If you have been keeping up to date with digital marketing, you'll have heard a lot about the term content marketing over the last couple of years. In digital marketing we use it as a general term to cover blog posts, video content, downloadable content and social media. In reality it is much wider than this and has been around for a lot longer than the term content marketing has been commonly used.
Most professionals marketing themselves as experts have been using what can has been coined 'content marketing' for as long as experts have been in existence. They have written.
If you want to build your expert profile, what are the most powerful content marketing tactics that you should be using?
1. The most powerful content marketing tactic - Write your own book
One of the best tools to become positioned as an expert is authoring your own book. This is a classic content marketing tactic. It always has been and will continue to be one of the most effective methods of expert marketing. It is best if the book is available in hard copy format (as it lends credibility), but as books are increasingly being consumed in digital format, you can publish as a digital only version. If you publish digitally it will be cheaper and much easier to update.
Certainly in some industries publishing your own book may be a stretch, but for many working in the broad range of professional services it should be achievable.
2. Public speaking
The next most powerful tool for establishing an expert profile is public speaking. The higher profile the event the more credibility it will lend. For many this then leads on to creating videos, webinars and perhaps podcasts that take the public speaking into the digital age.
High profile events will often be filmed and distributed after the event. You should get links from the event to your website and blog. You should also be able to get plenty of social media mentions. All of which will add to your content marketing and expert profile.
3. Blog
The medium that bridges the gap between authoring your own book and public speaking is blogging. Shorter items generally on a specific subject, blog posts provide a regular dialogue with your audience. The aim with blog posts is to build an audience of regular readers. A popular method is to encourage your blog readers to sign up to your newsletter so that you can send your blog posts directly to their inbox, which then forms a key part of your email marketing strategy.
Blog posts also form a key component of most social media strategies, to encourage social media audiences back to your own web property. Another key component of any expert's social media and content marketing strategy is content curation. As an expert you should be reading daily and content curation is your way of sharing those items relevant to your audience.
So whilst blogging takes longer to build the credibility, it has the potential to be as or more powerful than both authoring a book and public speaking, due to its consistency and audience building capabilities.
4. White papers and ebooks
Number 4 in my list of the most powerful content marketing tactics is whitepapers and ebooks. For the expert - conducting and publishing your own research is a fantastic way of building credibility and getting talked about in your industry. If primary research isn't an option, writing a paper that reviews and compiles existing research to gain new insights into your area of expertise can be equally as credible.
Ebooks tend to be written in a similar style to a normal book, but are typically shorter in nature. Both ebooks and whitepapers are excellent resources to encourage people to trade their information for the resource, allowing you to build your contacts and leads from your content marketing.
5. Video marketing
If you have got some public speaking under your belt, video marketing is an excellent tool for regular communication of your content. The best videos tend to be short and allow you to convey your personality and expertise in an almost 1:1 setting. Structure some of your blog posts as video items or break down a longer seminar into shorter videos covering each of the points that you make in the seminar. Make videos accessible directly from your site and also host on YouTube, so that they are searchable in their own right. YouTube is the second most used search engine after Google, giving you plenty of chances to get your expertise in front of potential customers.
In summary for you to build your expert profile for your professional services firm you need to be covering off the following content marketing activities:
- Blogging
- Email newsletter
- Social media
- Content curation
- Article publication and PR
- Public speaking
- Online public speaking - webinars, video and podcasts
- Video maketing
- White paper / ebook publication
- Ideally publish a book
