Are you familiar with the term ‘expert positioning’? If not, you should be — this is the secret ingredient you need to cultivate mega-authority within your industry and become known as the ‘go-to’ expert in your field.
And let’s be real…being viewed as the expert can only lead to more opportunities for your business to grow. Why? It’s simple:
- Experts are highly sought-after individuals
- Experts are trusted and respected by the public
- Experts are “the best” in their area of business
- People are willing to pay premium prices to work with experts
Simply put? Reaching ‘expert status’ is extremely good for business…so let’s talk about how to fast-track your way there!
Here are five ways you can start positioning yourself as the expert today:
It’s very difficult to be viewed as an expert in one area if you are operating as a “jack of all trades”, so to speak. This means figuring out the industry that you genuinely WANT to be known as an expert in and carving out a role for yourself within it is a must. If you think this will limit your ability to reach a wide range of customers and impact sales negatively, the opposite is true — you’ll actually attract more clients/consumers and opportunities because of your newly-minted expert status.
Not sure what your “thing” is yet that will allow you to stand out as an expert? Read more about how to discover your unique niche here.
You may already be an expert on whatever your topic of choice is — but if your audience doesn’t view you as one, you still haven’t achieved ‘expert status.’ So, your job is to make sure your audience knows that you’re an expert by sharing valuable information with them on a regular basis. You can do this by…
- Regularly publishing educational blog posts related to your niche
- Guest-speaking on a fellow industry leader’s podcast
- Hosting Q&A sessions on social media
- Building a thriving social media presence
Try to help your audience solve their problems and understand the value you bring to the table as much as possible.
One of the best ways to skyrocket your authority and reach expert status quickly is to get featured in the media. When you appear in the press, you gain instant credibility as you get to benefit from the relationship the publication has already built with its readers. To pitch yourself, contact the newspapers and magazines that your ideal clients are likely to be reading and offer to weigh in on a hot-button topic as an expert. It’s also a good idea to put together a media kit — a document containing all of your credentials — so your desired publication can see why they should be interviewing you.
Experts don’t come cheap. Raising your prices is an inevitable part of your journey to expert status, and though it can feel scary or uncomfortable, it is also only going to make your ideal client feel more confident about hiring you. Think about it — would a truly sought-after expert charge a low fee or discount their prices? The answer is likely no, which is why you shouldn’t either.
If you run a product-based business as opposed to offering services, this doesn’t mean you need to charge an arm and a leg for your products to demonstrate your expertise — but it does mean you should be charging premium prices for your time, whatever that means in the context of your business.
To your consumers, what other people have to say about you is infinitely more powerful than any claims you may make about yourself. This is why the more social proof you have — essentially, proof that other people trust and view you as an expert — the more likely you are to bring in new audience members who feel the same way, thus contributing to your ‘expert positioning.’ Here are a few examples of social proof you can use to build your authority:
- Endorsement by a well-respected industry expert
- Customer testimonials
- Business credentials
- Social media followers and engagement
As a digital marketing consultant, one of my areas of expertise is helping CEOs learn how to step into their authority and truly become known as the best in the business in their field. If this is something you want for yourself, learn more about booking a strategy call with me to start mapping out your epic roadmap to expert status.