What a show-off!

If you follow what I write about you’ll know that I talk about the RAVE acronym – Reputation, Authority, Visibility, Expertise – and today I’m focused on Expertise.

Unless someone has actually paid for your services, how do they know how good you are?  They have to take your level of expertise on trust.

OK – sometimes people can read testimonials or recommendations that have either been written or recorded on video.  But you’d be unlikely to publish anything that wasn’t complimentary, so there’s a likelihood that even third party validation is only the plus side of the equation (and could be from a selection of your friends who have been recruited to help).

So how do you get people to WANT to use YOU?

Become a big show-off!

There are a number of ways to do this:

1. Do presentations at your local networking groups
2. Offer to speak at conferences and trade shows
3. Run a webinar as a ‘taster’ freebie
4. Organise a seminar or workshop at an affordably low cost for delegates.
5. Write magazine articles
6. Write blogs

1 & 2 require you to be reasonable confident presenting to a crowd and to learn some of the skills of a professional speaker to appear professional.

3 & 4 need some training skills to ensure your audience gets their learning in a way that is easy for them to follow.  It also means you need a way to get ‘bums on seats’.

5 will require some schmoozing with the editors of the magazines that your target audience reads to find out if they accept uncommissioned articles and what kind of subject and angle they’re looking for.

6 is the only one of these that is totally down to you.  It’s your blog – you can write whatever you like.  Here is your opportunity to show off your expertise in a big way.

I’m not saying don’t use the first five – they’re all great ways to get your expertise in front of more people, but writing a regular blog is definitely the easiest of all of them.

Not all blog posts focus on a ‘how to ...’ approach, but if you use this you’ll be able to demonstrate your considerable expertise in relevant subjects. 

This is not the first time I’ve said this – and the usual response is ‘but if I give away all my secrets people won’t want to buy my services, they’ll just follow the instructions and do it for themselves.’  This is rarely the case.

If people don’t want to or can’t pay for your services they were probably never likely to become your client – so you’ve given them some help – that’s great. 

Most people like to know that there is a solution, but don’t actually want to go through the hassle of doing it themselves.  For instance, I can manage to complete a spreadsheet and upload my invoices and receipts, but I really don’t want to spend my time doing that.  It’s definitely one of those tasks that would keep getting put off – so I pay an accountant for their time.  They do it faster, better and leave me free to do what I’m good at and enjoy doing.

Using your blog to show off how good you are is a great way to create a positive image.

Footnote:  When you’ve posted your blog, don’t stop there.  Promote it on your chosen social media, add it to your LinkedIn profile as a post, use it to lead your newsletter.  There are lots of ways to ensure more people see it – and what an expert you are!

What is your website's message?

It’s a conversation that I have over and over again and it usually starts with “What do you want to say on your website?” when I’m taking a brief from a client.

The answer varies a bit, but almost always includes things like:

•  We want people to know about all our services/products.
• We want people to understand what we do.
• We want people to trust us.
• We don’t want to appear to be a small company.  
• We want people to ring us up and buy.

All these seem reasonable things to want and I can see you nodding in agreement!

Now could you just take off your Website Owner hat and put on the Website Visitor one?

So you’re visiting a website that you are interested in for some reason – what do you want to see:

• A list of things you can buy?
• The details of all the things you can buy?
•  Accreditations and testimonials?
• A lot of creative description on the About page?

Are you ready to buy now?

If the reason you visited the site was specifically to buy something the answer will be ‘yes’.  But what percentage of website visitors are planning to buy before they even enter the URL or click a link?

Most people are looking for information.

• They may have met someone from your company at a networking event, conference, exhibition or other business event and made enough of a connection to want to check you out.
•  Some people have searched for a particular key words to find out about what kind of products or services are actually available and get an idea of prices or specs.
• Some people have been delegated by their boss to do some research on a particular subject and have no intention of buying anything at this stage.

So how much effort will they put into reading your carefully crafted copy?

There are three key elements:

1. A website that looks professional – and up-to-date in design.
2. Good, strong headlines and section headers that hook the reader in and entice them to read more.
3. Enough information to satisfy the reader that you are ‘their kind of organisation’ and can deliver what they’re looking for.

Clearly if you want to sell products off the website you’ll need enough information on each one for people to understand the specifications – and a price.  However, if you’re selling services people buy YOU.  That means your website needs to in your voice and a good reflection of your company values and beliefs.

Most important of all it needs to tell people WHAT THEY GET – not what you do.

If you really want to impress visitors to your website you need to understand why your existing clients like using your organisation.  Ask some of them – and ask them what changed for them when you’d provided them with what they were looking for.  THAT’S what other people want to know – what it’s like working with you and what the results are likely to be.

It’s all about reader engagement – not just presenting information.

Lessons from the newspaper

Anyone who has watched a few old films will be familiar with the newspaper vendor on the street corner, shouting 'Read all about it!' in relation to the latest big story.  People buy newspapers to get the latest stories about events that are happening right now.  There are a number of reasons they read newspapers:

• They want to keep up with what's going on in the world
• They are interested in a specific story for some reason
• There's something that may affect their lives and they want to ensure they know about the latest developments

If you're producing a newsletter - whether a digital or hard copy publication - bear in mind that your readers must WANT to read it.

People who know you or deal with your business will be mildly interested in what's going on in your company

People who are interested in your industry may be interested if there's a good story

But the huge majority of people are not interested in investing time reading the happenings of your business - unless there's something in it for them!

Remember that journalists are trained to write compelling stories - and news is only news if people are interested in knowing about it.

What does this have to do with your newsletter?

Everyone is busy - they will only start reading your newsletter if there's a good reason to do so.  This means you need to lead your newsletter with something that will engage the reader; something that will impact on them in some way.  This might be an article that helps them in some way, a heads up about a forthcoming change that will impact on their business, an offer or sale.

It won't be:

• Your new office
• Your latest member of staff
• What's going on in your business.

While these are interesting - and possibly exciting - to you, most of your readers won't find that riveting!

Think about how stories are told - there is a beginning, a middle and an end.  There is a hook at the beginning to get people interested and want to know what happens next.  There is the meaty bit in the middle where you develop the plot and your readers get to know who is who and what is what, then there's the ending, where everything comes together and a nice satisfying conclusion occurs.  How can you write articles that fit into that formula?  Check out your newspaper and you'll see they have the same basic approach - even to news stories.

Think like a reader

Whatever you write keep asking yourself - will my reader want to know more?  It's really important to be focused on what the reader wants, what he or she will be attracted by and what will get them to start reading.

There's a subconscious theme running in the background ... 'What's in it for me?'  You must satisfy that with every item you write.

Admittedly, there are some people who have the skill to write quirky items about practically nothing - and there are loyal readers who love being entertained by them, but first you have to capture your reader by delivering something they'll read - the very first time it's delivered to them.

Take a leaf out of the journalists book and deliver a publication that engages your reader's interest and which, when read, will leave them feeling they've got some value out of it.