options for your logo, and logo sizing and spacing.
  • Brand Colors | Colors you tend to use throughout your brand materials, including the HEX, RGB, and CMYK codes.
  • Fonts | Font variations and text sizing.
  • Imagery | Examples of photography, illustrations, and icons in the proper aesthetic (and ones to avoid).

Culture

All companies have a culture, but only some are intentional about creating one. If your company leans on your culture to help make business decisions, it is essential to include it in your brand guidelines.

  • Personality | Who you are or a list of adjectives that describe your brand.
  • Mission Statement | Why your company exists and what purpose you are serving.
  • Vision Statement | What your company aspires to be.
  • Core Values | Your company principles and beliefs.

Possible Additions to Your Brand Guidelines

Now is when your guidelines become individualized! Brand guidelines don’t have to be limited to the usual brand items. Think of your brand guidelines as a consistency handbook! If there is something you want to present in a specific way, no matter where it’s shared, include it!

  • Target Audience | Specify a target audience and why they need you.
  • Social Media Assets | Profile and cover image styles, team welcome, anniversary, or closure announcements, and company-specific or common hashtags.
  • Voice | Words and phrases your brand regularly uses (and ones to avoid).
  • Grammar | The grammar rules you follow and break. For example, does your company always use the oxford comma?

Brand guidelines are an important part of a brand identity. If you need help putting together a formal document to share with vendors, partners, and new hires, our team of professionals can help.

Name(Required)
What marketing services are you interested in?(Required)

Heather Morrison
Heather is the VP of Operations at Innereactive and we are lucky to have her. She has over five years of experience running an HR department and enjoys helping businesses like yours find solutions to their HR needs.

Onboarding New Hires

The hiring process is often a dreaded one. Sometimes HR professionals are so excited to finally find the perfect candidate that they immediately relax and just cross the item off their crowded to-do list. However, not staying focused on our new hires after the paperwork is a mistake that could potentially lose an amazing employee you just hired. Here are our recommendations for onboarding new hires.

Onboarding New Hires Starts Immediately

Once the candidate has accepted the job offer, it is time to start onboarding! Even if that person isn’t starting for two weeks or two months.

Your First Onboarding Email

The first email you send to your new hire after they accept the job is crucial! And it should include more than just a request for the financial and legal documents needed to start. It should be the start of your onboarding journey with your new hire and celebrate them as a new part of your team.

  • Company Handbook: While we always recommend sending a copy of your Company Handbook in the email where you extended the job offer, the next best place is in the email immediately after the candidate has accepted the job.
  • Legal Documents: This email should outline any other information you need from your employee, including any financial or legal documents for your company, like W4 and I9 paperwork.
  • Security: If you have a security system that requires an access code, ask them what they would like their code to be.
  • Dietary Restrictions or Allergies: If you provide snacks or meals in the office, ask after their allergies or dietary preferences to ensure their needs are met.
  • Culture: Provide insight into your culture and environment, including what is appropriate to wear. Starting a new job is stressful and providing this information to new hires makes them feel like they are already part of the team on day one.

Internal Announcements

While your team, or the team you are looking for, probably already knows you are hiring, you should always announce the new team member to the existing team. Share their start date, what their training schedule will look like, and what job responsibilities they will be taking over.

Get Personal and Fun

Start to flex your creative muscles and think of fun ways to welcome new team members to your team. Our team has had a blast creating “welcome videos” with our team. We then include the video in our first welcome email outlining all the details they need to know to start their first day. Think of your company culture and how you could show off your personality and culture in a video. We think this is the best part of being an HR professional!

Here’s an example our welcome video! We shared this video both on social media and with our new hire in an email.

Making Your New Hire Feel Welcome

  • Incorporate a fun question into your interview process and turn the answer into a card for employees to sign and say welcome. We like to ask what kitchen appliance each new hire would be and why.
  • Organize a team lunch for the first day to help your new hire meet and feel comfortable around your team.
  • Put together a swag bag and include things they will need at the office or fun items to use personally. Our company swag bags always had branded company gear like a backpack and jacket!

Stay Organized and Consistent

Have a developed checklist of activities to complete to ensure the employee can integrate into your company as quickly and smoothly as possible. Ensure they are provided the proper training, introduced to the right people, and have all the equipment and software they need to do their job. Most importantly, create a structure to check in with them frequently throughout the first 90-days to ensure they are thriving and ask for their input on how the transition into your company could have been even better! We can’t even begin to share the first-day horror stories we have heard, so plan some tasks and goals for your employee’s first day and first few weeks.

