You know that if you want to increase your sales and expand your outreach, you need to position yourself as an authority in your market.
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 we also covered being where your audience is here.
One of the easiest ways to position yourself as an expert in your niche so you can maximize your outreach and income is to create share-worthy content.
What does this mean?
This is also called pillar content because it’s the strongest, most engaging material found on your website, blog or within your marketing campaigns and funnels.
Ideally, your content should always focus on 3 main things:
Connecting with your readers. Your content needs to resonate with your audience, so they begin to see you as an authority or expert on the topic. This means that your content needs to be well-researched, actionable and comprehensive.
Persuading your readers. Your writing needs to motivate them into taking action, even if that simply involves returning to your website again, subscribing to your newsletter or sharing your content with others.
In order to persuade readers, you need to earn their trust and convince them, through your content, that you are an expert on the topic and that they can learn something useful from you.
Exciting your readers. Your content should invoke excitement and convince people that you have something valuable to offer that will improve their lives in some way.
So, begin by thinking about what your primary objective is.
Identifying your content’s objective before you start writing it is extremely important and will ensure that your material is direct, informative and hits the target.
Once you know what your objective is, concentrate on conveying your message in a concise, direct manner.
Create exceptional, highly-targeted content that people will want to share because it speaks to them directly, communicates a positive message that supports your brand and demonstrates your knowledge on the topic.
And above all else, it explains to your audience what’s in it for them.
You want to gain the respect of your market so you can build an authority website that people turn to again and again, and you’ll do that by producing top-notch content that helps your audience in one specific way.
And if you are suffering from writer’s block and have no idea how to create shareworthy content, go to the source!
Take down notes! Write down anything that comes to mind whether it’s an idea for a killer blog topic, or ideas regarding content structure, format and style. It’ll all come in handy later.
One great tool that makes it exceptionally easy to research your competition so you can find the top content in your niche, collaborate with influencers and gain access to content insights that will help you generate fresh ideas is by using BuzzSumo.
They offer a free version so check it out: http://www.BuzzSumo.com
Now let’s look at some platforms that can help you out…
These two platforms connect journalists with experts. HARO stands for Help a Reporter Out. These “matchmaking sites” hook journalists up with experts who can answer their questions and help them with their research.
ProfNet is designed for public relations experts who want to pitch their organizations to journalists. You set up your profile on the site and set preferences for which types of queries you’re interested in.
HARO will deliver an email three times daily (5:45am; 12:45pm: 5:00pm EST) to sources, listing dozens of queries from reporters looking for experts.
They’ll describe the type of story they’re working on and list what expertise they’re looking for. You can reply to the queries and give your qualifications.
Let them know why you’re the perfect person for that story. In addition, HARO is free but offers a paid selection with more filtering options.
There are a couple of other similar service as well. SourceBottle includes a searchable database of active queries so you can hook up with the right journalist. PitchRate is mainly for bloggers and website owners, but it’s the same sort of game: they’re looking for experts to comment or post articles on their sites.
Here’s some advice from a HARO writer (Ritka Puri):
Focus on the story instead of your bio. “I care about what the interviewee has to say and am less concerned with how many patents the person holds.”
Make and keep journalist relationships. When pitching, mention whether you’ve worked with a journalist before.
Answer the question in a direct way. Don’t just ask if they’d like to interview you. Give them a direct reply to their question so they can decide for themselves.
Be personable and helpful. Your contact should contain a friendly introduction, a fun fact, keywords or bullet points that describe your story, and humility!
Press releases are still incredibly viable marketing tools, so be sure to check them out. They’ll help you get attention, generate buzz and create brand awareness.
Here are a couple resources to look into:
And here are a couple of articles to help you create the most effective press release for your business:
https://neilpatel.com/blog/ironclad-rules-for-press
https://www.shopify.ca/blog/how-to-write-a-press-release
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 🙂
There is more to hosting a webinar than simply having one. You need to ensure that it’s fun, informative and useful too. When people go to a webinar, they know that they’ll get a sales pitch eventually. But what makes them come back is the actual content outside of the sales pitch.
