A few years ago, Hinge embarked on a research project to learn all we could about these industry stars (we call them Visible Experts®) and their personal branding strategies. Our researchers interviewed over 1,000 Visible Experts and buyers of their services to figure out what was going on and exactly what they did to develop and market their personal brands. We published our findings in a groundbreaking book, The Visible Expert.

Today, I’m going to let you in on a little secret: most of these Visible Experts aren’t much different from the rest of us. In fact, many of them admit that they aren’t the smartest or most knowledgeable people in their fields. They weren’t born writers. They weren’t born orators. And most weren’t born with exceptional charisma.

Instead, they developed their personal branding strategies the hard way, through trial and error. That means each one of them followed a different path, trying and discarding a host of tools and techniques along the way.

By the end of this article, you will have a powerful advantage that these experts didn’t: a concise summary of the research-based personal branding strategies that are proven to increase your reputation and visibility as an expert.  So you won’t have to experiment. Even better, I’m going to give you a detailed roadmap that you can follow, step-by-step, to greater visibility and reputation.

Before we jump in, however, I want you to know there is one vital characteristic you will need to take your personal brand and career to the next level — the determination to see it through. Take it from me, there will be bumps and obstacles along the way, and you may need to make occasional course corrections to get back on track. But that’s okay. A little adversity comes with the territory, and you need to be prepared to push through the inevitable head winds.

Now, the last thing I want to do is discourage you. Building a successful personal brand—one that propels you to prominence in your field is actually easier than it looks.

Remember, from the bottom of the mountain the summit always looks unattainable. But if you focus on the process of getting there—taking one small step at a time—you’ll find yourself looking down with amazement at the world you left behind. It’s a journey well worth taking!

Who This Article Is For

I’ve developed this roadmap for any service professional, expert or executive who wants to build a personal brand but doesn’t know where to start. It’s also for marketing directors at professional services firms who are tasked with making their organization and people more visible.

Whether you are a solopreneur or work at a Fortune 100 firm, the process I lay out is the same. I have one caveat, however. Whatever your role, there is one fundamental I can’t teach you — you have to have bona fide expertise in your field. There’s no faking expert knowledge.

What is Personal Branding?

A personal brand is the combination of an individual’s visibility and reputation among their customers and peers. Personal branding is a program of activities designed to elevate a person’s visibility and improve their reputation. As they become better known and respected, these individuals grow in eminence and earning power.

Personal Branding Examples

To bring this concept of personal branding to life let’s consider a few examples. For an expert working in the professional services industry, examples of personal branding are focused on building their visibility and credibility as an expert. Consider an experienced architect who specializes in modern bridge design. They might address both their visibility and reputation by speaking at industry conferences where they can showcase their expertise and describe some of the innovations they’ve implemented in their work.

If this architect were to work with a public relations specialist they might further build their visibility and reputation by connecting with journalists and other influencers in the architecture industry. A PR professional might book appearances on a few podcasts and perhaps arrange an interview in a prestigious magazine.

Another way this expert could build their personal brand is by writing regular thought leadership pieces on their firm’s blog. They could then share this content with their connections on LinkedIn. And if they optimize their blog posts for search engines, they can be found by a whole new audience—one that will only grow over time.

So with this definition and examples in mind, what does a personal branding strategy look like?

What Is a Personal Branding Strategy?

A personal branding strategy is a plan to take your reputation and career from relative obscurity to high visibility. It describes where you stand today and what level of visibility you want to achieve in the future. Then it lays out in detail the tactics, tools and skills you will need to attain your goal, including the daily content calendar that will guide your daily journey. A carefully planned strategy takes the uncertainty out of your quest for Visible Expertise so that you can concentrate on carrying it out.

A modern personal branding strategy is strongly rooted in content marketing. In fact, most of the skills and tools described in this roadmap are components of content marketing — but as they apply to building your personal brand. If you are new to content marketing, or if you just want a refresher, I suggest you read over our free Content Marketing Guide for Professional Services.

The Five Levels of Visibility

In our book, The Visible Expert, we identify five progressively more visible levels of expertise:

Level 1: Resident Experts. These experts are well respected within their firms and by their clients, but they have little visibility outside of those audiences. Most Visible Experts start their journey here.

Level 2: Local Heroes. These individuals are beginning to become known outside of their firms. They are more active in their local business communities, often speaking at business functions and blogging. They may even bring a little new business to their firm.

