Speaking at conferences and events can be a powerful way to raise awareness and generate leads for your business. That is, once you are on a stage. 

Event organizers — those teams who are organizing tradeshows, business association meetings and industry symposiums — are always looking for guest and keynote speakers. There is plenty of opportunity out there, but there can also be stiff competition among speakers vying for a slot at an important event. 

Your company’s digital marketing efforts can help you win those key appearances by making a great, all-important first impression on those responsible for selecting event speakers.

The application
This is usually the first time the events team is aware of you, so get your application in on time. Explain your topic in a succinct and simple way. Explain it like you are talking to a five-year old. You may chuckle at this or roll your eyes, but often the speaker-selection team is not deeply experienced in your field, they are experts in event management. Make it easy for them to understand the topic you will speak about and why it will be useful to their audience to have you at the event.

Your area of expertise
Once your application is reviewed and put in the pile for consideration, the team will look you up online. They will search you on Google, and check out your website, your blog, your SlideShare, as well as your LinkedIn, Twitter, and other social-media accounts to find out more about you. They may sign up for your company newsletter.

They are looking for convincing proof that you are knowledgeable on the topic you want to speak about. And they want to be able to see samples of what that knowledge looks like.  

If your current digital marketing efforts do not pass the second stage of the event team’s evaluation process, here are four ways to get you started:

• Blog regularly. If your company site does not have a blog, start one and maintain a consistent schedule.
• Fill out your LinkedIn profile completely, including the publications section where you can post articles that you have written for industry publications.
• Share your expertise on a regular basis in order to help others. You can do this via Tweets, LinkedIn posts, and other social media accounts.
• Post your company presentation slide decks to SlideShare.

Good luck with your speaking in 2014!

Jen Kelly runs New Initiatives Marketing, which is focused on accelerating the growth of companies by executing their marketing strategies. She is director of speakers for TEDxDistilleryDistrictWomen and moderates a live weekly Q&A session online with marketing luminaries for MarketingProfs.