The Art of Being The Expert, Part 3
Last time I talked about keeping it simple when crafting messages for your potential consumer. You know that your own understanding of your product or services far surpasses that of the average Joe – i.e. your potential clients. Putting yourself in your customers’ shoes is a big first step to become the expert.
Now, let’s get more specific. Begin to think about what web searching (SEO) specialists do all the time for businesses. Their job is to anticipate how people request information on specific topics.
They are aided with keyword statistics that track the most used search terms for a particular topic (like your services or products). With much less of a statistical analysis, you can do the same as it relates to your expertise or business. As an example, suppose you are a jeweler, an accountant or an orthopedic surgeon and you have an opportunity to emerge as the expert in your respective market. You work with customers, clients and patients each and everyday and the feedback you receive is golden.
Remember, you know your business, and you likely know your customers better than anyone.
As an exercise, let’s make this simple. Take out a pen and piece of paper. Write down the top five questions you hear from your customers. They are likely extraordinarily simple. They should be. For the
jeweler, they may be something like: (To be clear, I have absolutely no expertise with jewelry, except for my numerous attempts at guessing what my wife will appreciate!) How do I choose a quality diamond? How do I pick the right piece of jewelry for my girlfriend? Why is the price of gold so high? Etc. This can go for any range of business owners. An accountant would be wise to develop content around a question like: How will the fiscal cliff compromise impact my tax return? Or an orthopedic surgeon would be smart to develop content around the question: How do I know if knee surgery is right for me?
Some businesses or organizations post frequently asked questions (FAQs) on their website and literature to reduce calls and other forms of communication from the general public.
On the contrary, as a small business owner looking to grow your business, this will be the basis for content that will drive qualified customers to you and your business. Being the expert means that you, of course, want potential customers to come to you for answers. In today’s complex world of marketing, that means drawing customers to follow your strategically-placed calls to action – a landing page for your website, calling your business by phone, and simply, stepping foot into your store and buying your product(s).
Now that you have identified your most common questions, sketch out the answers to those questions. You’ve just begun the journey to developing quality web content, literature, videos, talking points for appearances on television, radio, and podcast and an outline for speaking engagements that will inevitably come your way when you claim your position as the expert.
So far the steps have been pretty simple. You know your product and services, you’ve identified some of the most common topics within your expertise and have begun to create an outline for your messaging. Now comes the part that takes some real understanding of your market, and strategic allocation of your time, energy and resources to do it right.
In Part 4 of The Art of Being the Expert, you will learn the importance of sharpening your messaging, embracing your role as the expert, creating collateral materials and content that reinforces your expertise, and begin to identify how to use the media and public events to amplify your message.
OneEighty Media specializes in providing the tools you would need to effectively become the expert in your field to enhance your position in the market. We look forward to having a conversation with you about your business.
President of OneEighty Media, Inc., John Krol serves as Director of Accounts and lead communications consultant for this full-service marketing, communications and advertising firm. John’s extensive experience in journalism, broadcasting, public relations, government relations, SEM, community outreach and marketing provides a unique perspective for businesses looking to re-energize and diversify their marketing efforts.
