One area that some Life Coaching Training Schools fail to spend adequate time on, is stressing the importance of becoming known as a Credible & Trusted Authority in Your Niche.
Yes, I do understand that we, coaches, don't have to be an authority or expert in any one field; except in coaching skills, right? BUT, keep in mind that people want to hire someone who they perceive to be an expert or authority in their field.
We've all heard the "mantra" that People do business with people they Know, Like, and Trust!, yet many life coaches still try to get clients through cold contact, hoping that they get hired after one interaction.
Fact is that most people will hire coaches, consultants, speakers, and other solo-professionals who are perceived as authorities or experts in their fields.
Just think about it, would you spend $500+ per month to get help becoming a paid speaker to a coach who never spoke; or spend $1000+ per month to learn how to market your business to a consultant that you do not perceive as an expert in his/her field?
The answer obviously is, of course, we all want to hire someone who we perceive as being great at what they do – someone who we perceive as an “expert.
It does take a little time and dedication to build an expert status - or, to become seen as a credible and trusted authority in your niche - but the pay-off is well worth the time invested in it.
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Here are 10 success strategies that will help you develop your expert status:
1. Consistently publish articles online
Primarily post your articles on your own website – this helps not only with being perceived as an authority in your niche, but also has tremendous SEO benefits!
There are also many high-traffic sites and article-submission sites where you can publish; however, be careful not to waste your time submitting your article to too many sites. Instead focus on posting them to the highest traffic sites, where you can also be noticed by your ideal clients.
Posting your articles on LinkedIn, on Medium is always a great idea; as well as posting to a few high PR article submission sites, such as eZineArticles and ArticleBase.
Putting your article on multiple sites does not raise your link popularity as it used to in the past*; but, yes, if you post on sites where your ideal clients hang out, then you'll get that extra visibility.
* it used to be that the more links pointed to your site, the higher you were ranked; however, google now sees it that the links come from the same article published multiple times and it will only count it as one link).
2. Consistently (try to) get articles published offline in niche magazines, newsletters, newspapers, etc.
This is not so easy, but if you can pull this off, this is a great credibility booster factor. Visit your niche-related magazines and publications’ websites and see what are their article submission guidelines (some publications accept more submissions for their online publication - definitely try to get published there: forbes, etc.). Also, contact your local papers and find out if they want to do a story on you or allow you to publish your article. With a little luck – and good positioning – you might even end up with getting to publish a weekly column.
3. Consistently try to get the media to write or talk about you
There are some great books out there that can help you with that, such as
♦ “How to Get on Radio Talk Shows All Across America Without Leaving Your Home or Office,” by Joe Sabath; “
♦ Guerrilla Publicity,” by Jay Conrad Levinson and Jill Lublin;
♦ “On the Air,” by Al Parinell
The easiest way to get some visibility is to get on www.BlogTalkRadio.com shows ( During the years I was interviewed by dozens of shows, many with 10,000s or 100,000+ audience members).
Simply type in the BlogTalkRadio search engine the keyword that you want to be interviewed on, and you’ll find hundreds of shows that are looking for guests in your area of interest/niche.
If you are a CEF Member, make sure to check out our
YouTube Marketing 2.0 and
YouTube Ads Made Easy Video Courses
Video Courses!
3. Consistently upload videos to YouTube and any other of your favorite video sites
Always place your website’s (or landing page) URL as the first thing in your video description – e.g. www.ClientsEnrollmentFunnels.com + video description.
YES, some of your videos will have 11 views even after a year; BUT some of them might take off and have 10,000s or 100,000s of views and will be responsible for part of your massive visibility and some of your sales/new clients. (I have several videos with 10,000s of views, and one with 200,000+ views, responsible for countless leads and book sales; and, yes, I have dozens of videos with 5 to 20 views as well ?).
4. Start a blog on your niche topic
.... and consistently post valuable info, including success-checklists (in your area of focus), How-To articles, and other valuable info related to your niche. This is also crucial for your website's SEO, as the search engines LOVE websites that have updating, regular content; and will reward you with higher rankings in the search results... and therefore you'll get way more visibility in front of your ideal clients (vs. being buried on page 1,754,991 of search results).
5. Become a guest-author on others' blogs
The blogs that you post to should meet at least these 2 criteria:
- The blog should target your niche (your ideal clients); that is, most of the readers of the blog should be individuals who you’d love to have as clients; for example, if you are a small business coach, you’d want to post to blogs that are read by small-business owners; or if you are a parenting coach, post on blogs that are read by parents. Try to find as targeted blogs as possible, for example, parenting toddlers; or parenting teens; or parenting for teens with ADHD; or business start-up for attorneys; etc.
- The guest blog should have high traffic – insert the blog url on Google’s FREE Page Rank Checker Tool (PR Checker) site – www.PRchecker.info/ (the higher the PR value, the more popular the blog is) or to www.alexa.com– to get an estimate on the blog’s traffic and popularity; the number of comments is another easy way to determine if a blog has a decent traffic (no comments, often means no traffic)
Posting blog posts to other’s blogs, NOT only increases your perception as an expert in your niche, but it also provides invaluable back-links to your site/blog, increasing your ranking in the search engines. More backlinks to your site from higher PR blogs = higher ranking in search engines.