Level 3: Rising Stars. These experts have developed a regional reputation. They are fairly well known among peers in their area, and they speak and write frequently on their area of expertise. Rising Stars tend to bring in higher-quality business and charge higher fees.

Level 4: Industry Rock Stars. These names are well known across the nation for their niche areas of expertise. They attract premium clients and fees. As a result, they become significant assets to their firms.

Level 5: Global Superstars. The world’s elite experts, Global Superstars have broken out of their niches and become recognized more broadly in their industries. They command the highest fees, and firms around the world want to be associated with them.

Your first job is to figure out which of these levels describes you today. Then you need to decide what level of expertise you would like to achieve.

Before you jump immediately to Global Superstar, keep in mind that each successive step requires more effort and time than the step below it. For instance, it’s generally easier to move from Resident Expert to Local Hero than from Industry Rock Star to Global Superstar. To become a global household name, you will probably need to invest much of your free time. Are you obsessive and dedicated enough to pull it off? Only you can answer that.

The Benefits of a Strong Personal Brand

Apart from pumping up your ego, what tangible benefits can a powerful personal brand deliver? For starters, Visible Experts make more money. Often, a lot more. The chart below shows the relative billing rates for each Visible Expert level.

As you can see, buyers are willing to pay much more for highly visible experts than an average professional. But even Level 1 experts hold a significant advantage over their undistinguished brethren.

The reason Visible Experts can charge more is that many buyers are willing to pay a premium for experts they believe in. They are willing to shell out extra for the confidence that a Visible Expert will bring more knowledge and experience to their problem, solving it more quickly, and with greater precision. Higher billing rates aren’t the only benefit. Here are a few others:

• Highly visible experts attract more media attention. When a reporter needs an authoritative quote, they reach out to the experts most closely associated with the issue at hand.
• Well-branded experts also are able to secure valuable partnerships more easily, and with more desirable organizations.
• And as I mentioned earlier, they attract better quality clients, too. In many cases, clients will seek out an expert — cutting out the competitive proposal process entirely. That’s when you know it’s working!
• Experts with strong personal brands also benefit their firms. As a result of the halo effect, an expert’s reputation often spills over to the organization he or she works for. This relationship can have very real effects on a firm’s brand and business development prospects. According to our research, about two-thirds of Visible Experts on average have this remarkable effect on their firms.

What about buyers? What benefits do they get by working with Visible Experts? In the following chart from our research on Visible Experts and their buyers, we learn that there are many ways that businesses benefit from working with Visible Experts.

As you can see from the data, Visible Experts not only solve problems more quickly, they make their clients better, too. They teach clients new things, bring new ideas to the problem at hand, and increase the credibility of the teams they work with.

The 7 Critical Tools for Personal Branding

One of the most important things we learned from our research was which marketing tools have the greatest impact on an individual’s personal brand. Without this data, we’d have to select our tools based on unreliable anecdotal evidence, trial and error and intuition. But you’ve got a better option: hard data from scores of real-world experts. 

Here are the most impactful marketing techniques Visible Expert use to raise their visibility and build their reputations in the marketplace:

What can we learn from this data? Here are my takeaways:

• Public speaking is the most impactful marketing technique Visible Experts can use to build their personal brand. Not only do experts benefit from the various conferences and speaking opportunities they attend, they can use their history of speaking to build their credibility over the long term. They can place a list—and even video clips—of their previous speaking engagements on their bio page. This record makes it easier to get more speaking activities in the future.
• Writing a book is an effective way to demonstrate your expertise and build visibility—this has been true ever since we began studyings Visible Experts over a decade ago. And if you look around at the highest profile experts in your field, chances are most of them have written one or more books.
• Every expert needs a platform to publish written articles, videos and other expert materials. That be a personal website or their firm’s website. What’s important is that there is a centralized place where all this great content is organized and accessible.

So let’s boil down what we’ve learned. Here are the seven critical tools you will need to include in your personal branding strategy:

1. A book. Whether you do it yourself or enlist a ghostwriter, you will need to produce a book that addresses your area of expertise. A book is a critical credibility builder. Your book can be traditionally published or self-published. Traditionally published book can deliver instant credibility, but self-published books (for which you can set the price or give away for free) offer more flexibility. Either way, you will also need to promote it, since even name-brand publishers rely on their authors to do most of the marketing. A book can be a heavy lift, so don’t feel like you have to tackle it right away. But set a firm goal to produce one in the next couple of years, if not sooner.

