As a home-based business owner, part of your focus is always on securing new customers. While it is true that your repeat clients are the backbone of your success, you need to add to those returning numbers if you want your business to grow.
One of the best ways to make that happen is to sell yourself as an expert. When potential buyers see you as a knowledgeable professional whose opinions and guidance truly matter, they are more likely to hand over their hard-earned money. Below you will find a few ways that you can use to promote yourself as an expert.
Display Your Credentials
Credentials are anything which you’ve accomplished which reflects positively on your line of work. For example, a teacher’s credentials might include his or her completed education and years of employment as an educator while a writer’s might also list his or her publishing credits.
Whether you have a Master’s degree or a GED, you have credentials worth promoting to potential clients, such as your years in the industry, number of satisfied customers, awards you’ve received, and more. If you’re a member of an organization, a former military person, or an experienced entrepreneur, you can use these facts to sell yourself as an expert.
Once you have established your credentials, display them everywhere. On your web sites, business cards, brochures, and advertisements your credentials will help boost their marketing effectiveness and will ensure you an influx of new business.
Write a Book
Have you ever noticed that on television anyone who writes a book becomes an instant expert? It’s true. Once someone is published, he or she becomes a knowledgeable source of information on that topic and what works for them will also work for you.
Now you might be thinking: I don’t have the writing skills to publish a book on the time to find a publisher for any manuscript. Thankfully the Internet allows you to get around those concerns. For one, you don’t have to write your book to receive the benefits of authorship. You can hire a ghostwriter using any of the online freelance marketplaces, such as Elance.com, to turn your ideas into powerful prose.
You can also forgo traditional publishing methods and instead create an Ebook or submit your book to an online publishing house, such as iUniverse.com. Either of these methods will help you effectively establish yourself as an expert.
Broadcast Your Success
People are naturally drawn to winners. They will almost always choose to do business with successful companies instead of those seeing only mediocre results. How else could one explain the popularity of Wal-Mart and McDonald’s? But how do potential customers find out about your success unless you tell them?
One of the best ways to broadcast your success is by creating and distributing press releases. Many small business owners mistakenly believe they need an entire public relations department in order to send out press releases, but the truth is they are easy for anyone to write and deliver to potential customers.
To create a press release, you need to follow only this simple formula:
Paragraph 1 – Establish the relevance of your news by explaining why people should care. For example, you may want to mention the need your product fulfills.
Paragraph 2 – Discuss your news or success. You need to go into details about what you’ve accomplished so that readers can see concrete evidence of your success.
Paragraph 3 – Give background information on your company or yourself. This paragraph will tell readers more about the company and what you do. It also gives you a chance to stress your credentials.
Paragraph 4 – Wrap up with contact details. The last thing you want to leave your potential customers with is a phone number, email address, or web site address which they can use to reach you and learn more.
After you’ve written your press release, you can distribute them directly to the individuals on your client list – all those people who have expressed some interest in becoming a customer of yours – via email and post them on your web site so they are easily accessible. You can also try mailing them to local newspapers or magazines to try to motivate their interest as well.
As you can see there are numerous ways for you to sell yourself as a knowledgeable expert in your field. Once you begin using them, you will quickly discover that your potential customers view you as more trustworthy, reputable, and reliable which translates into more sales and higher profits for you. It may take some work to convince the public of your expertise, but in the long run the payoff is worth it.
2003 Vishal P. Rao
Vishal P. Rao is the owner of
http://www.home-based-business-opportunities.com – One of
Internet’s leading website dedicated to starting, managing
and marketing a home based business.