6. Write a book!
To help you with that, start by writing your blog posts with the end in mind, then later, transform your blog posts – and your articles – into the chapters of your book.
The BOOK is the piece of the puzzle that propels most speakers and coaches’ careers. As soon as my book – Communication Skills Magic was out, I started getting more speaking gigs and more coaching clients, at a fee that I was rarely able to commend in the past.
As an author, you can also get interviewed on your niche topic way easier and more often, then have someone transcribe your interview (you'll most likely find someone on Fiverr for $20 to $30/hour); then with a little editing, transform that transcript into your book (contact me for publishing options before you invest thousands of dollars with some fancy publishing company). Make sure you structure the interview as you’d layout your book — create a table of contents for your book and base your interview questions on that (you’ll submit the questions to your interviewer and 9 times out of 10 they'll ask you the exact questions you submit).
7. Align yourself with other authorities and experts in your field
♦ Interview other authorities - set up a radio show on www.BlogTalkRadio.com and have a weekly or bi-weekly show
♦ Co-present workshops/teleclasses/webinars with (well-known) authors or authorities in your niche or niches related to yours
♦ Co-create (online) products
♦ Co-author books and articles.
Get creative and "get hooked" – that is, hook up with other great minds in your niche and become regularly seen with them.
This is one of the most powerful strategies, called “Becoming an Expert by Association” or “Borrowing Expert Status” — as your followers see you hanging out with these experts all the time, they start associating you with them, and in their mind, you too start being seen more and more as an expert or authority in your niche. Let’s face it, if you do hang out with these thought leaders so much, it’ll really only be a matter of time before their wisdom starts rubbing off on you. Well, that is, if you need it, as many already are true experts in their fields – all is missing is the Perception of being seen as an expert… and unfortunately, it’s true:
Perception IS Everything!
An added bonus for this strategy is that whenever someone will look for those experts names, at times your name will come up in the search engines... another "bonus" is added visibility in front of their followers, as some of these guys will actually promote your interview to their audience!
8. Use social media to increase your visibility
Use Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, Pinterest, Instagram, and whichever social media works best for you to increase your visibility and attract followers.
If you don't know how to implement social media strategies effectively, make sure to sign up to one of our memberships, to get access to detailed Step-by-Step video tutorials, checklist, cheat-sheets, mindmaps and more, to help you implement the most effective social media strategies to grow your business.
9. Put on Webinars and invite your ideal clients to attend
Webinars are one of the most effective ways to get your ideal client to get to know, like, and trust you. Provide lots of valuable information in your sessions – information that they can use immediately, but DO provide also a cool “formula” that would definitely solve their problem or bring their desire to fruition… Share the WHAT TO DO to accomplish their “wants,” but have them sign up for your group coaching, or hire you as a coach to get the HOW TO DO IT part of the process.
Or… describe the coaching process that you use in your sessions and share some success stories. Remember, webinars get you to face to face with your ideal client and it’s been proven to be one of the most highly converting ways to getting new clients (or, yes, 2nd highest after public presentations/workshops); so do include it in your marketing arsenal.
If you are a CEF Member, you can view our
Webinar Marketing Made Easy
Video Course - HERE!
10. Put on Live Events: Workshop & Keynotes
Public Speaking is one of the most effective ways to become seen as an authority in your niche (#1 way according to many).
You know your subject, you are passionate about it, so share it with the world. Start by volunteering at local non-profit organizations and at local business events.
Contact me if you want to take your speaking to a pro-level and get paid to speak, and/or to learn how to enroll clients more effectively with your public speaking. Or join ClientsEnrollmentFunnels and mention this article and I’ll guide you to our step-by-step training on how to get clients through MeetUp groups/workshops and through public speaking in general. We also have bi-weekly group coaching calls (Committed level) where you'll get all the support you need to get out there and implement the most effective marketing strategies....
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If you follow the above tips, it will be only a matter of time before you’ll be viewed as an expert in your field.
The goal is to get to a point where, when the prospect enters your name in the search engine they'll get the first 3, 5, or 10+ pages with your name - your articles, videos, blog posts, live events/program descriptions, etc. letting them know that you are truly "it."
Remember the wise words of Lao Tsu: “The thousand steps journey starts with a single step…” Start your journey towards becoming an expert in your field today - implement one of the above strategies.
Once you accomplish the expert status you deserve, remember to send me a thank you note ♥
Which of the Above 10 Strategies will you implement first... next? Why that strategy?
Post your comments or questions below – all questions will be answered!
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Do you Need Help Implementing These Strategies?
If you need more ideas, or if you want to read more details on how to implement some of the above, visit our blog at www.ClientsEnrollmentFunnels.com/blog where you’ll find more ways to grow your list and ways to market to your list members. And when you join ClientsEnrollmentFunnels as a member, you’ll get access to Checklists and Tutorial Videos, with step-by-step instructions, with topics ranging from Social Media Marketing (LinkedIn, Pinterest, Instagram, FB, Youtube, etc.) to tech stuff tutorials (how to build a website; zapier integrations; how to use cPanel, etc.); and more importantly, you’ll get ongoing personal support.
It is not enough to study and just blindly implement these strategies. Often to get good results, it helps to be able to discuss it with someone who knows how to implement them correctly.
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