Retaining top talent starts before day one. Craft an intentional journey for new hires or risk losing them. If you are not sure where to get started, we can help your team establish a journey that is unique to your business!

Name(Required)
What HR services can we help you with?(Required)

Heather Morrison
Heather is the VP of Operations at Innereactive and we are lucky to have her. She has over five years of experience running an HR department and enjoys helping businesses like yours find solutions to their HR needs.

The Most Important Part of a Review: Your Response!

According to a study done by BrightLocal in 2022, 98% of consumers read online reviews for local businesses. Studies have shown, we as consumers are more likely to purchase if others around us, even total strangers, share a positive previous experience with that same purchase. The way customers talk about you is just as important as saying your name! So what does this mean? Having recent positive reviews on platforms like Google or Facebook can directly impact your business’s sales in a very positive way. 

Your Online Reputation is More Than A Number

While customers are focused on seeing recent positive reviews, your online reputation is more than just a number! Customers also want to see the company responding to reviews both positive and negative. A friendly, open-to feedback appearance can work wonders for your brand. This approach shows you care about your customers. If you have had some recent negative feedback, this approach can also help improve your ratings, allowing you to share recent changes you made with your company based on the feedback provided. 

How to respond to positive reviews

Responding to a positive review will help with customer retention. It shows you are actively listening to all feedback and willing to take the time to engage with real people that have walked through the door. When people know your business will see and respond to feedback, the chance of them turning into loyal customers is higher. 

A great way to respond to a positive review is first to say thank you. Then, show appreciation for the customer taking the time to share their experience. Positive reviews and high ratings are powerful social proof for attracting new customers. After showing your appreciation, tell them you’d love to see them again. It will help customers feel welcomed if you extend the invitation for them to return. Here is an easy templated response that you can use:

Sample Review Response

“Thanks *INSERT NAME*, for leaving us such a wonderful review! We are thrilled that you enjoyed your experience. We put customer experience and satisfaction as one of our top priorities, and your review reaffirms the hard work we put in to accomplish just that! We look forward to serving you again soon.”

**If you are in an industry with customer privacy regulations like Healthcare (HIPAA), there are rules you should follow when responding to reviews to make sure they are compliant. Reach out to us via the form below to get our quick guide on responding to healthcare reviews!**

 

How to respond to negative reviews

Getting negative ratings or feedback online is tough. It is understandable to get angry, defensive, or annoyed at first. But good news! Negative reviews don’t necessarily have negative consequences. On the contrary, they can add a bit of authenticity to your brand if you reply correctly. What is even more important than what a negative review says is how you respond! 

To make your reviewer feel heard and valued, you want to thank them for taking the time to share their experience. Next, you will want to show empathy and understanding for the product/company at hand, then reinforce your company’s standard values. Finally, always extend an invitation back. Here is a great templated response:

Sample Review Response

“Thank you *INSERT NAME* for taking the time to share your experience with us. We here at *INSERT BUSINESS NAME* take much pride in our customer’s success, which is why we would like to make this right. Please provide more details about this incident by emailing us at *insert email* so we can make it right. We would love to serve you again and show you our commitment to providing exceptional service to all.”

While one of the most important parts of a review is your response, first you need your customers to share their experiences! We understand that getting reviews is half the battle.  Innereactive helps busy business owners implement processes to receive more reviews and craft the perfect responses once they start rolling in.

Name(Required)
What social media services are you interested in?(Required)
Select all that apply

Marisa Lyon
Marisa is the Finance and Marketing Manager at Innereactive, and we are so grateful to have her. She enjoys helping businesses find the right solution for their marketing needs.

 

Three Reasons to Create Unique Website Content

So, you’re ready to redesign your website and build a new site for your potential clients to navigate? That’s amazing! But before you get started, have you thought about how you will update your content as part of this design? Content unique to your specific business is essential to reach your audience effectively and stay on top of trends to ensure your website performs well and accomplishes its desired output. Here are the top three reasons we recommend unique website content.

Unique Website Content Improves User Experience

Before jumping into the design or content of your website, ask yourself, “why does a customer visit my website?” Most users visit a website to learn about your business and determine if they want to work with you. Stay true to your brand, vision statement, and core values to connect with your target consumer.

Brainstorm your messaging by asking yourself some of these questions. We love the Story Brand approach to exploring your brand and online presence.

