What’s the marketing value of becoming an expert? It’s simple: America is celebrity-crazy. Who really knows why? Whole industries have sprung up around the personal lives of actors…athletes get paid impossible salaries…news programs claw and scratch to land the best experts-celebrities in their own right-who can comment on the latest controversies.

We’re suckers for the famous.

Whether you agree with this collective celebrity adoration of ours or not, you’d probably have to agree with this: You would have a lot easier time selling your product or service if you were a well-known expert, too.

That said, how do you become an expert? Or an authority?

How do you get to the point where the media is calling you instead of the other way around? Here’s a five-step “expertizing” campaign you may want to consider. First…

1/ WRITE A BOOK

Think about it: Have you ever seen any kind of decent expert who didn’t have at least one book behind him or her?

Probably not, right? Your book serves as your biggest credential. When the question is posed, what makes an expert an expert, the answer invariably is, “Well, they’ve written a book on the subject.” So, bottom-line, a book may be the only real expert qualification you ever need.

Writing one may seem like an insurmountable task, yet it doesn’t have to be. Let’s say you can get yourself in the habit of researching and writing a couple of pages a day. In three month’s time, you’ll actually have written a 180-page book, which is about average size for non-fiction.

Of course, if you really didn’t want to write the book yourself-and you had a few bucks set aside-you could always hire a ghostwriter to do the job for you. That’s done all the time.

The real value of a book is that it’s your admission ticket to media interviews. Could you get interviewed without a book to your credit? Possibly. But it’s so much easier with one. And it is almost a prerequisite for talk radio.

2/ REPRESENT YOURSELF AS AN EXPERT TO THE MEDIA WITH PRESS RELEASES

Okay…it takes lots of thinking, research, interviews and just plain hard work to get a book done, right? And, the funny thing is, when you do all that work and write that book, you actually do become an expert.

Once you become an expert, the last thing you’ll want to do is keep it secret. You’ll want to tell the media.

So how do you do that? What’s your first step? Well, it all begins with a great press release. Press releases are what the media runs on-they’re the fuel of talk radio, TV and/or print. And a well-written one is critical in generating media interest…and in portraying yourself in the best possible light.

3/ LAND INTERVIEW ON TALK RADIO SHOWS

A good press release could lead to several radio talk show interview opportunities, and that’s great news. Talk radio is where you want to be.

The benefits of talk radio interviews, alone, could fill a book, particularly in how they can shape the way an expert is perceived. But to summarize just a few of the points…

• The large number of specialty talk shows let you pinpoint your target audience(s). • There is no travel involved. All you need is your phone (and your cell phone is fine). • Unless you’re a walking, talking sleeping pill, you should be given enough time to tell your story. • You’ll effectively be gaining the credibility of a third-party endorsement (those friendly talk show hosts, in other words).

This is definitely a base you’ll want to touch on your way to becoming an expert.

4/ THE MEDIA FOLLOWS THE MEDIA

Ever notice how you’ll see or hear an expert on one little talk show…then, suddenly, he or she will spring up everywhere? That’s because the media follows the media. Competing shows often watch or listen to each other to get ideas for their own shows.

Interviews do tend to blossom from other interviews. There is a magnifying effect. So one of the keys in being recognized as an expert is simply to start getting interviewed as soon as possible. It’s how the Chicken Soup authors (80 million copies in print) ultimately became famous.

5/ DO TV WHENEVER POSSIBLE

In a day when society is obsessed with the Internet, people still watch an average of 4 hours, 35 minutes a day of TV, which is what makes TV interviews such a powerful media. So, whenever it’s available, your “expertizing” campaign should include TV interviews.

Here’s where a great press release and that “media follows the media” principle comes in handy. It doesn’t take too many TV interviews before the collective “Hey-I-saw-you-on-TV” publicity starts cementing your status as an expert. Success story after success story bear witness to this.

Notice how four of the five above steps involve appearing on the media? That just happens to be one of the “expertizing” facts of life. You can be the greatest authority in the world on something…but if the media ignores you, your actual impact, sad to say, could be negligible.

That said, it just makes great sense to turn yourself into an expert. You don’t have to be an insufferable bore about it…just a practical businessperson. After all, the more “famous” you are, the more products or services you’ll sell. And that should be incentive enough to become an expert.

One Response to “Why Becoming an Expert Can be the Best Marketing Move You Make”

1. Fern Reiss on December 1st, 2007 10:35 am

   Great article. Just wanted to let you know, though, that use of the word ‘Expertizing’ is trademarked (by us–Expertizing.com). But you used it exactly the way we intended–you just need to put a little R in a circle (registered trademark) next to it, or mention our website, Expertizing.com

   Thanks for the plug :*)
   Best,
   /Fern

   Get more media attention for your business
   http://www.Expertizing.com

Got something to say?