Online Business Success | Connie Ragen Green

Positioning yourself as an expert and a trusted advisor in your niche market is a worthwhile goal. I started doing this when I came online in 2006, and here are some ways you can do the same thing.

Sharing relevant and timely content with your community is an excellent way to begin. This way you have introduced yourself to them as a resource, rather than a vendor. This content can be free sites and materials that are readily available online, even though it may take some digging to find it. It can also be PLR (private label rights) content from sources that provide high quality on a consistent basis.

Once you begin positioning yourself as an expert, advisor, and counselor of your clients in your area of expertise, you will know the specific the outcome your products and services, as well as affiliate offers produce for their lives. Let people know who these products are for…and who they’re not for. Maintaining an authentic voice becomes a magnet in your market. You’ll attract the right customers and clients while repelling those who shouldn’t do business with you anyway.

In my online business I focus on new entrepreneurs who are serious about building a solid, long-term income online.  If someone comes to me who is only looking for a ‘get rich quick’ scheme they see very quickly that I am not the right fit for them. I prefer people who value the relationships we are building to grow our businesses surely and steadily.

The pieces of the puzzle are simple enough; choose a niche that makes sense for you, your background, your experiences, and your interests. Set up a site where you can let people know who you are, what you do, and how you can help them to achieve their goals. Offer them a report or audio recording to get to know you a little better. Stay connected and build the relationship with them through email messages, social media, and regular teleseminars and webinars.

You won’t earn any money until someone actually purchases something, so you also need to know how to find and tap into bulls-eye buyers.  Having a ton of freebie seekers on your list won’t do you any good.  Sure, maybe you get people to open your emails and click on your links, but if you’re not attracting buyers with money to spend to your list, then you’re out of luck.

How do you accomplish this?

What about staying on track and getting things done? As an entrepreneur working online today, it’s not a lack of opportunity that holds you back.  Instead, there are so many opportunities that you can’t figure out where to focus your attention because of all the available options. This causes BSO syndrome (Bright Shiny Object).  You bounce from idea to idea and traffic source to traffic source and product to product.

The solution is creating a clear entrepreneurial vision.

When you’re focused on where you’re going, it becomes much easier to just say NO to everything that takes you off that path.

Next month – April – I begin my fourth annual Productivity Challenge. I’m not going to link to previous ones here; instead I want you to think about what you would like to achieve during the next thirty days. Where will you be then? What will you have had to do in order to get there? What questions do you have about the upcoming Productivity Challenge? What could I do to make this the most transformational month you’ve ever had in your business?

Authority marketing, according to direct marketing legend Dan Kennedy, is the act of “deliberately, systematically, methodically establishing yourself as a celebrity rapidly and dramatically, at least to your clientele and target market. Without this you’re asleep at the wheel, ignoring what is fueling the entire economy around you, and neglecting development of a measurably valuable asset.”

When I wrote a column several months ago about becoming a local celebrity, this was the idea behind it.

In its purest form, authority marketing helps you as an entrepreneur or small business owner to leverage your knowledge to gain authority status in your industry. This authority status then allows you to dramatically amplify your message and also to convert this new audience into higher paying customers. In other words, it’s the process for positioning yourself as an authority, or even a celebrity, in your marketplace.

This can best be done by consistently providing useful information to your market. I refer to this as ‘being a resource before you’re a vendor’. The information you provide solves problems, offers solutions, and addresses urgent needs. Creating content in a variety of formats makes this a doable strategy for everyone wishing to grow a business, online or offline. You will have positioned yourself as an educator and an advocate for your niche market, instead of just another person selling widgets.

Strategies which are most effective at improving your expert positioning include highlighting your media appearances and your published books, and anything else which shows that you are uniquely more qualified and credible than your competitors. Increasing what is known as the ‘know, like, and trust’ factor is crucial to success. In your favor is the fact that most of your competitors have not been doing this, giving you the ultimate edge in the marketplace.