Plus, if they choose to purchase due to your sales pitch, the product must be fabulous. If you offer your audience amazing promises, you need to live up to them.
There are many types of webinar software that you can choose for your webinar marketing, and the one you choose will depend on personal preference mainly.
Once you have your ideal platform, you need to focus on the content so let’s look at some ways to make your webinars shine and make people want to sign up for your products or services.
* Make It Educational – Every webinar should offer a message that educates the audience on something they need to know and can put into action right away. If the message is informative and gives them something they can do without even buying your offer, they’ll want to see more from you and may eventually buy your products or use your services.
* Keep the Message Clear – If your message isn’t crystal clear to your audience, they may leave your webinar confused. You don’t want that to happen. You want your audience to be able to digest the information in an understandable way.
* Be Entertaining – While you’re getting them the information, it’s important to also not make it boring. Be lively and entertaining. Share a story that they can relate to. Show your humanity to them and they’ll want to know more.
* Pick an Awesome Topic – This is really the most important part of the webinar. Your topic should be something that makes your audience excited to learn more. In order to choose the right topic, you need to match your expertise with what your audience needs.
* Give Attendees a Special Gift – Approximately 75 percent of the people who sign up for your webinar will not attend. But you can boost attendance if you give those who attend something no one else will get. Make it something people will talk about.
* Host It at the Right Day and Time – Knowing your audience will also help you know the perfect day and time to host your webinar. You may ultimately choose to host more than one in order to cover all the bases.
* Create an Awesome Information Page – This is not a sales page, but instead a page that lets those who have signed up for your event know what exactly will happen at the event. You can mention the freebies you’ll be giving away during the webinar and the information you’ll cover more in depth.
* Follow Up – When someone signs up for the webinar you should have an autoresponder set up to immediately thank them for signing up, sharing the information page and other information that will encourage them to attend the webinar live.
* Send Reminders – Sometimes people do not attend the webinar live simply due to forgetting. Some webinar systems have the ability to set up reminders, but even if it doesn’t you can set them up with the autoresponder system.
Of course, digital events aren’t the only way to reach your audience. You can also go in person to local events, and these can be used to network with potential business partners or to find new customers.
Here are a few pointers to keep in mind when attending a live event.
Building your business with networking is important, but you need to make sure you do it right.
This list is by no means exhaustive, but it gives you some idea of local event etiquette!
* Thoroughly practice your thirty-second elevator pitch. You need to get this down so you can get all of the points out that you need to express to people in just thirty seconds. It should be second nature, so when you meet people on the fly you can tell them what you’re all about.
* Social media is great, but so are face-to-face meetings. When your online contacts are in the area, plan time to meet face to face. Attend regular meetups in your area as well. Those face-to-face meetings are great for making connections.
* Have a good handshake. A handshake says a lot about a person. Make it a good, firm handshake.
* Always have your business cards at the ready. You really never know when you’re going to meet someone, so be sure you carry business cards with you at all times.
* If you make a promise, then be sure that you follow through on it. Follow up with the people that you meet. This is going to build those relationships you made nice and strong.
* Keep in touch. Have regular meetings with your network and be sure to offer them your assistance when asking for their help on something. If you’re having an event, then invite the people in your network too.
* Ask for help. If you’re looking to expand your business, then you need people to help you get the word out. Make sure you ask your network to help you out with spreading the word on whatever you’re working on or whatever you need help with.
* Set goals. Having measurable goals in your networking will help keep you on track and get your business where you want it to be on a specific timeline.
* Be grateful. Saying thank you to your contacts will go a long way in showing your appreciation for what they have done for you.
* Find ways to give back to your network. This is a great way to show appreciation, but it also builds those relationships even stronger when you can help out those who have helped you. No one wants to feel used, so that’s why it’s so important to give back.
* Hard sell. If it’s the first-time meeting someone, then you shouldn’t do a hard sell on your product. This should be a time of getting to know you and what you are all about, not about getting money out of someone for your product.
* Monopolize the time talking about yourself. You should be finding out about the person you’re meeting rather than telling them all about you. If you show interest in the other person, then they will be more interested in you as someone who listens.