2. Speaking engagements. Public speaking is an important platform for building your reputation and personal brand. Audiences are predisposed to trust anyone who stands at a podium, so just getting there is half the battle.

3. A website. If you are part of a larger firm, you’ll want to focus first on your bio page. It should present sufficient credentials to convince people that you really know your stuff. Here are a few things it might include:

• Detailed personal bio
• Academic degrees
• Certifications
• Awards
• Publications
• Presentations
• Important projects
• Associations
• Affiliations
• Speaking videos

To see an example of an effective bio page, check out Katrina Christakis’ bio on her law firm’s website. Or take a look at my bio page on Hinge’s website.

Once you begin cultivating a regional or national reputation, you may want to consider developing a personal website, too. You can use this site as a platform to promote your books and public speaking.

4. A blog platform. Every expert should be blogging. It’s the most accessible way to demonstrate your expertise. It’s also one of the easiest ways to start building a loyal following. And when you apply search engine optimization (SEO) principles to your posts, you open up a whole new world of prospective clients who, for the first time, will find you through online search (see number 6 below). A blog is an essential tool if you want to spread your wisdom quickly and widely. Your blog can either reside on your firm’s website (this is preferable, since it can boost your SEO performance), or you can create a separate blog.

5. Email marketing service. If your blog is for introducing gobs of new people to you, email marketing is how you turn many of those readers into loyal followers — even raving fans. Using offers to download valuable educational content such as executive guides and whitepapers, you can entice a certain percentage of your blog readers to opt into your mailing list. You can then feed these followers a steady diet of free educational goodies, as well as additional offers that deepen their engagement. I’ll explain the mechanics of all this in the Roadmap section below.

6. Search engine optimization (SEO). If you think SEO plays no role in your line of work, you are almost certainly wrong. Every year, more and more organizations use online search to find and vet their service providers. But even more relevant to your journey up Mount Expert, business people today instinctively fire up Google whenever they encounter a thorny business problem. In many cases, they research the problem and possible solutions themselves — before they seek out professional help. In other situations, professionals use search to find thought leaders in their field. SEO is the tool that connects you to the people who are intensely interested in the problems you solve. And you would never meet 99% of them without it.

There’s one additional tool that you will need, one that will save you a lot of time and headaches:

7. A media kit. Experts get requests for bios, speaking samples and photos all the time. So it makes sense to have those things ready to go at a moment’s notice. Even better, put them up on your website bio page where interested parties can find them without asking. Every time a last-minute request comes in, you’ll be glad you have it at your fingertips. Wondering what one looks like? Here’s the media kit of Hinge’s Managing Partner, Lee Frederiksen.

This list, of course, just scratches the surface. There are dozens of tools that you can use to engage your audience. Think webinars (which are just a different take on public speaking), advertising, public relations, SlideShare, video and web analytics, to name just a few. As your personal branding strategy begins to reap dividends, you may want to introduce and test a handful of new tools and techniques.

There is great deal to say about each of these tools. Unfortunately, I don’t have space here to address them in detail. So I recommend that you download our free book, Online Marketing for Professional Services, which describes many of these tools and how they fit into an overall marketing framework. Don’t worry that the book is written for companies — there’s plenty in there that applies to individuals. It lays out a content-based strategy to grow your brand, very much like the one I describe in this roadmap. Also, be sure to check out the Additional Resources at the end of this piece. 

Skills You’ll Need for Your Journey

Now that I’ve introduced the seven critical tools, let’s explore the fundamental skills you will need to learn along the way. You may have at least a rudimentary understanding of some of them already. If so, that’s great — you’ve got a head start!

Before I get into the specific skills, however, I have to pause and discuss a larger issue, a “master skill” that will encompass your entire Visible Expert journey. You may be good at it already, or you may have to acquire it like the rest of us — the hard way, making incremental improvements over time. I’m talking about your role as a teacher.

You see, your reputation as an industry leader will be built to a great extent on your ability to translate complicated material into easy-to-understand language. While not all experts are teachers, all Visible Experts and thought leaders are excellent teachers.

What I mean by this is that you will be dedicated to educating your audience. Your driving impulse is to be helpful. You will be a teacher first and sales person a distant second.

But if you follow the roadmap below, you won’t have to sell your services at all. A steady flow of business will emerge naturally from your relentless pursuit of helping your audience.

