As an entrepreneur, solopreneur, boss, and the face of your brand and business, it’s crucial to your success that you are seen as an expert in your field. You have probably heard it said over and over that in order to develop a profitable business, the right people need to know who you are, like what you offer and trust you enough to purchase from you.

Having a degree from a prestigious institute isn’t the only way to become an expert these days. Anything you have experienced can be transformed into a profitable business niche. Spent time traveling through Asia? Obsessed with all things related to scrapbooking or jewelry making? Backpacked through the Yucatan? Master at all things related to vegetarian cooking? Passionate about extreme self-care?

Your personal experience and self-study are just as valuable as a university degree and with the right help can be turned into content rich products, programs and services that provide solutions to a specific group of people.

By infusing your talent, knowledge, personal charisma, unique style with media savvy and consistent right effort, you can create a fantastic recipe for delicious profitability.

HOW TO POSITION YOURSELF AS AN EXPERT

BRAND STRATEGY

Once you have your brand developed, and have a clear, resounding voice that can be consistently broadcast across all media, it’s time to implement your Brand Strategy. Remember, your brand is not your logo, your name, website, products or personal image. It is more connected to the emotional response you evoke, the essence you emit, and the energy generated around the products/service your business provides.

Think of your brand strategy as the road map to achieving clearly defined goals in a specified time frame. Get very clear about how you want to be perceived! All of your visual and written materials need to convey this essence, or people will get mixed messages.

One of my secret tools for creating powerful brand strategies is through the potent use of archetypes. This is based on the work of Carl Jung, and ever since my childhood obsession with theatre, literature (including Shakespeare), & Greek mythology,  I have always been fascinated by the roles archetypes play in the subconscious minds of humanity.

*If you love reading, you might enjoy one of my favorite books written by the late legendary writer Joseph Campbell, “The Hero With A Thousand Faces”

BUSINESS POSITIONING

Based on the intended audience for your business, positioning outlines the specific concepts you will use to market your product or service. These are the actions you and your team will take to differentiate what you offer from your competitors.

The power of effective business positioning is realized by understanding:

1. Who your ideal customer is
2. How you intend to reach them
3. What they receive from you
4. Your point of difference aka “Unique Selling Proposition”
5. Who is your competition

In every media used to market your business, you have the opportunity to communicate your position. From the images on your website, to colors, logo, copy and printed materials  – everything company wide should echo what distinguishes you from your competition. If you do this effectively, it will create a powerful level of credibility that creates the groundwork for success.

CONTENT STRATEGY

The planning, development and management of your media are the elements of Content Strategy.

If you want to generate wins for your business, focus on creating genuine results and real value for the people you serve.

The secret to a successful content strategy is to create achievable, time-specific goals that can be tracked and measured. Make sure that your goals and your core messaging are consistent, and your brand voice is in alignment with the needs of your tribe.

Here are some ideas for your content strategy goals:

(I like big goals but the secret is to be more realistic and put in the right effort)

• Grow mailing list by 10% each month
• Increase open rate by 5% with each mailing list campaign
• Increase Facebook Ad conversions by 15% over the next 3 months
• Increase YouTube Subscribers by 20% over 3 months

All of these goals are measurable, trackable and time specific.

You can use split testing with your emails and ads to see what generates a more successful open rate. By staying aware of what happens as you track your results, you will start to see patterns developing and have a greater understanding of what works and what doesn’t.

Consider this…we live in a very fast paced world and digital media is always transforming.

Try to be patient and if at all possible, work with experts who understand how to create winning content.

SOCIAL MEDIA STRATEGY

Anyone with a Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram account can attest to the fact that this can be a huge time waster, so make certain you know exactly what your goals and strategy are before going in the trenches, or you might end up wasting a great deal of precious energy.

The key is to remember that social media is about connecting to real people – your ideal clients/target market and strategic partners. It is the future of your business’ public relations and the key to brand engagement. Get it right, and you will see it effect your bottom line.

That said, the secret to success is in building genuine relationships, establishing your credibility by providing solutions and results and increasing trust amongst your community. This takes time, and consistent visibility. The greater your clarity about what you provide and who you serve, the more targeted your efforts will be.

You social media strategy is a great place to focus on your core messaging and expand it into your daily social platforms. All platforms are different so it depends of what you are selling. Test out a variety of media: images, articles, posts, videos, podcasts, & infographics to see what your ideal tribe engages with. Stay fresh and in tune with current trends, or be willing to take risks and create new ones!

Here are some actionable tips:

• Research your competition and analyze their every move.
• On Instagram, see who is liking your competitors pictures then follow and engage appropriately with them!
• Link all your social media accounts to your website
• Increase visibility with engaging videos that solve problems or teach skills  (keep it under 3 minutes)
• Stay active daily. Schedule your time, get in – do your thing and get out (don’t get sucked into the vortex)
• Build your leadership by sharing relevant articles & info in your area of expertise (fame by association)
• Continue refining your niche, and speak directly to the core of the people you serve

As you refine and develop these four powerful ways to position yourself as an expert” – your engagement and recognition will increase, people will trust you and this will lead to more sales.

If you want to learn how to implement these strategies and work with me one-on-one to create your cohesive iconic brand that positions you as “The Go-To Expert” in your field –

Click here to learn more about becoming “The Real Deal” and apply to work 1:1 in my exclusive brand development program.