  • What makes your business unique?
  • What information do consumers ask about?
  • What personal information do I want to share about my company’s journey?
  • What are the steps a customer will go through when working with us? – Share insight into the customer journey, highlighting what will make their experience with your business unique and spotlight the products and services your team specializes in.
  • Who on our team will customers interact with? – This is where compelling team bio’s come in handy!

Generate Sharable Content

Another benefit of unique content is sharing! The best content will resonate with your audience so much that they want to share it with their networks. Creating unique content increases your likelihood of conversion by allowing you to direct the sales journeys for potential customers with custom calls to action (CTAs) and landing pages. Personalized content equals a more personalized experience for potential clients.

Unique Website Content is Key to SEO

At the heart of every website is the need to be found! Effective Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is essential to make this happen! Ultimately, search engines aim to provide their users with the best results for their needs based on keywords and content! While many unknown algorithms determine what is shown or ranked on a search result page, the idea behind it is simple. When developing your content, put yourself in the mind of your consumer. What would you search online if you need your product or services? Try to use these ideas and keywords to develop content for your website.

Creating the perfect website can be a complicated process. However, one thing has remained consistent, visitors to your website want a clear understanding of who you are as a business. Contact our team today if you need help creating unique website content (and photos)!

Name(Required)

Writing a Bio You Will Want to Share with Others

It’s not uncommon for individuals to struggle with writing personal bios because it’s…awkward! Now is the time to shake off those feelings and prepare to toot your own horn! To make writing your bio a little easier, take our tips below!

Include the “Obvious”

In most professional settings, sharing your name, job title, educational and professional experience, accomplishments, future goals, and aspirations is appropriate. Write all your obvious facts in a list, and then pick the top five! Use those accomplishments to write a few sentences about yourself. 

Writing a bio for outside your company:

While most people find themselves writing a bio when beginning a new job, sometimes you need to write a bio for another professional setting or while pursuing personal goals. If you are representing your company at an event, include your company information in your bio so attendees can build context about you.

Writing a bio for personal endeavors:

Even in a personal setting, like volunteering, there are benefits to including the basic information mentioned above. However, we recommend mixing it up a little bit! Try to focus on accomplishments that are relevant to your endeavor and explain your personal mission statement. 

Get Personal 

Even in a professional setting, it is important to share personal information. You don’t have to jump into your religious or political views, but sharing information about your hobbies and causes you care about can be valuable. This information humanizes and increases the likelihood that readers will remember you! It allows the reader to relate to you and understand your motivations easily. 

Tie Company Bios Together 

If these bios are being added to a company website, consider a piece of information unique to your business and include it in all employee bios. If you work in food service, ask people for insight into their favorite item on the menu. A travel agency? Ask if you had to drop what you are doing right now and travel to one place, where would it be and why? If you ask an interesting question during your interview process, include it! 

Still struggling to get started? Download our list of questions below to start outlining your thoughts! Even when asked the right questions, connecting the answers in a meaningful way can be challenging. Our copy experts can create a bio that tells the story of your team members and encourages your clients to feel a personal connection to your team.

Ready to craft the perfect bio for your team? Download our bio template here!

Heather Morrison
Heather is the VP of Operations at Innereactive and we are lucky to have her. She has over five years of experience running an HR department and enjoys helping businesses like yours find solutions to their HR needs.

The Romans Had It Right: How to Use Social Contests to Increase Your Audience

Social media contests are an excellent way to get more followers since they raise brand awareness, boost engagement, and encourage people to learn about your company. Social media contests can get you REAL followers, and lots of them!

Finding your Target Audience

While contests can attract a broad audience, defining your target audience is important. Attracting more leads is not worthwhile if they have no interest in your brand. Think about your followers or audience and find a suitable prize for them. Try to choose a prize relevant to your brand to make it easier to transform participants into potential customers or followers. If the giveaway does not match your brand, participants may only be interested in the freebie and not engage with your business afterward. Here are some ideas to get you started:

  • Offer a free new product or service
  • Create a bundle of products related to your brand
  • Gift cards for your business

Setting Goals And Choose a Platform

Before creating your contest, take time to understand what social media is relevant to the type of goal you have. For example, if you’re looking to increase engagement, Instagram would be a good choice. However, if you’re looking to drive traffic to your website, Facebook would be a better option.