For instance, once you position yourself as an authority, you’ll no longer have to chase sales leads and prospects for your business. In fact, you’ll find that they will seek out your company and your offers. Once people find you they stop looking for anyone else. Traditional networking is no longer a necessity and doing business takes on a whole new meaning.

You will also increase your income with this strategy. Entrepreneurs and small business owners that are seen as authorities have a higher value position, and are therefore expected to charge higher rates. You will quickly find that people will happily pay more for services from someone who they perceive to be the top expert in a field.

Having clients that trust and respect you is yet another benefit of positioning yourself as an authority. Instead of questioning you every step of the way, they will be more likely to follow and take action on the advice you share with them. That’s an excellent feeling to experience.

Books, podcasts, radio appearances, local appearances, and blog posts become the best sources for information in your market, saving you countless dollars and endless hours for other types of marketing. I’ve written about all of these topics in recent issues of this publication. You will also gain influence in your marketplace and opportunities for speaking, joint venture partnerships with other authorities, and more will readily present themselves to you. These, in turn, increase authority further and open other doors.

Authority marketing is one of the most powerful strategies to differentiate yourself from all of your competitors. If you aren’t actively working on creating your business around becoming a local celebrity and being perceived as the ‘go-to’ authority in your field, you are missing a huge opportunity. What are your thoughts on this?

Having An Online Presence

Once upon a time it was possible to start a business and become successful without the help of the Internet. Those days are long gone as we enter the age of online marketing, visibility and credibility as a way to build a prosperous business with a future. This is now the new ‘normal’ and those who understand the importance of having an online presence will be far more likely to prosper.

Crystal wrote to me to ask for help with her newly launched interior design business. She began offering her services to clients during the summer of 2013 and wants to know if she must spend money on a website and get involved with social media to grow her business as quickly as possible. The answer is yes, as an online presence is absolutely necessary if you are going to compete in your industry alongside people who ‘get it’ when it comes to online marketing and sales.

This doesn’t have to be expensive, as long as you know what to do and how to do it, which I will explain in detail here. And, coupled with more traditional marketing and offline methods can almost guarantee that you will have the very best chance of success.

First, have someone set up a WordPress site for you, using a domain for your business. This may be your actual business name, your name, or a name that includes your industry and location, such as interiordesignsantaclarita.com or santaclaritainteriordesign.com. Both of these domains were available as of this writing, which just goes to show that you will be ahead of much of your competition if you follow what I am sharing here.

Next, start creating content on your topic in the form of written materials, audio recordings, and short (under five minutes is optimal) videos that you can share with your prospects and current clients and customers, as well as with family and friends. Many businesses, such as Crystal’s interior design company lend themselves well to this, while others take a little more creativity to build interest.

Add your content to your new website as blog posts, to article directories such as http://SubmitMoreArticles.com, social media sites (Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Pinterest), within your email newsletter, and in a short report you can make available on Amazon. Start an Internet radio show on Blog Talk Radio and add your ‘show’ (it can be five minute segments if you wish) to iTunes as a podcast. Start a channel on YouTube using your company’s name and upload your videos there on a regular basis.

Be sure to add an optin box to the upper right-hand corner of your website, using a service such as Aweber (http://ConnieLoves.me/Aweber gets you started for just one dollar) to stay in regular contact with your prospects and clients.

Now it’s time to tell the world what you are doing through press releases, live appearances, and traditional print advertising. I use a service called WebWire (http://WebWire.com) to send press releases inexpensively – about twenty-five dollars each as of this writing – and they will be distributed far and wide to help you get the word out about what you do and how you can help others by doing it.

Have fun with live appearances by offering to speak at local meetings such as Rotary, the Chamber of Commerce, and any trade shows that are appropriate to your business. Have a one page flyer and a business card ready to give out, and be sure to collect the names and email addresses of those who show interest in your business.

And do not forget about traditional advertising and marketing. The publications you reguarly is the first place to start.  It is my belief that the people who are serious about doing business locally will always begin with a local publication to connect with people who can do what they need done.

Educate all of the members of your business team about the importance of having a website and creating relevant content. Work on increasing your online presence and your business will thrive and prosper in 2014 and beyond.