The three keys to successful marketing are to get your clients to know, like, and trust you. One way to achieve the third factor—trust—is to establish yourself as an expert in your field. The question is: How do you do that?
You can call yourself an expert all day long, telling all of your clients about your education and experience, but that usually isn’t enough to convince them that you’re the real deal. After all, there are a lot of shams out there saying the very same things, which can make it difficult for them to decipher between who is truly the expert and who has just given themselves the title.
The Quickest Way to Gain Expert Status
For a moment, I want you to think about all of the people that you look up to in your field. The top dogs and overachievers. The ones who seem to defy the odds and have come out on top. What is one thing that most, if not all of them have in common? They’ve published their own book.
There is something about writing and publishing a book that brings together all of your knowledge and experience that sets you higher than others in your field. Maybe it’s merely the fact that you’ve stayed committed to the process long enough to see a book through. Or perhaps it’s that others read it and finally realize that you really do know what you are talking about, making you a true leader in your field.
Whatever the reason, this is probably the quickest way to establish yourself as an expert. And it also opens up another stream of revenue, allowing you to gain residual profit off something that no longer requires your effort.
You Have Two Options
When it comes to writing and publishing your own book, you have two options. You can do it yourself, typing away during your off-time to get your thoughts and words in black and white, or you can hire a ghostwriter to write it for you. Which option is best for you?
If you have the time and enjoy the writing process, then you would probably get more satisfaction out of writing your own book. This allows you to include all of your thoughts and ideas without having to convey them to someone else first. It also helps you fully interject your personality into the pages, helping others to get to know you on a more personal level (which also achieves one of the three keys to marketing success).
However, if you’re not fond of writing or don’t have the time, a ghostwriter can help you create a book that you’re proud to put your name on. Depending on what type of arrangements you make, you may have weekly phone conferences to share your ideas and thoughts, or you could simply send a basic outline and let them come up with the content with minimal input from you.
I’ve even had clients video themselves so I could see how they talk, which helps me create content that is indicative of their personality. They’ve even taped their facility so I could get a feel for their business, even though logistics keep me from seeing it in person.
No matter how you work it out, a ghostwriter is a great way to get your book completed when you don’t have the time or desire to do it yourself. You just want to make sure you hire one that is going to do your book justice.
Here are a couple pointers:
- Choose a ghostwriter that has an established reputation or portfolio. Ask to see their past work or online content to get a feel for whether or not their writing matches you. For instance, I have a conversational style, which works great for the person who likes their reader to feel as if they are talking face-to-face. However, it isn’t quite so appealing to someone who wants fact-based material without much personality. (Note: most ghostwriters cannot share who’ve they’ve written for due to signed non-disclosures, so you can always ask, but be prepared to not receive that type of information.)
- Talk with the ghostwriter before hiring them. Some of my clients have requested phone interviews prior to hiring me. This is a great way to see which ghostwriter you are comfortable with, and make sure they mesh with your personality before hiring them to do the job.
- Create milestones along the way. The last thing you want to do is hire a ghostwriter to write your book, only to get a complete draft and be completely dissatisfied. Therefore, you’re better off cutting the job into smaller milestones, such as delivering one chapter at a time, so you can keep up with the progress and make any changes early, before they cause huge problems. One example of this was a client I had that didn’t like the word “try.” I’m glad that he corrected that early on so that I could watch out for it as I was preparing the content, saving us both a lot of time in the end.
Writing a book, or even articles or blogs, is a great way to get your name out there and establish yourself as an expert in your field. Whether you write the content yourself or hire someone else to do it, the results are the same. You gain your clients’ trust, which also means that they become a client for life—thereby raising your profits!
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