* Drink too much. Give yourself a two-drink maximum when you’re networking. It will make sure that you are coherent when you talk, and that you don’t say anything you later wish you hadn’t.
What networking advice do you have for local events?
OK, there are some handy hints to maximise your efforts in both local in-person events and webinars and I hope they were useful to you.
Any type of webinar or sales presentation relies on good sales copy and there are many pitfalls and mistakes that inexperienced copywriters can make. If you want to know more about avoiding these and other copywriting mistakes, take a look at the featured resource below where you can download a copy of a free report, Copywriting Blunders, so you will be forewarned and can make your copy more effective. Download, read it and take action 😊
When you decide to embark on an affiliate marketing career, an affiliate marketing blog is a must have strategy. It can seem a little overwhelming to set one up if you’re not technologically advanced but setting up a blog is actually pretty simple with a few easy steps and should be an integral part of your affiliate marketing plan
First, you’ll need to register a domain (use Namecheap). This is your website address – also known as your URL. Make sure you choose carefully when you choose your domain and see that it reflects the topic of the niche. You’ll have to pay a small fee each year to keep your domain name.
Second, you’ll need to set up hosting. A2 Hosting is one of the most economical and popular options for hosting and gives you great technical support. You’ll pay a monthly fee for hosting – unless you want to pay up front for a discount.
Once you have a domain and hosting, it’s time to set up your blog. The easiest way to do this is to use Fantastico. This is a program built into A2 Hosting that installs your blog on the website. It’s very user friendly and doesn’t require you to have a technical background.
You’ll need to choose a theme for your blog. There are many options – from very simple freebies to very detailed, paid custom designs. When you’re starting out, it’s best to choose a simple theme. Once you’re more comfortable with blogging, you may decide to install something more advanced.
It’s important to make sure your blog is set up to be searched by search engines. Under Settings, you’ll want to give your site a title and a tagline, which tells people what the site is about. You’ll also want to assign an email address and set up your date and time zone. Then you’ll need to decide how you want comments and posts to be displayed on your blog.
Finally, you’ll want to personalize your blog. You’ll select a header that reflects your niche. You’ll also want to create an about page so that people can understand who the author is. This is known as an About page. Make sure you share a photo so that readers can connect more personally with you. Create a disclaimer page that helps you abide by any legal rules or terms of service.
As you write posts, you’ll want to make sure that you’re personal and friendly and work to develop relationships with your readers. This is the best way to build a community of devoted readers who will trust your advice.
Setting up your own affiliate marketing blog is actually quite simple. As you go through the process, it will get easier. The more you work with your blog, the more you’ll understand about how it operates and how you can use your blog to promote products in your niche.
So, now you have your blog up and running, let’s have a look at the optimal way to do a product review, an integral part of your affiliate marketing strategy.
While reviewing digital products isn’t completely different from tangible products, there are some differences in the best way to review info products online. First, you’ll want to purchase the product yourself and then begin to implement it.
Then move on to the process of buying and downloading and explain how that went – including One Time Offers, Upsells and Downsells. In addition, look for customer service information and test it out. Even email the author of the product to see what kind of response time you receive. Write about all of these tasks as part of your review.
As you document the process you’ll want to share both your excitement about new ideas or strategies as well as any frustrations or disappointments you have with the product. You’ll want to share your feelings about the product as honestly as possible.
At the same time, you’ll want to avoid giving so much detail that your reader doesn’t need to buy the product. For one thing, it’s plagiarism to share someone else’s system once you’ve bought it. For another, consider the fact that you’re working as an affiliate marketer, and you want to encourage sales of the product.
Your review of an info product can take several days or even weeks depending on the product. You’ll want to write as you use the course so that you don’t have to back and remember what you were doing and how it was going.
As you implement the product, you should be open about what’s going well and what isn’t going smoothly. You should also make sure that you discuss any results you’re having. For example, if you purchased a course on list building, have you been able to actually increase the number of people on your list?
