For your business, it’s important to be considered an expert in your niche field. People trust experts: you will find bright people wanting to work for you, customers wanting to buy from you and other companies seeking to collaborate with you. According to the Nielsen Study, expert content are about 83% more effective than branded content in generating brand awareness.
One of the biggest challenges of establishing yourself in a niche market is to prove to your audience that you really are indeed an expert in your niche.
What is an expert?
Before we delve into how you can become an expert in your niche market, let’s hit the basics.
Clearly, the first component of being an expert requires someone who knows the subject well. In addition to knowledge, an expert is someone with experience in that particular field, having utilized that knowledge. Typically, this is someone that has credibility gained through an audience that trusts them. In the online realm, this often translates into followers on various social media platforms as an indication of this trust.
What is a niche?
A niche business is one that focuses on smaller, but specific and well-segmented target market. They are created by identifying needs and wants that are poorly being satisfied by other companies, if at all. As a strategy, a niche business is essentially “the big fish in a small pond.”
Becoming an expert is easy. Simply know more about something than the people you are talking to. The big question: how to pick that particular niche? The narrower your niche is, the easier it is to become an expert.
When searching for a niche, look for a distinct and specific set of needs that someone has and aim to find a solution to completely satisfy them.
Where can you present your expertise?
The big task is proving your expertise to your audience. It’s important to make them aware that you know what you are talking about in order to earn their trust. The only way for them to realize your knowledge in your niche is to share it with the world. Some common platforms include blogs, forums and social media tools like Twitter or Facebook.
If you want to extend your audience, you could reach out to other expert bloggers to guest blog on their platform, thus getting your business’s and your name out there as much as possible.
How is credibility built?
Anybody can voice their opinion about a topic, but people are inclined to listen to an expert’s opinion. So where does the line between blogger and expert lie? Here are a couple ways that you can cultivate your expertise:
Find your passion
First and foremost, you should have a strong interest in your niche. This is what distinguishes a good website from a great one and what keeps you motivated to produce quality content. Your passion shows in your work and followers will react to that.
Know your niche
It’s important to know exactly who you are targeting. Here’s the perfect niche formula:
Your Target Audience + What You Offer + Your Appeal to This Audience = Big Time Value
Being an expert is important, but knowing the questions that need to be answered is even more so. Your customers are the backbone of your business’s success, so get to know exactly who you are targeting by doing the research and documenting your findings.
Hang out in forums that your target market will likely be in and create customer profiles. According to Control, a SaaS company that offers customer intelligence for small businesses, you should keep updating your research since your primary target audience changes as your business grows and evolves. Once you know your customers better, you can easily address their problems and predict their behaviours.
Map out your business model
With the digital age at it’s peak and the marketplace competition saturated, you want to really perfect your model and create a unique selling point. Get your product, service and content creation plan polished so that your audience views you as an expert solution. Keep in mind that quality is always better than quantity.
Put in the 10,000 hours
I’m sure you’ve heard this phrase in some form: “You can be an expert at anything with 10,000 hours of practice.” Practice makes perfect and the only way to be an expert is through experience. You may not begin with much knowledge, but anyone can become an expert if they are willing to put in the hours. So keep persisting, growing and learning from your mistakes.
Keep expanding your knowledge
Find out what research has to say. Discover who the leaders and influencers are in your niche and follow them on social media. Hit the bookstores and libraries and subscribe to the newsletter of your competitors. Keep brushing up on your skills by surfing the internet and staying current on industry news and market trends related to your field. This can give you a better grasp on your market and inspire new content. Learn from experts firsts hand and broaden your knowledge by going to events and workshops, you might even find a mentor along the way.
Believe in yourself
There are many qualified people out there who are too timid to believe that they are worthy of the title of “expert.” However, by shifting your vision and self-belief by acknowledging your experience and knowledge in your field, you can easily position yourself as an expert solution. The old adage: fake it until you make it, stands true in becoming an expert. Have an opinion and articulate your views as if you are an expert — even if you don’t quite believe so yet.
Takeaways
The digital market has changed dramatically over the past couple years and will continue to do so. The best way to survive this transformation?
Become an expert.
Being an expert can drive your sales up as it means that you have followers that trust in the products or services that you provide, making it easier to establish customer loyalty. In addition, it means that you have the knowledge and experience to produce quality content and react to the changing markets. Keep learning and sharing your knowledge and in no time, you will have no problem establishing yourself as an expert and growing your business.