You’ve launched your speaker business, done the initial work to get your reputation on the map, and are attracting new leads every day. Fantastic!
But now that you’re a strong brand, it’s time to start generating interest in your name so that people seek you to speak.
Emailing the right people with a well-thought-out message (and sometimes included a link to your website or social media) is one way to create landing speaking gigs – but only if you’re doing it right. If not, you might be leaving money on the table.
This guide will show you tips for using Gmail as a marketing tool for your speaker business – specifically, how to find and reach out to more people interested in what you have to say AND get them to respond (instead of ignoring you like spam).
Why you should use Gmail for your speaker business
If you’re a professional speaker, you’re probably already using Gmail for your email communication.
But if you’re a speaker who doesn’t use Gmail yet — or if you’re just getting started in the business — here are four reasons why you should.
1. It’s free. You can get started for free by signing up for a Gmail account and using it for all your speaker business email. One of the most significant advantages is that you don’t have to worry about paying monthly hosting fees or managing your email servers.
2. It integrates with Google Drive and Google Docs. You can attach files up to 10GB in size without any effort at all; just drag them into your message window, and they will be uploaded as you type your message.
3. Integrates with Google Calendar (and other calendars). You can easily add events to your calendar right from Gmail, thanks to a nifty add-on called Checker Plus for Google Calendar that adds a handy button to your browser toolbar (for Chrome). This is particularly useful if you have multiple calendars and need to know quickly which one an event belongs on.
4. Gmail is a reliable and secure email provider. Research has it that Gmail has a read rate of over 22%. This is important for speakers because more people will see your emails if you send them with Gmail. While other email providers may offer a lower price or more features, these are much less important for speakers than the open rate of their emails.
6 Gmail tips that will help you build your speaker business in 2024
According to statistics, Gmail is the top email provider globally, with more than 1.8 billion users. This makes the platform a great network and promotes your speaking business.
But don’t let this lead you to believe that you must craft long, complicated emails that no one wants to read!
You can use Gmail to market yourself as a speaker in less than a minute. And you don’t even need an email marketing software account. Here’s how:
1. Gmail offers customization options that let you brand your email.
Google lets you add your business logo, a header image, and a custom color scheme to your Gmail account.
If you’re speaking at conferences or other events and want to show off your company, you can customize your Gmail account. By adding a header and logo, you can ensure that people see your brand every time you send them an email.
2. Add in different labels, so you can easily keep track of projects, clients, and deadlines
If you’re like many speakers, your inbox is a mess. It’s filled with a mix of emails from clients, potential clients, and the many other stakeholders involved in putting on an event.
Plus, you’ve got new leads coming in, existing clients wanting updates, and team members asking questions.
How can you get everything under control?
Gmail offers a powerful tool called labels. Gmail labels let you organize your inbox based on whatever criteria you choose. This makes it incredibly easy to find emails related to each other, regardless of how they came into your inbox or when they were sent.
3. Create separate email accounts
You can avoid inbox overload by creating separate email accounts for different aspects of your business. There are two primary reasons for this.
Firstly, different clustering areas of your business under one email account helps you stay organized.
For example, suppose you’re selling speaker products and have a separate account for each. In that case, it will be way easier to respond to customer inquiries and sales inquiries in a timely fashion.
Secondly, using separate email accounts is an excellent way to reduce spam, which can be extremely time-consuming if not addressed promptly.
Why? Spam-filtering programs on the Internet look at IP addresses, mailing lists, and other indicators of potentially fraudulent behavior to determine whether or not an email is legitimate; your multiple accounts will help you get through the spam filter more quickly.
Additional Reading: How to Add a Second Gmail Account
4. Use filters to help your inbox run more smoothly
There is a lot that goes into making your speaker business run smoothly. You want to make sure that you respond to clients’ inbound field inquiries and build relationships with leads as quickly as possible.
But there are also so many emails coming in that it can be hard to keep up.
In this case, you can use filters to ensure that your inbox is running smoothly. Filters are like a set of rules you can create in Gmail that will automatically sort incoming emails based on the criteria you set.
5. Keep your inbox clean with Gmail’s spam blocker
While you’re busy managing your email marketing and newsletters, you may not notice that your Gmail inbox is accumulating clutter. There are so many ways to keep your Gmail inbox clean.
Spam, sales and promotional messages, and other unwanted emails can get into your inbox without you realizing it. In addition, the more emails you receive in a day, the more likely you are to miss an important email from customers or prospects.
Use Gmail’s spam blocker to keep your inbox from filling up with unnecessary messages.
The BlockSender feature helps prevent the most common types of unwanted emails from reaching your inbox. You’ll never have to search for an email address to help categorize it as spam and never have to delete an email because it’s a promotional message.
The spam filter relies on machine learning techniques to classify new messages such as sale offers and requests for personal information and automatically block them from arriving in your inbox.
6. Integrate with other tools to extend the capabilities of Gmail
Gmail is not only the most popular email service globally but also one of the best tools for modern speakers.
It has many features, including calendar and reminder tools, that make scheduling events easier. It integrates with other Google products (including Gmail and Docs), so you can track your speaker activity easily through Google Sheets.
It’s also a perfect tool for creating notes, making generating speaker guides and speaker handouts easier.
You can rapidly integrate your speaker business with other tools, including Stripe and PayPal. They’re both pretty easy to set up and integrate with Gmail, so you can easily use your speakers’ PayPal accounts to collect payments from attendees.
Right Inbox is also an awesome Gmail extension that sits inside your Gmail account. It has 12 features in total such as email tracking, email reminders and mail merge. Check it out here.
Conclusion
As you can see from the great tips above, there are a ton of ways to use Gmail to manage your speaker business.
You have no excuse not to do it. It might take a bit of work to set up, but once you’re done, Gmail can become an indispensable tool for growing your speaker business. So what are you waiting for? Start writing those emails!
Track emails, email reminders & templates in Gmail for free
Upgrade Gmail with the features it’s missing
Add to GmailDavid Campbell
David Campbell is the editor of the Right Inbox blog. He is passionate about email productivity and getting more done in less time.