Pro tip: Make SMART goals for your contest (specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, and timebound). For example, I hope to gain 1,000 website visits within one week of running a Facebook contest.

Defining the rules

To avoid confusion, you need to define the rules for the contest. How are you going to have people enter the contest? Popular contest entry methods are liking the post, sharing the post, tagging someone in the comments, or submitting a photo/video. If you don’t have a large following, I recommend starting with an easy entry option, such as tagging someone in the comments. This will create followers and engagement since people won’t have to work to submit something. Users must engage with the contest post (and brand) as much as possible to increase their chances of winning. This campaign is ideal for companies looking to boost their social media presence!

Pick the winner

Once the contest is over, it is time to pick the winners! There are a few ways that you can pick winners fairly. If you are running a contest with no answer, but just entries, we suggest using an online tool like Wheel of Names to pick a winner at random. If you have a contest that needs a specific answer to win, choose the person who has the correct answer! Finally, if there are multiple with the correct answer, enter them into the Wheel of Names. 

After your contest ends, track your results and see what worked and what didn’t. Then use these findings to optimize future contests for success. Remember, a successful contest starts with a goal.

Determining that goal can be challenging, which is why an annual marketing strategy is beneficial. Although running your business is what you do best, let us help you create successful contests as part of your marketing strategy!

Name(Required)
What social media services are you interested in?(Required)
Select all that apply

Marisa Lyon
Marisa is the Finance and Marketing Manager at Innereactive, and we are so grateful to have her. She enjoys helping businesses find the right solution for their marketing needs.

 

Plan and Execute a Successful Hybrid Event

What is a Hybrid event?

Hybrid events are the sweet spot between live and virtual events. They allow you to appeal to a broader audience: those that want the in-person experience and those who prefer to enjoy the event behind the comfort of their screen. We’ll discuss how you plan and execute an event like this, the technology should you use, and some hybrid event best practices. 

Prefer to hand off the planning to some experts? We can help! With 14+ years of experience in the event industry, our team is here to ensure your hybrid event is executed successfully. Reach out here for more information!

Planning Your Hybrid Event

Organizing a live event requires more lead time than putting together a virtual-only event because you have to consider the venue, lodging, food & beverage, room layout, etc. Therefore, you’ll need to begin planning for the live event portion first, then incorporate the virtual event technology. Make sure your venue is well equipped with audio/visual and high-speed internet accessibility. 

Marketing

We suggest using social media and email marketing to promote your hybrid event. When doing so, clearly emphasize your event’s accessibility to potential attendees by letting them know they can attend in person or virtually. Highlight the in-person and virtual attendee event experience, so attendees know what to expect and that they’ll be able to benefit from attending this event however they choose. 

Registration

Registration happens all in one place! Set up a single electronic registration system for your event that takes all hybrid attendees to one site. Then, allow them to answer questions on how they plan to attend. This will provide separate attendee lists, allowing you to communicate customized event expectations to all attendees. 

Marrying The Virtual & Live Environment

When it comes to virtual events, we believe live streaming the presentation is the way to go. However, that method might not work for all events. If necessary, prepare pre-recorded presentations for your virtual attendees. If you choose to live stream the event, Zoom has developed wonderful live streaming capabilities. 

Build an events team because the speaker can’t do it all. Allow the live speaker to focus on their presentation to both audiences by providing them with a support person to manage the virtual attendee chat, Q&A and polls. Develop an efficient communication system that allows the speaker to receive online questions and comments alongside their live audience questions. At the live event, designate one screen for the speaker’s presentation and another screen for the support person to manage and present the virtual attendees’ live chat, questions, and poll results. Provide your virtual attendees with access to all of this information so they feel just as included. This is a great way to connect virtual attendees with their live counterparts.

Practice makes perfect! 

Set yourself up for success by testing the live and virtual technology together in a practice session. Can your virtual audience clearly hear the presenter during this audio check? Make sure the live AV is connected to a virtual microphone so that all attendees feel as though they’re being directly spoken to. 

 

Prefer to hand off the hybrid event planning to some experts? Our team is well equipped with the experience needed to ensure your hybrid event is executed successfully.

Name(Required)
What event services are you interested in?(Required)

Jess Hunt
Jess is the Events Manager at Innereactive. After gaining 11 years of event experience in the food industry, she’s ready to take on the optical world. She’s very passionate about helping people, simplifying processes, and creating positive experiences.

