Brand Yourself as an Expert

IN THIS ISSUE

1.    Brand Yourself as an Expert
2 .   Quote of the Week
3 .   Resources for Entrepreneurs and Marketers
4 .   A Little Fun
5 .   Smell the Coffee

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1. Brand Yourself as an Expert

Whether you’re in business for yourself, you work for someone else, or you’d like to get a great job, branding yourself as an expert can really improve your business success. And how do you establish yourself as "Me, Inc."?

First, create a branding plan for yourself by evaluating what your current reputation is, what you’d like it to be and then brainstorming specific tactics to make that happen. Write it all down, including all of the ideas you have about promoting yourself and your expertise.

There are many ways to begin to brand yourself as an expert. Here are a few:

• Write articles for online and offline publications. Always include your website link and your one-paragraph "mini bio" labeling yourself as an expert.
  
• Publish a print and/or electronic newsletter that shows off your expertise.
  
• Join online discussion groups and post "expert" responses to members’ questions.
  
• Write and publish articles in other people’s newsletters.
  
• Give speeches at meetings and conferences to put yourself in front of your target audience.
  
• Get other people to write about you (newspapers, magazines, newsletters, etc.).
  
• Create a unique way to do something and get a patent. Be sure to let the media know about your accomplishment.
  
• Become certified or licensed in your industry.
  
• Get an advanced education degree.
  
• Be a guest on a talk radio or TV show, speaking about your area of expertise.
  
• Write a book.
  
• Be quoted in other people’s books.
  
• Donate your expertise (or products) to worthy causes. Make sure your mini bio is included in the materials.
  
• Sponsor an event.
  
• Create a website that shows off your expertise.
  
• Write a full bio that is packed with your impressive qualifications and use this on your website, with your press materials, and when you give speeches. Put your most impressive accomplishments first.
  
• Never call yourself a consultant. This screams "between jobs" to many people. Choose another word to identify what you do. Are you a strategist? A trainer? A publicity expert? How about a guru?
  
• Simply call yourself an expert!
  You must be truthful, however. There are various levels of expertise. Knowing more about a particular topic than most other people do is one level of expertise. Of course, you have to be able to back up your statements with real, credible experience, but if you've been in your field for five or more years, you can probably do this.
  
  One way to easily begin letting people know you’re an expert is by adding a line to your email signature block, the automatic signature that is added to every email you send out. Instead of just signing your email with your name, you should also include your company name, address, phone number, email address, website URL and a short tagline that says what you do.
  
  And that’s where you work in the expert status. If you’re a sales trainer, for instance, you might say, "Expert sales trainer with proven success." Again, you must be able to prove you are better than the average bear in your field of expertise.
  
  If you do all of these things, it won’t be long before everyone is calling you an expert!
  
  
  If you'd like to start creating your expert status by posting articles online, here's a terrific resource. Sharron Senter, an expert on how to post online articles, recommends 10 portal websites that welcome articles. They're included on the handout you can download when you order "How to Submit Online Articles That Pull Traffic to Your Website," a recording of a one-hour teleseminar Joan Stewart conducted with Sharron last year. Sharron explains how she gets up to 100 sales leads a month from articles she posts. She also gives you step-by-step instructions on how to post your own articles and convert all that extra website traffic to profitable sales. Read more about what you'll learn or order the CD or cassette tape here.
  
  
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  2.  Quote of the Week
  
  "I define success as being happy—happy with who you are, with what you've accomplished, with what you have."
  
  Gayle Trent
  Laughing and learning: adventures in parenting
  http://www.graceabraham.com
  
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  AND NOW, A MESSAGE FROM OUR SPONSORS...
  
  
  What's your definition of success?
  Email your comments to me.
  
  
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  3.  Resources for Entrepreneurs and Marketers
  
  
• Thanks to WebTeks for this tidbit:
  
  Here's a good reason NOT to attach Word documents to news release submissions.
  Read this to find out more.
  
  
• Want to sell on eBay? Thanks to Sharon Fling at GeoLocal.com for this::
  
  Here's a guide to help you.
  
  
• Want to get booked on OPRAH? Here's a free teleseminar from Annie Jennings PR. Annie Jennings hosts former OPRAH producer Michele Anton and Steve Harrison, publisher of RTIR and one of the producers of the National Publicity Summit. Sign up online today for tomorrow's seminar:
  
  Wed., June 2nd , 1:00-2:00PM Eastern
  
  P.S. If you miss the live teleseminar, you can order the free recorded teleseminar here.
  
