Be Where Your Audience Is

In a previous post on Authority Marketing, we talked about the importance of knowing your audience through market research so that you can position yourself in a way that people relate to, resonate with and believe in.

And one of the best things you can do to position yourself at the top of your market is to learn as much as possible about your competition, as well as what’s selling in your niche and what your customer base wants most from you.

Then later, you can expand.

That way you’re not only able to locate your customer base, but you’ll also have a clear focus and a solid action plan. Instead of trying to be everywhere at once, you’ll also be able to narrow down the places that you can best connect to your audience.

OK, so, the next logical step is to be where your market spends most of their time.

Creating your own forum or message board is great, but it’s always easier to connect with people within the social platforms and websites they are already familiar with and actively use.

What one social media platform is most commonly used by your core audience?

When conducting research for one of my markets, I discovered that most of my younger customers spend more time on Twitter or Instagram while the older generation seems to prefer Facebook.

You might even find that your ideal customer likes some other platform entirely, like Pinterest, Reddit or YouTube.

The point is: do your research and find out where they are spending their time online. Then join the discussion!

Set up accounts on these platforms and create a content plan that stays true to your brand. Don’t confuse your business brand with your personal life, either. You’ll want a separate account where you’re going to share expert advice and high-quality information that targets specific areas of your niche.

You don’t need family photos or your political views on that platform. Keep it separate and keep it focused!

Create a consistent theme across all platforms as well. Use the same color scheme and other components and elements so that you’re able to solidify your brand and become instantly recognizable. This is critical when it comes to creating a well-known brand that people identify.

Use a good professional photo and profile picture. If you need royalty-free images, try Dreamtime or Shutterstock. It’s usually best to spring for a good professional photo you can use on across your platform.

Create a killer bio, focusing on what really matters to your audience.  This will include relevant keywords that instantly identify who you are and what your focus is. And of course, include a link to your website or squeeze page where you offer a free incentive for joining your inner circle.

Then, spend time connecting with your core audience!  Offer quality information, link back to a blog or website as often as possible and focus on delivering value.

That’s how authorities are created.

Tip: Look for things like:

• Commonly asked questions posted by your target audience.
• Posts with a high number of comments or likes.
• Posts with the highest number of social shares.

Identify Pain Points

Now that you’re on most popular social media platforms that your customer base uses, pay attention. Follow trending hashtags (#) in your area of expertise to see what people are talking about.

“Friend” or “Follow” some other experts and read their posts. Always work towards staying engaged. Comment where appropriate so people begin to associate your brand to being a knowledgeable person and thought-leader.

Not particularly emotional pain, but what struggles are they facing in their personal or business lives?

This step takes a bit of time, but it’ll be worth it in the end because you’ll know, with certainty, exactly how to solve problems and position yourself as someone who can help them reach their goals.

You can’t possibly learn enough from your core audience based on one or two posts or comments.

Really dig down into these ongoing conversations and see what the majority of people are saying or needing help with within your market.

What do they already know and what do they need to become aware of?

What areas have been exhausted and where do you see a niche you can fit yourself into?

Remember, you’re looking at what the majority needs help with. Never focus your marketing campaigns on what one or two people need help with. Instead, always look for ways to solve the largest problem in your market.

Engage in conversations regularly. This goes beyond just social media as well.  You should be frequently visiting authority blogs, or forums, as well as Facebook groups that include an active audience.

The point is to make yourself visible and to stay on people’s radar.

In fact, you’ll automatically build an audience just because you’ve dedicated time to addressing problems and consistently provided helpful content that resonated with them.

If you want to know more about leveraging the power of authority marketing, then check out the featured resource below for a free report that expands on this post; download, read and take action 🙂

Authority Marketing 101

If you want to increase your sales and expand your outreach, you need to position yourself as an authority in your market.

An authority can:

• Persuade visitors into becoming lifelong customers.
• Easily convert traffic into buyers.
• Maximize their income quickly.
• Expand into new markets easily.
• Build a brand and audience in any market.

The first step in your journey to positioning yourself as an authority in your niche is to ask yourself two important questions:

• Who are you?
• What do you have to offer?

Seems like two rather easy questions, right?

Because ultimately, all people are about is “what is in it for them?”

They need to know how you plan to help them, what you bring to the table and how you will solve their problems.

Authority marketing is about positioning your business in a way that you become the logical choice when someone is making the decision who to turn to for help, advice, products or services.

Your goal is to become the go-to person in your niche, or at the very least, one of the first names that come to mind when someone thinks about who to turn to for help with specific topics.

Note that I didn’t say “specific markets or niches”, I said topic.