Okay, let’s talk skills. You can tackle the list below on your own, or look for help from outside professionals or members of your team. Either way, here’s what you will need to get started:

Writing. You may be a good writer or an indifferent one. But if you want to be an effective teacher and build a compelling personal brand around your expertise, you must be able to produce clear, nontechnical prose that’s a pleasure to read. If you aren’t an excellent writer already, you have two options:

1. Learn to write clear, plain English. There are many readable books and online courses that will get you up to speed relatively quickly. (One of my favorite books is The Plain English Approach to Business Writing by Edward P. Bailey, Jr. — it’s a quick read and very practical.) Learning to write in plain English can be one of the most rewarding things you’ll ever do.
2. Work with an experienced writer or editor. If you don’t have the time or inclination to work on your writing, that’s okay! You can always hire a writer or editor to turn your subject matter expertise into sparkling prose. Experts work this way far more often than you might think — in fact, at Hinge, we provide this service to many of our own clients. Just think of all the successful ghostwritten books out there. It works for blog posts and anything else you need to write, too.

Public Speaking. Most experts are comfortable speaking to their target audience and fellow professionals. If you have a fear of public speaking, you should at least try to conquer it. Like all skills, mastery comes from doing, and in most cases the fear will fade quickly. (That said, it’s perfectly normal for even an experienced speaker to feel nervous before delivering a speech.) If you are new to public speaking, start by addressing small groups — at the local chapter of your professional association or chamber of commerce. Or try a peer support group, like Toastmasters. You’ll need to build up a speaking resume before most national conferences and trade shows will consider you.

Blogging. Either you or a colleague will need to handle the mechanics of getting your posts online. It’s not difficult to learn, but this is another skill you will need to master, nevertheless.

SEO. Search engine optimization is an entire discipline in itself, but you can learn the fundamentals in a day or two — enough to begin thinking more strategically about what you write. While there are technical aspects to SEO that may be beyond your capabilities (for instance, building your website and blog in a way that Google can easily discover your content), the basic mechanics are very straightforward. The most challenging part will be learning how to research keywords that are relevant, attract enough search volume to be worthwhile and not too difficult to rank for on the first page of Google’s search results page. It’s as much art as science. Hinge University and can be a good place to learn the basics, though there are many valuable online resources.

Outreach to blogs and publications. There’s more to SEO than keywords. To get the most from your blogging and SEO investments, you’ll need to generate outside links to your posts. A common way to do this is to write guest posts on other people’s blogs — or articles for online publications — that include one or more links back to your blog and/or website. To find these opportunities, you will need to research these online publications and reach out to their owners or editors. There are techniques you can learn that will make this process more efficient and successful.

Email marketing. Email marketing is very different from sending personal emails. First of all, you will need to subscribe to an email service provider. You may have heard of MailChimp or Constant Contact, but there is a long list of other providers offering different features and price points. More sophisticated marketing platforms such as Salesforce, HubSpot, and Infusionsoft also include email delivery services. Whatever service you choose (and, please, do not use Outlook or any other desktop email client), you will need to learn how use this tool to send out a basic email broadcast and understand its analytics. Later, you may want to try out more advanced features, such as personalization, segmentation and automated drip campaigns.

If you have the resources to enlist helpers, you may not necessarily need to master all of these skills. That said, the more you know, the more likely you are to grow. So it would be wise to at least familiarize yourself with the fundamentals of each.

Your Personal Branding Roadmap

Now it’s time to bring everything together into a coherent plan of action. If you have made it this far, I assume you are committed to a long-term program to build your personal brand. If you are serious about building your personal brand over time, turn this roadmap into a formal plan. That means writing it down, mulling over your answers and updating the plan as you think of new ideas or decide to make course corrections.

The roadmap below is a general outline. It’s up to you to color between the lines, fill in the details and make it utterly, wonderfully yours.

Phase I: Your Strategy

Step 1: Determine where you are today. Before you can begin your ascent, you need to know where you are starting. Are you a Level 1 Resident Expert or a Level 3 Rising Star? Use the descriptions in the section above titled Five Levels of Visibility to determine your baseline position, or read Chapter 3 in The Visible Expert for a more fulsome explanation of each level. 

