Transform Yourself from Vendor to Expert

In today’s world your customer is bombarded with marketing messages. The more you tout your product or service, the less likely your audience is to believe you. So how do you cut through the clutter and deliver a message your target audience wants to hear? Be an expert, not a vendor.

When you’re an expert—providing information that’s important, relevant and valuable to your audience—you will be heard. By the way, you’ll end up selling a lot more than if you had taken the normal approach and simply championed your product.

People want to listen to experts. They believe experts. They want to do business with experts. Here are three tips to help you make the game-changing move from vendor to expert provided by Bloomber's Businessweek:

1. Package your expertise into an information magnet that will attract your ideal audience. White papers, articles, interviews, DVDs, podcasts and webinars are all good examples of magnets you can use to share your expertise and attract your target audience. How do you get the content for these magnets? Easy. Just capture the educational conversations (over phone, e-mail, and correspondence) that you’re having every day. Those conversations are not simply about your product; they are your expertise—the very expertise that will attract your target audience to you.

2. Give away your expertise by putting a web form on your website that offers your magnet in exchange for your site visitor’s contact information. That’s right. Give away your expertise. Your audience will love it. And you’ll soon be attracting many more qualified leads than you ever thought possible.

3. Stay in touch with your leads and give them a reason to do business with you. "Nurture marketing," as it is called, will keep your audience interested in what you have to say. You will continue to give useful information to your audience over time and you’ll let them know the ways they can do business with you.

Notice that when you follow this approach, your audience views you as an expert, not simply as a pushy vendor. Your audience will be disposed to do business with you because you’ve won their trust. Not only are your messages cutting through the clutter, but you’re now planting them on fertile ground.