This Week: Becoming a Thought Leader Can Help Your Marketing
A thought leader is someone who is known as being an expert in their field. While you might think of scientists and technology gurus, being a thought leader is important to any small business owner. Wouldn’t you rather do business with the expert?
STEP ONE
Make sure your Unique Selling Point is crystal clear.
Your product is known for something. How can you describe why it’s the best in its chosen niche? How does your years of industry experience and knowledge play into the product you offer?
STEP TWO
Further develop your area of expertise.
Yes, you know a lot about your product or service. Some of it you may have learned the hard way. Is there a way to connect this to your product: through added product features or better messaging of the features you currently offer?
If you’re just a beginning thought leader, continue to do all you can to improve through activities like reading, talking with other experts, attending (live or virtual) conferences, participating in online forums, etc.
Remember, you don’t have to be the #1 authority in your field to have something valuable to offer others.
STEP THREE
Make sure you are communicating your USP.
We tend to think of public relations as the way that thought leaders get their name out. ( We still recommend reaching out to at least the local journalists that cover your topic.)
But you no longer have to wait for journalists to take an interest in you.
You can run your own social media campaign highlighting your knowledge. This is a fancy way of saying create posts that show your expertise and make them a regular part of your feed. It can start with a paragraph or two in a post and grow into a monthly blog or article.
STEP FOUR
If knowing your stuff is critical to your marketing, consider using LinkedIn as one of your platforms.
Consultants, technology entrepreneurs, professors, etc. are just a few of the jobs that find LinkedIn a must for their communications. Between commenting on related posts, joining industry forums, and adding your own posts and articles to the mix of discussions in your industry, you will find your profile will steadily get more notice.
Takeaway: These four steps will definitely help establish you as a thought leader in your field. As long as it doesn’t take up too much of your time, being known as an expert in your field should really help the sale of your product.
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