The Power Of Recognition As An Expert In Your Niche
Few people go online specifically to purchase products or services; believing that they do is the biggest mistake that most marketers make. People use the internet to track down information about products, services, whatever; information that leads them to a solution; a solution to a problem they are currently experiencing. When you grasp this indisputable fact you are in a position to enjoy the unique power of being recognised as an expert in your own niche – and the internet makes it easy for you because all the information people are looking for is categorised in precise cubbyholes.
Imparting Information That Provides Solutions
The power of being recognised as an expert in a niche is personified in the article below published in a national daily newspaper on 7 September 2005.
- The information sought: finding lost friends;
- The solution: wrap every conceivable eventuality in the website database.
Steve and Julie did it their way with incredible results but you can also achieve the power of recognition as an expert in your niche doing it your way. While it is highly unlikely you will emulate their success, you might just do enough to put your small business on the map – online.
Why Expert Status Is More Attainable Online Than Offline
This power is formidable and it is yours to command whether you decide to remain local or convert your business into a global concern. What’s more, you can attain expert status much quicker, more easily, and less expensively online than were you to attempt to do so offline. You will be using the incredible muscle of the internet to make your mark and you will have at your disposal the world’s most sophisticated tools – and all at no charge.
The Tools You Will Need To Mark Yourself As An Expert In Your Niche
The tools you will need are the very devices you will use to promote your business online and the simple secret to marketing yourself as an expert in your niche is the care you will take in presenting the information you wish to impart.
This information must:
- provide genuine solutions;
- be reliable;
- herald you as someone who knows their business;
- breed trust;
- cause people to regard you as an expert in your field.
It is not enough to give the impression that you are an expert; you must prove it in all that you claim your information will accomplish.
Powering Up The Tools With Your Expertise
- Your website is your virtual storefront and sales pitch rolled into one. No matter how modest the format, make sure the presentation is professional. You don’t need lots of images and gismos; it is words that matter, words that convey your philosophy, carry authority, instill confidence in the reader that you know what you are about; words that not only indicate but prove your expertise.
- Your articles are a prime vehicle for demonstrating your expertise online and you should be churning them out at regular intervals, distributing them at least once a month to the ezine directories listed in Chapter 20. Never treat article writing as a boring chore. Embrace it with passion. It has the power to brand you as a connoisseur faster than any other activity you will undertake online. Conversely, treat article writing with disdain and you will be branded as an amateur. The screen capture immediately below provides evidence that anyone can achieve expert author status for their article output.
- Your newsletter is equally important in building your reputation online because when subscribers opt to join your list they have a right to expect quality, eloquence, and factual information in every communication you send out. Provide them with anything less than total commitment and they will drift away in droves faster than it took you to enlist them.
- Your email marketing must be charged with the same dedication because despite the difficulties currently experienced by marketers using this medium it still exercises tremendous influence on your status in the marketplace.
- Your links to other websites should always be chosen with extreme care. Link to the wrong sites and people will get the wrong impression about you, your business and your standing as an authority in your niche.
Providing Solutions To Problems
The power of recognition as an expert is not the exclusive province of big business. You can acquire expert status for a small business niche with a mini-site providing the information you purvey provides users with genuine solutions to problems.
It could even make you famous ...