Position Yourself As An Expert to Increase Income

It's a fact that experts can command higher fees in their field than generalists. Specialized knowledge or services are more highly valued than general information.
It takes time and planning to position yourself as an expert or specialist in your field, but it's well worth the effort to make this approach a part of your long-term marketing strategy. The media will call you, associations will ask you to speak at their events, and you will start to stand out, get noticed, and get hired.

Here are seven advantages of declaring expert status in your micro-niche:

1. You will attract more business with less effort.
As a specialist you can attract more qualified prospects and clients with much less effort than a generalist. This is a big advantage of being perceived as an expert in your in niche.

2. People call you rather than you having to call them.
Experts are sought after by clients, organizations, associations, and even the media. Wouldn't it be nice to have all your calls incoming rather than outgoing?

3. You are more easily referable.
When people know exactly what you do and who you do it for, they're happy to pass that information on to people they know who could use your services.

4. The media will be interested in interviewing you.
People in the media are looking for experts to interview or write about. Do something to stand out or be newsworthy so you'll get noticed. You can develop a media kit to make it easy for them to contact you.

5. You can virtually eliminate competition.
You can stand out as the top person in your field by positioning yourself as the best at what you uniquely do in your particular micro-niche. This approach has the effect of removing any threat from competition.

6. No need to sell your services.
Rather than trying to sell yourself, you get to provide information and offer solutions to problems. Over time, people come to know, like and trust you and are then ready to hire you without you having to sell them.

7. You can command much higher fees.
One of the biggest advantages of positioning yourself as an authority in your field is that you can charge much higher fees for your specialized knowledge than you could for more general services.

Some things you can do to start to position yourself as an expert include:

Writing articles in your area of specialty
Publishing a newsletter or ezine
Speaking on your topic everywhere you can
Gathering client testimonials and success stories
Starting a blog or podcast
Sending press releases to local media
Giving radio interviews
Writing a book
Positioning yourself as the go-to person in your field is a smart marketing strategy.
It takes work, a good plan, and support to achieve expert status, but it's well worth the effort.

Start by believing in your own expertise. Then, step-by-step start to position yourself as a credible authority. Over time, you can declare expert status.