There a number of effective ways to position yourself as a thought leader in your niche without spending a fortune on thought leadership marketing. The first step is to know your niche inside and out. What do your customers want and need most? What are their pain points, that is, their most important problems that they need to solve?
Customers are looking for solutions that actually work and offer good value for money. They are constantly asking the question, “What’s in it for me?” With so many websites and businesses online, you need to answer that question from the moment they show up at your website or discover one of your products online. You need a thought leadership strategy.
Once you know what your niche needs, offer it to them!
You can do this in a number of ways. Make sure your website has information on every thought leadership content marketing you offer. Include a Marketplace that links to every product.
Make sure your site looks professional, with an easy to use layout that is mobile-friendly. Your niche-related thought leadership content must be worth taking the time to read. Just because it is free does not mean it should be junk. In fact, publishing impressive niche content regularly is a great way to position you as a thought leader in your niche.
Use your site as a lead generation tool in order to build your email marketing list.
In this way, you can communicate with your list on regular basis, presenting your niche customers with thought leader content, information, products, and service that will prove value and make sure you know what you are talking about.
The products you promote can be yours, or affiliate products you are selling for a commission. They might also be Joint Venture (JV) products you are promoting to your list in exchange for your partner promoting your items to theirs. You could consider them your thought leader resource networks.
In order to get people to sign up for a mailing list these days, you need to go beyond the free newsletter offer to a compelling special report registrants can download that will be packed with information (and links to buy products) related to your niche. Aim for a broad topic most people interested in your niche will be eager to read, and even to pass on to others via email or social networks.
Working with JVs gives you other opportunities to show yourself as a successful niche thought leader.
These include writing reviews of every product you sell as an affiliate or a partner. JVs might also invite you to participate in an online webinar or interview you as an expert in your niche. You might even get some guest thought leader blog opportunities in which you write thought leader articles for some of the top blogs in your niche to show what you know.
Best way to be a successful niche thought leader would be to write a book and publish it on Amazon.
That is a great way to be looked at as a thought leader in your niche. It doesn’t have to be an encyclopedia of everything you know about your niche. Many bestselling books are usually ones with How To somewhere in the title, offering real solutions to your readers.
Publish it as an e-book through the Kindle Digital Platform first. If there is enough demand, publish it in paperback as well. Get a great cover designed for $5 on Fiverr.com.
Becoming a thought leader in your niche is easy if you give your prospects what they want and need, and show you are in the know about all the top products and services available, not just your own.
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Deborah Northcutt is the CEO of http://www.FreeYouUpVA.com. I am a Speaker Support Consultant that helps aspiring speakers, coaches, and entrepreneurs find their ideal speaking opportunity so they can shine their light and grow their business with high-level support. Join my Facebook Community.