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Marketing Yourself as ExpertMarketing yourself as an expert in your particular field can work wonders for your business. Read about some great ways to promote yourself in this way.
In any industry people, understandably, prefer dealing with an expert. You can use this fact to build competitive advantage for your business. By marketing yourself as an expert you raise the credibility of your business and grant people a sense of trust and security in doing business with you.
The obvious question is how to accomplish this effectively. A few suggestions that have worked well for motivated businesses:
- Gain an award. Winning an award is effective marketing, since it projects you as the expert and is something that can be featured in your promotional and marketing material.
- Know more about your industry. Even if you're relatively new to your industry, commit to learning as much as you can for marketing purposes. Aim to be more knowledgeable than competitors. To achieve this, do you or your staff need to go on any training courses?
- Write articles. Can you write a column for a local (or national) publication? For instance, a garden center owner could contribute a gardening column for a local newspaper. If you feel you lack writing skills, options include working with a freelance writer, journalist, retired schoolteacher or a professional writing organization.
- Develop booklets as giveaways for prospective customers. For example, a builder could publish a brief guide to building a home, something that covers common pitfalls in building and frequently asked questions. Publications in one form or another will do a great deal to establish you as the expert on your topic.
- Sign up for industry associations. Associations often need volunteers to help run them, such as committee members. By volunteering their services, many business people have worked their way up to becoming the president or chairperson of an association. In this position they are automatically seen as the industry expert.
- Become an industry spokesperson. If a development, such as new technology or new legislation, looks likely to affect your industry then consider sending your comments to the media. Even if the comments are not published or used, chances are the journalist will file your name for future reference.
- Speak to community organizations. This is another way for you to comment on interesting developments in your industry. Rotary, Lions and Zonta clubs are examples of organizations looking for speakers. Make sure you don't end up blatantly marketing or selling your products and services, otherwise the invitations will dry up.
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