Step 2: Identify your specialized area of expertise. You are already an expert in something, but is that “something” fairly broad (“family law,” for instance), or is it very specialized (such as, “child custody law”)? The more niche your expertise, the easier your rise will be. If you aren’t already, consider narrowing your focus. But if you can’t pare down the services you offer, you can at least plan to narrow what you write and speak about. Just keep in mind that eventually you will need to follow that intended focus with action.

Step 3: Define your audience. Who will be buying your services? Who will influence your buyers? What industries do you serve? What roles in the companies buy your services? The answers to these questions will be the people for whom you craft every blog post, every speech, every book, every webinar… you get the point. When writing, always keep your target audience in mind. It will help you stay on point and attract the right kinds of prospects to your business.

Step 4: Find your angle. This step isn’t absolutely required, but it can really help your personal brand stand out. If you can become associated with an issue, or if you take a controversial or counterintuitive point of view, it’s often easier to gain notice. Having an angle also gives you an anchor — a unique perspective — that will mark each piece of content you develop as yours.

Step 5: Decide which tools you will use. Go back and review the 7 Critical Tools section above and figure out which ones you will tackle first. And don’t be afraid to consider other options, as well. If you have experience with webinars or video, go ahead and make them part of your plan.

Step 6: Assess your skills. This is perhaps the most challenging part of the program if you are doing it yourself. Not because it takes a great deal of effort. But because it is so hard to be objective about one’s own strengths and weaknesses. Go through the list in the Skills You’ll Need section above and try to honestly evaluate your proficiency in each. Are you as good a writer as you think you are? Are you a strong public speaker? Which skills do you need to work on most, and which would benefit from a refresher? Develop a prioritized list of these skills and try to figure out which you can work on alone, and which will require a qualified teacher. And this brings me to…

Step 7: Determine who is going to help you. Most of us will need at least a little help along our journey, and many will need a great deal of it. So the first thing you need to do is to decide if you really want to try to make a solo ascent, or if a little supplemental oxygen, a band of Sherpas and an experienced guide might make your climb more successful. As you think about the tools and skill you will need, are there any that you might want to outsource? Line up these resources early so that you aren’t scrambling when you need them most.

Phase II: Setting Up Your Infrastructure

Step 8: Create your media kit. Hire a pro to take a few photos of you and write a short and long version of your bio. Later you can add a video reel of public speaking clips. If you can, include a link on your bio page to download a zipped file of your kit.

Step 9: Enhance your bio/build your website. Add credibility-boosting features to your bio, such as articles you’ve written, speeches you’ve delivered and accolades you’ve won — anything that might convince a reader that you are the real deal.

Step 10. Get set to blog. If your firm has a blog, find out what you need to do to become a regular contributor. If you need to get buy-in from others in the organization, explain what you are trying to achieve. Work with the appropriate people to get the exposure you need. If you will be setting up your own blog, now’s the time to begin building and configuring it. If you need help, find and invest in the resources to make it happen.

Step 11. Set up your conversion tools. To turn web visitors and blog readers into leads, you’ll need to offer them something that’s compelling enough they will provide their name and email address in exchange for it. Usually, this is a longer piece of educational content, such as a guide, whitepaper or e-book. You will need to write this piece of content first, then place it behind a registration form on your website or blog. You will also need to design an appealing offer to entice readers to download the piece of content. To comply with Canadian anti-spam laws (US laws are a bit laxer), you should consider providing language with your form that explains that the reader will receiving additional emails in the future. If you explain that these emails will contain valuable educational materials and advice — and that you can cancel anytime — you should not deter many downloads. Now, if you plan to send emails to individuals in the European Union, you will need to comply with the stricter GDPR regulations, such as requiring people to explicitly opt-in to your mailing list (no pre-checked boxes are allowed) and completely deleting individual’s data from your system upon request.

Step 12. Set up your social media profiles. If all you do is build out your LinkedIn profile, you’ll be fine. LinkedIn is by far the most important social platform for professional services experts. Be sure to complete your profile in full. Then look around for active groups you can join that are frequented by people in your target audience. The next platform to join is Twitter, which you can use to promote your content. Facebook, YouTube and others may make sense in some cases, but I suggest that most experts spend their limited time elsewhere.

Step 13. Select and prepare your email platform. You may be using your firm’s existing email service or CRM, or you may need to set one up from scratch. Either way, make sure you’ve got a nice looking, legible email template ready to go. If you are choosing a new platform, select one that’s easy to use and has robust list management and reporting tools. Also decide whether you will require single opt-in or double opt-in for new subscribers.

