The Marketing Value of Being an Authority

When you need to get your car fixed, you want to find someone who knows what they are doing. You want an authority on cars; otherwise, you will not get the results you want or need. Same thing goes for marketing and marketers!

You want to show your audience that you are an authority or expert in your field. When you establish yourself as an authority, your audience will trust you and want to do business with you! Soon, you’ll have a long list of loyal customers. 

Find Your Market to Be An Authority In

The first step to becoming an authority is finding the exact field you want to cater to based on the services you provide. A mechanic won’t be able to help or serve someone without a car. Their specific service is cars, and therefore, they should target people with cars. 

So what is your service? You shouldn’t be too broad about this. If you sell a program, what does the program specifically do and who would benefit the most from the program? 

A recent post on Jot Form argues that “The noise is so much greater; therefore, your focus has to be narrower. Your expertise has to be more helpful rather than self-interested.” The only way to narrow your content’s topics and demonstrate your authority is by finding your target audience. 

Once you have an idea of the right audience, research them! Through your research, you will create buyer personas, which will guide you on things like how to reach this audience, what content they search for, and what language (keywords) they use. Essentially, you’ll get into the shoes of your audience.

Being an Authority Means You Have to Be Honest and Informative

Once you know who your audience is, you are ready to create amazing content. However, this content should not come from the mindset of only selling. People can smell your desire to just sell miles away. 

Instead, your content on your website, emails, social posts, newsletters, and blogs need to be honest and informative.

Honesty is the Best Policy

What does it mean that your content needs to be honest? Well, your content needs to address not only the positives about your business but also the possible concerns. People search concerns also! 

The best example is Marcus Sheridan. I went to his virtual presentation at HubSpot’s Inbound 2020. He spoke on the importance of being an authority, which means tackling topics that might be “negative” about your product but are questions people are asking. He saw the success of such an approach with his own company — River Pools. 

To create a hub of information about fiberglass pools, he made a “Learning Center.” The “Learning Center” on his website addresses all topics people research about fiberglass pools, including concerns that Sheridan is upfront about. 

He says that when he started addressing concerns about fiberglass pools, customers not only respected his honesty but also they found his website on the top of their search engines because they searched for these specific concerns. 

He ended his presentation by urging marketers and businesses to create their own learning centers and choosing honesty as the best policy.

B2B Customers Want to Be Informed

HubSpot says that “B2B customers are focused on expertise, driven by logic, and desire to be educated.” Cater to this! Your content should aim to inform and not to just sell. As you can see from this graphic, the content that attracts B2B businesses and leads to conversion is informative. Do you have content like checklists or webinars that inform your audience? 

Creating informative content that your audience wants and hits their pains is crucial to see actual results. This type of content is not only for your marketers. We use informative content like lead magnets, checklists, blog posts as part of our sales and marketing strategy. It further shows our audience that we aim to help and educate instead of just selling. 

Demonstrating that you're an authority provides a lot of value to your marketing strategy. It will help you build a bond of trust with your customers who see first hand your honesty and desire to help with informative content. 

Navigating these waters can be difficult, but CycleWerx can help you create buyer personas and informative content! Contact CycleWerx today to get started and show everyone that YOU are an authority!