• Swindon & Wiltshire Professional services
• Monday March 25 2024
• Author Name: Peter Davison

Business owners find a voice with new speakers’ platform

Business owners and entrepreneurs keen to share their knowledge and expertise now have an opportunity thanks to a new speakers’ platform.

Swindon-based PR consultancy Scott Media has launched the platform to give its clients another way of raising their profile, through speaking engagements.

Founder Fiona Scott, herself a sought-after speaker, saw a gap in the market for a speakers’ agency aimed at those relatively new to speaking and wanting more opportunities.

As well as acting as a platform for speaker bookings, Scott Media Speakers will proactively promote the speakers, through its own PR and social media.

Lauren Roberts, of Scott Media, said already 40 business owners had signed up to Scott Media Speakers, which is launching this month (March).

“We wanted to address a gap in the market,” said Lauren. “Many speaker agencies focus on high-ticket speakers, but they neglect those in a more affordable price bracket who may not be motivated by money, or who want to grow in experience when it comes to public speaking.

“These are the people we want to work with, because there are so many business owners out there, and among our own clients, who have decades’ of invaluable knowledge and experience, and by sharing this they not only help others but they raise their profile at the same time. Speaking engagements are yet another element of the PR mix.”

Scott Media Speakers is free to join for its retained clients, and a 10 per cent agency fee applies for most paid bookings. It is open to other businesses, by invitation only, for a monthly fee of £10 plus VAT (annual fee of £100 plus VAT) and an agency fee of 25 per cent per paid booking.

All speakers are placed into one of four tiers, depending on factors such as their level of experience, their motivations for speaking (for example, some may be fundraising for charities) and the distances they are happy to travel for speaking engagements.

Each member of Scott Media Speakers will have an online profile, with a short bio and details of the topics they can talk about.

They will also be actively promoted through Scott Media’s social media platforms, regular podcast PR Not BS and via the YouTube channel Reel PR with Fiona Scott.

Lauren added: “We’ll ask our speakers to use their own platforms to promote themselves too, and to share our posts, and in that way, we hope we can increase their opportunities for speaking and also increase the range of topics our members cover.”