Have you ever wondered how so many companies manage to dominate their industry? It doesn’t happen by accident. When a business dominates their industry, it’s the result of a well thought out plan executed to perfection over a long period of time. However, creating a multi-faceted plan like this will require input from a true expert in your niche.
Businesses that dominate their niche are generally well respected, have a large customer base, produce great products and services, and earn the lion’s share of revenue in their industry. This is a goal for many, but few actually succeed. While there are many factors that contribute to dominating a niche, one of the more overlooked factors is having a genuine expert on your team. Without a true expert, high levels of success are difficult to achieve.
Do you have a team of experts helping you reach your business goals? If not, you need one. Here’s how a genuine expert can help you become an authority in your industry.
1. An expert will help you create an authoritative website
Having an authoritative website is fundamental to acquiring expert status in your industry. What makes a website authoritative? That depends on who you’re asking – visitors or search engines. Let’s start with human visitors.
Most people search for information and businesses online, which makes having a web presence essential. However, you won’t be seen as an expert with a site full of basic information. Your website needs to reflect the level of expertise you wish to project, which means you need high-level content created by a genuine expert in your industry.
If domination is your goal, you need to publish expert-level content encased in a beautifully designed website. Since people judge based on appearances, the visual aspect of your website is of equal importance to the content. Although, you can’t rely on aesthetics alone to get seen as an expert.
If you’re not the expert, hire one
Perhaps you’re already an expert in your industry, in which case, you can create your own content fairly easily. If you aren’t an expert, it’s a wise move to hire one or at least consult with an expert to write your content.
If you can consult with a recognized expert in your industry, that would be ideal. Otherwise, find someone with the industry knowledge and experience required to write high-level content for your website. Depending on your industry, you may need to find someone with specific credentials, like degrees, to be taken seriously.
Expert content projects authority to search engines
Getting search engines to see your website content as authoritative is necessary because the more authority you hold, the more your web pages will come up in search results. The way search engines determine authority slightly differs from human beings, although the two are connected.
All that expert content you publish for visitors will be used to build authority with search engines through search engine optimization (SEO) and content marketing. In short, well-optimized content will help you rank in the search engine results pages (SERPs) and well-written content will get you solid backlinks and targeted traffic with content marketing.
Here’s how both of these factors work.
Establishing authority with SEO and content marketing
Using SEO and content marketing to establish authority consists of several factors:
· Writing content optimized for search engines. By using specific keywords and phrases in your content, you’re telling search engines what your content is about. This is one of many factors that helps search engines determine how relevant your pages are to specific searches. The more relevant your pages are, the higher they’ll show up in search results.
· Generating backlinks. Backlinks serve two main purposes: they help to increase your ranking in the SERPs and they drive targeted traffic to your website. With content marketing, you’ll generate backlinks to your website that will help you fulfill these two purposes.
With content marketing, getting backlinks on authoritative sites will increase your ranking faster than getting backlinks on relatively unknown sites. However, it’s a good idea to have a diverse backlink profile because it will look natural to search engines.
· Generating targeted traffic from content marketing. When it comes to generating targeted traffic, the backlinks you generate from content marketing will help. Just make sure you encourage readers to click on the backlinks you include in articles written for content marketing. Also, make sure the articles you write are relevant to your niche so that the traffic you get will be interested in your content.
All of these elements will help your website become recognized as authoritative in the search engines and to visitors who find your site in the search engines.
Having your website recognized as an authority in your industry won’t happen overnight, but it can happen with time, patience, and hard work.
2. An expert will give your business credibility
For some industries, expertise doesn’t matter. For instance, someone looking for a warm pair of socks probably won’t care if the business is an expert on socks. How do you even determine who is a sock expert, anyway? On the other hand, if someone is searching for information on how to improve their golf game, expertise absolutely matters. That person will want to know the advice they’re reading is coming from a golf expert.
There are several ways you can get an expert to boost your credibility:
· Expert endorsements. You can get endorsements from experts, although you usually need to pay for them, and paid endorsements can work against your credibility. Some people might wonder why you had to pay someone for support if you’re truly an expert in your field.
· Publish guest posts from experts. One of the best ways to showcase your credibility is to publish guest posts written by industry experts. You might need to pay for their articles, but having their content published on your website will give you a boost based on association. It will also help by adding high-level content to your website.
· Quote experts and cite research in your content. Nothing gives credibility to your points like quoting experts who agree, and citing research that supports your position.
Although you can borrow experts to give interviews, quotes, and endorsements, it’s better if they’re part of your organization. When you hire an expert to be part of your team, you don’t have to worry about getting a steady stream of paid endorsements and quotes. You can get everything you need when it’s needed. Best of all, your expert will be part of your team, which will make your business look even better.
3. An expert will open doors for your business
When you have an expert on your team, you’ll have access to opportunities other businesses won’t have. Some opportunities are only presented to organizations that work with established industry experts, but others simply require credentials. For example, in some industries, there are conferences and conventions reserved for people with industry-specific degrees and certifications.
If you want to dominate your niche, you need to know what’s going on in your industry, including the technical details you can only get from special groups and clubs. Sometimes, you can get this information by paying for it, but other times you really need to be an insider. The best insider you can send in on your behalf is a credentialed expert.
How to find an expert to support your business
Now that you know why you need an expert, it’s time to find one. Do yourself a favor and skip sites like Craigslist. Go straight to sites like LinkedIn where you can view credentials and experience right away. Look for experts in your industry and reach out to them to find out if they have an interest in either joining your team, consulting with you, or helping you write content.
When you do find interested parties, vet them before bringing them on board or committing to any project. Make sure they have a good reputation online and verify they are who they claim to be. Be prepared to explain the benefits of working with your company because experts don’t usually pursue opportunities unless there’s something in it for them.
Last, but not least, don’t overdo it with proclaiming your expertise. The most knowledgeable organizations in any industry don’t need to boast about being experts. Claim your expertise where necessary, but do it sparingly and intentionally. Citing references, studies, and highlighting content created by experts will do wonders to show your market that you are an authority in your industry.