Creating An Annual Team Training Program

Ensuring employees are properly trained is challenging for any business, but especially challenging for small businesses that don’t have a Training and Development Manager. Here are our three tips for creating a successful team training program!

Establish a Training Routine

Determining the material you want to cover is the first step to developing an annual training program. Some topics can be consistent yearly, but others may vary. Before getting started, familiarize yourself with the training requirements for your business. For example, some state and federal laws require businesses of a specific size or industry to perform annual training.

State/Federal Required Training

  • Sexual Harassment Training
  • Safety Training (Emergency Action Plan, Personal Protective Equipment, Hazard Communication, First Aid)
  • Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) Training

In addition to the required training sessions, you may want to consider trainings like:

  • Sales Training
  • Customer Service Training
  • Performance Management Training
  • Compliance and Ethics Training
  • Data-Security Training
  • Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion

The possibilities are endless! But don’t forget, not every person in your company will need to complete the same training.

Once you know the training topics you want to cover, determine the appropriate frequency level. Once a month or once every other month is usually a manageable frequency for business companies and training coordinators. Start with fewer, more infrequent training sessions to get your team used to the time dedicated to professional development. During this time, you can use each training as a learning opportunity and make small adjustments to how you share information or institute the training.

Team Training PresentationDedicate Time to Team Training

Create and share your planning schedule with your team. If possible, schedule a dedicated time for each team member to complete the training. This will increase the likelihood that people will complete the training and that you won’t have conflicting schedules to compete with as the dates get closer.

When sharing the training program with the team, also share the training objectives. For some training sessions, the objective might be to fulfill a state requirement. However, we still recommend sharing this, so the team knows what to expect to learn and can get excited to attend. For others, like sales training, the object could be to increase sales of Product A from $30,000 monthly to $50,000 monthly. Be as specific as possible to help people understand the importance of the training.

Use Qualified Trainers

Many people try to complete all training sessions by having employees (usually the person responsible for HR execution) run them. This might not be a bad idea if you have people on your team with the right specialties and qualifications. For some companies, outside assistance may be beneficial.

Innereactive’s President, Samantha Toth, specializes in sales and marketing training. Let us help you create custom training programs specific to your industry to help your team sell better and sell more! Our team is also capable of helping you establish a customized annual training program, complete with team training materials, schedules, and even recommendations for training topics or qualified trainers.

 

Ready to create a team training program to lead your business to success? We are excited to help!

Name(Required)
What HR services can we help you with?(Required)

Heather Morrison
Heather is the VP of Operations at Innereactive and we are lucky to have her. She has over five years of experience running an HR department and enjoys helping businesses like yours find solutions to their HR needs.

Social Media Analytics: What’s important to track and how to find it? 

Social media analytics is the data collected from social media platforms that you can evaluate to make business & marketing decisions. These analytics are more than just likes and followers on your social media account. When you track, report, and analyze the correct data, you can discover key areas of influence you can affect to reach your business goals.

Result Based Metrics

Engagement

Comments are the most common social signal on Facebook and other social media sites. Comments show that people like your business and want to engage with it. Many platforms recognize this interaction as high-value and will show your posts or higher in feeds. So how do you develop content that will promote comments? Try posting content that encourages your audience to engage by commenting on your posts.

Tip: the more you can get within the first hour of posting, the more powerful they are.

Clicks & Conversion Rates

The dynamic duo! Clicks are a great way to track if your audience is interested in your message and if they want to learn more. If you are getting many likes, but nobody is clicking through to your website or taking action on what you are posting, it doesn’t matter! Tracking the number of clicks and comparing successful vs. unsuccessful posts will help you determine what needs to be changed.

Tip: Always ask yourself, “how can we get more clicks?”

Conversion actions take a bit more strategy and work to determine, but they are everything! Getting clicks is step one. Step two is your goal! Do you want to generate 10x leads a month from Instagram or sell $500 more per month because of Facebook posting? Setting us conversion tracking on your website and social media will answer if you reached these goals or not. When analyzing your conversion data, ask yourself these questions:

  • What is your audience doing once they click on your link?
  • Which areas of your website are they engaging with most?
  • How much are you paying per conversion (CPC)? Does this align with your goal or profit margin?
  • What post keywords or topics lead to the highest rate of conversion?

Again, you’re doing great by getting traffic from your social media to your website with high click rates! But if those clicks are not driving conversions, something is off. The only way to figure this out is to track it!

