Why You Need to Become a “Trusted Expert” in Your Field
| Share |
Why a Trusted Expert?
Because people want to do business with people they trust. It’s as simple as that. And unless you’ve got millions of dollars lying around, you don’t have the money to put into an advertising campaign to gain recognition for yourself and to build trust with your target audience like the major corporations do. And really, does anyone trust anything that’s said in advertising anymore?
Instead, you need to start looking at your communications in a different way. You need to come up with a strategy that will help you reach people, and build a level of trust with them that will cause them to seek you out when they need your product. And all for little to no money spent on your part. Just time, effort, and some authenticity are all that is required.
You just need to make other people start seeing you as a Trusted Expert. People want to do business with people they trust, and there’s not a whole lot of trust in online business. By being authentic and genuinely helpful (and don’t worry, I’ll explain how to do that if it seems like a foreign concept for business) you will position yourself as an authority in your niche or category.
By putting information first and sales second, it will actually make people want to buy from you more. It sounds counter-intuitive to everything you’ve read (trick them into buying stuff, hypnotize them so they don’t know what’s going on!) but it works, and even better, it establishes a long-term relationship that can provide you with sustained revenue down the road.
It may seem daunting (and a tad egotistical) to brand yourself as a Trusted Expert…
But there ain’t no room in business for humble, and you’ve got to blow your own horn because no one else is going to do it for you!
But to become a Trusted Expert, you first have to know more about your audience. In order to provide them with the information they want, you have to know what they need and why they need it.
So whats your thoughts on this post?
The politicians, I will be bi-partisan here, pull them out and tout their plans. Is anyone else a but queasy or worried?
These experts are the very ones leading us for the last decade plus that got us where we are?
Why do we still trust these so called experts?
Jason, I think you are on the sweet spot with this article. There is a sequel lurking in the background. People still don’t seem to get the connection, relationship first, sales will inevitably follow. I find blogs that are not branded by a business endeavor to be the most effective. Blog about what interests the audience, connect with them and they will seek you out when they are ready to make an investment.
Agree?
I totally agree. This is what is so great about the internet… 20 years ago it was so expensive and time consuming for someone new to build a name but today it can happen extremely quick. The scary thing is the opposite can happen too… scam people and you can have your name destroyed very fast as well.
Very True John,
people do not like to be sold to, they like receiving recommendations from trusted sources. That is what blogs are made for – trusted sources of information on a certain subject/topic.
Igor
I think of Frank Kern and how his emails would totally not work for 90% of the population… but because his list trusts him, he simple emails them and says BUY THIS and they listen.
[...] Buyer Personas – Who, Besides Your Mom, is Your Audience? Written by John Cow on July 6th, 2009 // Continued from previous post Why You Need To Become a Trusted Expert in Your Field [...]
Well, someone signed me up for your email list, and I got an email with your ebook, and have been getting post updates, so I’d thought I’d check your blog out.
Anyhow, this is what I’m trying to do with my new blog, make people see that I know what I’m talking about, and build my readership, get some advertisers, you know, the standard making your blog an authority thing.
[...] Your page is on StumbleUpon [...]
John
I have been getting your emails for a while and I am glad I have signed up because of the content you provide. I have been in the painting business for over 30 years and an artist my whole life. I was having issues with my marketing and cash flows and never realy knew why. The reason was exactly as you say that I had to realize that I AM an expert in my field.I just begun to market this fact by doing seminars and public speaking and bringing awareness to the public of what the difference is between an artist who does decorative art and applies authentic Italian plasters and a faux painter who learned how to sponge paint from the local hardware store or buys a gallon of colorless paint and call it “Glaze”
I have been an online networker long before Facebook Myspace and others were even around and because of the content I put out on my blog I am getting the recognotion that you speak of here.
I am now a fan of yours and I look forward to your newletters…..
Thanks for posting this and I hope others will realize that what you say here is true and it does take work to build a presence with true, honost content showing the personal side of who you really are, people buy on trust…..
Thanks for great comment!
I think timing and being at the right place has a lot to do with it. There are many knowledgeable people in many different fields, but not all of them get to be a known expert like John Chow, or Shoemoney. Are you telling me, they know more than all of their readers? I highly doubt that. I think people like Shoemoney and John Chow were most fortunate for their timing. To become an expert nowadays would mean you’d have to compete against thousands of other experts talking about the same things.
It’s because there’s room for only so many experts. And, the few first that get known within their niche will receive the most publicity.
And, who decides if you’re an expert? Yourself? Or, should it be based on the number of subscribers to your blog?
I do not think the subscriber count is a good trust metric on its own but for some people, yes that is important. Actually just a couple days ago someone commented on a script i reviewed how they would consider it if the alexa ranking of the site was not so high… so that shows that sometimes metrics such as alexa and rss readers are important. The thing is they are not the entire story and I talk more about this in the upcoming posts.
If I may I would like to mention that my business mentor first brought this to light 6 months ago and I have been working with this concept ever since and as John has posted here, it does take time and hard work.I would like to give credit to my mentor for this advice, if John would be so kind to allow me to do so here by posting a link to his website, and if not I would fully understand
http://www.thirdeyemanagement.com/
You need to become a trusted expert in your field because trust is not that easy to acquire. Is not that easy to please people so you have to prove to them that you are really fitted to your field and you are an expert to that field.
I totally agree with putting information first and sales second and I would even take it a step further: putting service first and sales second. How? if someone asks for a small favor or service e.g. on my blog people might ask me to check their WP installations for problems etc, I’d do it for free. It would only take a few minutes of my time but when these people decide they want something more done, they’d pay me to do it.
I’m agog. This is an issue with which I have been struggling for some time now – how do I become an expert in something? My problem is, I know a little about many things, but not a lot about any one thing.
So let’s get moving.
One of the things to consider is are you an author or a reporter…. both can be considered trusted experts. What i mean is sometimes we think we have to be a certified expert in one particular field but look at people on TV that you trust. They report on issues that they are not experts on but you believe that they research and explain to you the things you need to know, so you listen and trust them. Do not get hung up on being an “expert” at a certain niche… but become a “trusted expert” at reporting about a certain niche.
I hope that makes sense.