We talked a lot about how you should set your internet marketing foundation, and the mistakes that most people make online that you should do everything to avoid. So you should know that slapping up an ugly website, and hoping people will come is a failing strategy nearly every time. I also talked about how you should consider your prospective customer or business partner depending on your industry, and why you should carry on less about yourself and really focus on them. Well, this article is going to touch on how you SHOULD use your websites and the internet to brand yourself and your name.
It's going to show you how to get people to notice you and begin to recognize you as an authority in your industry or niche.
Now, let's not get confused here. You see, I believe that most people have this intention from the very beginning... and that's why they do make that first mistake of going on and on about themselves on their websites. But that's not how you establish yourself as an authority.
Let's look at it from the reader's point of view! Actually, let's look at it from your point of view but from the other side of the coin.
Let's say you were looking for a person to build you a house on a new piece of property that you'd just bought. Of course you would shop around right for the builder who you thought would do the best job. So let's say you go to the first person and he starts to tell you how great he is, and how he builds the best houses there are. How everybody loves him, and how if he builds your house that you can't go wrong. He may even tell you that he's been building houses for 20 odd years. Wow! Impressive...or is it?
Let's say the next guy you go to sits you down in his office, and pulls out a large catalog of all of the houses that he's built for other people. But while he's showing you these houses he's telling you all about the process of building homes, and why he did the things that he did to each house to make each structure more solid... to make each window more secure so that you lose less heat in the winter and less cool air in the summer.
If he went through and educated you on all of this stuff, and really laid it out there for you, without ever...not once...saying how great he thought he was...tell me, which guy would you trust and want to work with the most. The guy who talked obsessively about himself, or the guy who showed you why he does things the way he does, and how if he did those same things for you your house would be more secure and you'd save tons of money?
I think we know the answer to that question pretty easily.
You see him as an expert now because he's shown you he was an expert, not told you so.
On the internet it takes a lot more to get someone to trust you because it's not a face to face meeting. Therefore, you have to prove in other ways that you're a real person, and that you're knowledgeable.
Now just proving that you're a real person goes a long way in branding yourself as well. That's why you should always have a picture of yourself on all of your websites...on everything that you do online. You see people are actually very afraid of the anonymity of the internet...because they've heard horror story after horror story about people getting ripped off. You probably have too right?
So you need to prove to people right off the bat that you are a real person. The way to do that is with pictures of yourself, videos of yourself (which is really easy to do these days), and even audio of yourself.
You need to have a quick and easy way for people to contact you. Give your phone number, your email address, and even Skype profile if you have it. If not you should get it.
You also need to always remember to educate your prospects and prove to them that you're an expert, not just tell them that you're one.
Keeping these things in mind will set you so far apart from your competition that eventually you'll have to do less work, to get many more customers simply for the trust factor.
About The Author
David L. Feinstein, noted business coach and home business entrepreneur, is the author of various articles that help to empower individuals. To get the real innovative marketing knowledge and training, so you can be at the cutting edge of using technology to build your internet marketing business correctly.