If you’re dishonest and gloss over problems, your readers may discontinue their trust in your recommendations, and you’ll see a decline in your sales as well. The best way to review info products online is to share your experience openly and honestly – warts and all.
Now we’ve looked at the best way to do a review, let’s take a look at what you should avoid when doing any type of affiliate product review.
As an affiliate marketer, it’s important to make sure that you don’t get in your own way and ruin an affiliate product review. First and foremost, you want to deliver a review that people can trust. That means you must be honest about what you’re promoting.
So the first rule of thumb is to make sure that you don’t lie in any of your reviews. If you say something is wonderful, but it turns out not to be, you’ll lose the trust of your readers. You can only make money with affiliate reviews if people trust what you have to say about the products.
As soon as you decide to lie and say that a product is perfect, you destroy your credibility. If you truly do love a product yet still find flaws, you can be honest about it. Just don’t try to pass off a product as perfect when you’re clear that it isn’t.
It’s also important to choose quality products to promote. You may think something is going to be great, but after you purchase it and take a look, you realize it doesn’t deliver quality. In that case, consider it a small loss of your time and money and move on to something better.
Don’t try to promote products that you know don’t deliver. When you recommend junk products to your readers, you won’t be trusted. You’ll diminish your reputation, and you’ll have trouble bringing in income from your reviews.
Instead, make sure that you’re always honest. Discuss the positive things about the product as well as the drawbacks. Promote products that are high quality and will deliver valuable information and tools to your readers.
With affiliate marketing, it’s important to build relationships and trust. When you have trust and recommend a product, people will be more likely to make purchases. But if you recommend shady products, your readers will not only hang on to their money, but they may even quit reading your recommendations.
The best way to ruin an affiliate product review is to be dishonest and promote bad products. But if you avoid these behaviors, you can build a following that will help you to bring in steady income.
Anyone can make a career out of affiliate marketing but not everyone who attempts to succeeds. You should be ready to work hard and choose those programs that are genuine and that will provide you with an opportunity to grow and use your blog to promote great products and keep your reviews honest.
I hope these affiliate marketing tips have helped, and if you want to know more about affiliate marketing check out the featured resource below for a free report; download, read it and take action 😊
All marketers will tell you that the most important asset you can build is your email list and it is something they all wish they had focused on earlier. You own your list and can follow up with highly targeted email marketing to turn prospects into buyers.
These gifts can be reports, checklists, video, audio, infographics etc. The point is they must be high-quality and extremely useful; in fact, your readers should be prepared to pay for it. Don’t go for volume; we are all swamped with too much information, and this is why quick checklists and the like are becoming more popular than a 100 page eBook!
OK, now that you’ve created and made multiple freebies and given your audience multiple entry points to your list, you can focus on growing your list, and a great way to do that is to write highly informative content on your blog, and then to offer a congruent freebie in exchange for their contact details.
Of course, you need to get eyes on the content first, so let’s look at a few ways to attract readers to your blog content using a couple of content marketing staples.
When creating content to get more traffic, it’s important to make sure that people are interested in the topic. Interest begins with appealing headlines that make people curious enough to click on them.
Let’s look at a few strategies and techniques you can use in your content publishing, specifically your headlines.
Some tips for writing effective headlines include:
Taking the time to create the right headline for your target audience ensures that you reach and connect with them in a more personal way – through their needs, thoughts, and feelings. Once they feel connected with you and want the benefits offered, they are compelled to sign up for your opt-in freebie or other item.
Another way to get more traffic to your opt-ins is to rank higher on SERPs. On-page SEO can help you accomplish this. Your audience usually finds you via search engine result pages (SERPs). A search engine’s job is to provide their audience with a list of relevant, useful information and content, based on the words they used in the search.
Here are a few SEO strategies and tips to help you rank higher on search results pages:
Finally, be sure to add internal linking under the articles and blog posts with relevant content. This helps your audience find related information on your site. In addition, it also helps search engines to properly map your site and send the traffic to you.
If you want to know more about nurturing you list, check out the featured resource below for a free Simple List Building report; download, read it and take action 😊
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:
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 🙂
