Event planners and marketers spend real effort building a speaker lineup that lends an event authority and relevance. They vet expertise, sharpen session titles, commission headshots and build speaker pages. Then promotion typically flattens into something remarkably plain: Share this with your audience.
That's a curious imbalance. Organizers invest heavily in the person, and then ask them to repeat the same message everyone else is sharing. A speaker offers something far more valuable than reach: expertise, credibility and an audience that already listens to them. The practical question is how to put those advantages to use before the event even begins. Give speakers an idea worth discussing rather than an event worth attending.
Give speakers something they'd want to share anyway
A generic request, "please post about the conference," puts the speaker in an awkward spot; their audience follows them for expertise, not event logistics, and a plain registration link can feel like an ad they never agreed to run.
What actually works is a sharper ask, something the speaker would want to say regardless of the event — a specific claim, a question they're wrestling with or a preview of an argument. The registration link becomes a footnote to something they already wanted to talk about.
That principle holds well outside events. A 2025 Edelman-LinkedIn study found that 53 percent of B2B decision-makers say a company's brand name matters less when its content shows real expertise. It's the same reason a speaker's post lands better when it carries an idea instead of a plug.
Match the request to their audience
Getting the request right also means knowing who you're asking. A researcher, an association board member and a hands-on practitioner rarely share an audience — or a comfort level with self-promotion. Treating them the same way wastes the genuine advantage that speaker promotion has over paid advertising: The message actually sounds like the person delivering it.
A technical speaker might share a pointed observation about their field more readily than an open invitation. An executive speaker may need language their own communications team would approve first. Knowing the difference before you ask saves a round of back-and-forth and gets you a share that actually sounds like them.
Ask early enough to actually get a yes
Even the sharpest ask can land at the wrong moment. Most speaker promotion requests arrive too late, once the agenda and marketing plan are already locked. A busy speaker then has two options: decline, or produce something forgettable.
Extend that request earlier, while their session is still being shaped, and let them help shape what they're being asked to promote. A speaker who helped frame their own session description is considerably more inclined to share it than one handed a finished promotion request with no room to make it their own.
Treat speaker promotion as a long game
This year's request shapes next year's answer. Many speakers return, whether for a future edition of the same event or a different one in your portfolio. How they're treated during this year's promotion effort determines whether they say yes to speaking, let alone promoting, again.
Requests should be made sparingly and specifically rather than often and generically, following up with thanks rather than a next request. Remember that a speaker who feels used once is a speaker who's harder to book twice.
The same research offers a related finding: Its 2024 edition found that 90 percent of decision-makers grew more receptive to future outreach from companies that consistently produced strong expert content. Goodwill builds. It doesn't reset every time you ask for something.
The speaker lineup is often one of the most visible parts of an event's marketing. The opportunity is dependent on asking for the right thing, at the right time, in a way that respects what the speakers are actually offering. Tap into their credibility, not just their reach.
Ian Davis is vice president of Marketing at Snöball, where he helps brands turn their audiences into measurable acquisition channels. A sponsored skater turned video storyteller and B2B marketer, he has spent the past decade helping SaaS brands turn expertise into stories that travel.