Metrics to Help Planning & Development

Hashtag Performance

As with all social media strategies, don’t use hashtags just to use them. Put thought and research behind your content! Some posts & platforms perform better without hashtags. Instagram, for example, loves the use of hashtags and can significantly improve your content performance and reach. To track your hashtag performance on Instagram, click “View Insights.” From here, you can see if the hashtags discovered your post.

Optimal Post Time

One of the most common mistakes is thinking the best time to post is when your audience is online and active. While once correct, this is the time most businesses post, making it far more competitive to get your message across. Analyze when the best time for you to post is directly on the social platforms and try changing your posting schedule as the data changes.

Social media can be a powerful tool for the success of your business if used correctly. It’s more complicated than just throwing up a few posts each week. However, if you dedicate time to analyze and test your content, it will only benefit your business!

 

If you feel like your social media is not working for you, we can help! Our team will help determine your social media goals, key metrics, and develop the content to produce results!

Name(Required)
What social media services are you interested in?(Required)
Select all that apply

Marisa Lyon
Marisa is the Finance and Marketing Manager at Innereactive, and we are so grateful to have her. She enjoys helping businesses find the right solution for their marketing needs.

 

Finding the Perfect Event Speaker

We understand the challenge of creating an event that resonates with your audience. Beyond planning your event and staying organized, the event speaker is essential to creating a lasting impression of your message on attendees. At every event, you want your audience to react with speaker reviews such as:

“She was fun and exciting, energetic, enthusiastic and has great energy and very passionate.”
“Well prepared presentation, good and proper amount of analogies/real-life experiences. Strong voice inflections, kept me interested.”

 “Samantha knocked it out of the park. Our attendees LOVED her. She is truly a gifted speaker. You can be sure we will be reaching out to her very soon regarding additional speaking opportunities.”

 “We evaluate over 90-100 of the best speakers there are each year. Your content was exceptional and your slides were in the top 3% of any presentation I’ve seen in the last two years. Relevant, clean, crisp, easy to read, and professional. So impressed.”

We are proud to have Samantha Toth, ABOC as our Marketing Rockstar and primary speaker. We don’t hide it! It takes a lot of passion and inspiration to be a good speaker, and Samantha has it! 

Researching & Finding An Event Speaker

Before you research, answer these questions.

A lot of event planning has to happen before finding or researching a speaker. Before starting your speaker research and outreach, we recommend asking yourself these questions. 

  • When is the event? You should begin to find a speaker about 6-12 months before the event.
  • Who is my audience? 
  • How big is this event? 
  • Is the event in-person, online or is it a hybrid format? 
  • Do you want a leadership speaker, a motivational speaker, a celebrity, or an industry expert? 
  • What personality are you looking for?
  • Is there a specific tone are you trying to set for your audience? 
  • What message are you trying to convey?
  • What’s your speaker budget? You’ll need to consider not only their honorarium but be able to cover their travel, too.

Then research and reach out!

Armed with an event outline, you are now ready to start your speaker research! We know from experience this is not an easy task. If you need help, our team can find and contract a speaker perfect for your brand and message. Ready to tackle research on your own? Here are our recommendations of where to look and what to do once you find an interested speaker. 

  • Review speakers’ LinkedIn profiles & join speaker groups
  • Check online forums
  • Look into other industry events & who they’re hiring
  • Have a speaker in mind? Check out their website
  • Watch speaker videos
  • Take word-of-mouth recommendations from partners, vendors and clients
  • Scout them in-person, when possible
  • Interview them

Our pro tip: After doing some homework, keep a speaker library for future use, including the speaker’s contact information, website, video samples, survey results, and testimonials. 

I found my speaker, now what?

Once you’ve found your perfect speaker, thoroughly review and sign a contract. Next, dive into all event details with your speaker so they know what to expect and what your expectations are. Having a conversation about the message, audience, and the event environment is helpful to make sure your speaker is as successful as they can be. 

Collect Feedback

Finally, don’t forget to collect attendee feedback following your event to determine how successful your speaker was! 

 

Researching speakers can be challenging and overwhelming, but we can take that responsibility off your shoulders. Reach out now and we’ll put you in touch with a 5-star rated speaker to knock it out of the park and engage your event audience.

Name(Required)
What event services are you interested in?(Required)

Jess Hunt
Jess is the Events Manager at Innereactive. After gaining 11 years of event experience in the food industry, she’s ready to take on the optical world. She’s very passionate about helping people, simplifying processes, and creating positive experiences.