Authority Marketing: Smart Tactic or Unfair Advantage?
Before determining if authority marketing is in fact unfair, or just a smart business tactic, it behooves us to define what authority marketing is in the first place.
Authority marketing is in essence using your expertise to create for yourself a reputation as an authority in your chosen industry, which results in more business.
This marketing strategy has been used successfully by many celebrities and businesses and is a seemingly smart tactic when it comes to setting yourself apart from other industry professionals. To say i'ts an unfair advantage is a bit, well, unfair, because it is a tactic that is available to each and every entrepreneur and professional.
How to Know If You Are an Authority in Your Industry
Before you begin utilizing the tactics of authority marketing, you must first decide if you are in fact an authority in your industry. A common myth about authority marketing states that you must know everything about each aspect of your industry to be considered an expert, which is simply untrue.
You don’t even have to be the very best in your field to be an expert. Your answers to the following questions will help you determine if you can claim expert status in your industry:
- Do you generally know more than your prospects, or customers, about your industry or product?
- Are you willing to help your prospects?
If you answered yes to these questions, than you can consider yourself an authority in your chosen field. Remember; being an expert does not involve calling yourself an authority on a subject, but instead includes methods that encourage others to recognize you as such.
Being an Educator and Advocate Is the Way to Build Authority
Instead of attempting to convince potential clients to do business with you based on your merits, authority marketing encourages you to instead seek to be an advocate and educator for those people.
This is done by selecting a subcategory within your field and seeking to help as many people as possible within your niche market.
For example, if you are a home contractor, you might have considered marketing to every potential client.
However, if you want to create a niche, you will select a smaller category of people to work for, such as homeowners who are renting out their properties or real estate companies who are needing repair work done on their investments, and focus on them alone.
This specialization gives you a niche, and when you help clients within this niche category, you will begin to develop a reputation as an authority on the subject, and can even demand more money for your expert services.
Remember, a great brand or business is not worried about pleasing every single person on earth, but is instead focused on educating and helping their clients within their small niche.
French writer Antoine de Saint-Expuery said it best when he said, “Perfection is achieved not when there is nothing more to add, but when there is nothing left to take away.”
In other words, you can’t be an expert, or authority, on every issue under the sun. You will never achieve this kind of perfection. However, you might be able to get close to perfection if you choose a niche and seek to help people within that subcategory.
Example of Smart Marketing and Specialization as well as Authority Positioning
Known as a financial guru, accomplished author and host of a popular syndicated radio show, Dave Ramsey paints an ideal picture of an authority marketing genius.
Dave has taken a field in which he knows quite a bit about, through personal experience, and sought to help people solve a problem within that field. He then focused on one element of financial advice, which was how to help people get out of debt.
He did not attempt to share how to invest, nor did he get into the nuances of complicated stock options. He simply stuck to what he knew, which was how to get out of debt. He has used this niche and made himself an authority on the subject through helping others.
Dave is not the smartest financial advisor you will ever find, nor does he claim to be. However, he doesn’t have to be.
He simply helps people fix problems and in so doing made himself an authority. Keep in mind, he doesn’t call himself an expert or claim authority status. Instead, he goes about his business from a teaching and helping perspective.
To sum up the idea of authority marketing, consider two different marketing strategies within the same business arena.
The first business markets itself as a yard service. They come in and mow, doing only what you tell them to do to your yard. In other words, they follow your orders.
The other business markets itself as a landscape architecture firm. They will show you how your yard should be situated and suggest ideal plants and shrubs for your yard. In other words, they make the suggestions.
Which of these two businesses would you consider an expert? Which one would you seek out? Which one can help you solve the problem you have regarding your bland lawn?
As you can see, only one of these businesses are utilizing authority marketing strategies. This is just one example of the power of authority positioning marketing.
You can apply the principles to any business, no matter how small or large.