That’s because it’s always best to position yourself so that people identify you as an authority on a very specific topic or category rather than the market as a whole.

For example, rather than trying to establish yourself as the authority of all things related to blogging, positioning yourself as someone who is known for teaching people how to drive traffic to blogs, allows you to connect to a specific audience.

This will make your marketing campaigns far more effective and targeted than when casting a wider net.

Trust me, it’ll cut down on a lot of research, trial and error and testing as well because you’ll be able to spend the majority of your time researching that one specific segment of a market and learning everything you need to know about it.

So, begin by taking some time to decide what area of your niche you’ll venture into.  Then you’ll be able to study that segment of the market thoroughly, create a plan of action and execute quickly.

Know Your Audience

Sounds obvious, right?

You need to know WHO you your audience really is and HOW you can help them.

In fact, knowing your audience is one of the most important things you can do when trying to establish yourself as an authority in your market.

This goes beyond just creating a quick overview of your average customer. Instead, spend time on the same websites, in the same circles and on the same platforms that they do.

Always put yourself in your customers’ shoes. They don’t care about your personal goals – they care only about themselves and their needs – and above all else, how you will help them solve a problem.

Read that again: you’re the only one who truly cares about your business growth. Everyone else just cares about how your business can personally help them.

This means that your focus should always be on identifying key areas in your market where people are struggling.

Then you can use that information in many different areas of your business, such as: coming up with customized products and services that fill that need, developing a USP (Unique Selling Proposition) that offers a promise to solve that problem and creating marketing campaigns that trigger your audience into taking action.

Thorough market research is the key to success when it comes to gaining the advantage of becoming an authority.

Those who overlook the importance of truly understanding their audience even before they create a business plan or launch a marketing campaign will quickly discover just how difficult it is to gain traction.

In fact, without knowing your audience, you’re venturing into a market blindfolded with little chance of success.

On the flip side, putting time and effort into researching your market and connecting with your core audience early on, will make all the difference in your ability to create in-demand products and services that are a no-brainer for your customer base.

You’ll be able to stand out from the crowd, position yourself as an expert and easily convince people to give your brand and business a chance.
And your marketing campaigns will be far more successful and ultimately, cost you less in terms of time spent tweaking and split-testing campaigns. Because you’ll know what makes people tick.

Are your ads mainly geared towards highlighting features rather than the benefits?

Are your campaigns structured in a way that personally connects with your core audience and goes to work at solidifying your brand?

Do they help position you as an expert?

When it comes to the psychology behind successful brand building and authority positioning, it often hinges on your ability to demonstrate empathy.

The more you do this, the easier it will be to resonate with your audience and connect with your customer base.  You’ll come off as more personable, approachable and as someone who truly has their best interests at heart.

There are 3 basic types of empathy: cognitive, emotional, and compassionate.

Cognitive empathy is also known as perspective-taking. It’s the ability to think the way someone else thinks, to imagine you’re them and see how they’d react to something.

It’s a useful skill, especially in marketing, but not exactly what you imagine true empathy should be. Empathy should have an emotional component if it’s going to go the distance.

Emotional empathy is when you inject emotional triggers into your campaigns, ads, sales copy and general content.

How do your customers feel when they look at your ads or read your content? What emotions do you stimulate with your communications, campaigns, emails?

Emotional empathy allows you to feel what others do, like when you hear someone laughing and you smile without knowing exactly what they’re laughing at.

It’s contagious. And when you learn to inject this kind of emotion into your overall brand, your ability to connect with your audience will become one of your super powers. J

Finally, compassionate empathy is the ability to identify someone’s emotion and act on that with a solution.

In this way, you’ll create something that not only takes their feelings into account, but gives them a logical solution to that emotion.

Example:  Someone is stressed out because they’re unable to pay their monthly bills. You understand their concerns, what keeps them up at night and act on that with a solution: a business opportunity that will help them gain financial freedom and eliminate stress.

Stress is the emotion you identify and your business positions itself in such a way as to become the solution to eliminating or addressing that emotion.

And it doesn’t have to be a negative emotion either. Someone could feel elated that they have discovered that blogging is a great way to connect with people and help them but they need to know how to create that blog, launch that blog and grow that blog.

All of this comes down to knowing your market so you can position yourself as the expert and authority they are looking for.

They’ll feel they need you, that you’re the solution to their problems and that you truly understand how they are feeling and what they need most.

That is how you’ll stand out in your market 🙂

If you want to know more about leveraging the power of authority marketing, then check out the featured resource below for a free report that expands on this post; download, read and take action 🙂