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What would it mean to you for your business to be an industry leader?
If I told you that thought leadership begins by doing one simple thing, would you believe me?
One of the biggest things I hear from CEOs and business owners in Edinburgh is that they want to become an authority within their industry.
How long do you think thought leadership takes?
Do you think that it’s important but it’s something you will get to at some point?
The truth is you will never get to it if you don’t start now, but it is a lot easier than you think.
What happens if you do nothing?
People may not buy from you, your competitors will become the authority and people will not trust you as much as them.
The Inbound Marketing Chain Reaction
I talk a lot about inbound marketing and how it has transformed my business, it can transform yours too.
One thing that inbound marketing is fantastic at doing is creating thought leaders and authorities.
Why?
Because inbound marketing is all about answering your customers’ most burning questions and being helpful.
If you created two blog posts a week that talks to and helps your buyer personas make their buying decisions, then in a year you will have built up a lot of relevant, helpful content on your website. This is a step towards people viewing you as an authority.
- You cannot become an authority or thought leader without content
- You cannot become an authority without trust
- You cannot have authority without building relationships
We are all experts within our respective industries, we just need to demonstrate it to the world.
All of these will come with inbound marketing and will set in motion a chain reaction that leads to thought leadership and you being the #1 authority in your industry.
Create remarkable content
Companies that blog get 55% more web traffic & 70% more leads than those that don’t.
Also,
65% of daily internet users read blogs.
So there is no denying that blogging is important if you want to reach your audience and get more traffic and leads.
By creating remarkable content on your business blog that answers your customers’ questions, you are building compound interest, with the payoff being thought leadership.
Have you ever wondered how Google determines which websites are an authority?
It is the same way as we do, by the amount of helpful content on your website.
If you don’t have this kind of content there is no way Google, and more importantly, your customers can know.
According to SmartBlogs.com company employees are the most trusted influencers.
Become a social influencer
Social media is a place where you can engage with your audience and if you promote your great content, people will share it.
Combine this with answering prospects’ questions and you will become a social media influencer.
This will mean that people will start to follow you on the social media websites that your prospects and customers are active on. They will rely on you being a good source of expert knowledge and help.
In turn you will find more and more people asking you questions to get advice which means you will become an influencer.
Speaker engagements
When organisers are looking to invite speakers to their functions, where do you think they look for these experts?
They will look online for great content on the subject and look for the influencers on social. To begin with you could start attending networking events and offer to do helpful presentations to the group.
You may be surprised at what this can lead to.
Guest contributing
Where do your customers and prospects hang out online?
What blogs do they visit and what publications do they read?
These are the places you also want to create content for. Industry blogs are always looking for great content and if you can add valuable content to their blogs then you can create content for them and increase your exposure.
It is worth mentioning that when it comes to guest blogging, always think about what value you can add as it is all about how helpful you can be.
Once you start to be seen as an authority then people will approach you to create content for them.
Media coverage
This can be the biggest opportunity of all. When news stories break that are related to your industry and effect your customers, the media are always looking for experts.
Again these journalists will look online to find the most prolific blogs on the subject and analyse who are the social influencers.
Once you appear in a big newspaper or appear on TV, everyone will look to you and your business as a thought leader and journalists will come to you every time they need an expert in your industry.
You can even pre-empt this by monitoring your industry and when a news story breaks that’s related to your industry create content on your blog to give your unique perspective on the topic.
When the media then searches for the story there is a good chance your blog post will be found.
This will mean they may approach you for a quote or interview.
Key take aways
As demonstrated above, your Edinburgh business won’t become an authority overnight. It will come as a result of you constantly creating and promoting helpful content on your website.
If you use the inbound marketing methodology to create this content, then you will notice that this will show the world that you are a leading authority.
If your website only contains pages about your products and services then you are just like everyone else and no one will ever know how much of an authority you really are.
I’m really glad you have taken the time to read all the way through and as a thank you why not download your free guide on “10 useless things an Edinburgh business should cut out of their marketing”
Now it’s your turn
What’s stopping you from becoming an authority? I would also love to hear what steps you are currently taking to achieve thought leadership.
Source:Companies that blog get 55% more web traffic & 70% more leads than those that don’t