“Since we launched the CXL Live website, I’m getting more and more cold pitches to speak at the event. Most pitches are sent by PR companies or assistants to CEOs. This will never fly.
If they’d only do the effective work beforehand: build a relationship with me, engage with me on social, come to my meetups, get lunch with me. Whatever. Just make an effort to build an actual relationship. But no. People go for the cold first ask. It’s exactly the wrong thing to do—in every circumstance. Your cold outreach should never be an ask.
Remember that the world still runs on relationships. You will be n times more successful with your ask if you’ve met the person before, even if it’s meeting virtually. In that case, you’d need way more touches on social than real life to have the same effect.
If you want to speak at a conference, here’s the right way to do it:
- Be skilled in your craft, work on interesting stuff worth talking about.
- Make a list of all the events you want to speak at.
- Befriend the organizers. This is basically like an ABM strategy. But it has to be a real relationship though.
- Ask to speak (much later).”
– Peep, CXL – conversionxl.com