If you follow what I write about you’ll know that I talk about the RAVE acronym – Reputation, Authority, Visibility, Expertise – and today I’m focused on Expertise.
Unless someone has actually paid for your services, how do they know how good you are? They have to take your level of expertise on trust.
OK – sometimes people can read testimonials or recommendations that have either been written or recorded on video. But you’d be unlikely to publish anything that wasn’t complimentary, so there’s a likelihood that even third party validation is only the plus side of the equation (and could be from a selection of your friends who have been recruited to help).
So how do you get people to WANT to use YOU?
Become a big show-off!
There are a number of ways to do this:
- Do presentations at your local networking groups
- Offer to speak at conferences and trade shows
- Run a webinar as a ‘taster’ freebie
- Organise a seminar or workshop at an affordably low cost for delegates.
- Write magazine articles
- Write blogs
1 & 2 require you to be reasonable confident presenting to a crowd and to learn some of the skills of a professional speaker to appear professional.
3 & 4 need some training skills to ensure your audience gets their learning in a way that is easy for them to follow. It also means you need a way to get ‘bums on seats’.
5 will require some schmoozing with the editors of the magazines that your target audience reads to find out if they accept uncommissioned articles and what kind of subject and angle they’re looking for.
6 is the only one of these that is totally down to you. It’s your blog – you can write whatever you like. Here is your opportunity to show off your expertise in a big way.
I’m not saying don’t use the first five – they’re all great ways to get your expertise in front of more people, but writing a regular blog is definitely the easiest of all of them.
Not all blog posts focus on a ‘how to …’ approach, but if you use this you’ll be able to demonstrate your considerable expertise in relevant subjects.
This is not the first time I’ve said this – and the usual response is ‘but if I give away all my secrets people won’t want to buy my services, they’ll just follow the instructions and do it for themselves.’ This is rarely the case.
If people don’t want to or can’t pay for your services they were probably never likely to become your client – so you’ve given them some help – that’s great.
Most people like to know that there is a solution, but don’t actually want to go through the hassle of doing it themselves. For instance, I can manage to complete a spreadsheet and upload my invoices and receipts, but I really don’t want to spend my time doing that. It’s definitely one of those tasks that would keep getting put off – so I pay an accountant for their time. They do it faster, better and leave me free to do what I’m good at and enjoy doing.
Using your blog to show off how good you are is a great way to create a positive image.
Footnote: When you’ve posted your blog, don’t stop there. Promote it on your chosen social media, add it to your LinkedIn profile as a post, use it to lead your newsletter. There are lots of ways to ensure more people see it – and what an expert you are!
