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Positioning yourself as an expert is a great marketing strategy to attract new clients.
And it is surprisingly easy to do.
Here is a good example...
Cailen Ascher teaches marketing and business strategies to yoga teachers.
When she first started her online consulting business, instead of focusing on sales, she focused on establishing herself as a niche expert.
So she created a free weekly newsletter and also wrote for industry publications.
(Cailen knew that before people would buy from her, they would have to know, like, and trust her - so she concentrated on adding value and showcasing her expertise.)
Using these tactics she was able to grow an email list of engaged, enthusiastic prospects from 0 to nearly 1000 in just 9 months using only FREE online marketing tools and no paid advertising.
Cailen notes that no one "anoints" you an expert; you earn that title by consistently showing up and providing valuable content to your audience.
And when you consistently provide great content, people start to find you and ask if they can work with or buy from you.
Here is how Cailen positions herself as an expert:
Cailen distributes a weekly free newsletter which shares marketing and business tips for yoga teachers who want to transform their yoga teaching "hobby" into a business.
Cailen knew that in order for people to eventually pay for her business coaching, she would have to prove that she knew what she was talking about.
Even though she had no real following to speak of, she began to write weekly blog posts, and then distribute them via an online newsletter.
She also pitched relevant story ideas to yoga industry sites and blogs, and at the end of everything she wrote, included a bio that would encourage interested readers to sign-up for her free newsletter.
(Showing up on other people's well-read blogs and well-trafficked websites is a relatively easy and quick way to establish yourself as someone who knows what you're talking about.)
If the piece is well-written, it gives you instant credibility, and people want to connect with you via your newsletter with the promise of receiving more valuable, free content.
In order to consistently generate content of high value for her audience, Cailen always thinks about the questions they come to her with.
Being an expert is not about using a lot of big words and revealing complicated topics, it's about addressing the issues that your audience actually wants answered.
For Cailen, yoga teachers always want to know how to draw in more students, make more money, and better manage their time.
These topics alone can give her countless newsletters' worth of great content, because it speaks to the topics that her audience values most.
Always remember, you're writing for your customers, not your competitors!
Here's how you get people to subscribe or register:
Cailen's newsletter sign-ups jumped immensely when she started offering a "freebie" for signing-up. Though the promise of a free weekly newsletter is enough to get some people to register, giving an extra incentive is always a good idea.
She has her newsletter opt-in above the fold on her website's homepage, and when people sign-up they receive an instant download of an 18-page e-book that covers the Yoga Biz Essentials. This freebie has made a world of difference with the number of sign-ups that she gets.
At the end of every article Cailen writes for other sites and blogs, she always invites people to sign-up for her newsletter.
Expert positioning takes a little time to implement and is something you may like to use in your own business as well.
'An expert is someone who knows some of the worst mistakes that can be made in his subject, and how to avoid them' Werner Karl Heisenberg
Action Exercise:
To reap the benefits of "expert" status...
1: Start an email newsletter, and put a newsletter sign-up on your website's homepage above the fold (i.e. on an area of the page that you can see without scrolling down).
2: Offer to write guest posts for industry leaders' blogs and websites - include a "call to action" in your author bio that encourages people to sign-up for your newsletter.
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