Building Your Name/Business As The Authority

I held a seminar this morning for a bunch of small business owners, and they all loved the subject matter that I presented. I thought it's pretty relevant with any business even the online only ones so I wanted to share with you what I talked about.

It was about building your name and your business as the authority in your niche. Even if you are only selling through an anonymous website as an unknown contributor, presenting yourself as someone who not only knows the subject matter but will deliver the results they look for will make the sales come much easier.

I think a common misconception about being the authority is that its all about the expertise. When in fact, it's more then just expertise that brings about authority. There are thousands of marketers out there, but what do some just have to say product launch and they receive a million bucks. What makes you an authority is the expertise plus the influence. When people are waiting to hear what you have to say next is when you've established authority. They hang on your every word.

As a consultant, one of the first things I do with clients other then fix their profit leaks right off the bat is start to build them as an authority in their industry. When people are searching for you instead of you searching for them, this becomes a piece of cake. Here are some of the ways that I make that happen for them:

Become An Author


Now the public considers digital products and actually printed products completely different. As internet marketers, we think digital baby...because of the no cost to get it up and going. When you actually have a published book though, your everyday public looks twice. Not only does your everyday public consider you different, so does the media...which I will get into later.

You don't have to go through a major publisher either. There are lots of ways to get your book published for only a couple hundred bucks. Book Printing, Book Publishing, Self Publishing is a good spot and I know amazon offers a service to do it as well.

It's something you should think about especially if you are out of the IM niche. Not sure if it would make much of a difference with the IM niche since in my experience they are a different breed...they love their convenience.



Don't Be Afraid To Speak In Public


Doing seminars and public speaking events is great for building your credibility and increasing your influence. Public speaking events is like jump starting your referral based business from nothing to astronomical. The second you help someone in the crowd, they are going to tell someone else about how great your event was. You've got people coming to your site, searching who you are, and pretty much just let the explosion go on. The power of referrals is tremendous and public speaking is a key step to fast referral building even for web based businesses.



Getting Press Coverage Is Great



Being mentioned in a newspaper, magazine, being a guest on a radio show, or tv program can generate so much attention to your business its ridiculous. Not only that, but having a clip of you on a reputable TV station on your website is instant authority status. Even just a simple newspaper article about your business can and will get customers knocking on your door.

I contact reporters daily for my consulting business and give them my angle on a story developing. If you can just get one interview, you have a nice windfall of traffic rolling in. The key is giving something that their audience will be interested in. They don't care about your new release or anything like that. Newsworthy stories!



Authority Through Your Website


If you are presenting your website as a business in your niche, then there are lots and lots of ways to build little bits of credibility. Here are some simple things you can do to help start building that authority:
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• • Add Association Logos - BBB, BNI, Local Chamber of Commerce, etc.
    
  • If you sell a physical product, adding logos of places like FedEx, UPS, and USPS helps. Allow their million dollar marketing campaigns rub some credibility of on you
    
  • Have methods of payment accepted logos such as credit card logos. Shows you have been approved by 3rd party vendors who have spent millions building their credibility and they have approved you. You could also add PayPal or other online checkout logos.
    
  • Offering a powerful guarantee and make it a logo.
  • List a toll free number. You don't need anybody to pick up, it could be used as just another form of email or information capture. Get someone with a nice voice do a recording for you. Costs like $20/year through skype to get a number.
    
  • Include any awards you have earned
    
  • Any press release or news story featuring you or your business should be on your website.
  • Splashing testimonials across your website in random locations shows that what you do works.
  • Celebrity endorsements will rock your credibility even if they are just industry specific celebrities. Having pictures of you shaking hands with the celebrity etc.
  • Contact page including a picture of your office or building if you have one, full address, Fax , etc.
  • Link to Secretary of States office with YOUR business listing
  • A video of you speaking about your industry will boost your authority as well.

These are all methods to build a little more authority in your industry and be the go to guy when it comes to their problems. It makes it much easier when you are the authority.

Think how easy it is for someone like Tony Robbins to sell something. He is such an authority that just by presenting an idea he will find a million dollar investor. He didn't start that way though.

Travis