  
• Close More Sales: If you want to close more sales, 52 Ready-to-Go Sales Meetings, an ebook I wrote with Jim Wilson, can teach you how to do that! In 52 easy-to-read lessons, you can become the sales superstar you want to be. Learn how to "reverse," the 3 traits of salespeople, and how to be a sales champion so you can close more sales, make more money and create the life you want. Learn more about it or download it and be reading it in minutes here.
  
  
• Upfrontational Selling
  
  Perhaps you're an auditory learner. Here's a great 2-CD set, Upfrontational Selling, by Jim Wilson of Selling Strategies that can really help you avoid giving away your knowledge and get paid before you do that proposal. Learn how to close more sales and make more money. Get the set here for just $57 plus $4.50 shipping:
  
  
• National Publicity Summit: Time is running out! Want Big-Time National Publicity? Would you like to be written up in major national magazines and interviewed on top TV shows? If so, be one of just 100 people to attend Steve Harrison's National Publicity Summit in New York City July 14-17. It's your opportunity to learn the inside secrets of getting national media exposure and make the personal contacts that could make you famous.
  
  Pitch your story to journalists from top national media outlets including ABC's The View ... CNN ... Montel ... USA Weekend ... Live With Regis & Kelly ... Late Night With Conan O'Brien... Publishers Weekly... CBS' 48 Hours ... XM Satellite Radio Network ... Family Circle ... Parents ... ABC Radio Network ... Parenting ... Dr. Laura Show ... People magazine... Fox News Channel ... Maxim ... Parade ... New York Post ... Good Housekeeping ... and many other top national media outlets, 81 in all!
  
  Last year at the Summit, one attendee was interviewed on Fox News Channel within five hours of meeting the producer! Click here for free info
  
  .
• Looking for a great shopping cart system? How to Pick a Shopping Cart System that Makes You Money is an ebook that explains all the important features. You can get it here, free!
  
  
• Do you like these resources? There are plenty more like these in my ebook, BUSINESS SUCCESS SECRETS: HARD-WORKING TACTICS & RESOURCES.
  37 pages, packed with ideas you can use immediately... to get more business, generate more traffic to your website and make improve your bottom line. Over 135 hyperlinks that can take you directly to a marketing resource or idea you can use right now...so you can save time and money. Beginning and advanced tactics to really make a difference in your marketing results...and you can make more sales with much less effort. Learn to save money on your advertising. Get a list of websites that would LOVE to post your articles. Get a list of websites that would LOVE to post your articles. Buy it for just $19.95 here.
  
  Read more about it or order it here.
  
  
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  4. A Little Fun
  
  Thanks to Julian at http://www.CookieCutterGirl.com for sending "new" old favorites for Boomers and marketers:
  
  Beatles: "Let Me Pee"
  Beatles: "Hey Dude"
  Beatles: "Drive My (shopping) Cart" or "Drive My Car" (because I can't see)
  Nat King Cole: "Unforgivable"
  Prince: "List" ("I just want your extra time and your... list")
  Bee Gees: "Live Talkin" (for a public speaker)
  
  
  Hey! Create your own fun. Send me your own versions of revised song titles for Boomers or marketers and I'll print them. I'll also give the person who sends me the funniest "new" song a FREE copy of one of my products. You choose! Send your ideas here.
  

Help keep the smiles coming...please send me your marketing, PR or sales jokes. I'll be happy to give you credit and list your website! Email me.


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5. Smell the Coffee...

Our weekend was very pleasant. We spent a lot of time together working in the yard, tearing down a decorative fence and planning the kids' bedroom remodeling projects. Roni and Nessa especially enjoyed the fence demolition and the creative fun of planning their rooms.

A couple of weeks ago we had a truckload of mulch delivered to our house so we can spruce up our yard and retain moisture in the flower beds. Of course, there's not much chance of the flowers drying out anytime soon. It's been raining for what seems like months now. Between rainstorms, we did manage to spread most of the mulch this weekend.

School is almost out and the kids are getting very excited about changing their rooms this summer. We've given them a project budget, a few guidelines ("No, you cannot paint your room black), and some graph paper to plan the space. Roni, a designer by nature, has every inch of her space planned. It will be cozy and include lots of storage. Nessa is having a harder time, partly because she has to work around a queen-size bed in an 8' x 13' room. This is our first adventure into letting them actually paint their rooms.

Pray for patience for Don and me!

Lois


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Published by:
Lois Carter Fay, APR
Marketing Guru, Marketing Idea Shop
411 Rainier Road, Massanutten, VA USA 22840
Voice 540.289.3840 or 800.203.8660
lcf@marketingideashop.com
http://www.marketingideashop.com

© 2004 Marketing Idea Shop. All rights reserved.

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