It’s 6pm at the end of a busy day and you’re at an industry event. The room is stuffy, the drinks are warm and watching paint dry would be more interesting than listening to the speaker.
We’ve all been there at one point or another during our careers. A dull speaker event is a grim experience if you’re in the audience…and even worse if you’re the speaker.
You may be passionate about your subject matter, but you can’t rely on that alone. Here at SMA Digital, our team has a wealth of experience when it comes to public speaking. So, we know that using your quiz when you speak at an event is a sure-fire way to captivate your audience and drive engagement.
In this article we will share our top tips on delivering a winning talk using your quiz.
Here are five ways your quiz can drive a winning talk, presentation, or masterclass
- It enables you to ask the right questions
Audiences can quickly become passive at a speaking event. When we sit down and listen to a speaker, we are programmed to be submissive recipients of the information. We sit quietly and soon the information just starts to wash over us. A lecture style talk with an endless stream of PowerPoint slides can send us into this catatonic state, and no one is gaining any enlightenment that way.
Asking questions encourages participation. It gives the audience a chance to evaluate their current situation and develop critical thinking. Intelligent and thought-provoking questions can initiate a discussion and increase engagement. What better way to do this than with a quiz that is already tailored to speak to directly with your ideal client.
- It helps you build rapport and increase engagement
There’s an old marketing idiom that states: ‘People buy from those they know, like and trust’. Without that connection, the likelihood of your audience actually listening to and considering your message, product or service will plummet. Some gifted speakers have a natural talent when it comes to engaging their audience and building rapport. But for most of us, a little preparation is necessary.
Getting everyone involved in a shared activity is the key to a successful talk, presentation, or masterclass. Your quiz is the perfect icebreaker, energiser or activity and a great tool for enhancing engagement, putting everyone at ease, and building trust.
- It’s a real time needs assessment
Determining how your audience will respond to your ideas is tough but necessary. If you don’t assess your audience, you risk confusing them and inviting a lot of questions that can distract from your main purpose.
Often when we speak at an event, we have little to no prior knowledge of who we’re talking to, what their understanding is, their past experiences, what their mindset is, or what their pain points are.
You can use your quiz as an opportunity to read the room. Either live or during a break you can assess the results and pull out any common themes that you can then talk to throughout the session. By doing this you will ensure your talk is relevant and speaks directly to the individuals in the room.
- It sells without selling
No one wants to attend a masterclass or training session and find that they’re actually in a sales pitch. When a speaker goes into full selling mode, the audience can quickly feel manipulated, pressured or shoe-horned into buying. Turning your presentation, talk or masterclass into a sales pitch makes you come across as inauthentic and can shatter any trust you might have built otherwise.
Your quiz is the perfect tool to showcase your expertise and what you can offer, while actually providing valuable insights to your audience.
- It provides a follow up with attendees
How often do we walk out of an event full of good intentions, only to find that our newfound knowledge quickly dissipates and the speaker and their organization fades into a distant memory? Planning a robust follow up procedure well in advance is just as important as preparing, practising, and perfecting your talk.
Running your quiz during your session means that the knowledge of who you are and what you do will go in deeper. But it also has the added bonus of providing an automated, custom-made follow up. Attendees leave your talk and will find their results and personalised feedback waiting for them in their inboxes as well a clear, relevant call to action enabling them to take the next step to continue their journey with you. If they’re not yet ready to take up your call to action, they will automatically go into an audience segment who receives your tailored sequence of nurture emails. You will have already created this nurture sequence before your audience ever saw you take the stage. Your quiz takes the faff out of the follow up.
Sounds great, but how does it work in practice?
Many software services provide capabilities and integrations to incorporate your quiz into your presentation and make it a live interactive activity, whether the event is online or in person. You can also include features such as leader boards and anonymous participation.
A Specialised Marketing Assessment from SMA Digital comes with its own unique URL. This gives you endless options when it comes to using your quiz in a live situation. For example, you can use a bit.ly link or a QR code that would allow everyone in the audience to take out their phones and complete the quiz. If it’s a virtual session, you can simply share your quiz URL in your meeting software, be it Zoom, Teams or something else.
If you’ve got a speaking event coming up, perhaps one that has been organised by a strategic partner, whose audience are your ideal prospects, you will want to give your presentation or masterclass a serious boost. Your quiz is the perfect solution to drive engagement and keep your audience hooked during and after the event. Our team are always available to support you in making your event a success and one that yields tangible results through using your quiz.