Phase III: Develop Your Skills

Step 14. Set aside time each day to work on new skills. The most effective way to tackle a long-term project is to make a habit of it. That means carving out a little time each day to work on one or two pieces at a time. Never forget that this is a business commitment, not a hobby. So it’s okay — in fact, it’s important — to devote part of your workday to upgrading your personal brand. You may commit some of your personal time to it, as well, but it’s an ongoing project, one that will never end. Start building your job around it.

Phase IV: Launch Time!

Read over your plan one more time. Then start implementing it. It will be slow going at first, but it’s important to get the ropes and ladders in place before you set out. You’ve got a strategy, now put it into play!

Conclusion

If you are an expert with ambitions to become a leader in your industry, this roadmap can help put you on the path to a speedy ascent. It’s natural to feel overwhelmed at first, especially if you are busy already. Architect and author Sarah Susanka faced the same dilemma:

“I recognized that writing was what I felt passionate about, but I had no space in my life to do it. And I was so busy with my architecture firm that if I didn’t make some shift in my life, there would never be space for it. So I decided to pretend that I was my own client. I plugged myself into my own calendar and even gave myself a project number. I held myself to it, and that first book changed everything for me. All you have to do is take that one first, small step. It’s amazing what happens when you focus yourself on something that you really want.”

The key is to break down your personal branding strategy into manageable chunks. Don’t try to tackle too many things at once. Little by little, you will begin to see results — a new trickle of email inquiries here, a speaking opportunity there, and an incoming tide of new followers. At some point, people will begin asking for your. And eventually a few will want to hire you and your firm on the basis of your reputation alone. The thrill that comes with seeing steady progress makes all the hard work worth it.

Good luck. And happy climbing!

The post Personal Branding Strategy: A Roadmap for Professionals, Experts and Executives appeared first on Hinge Marketing.

Anyone who has ever tried submitting speaker proposals knows full well how time-consuming it is. The move of most businesses to the digital world over the past year has only made the process more competitive. With many event organizers having folded, speaking slots have dried up, requiring speakers to do more research on events and maintain–if not boost–a digital footprint that helps establish their legitimacy and audience reach.

Fortunately, there are a few tools you can use again and again to show event planning committees that you meet their requirements, which are:

✓ Will present on a relevant, timely topic

✓ Will add value to the audience

✓ Are qualified

✓ Have done this before

✓ Have a large following

✓ Will hold the audience’s attention

The list goes on. 

The following tools can help position you as an engaging, seasoned public speaker and authority on topics that matter to event committees and their audiences.

A digital press kit on your website

In today’s digital world, you don’t exist without a website. If you’re submitting speaker proposals, you need a digital press kit on your website that gives prospective hosts what they need to appreciate why you’re a good fit for their event. To check off their boxes, your press kit should include the following components:

• Your areas of expertise and credentials
• A demo or speaking reel from past speaking engagements
• Video testimonials
• A bio available in different lengths, from 50 to 100 to 150 words
• A headshot
• Contact information including social media handles

Here are a few examples of high-quality press kits:

Lee Frederiksen’s Press Kit

Liz Harr’s Press Kit

Karl Feldman’s Press Kit

Once you have a press kit, find a page on your site where visitors can easily find it. Be sure to include the link to your kit in each of your speaking engagement submissions. If your submission is successful, you can send the same link to members of the media looking for people to interview at the event.

Proof of performance

Most, if not all, events require proof of performance. These proofs can come in the form of a list of events you’ve presented at, a link to a video of you presenting to an audience, or a link to a summary of evaluations of a past presentation. This is why testimonials and speaking reels are key components of a high-quality press kit–they show that you check off the boxes linked to expertise and experience.

A thought leadership trail 

Event hosts want experts with a track record for delivering insights on a topic. As a subject matter expert, you’ve probably written about your presentation topic or those related to it. Including links to your blog articles (published on yours or external sites), books, executive guides, webinars, and videos will help bolster your authority and set your submission apart during the vetting process. 

Writing a book on any of your topics will put your thought leadership trail in another league. The same study on visible experts shows authoring a book is the second most effective technique to promote your expertise. But while 61% of visible experts ranked it second to speaking engagements, only 37% have written one. This signals an opportunity for experts who want to leapfrog other thought leaders.

Regardless of what format you use to publish your work, your profile as an expert rests on a foundation of trust in your mastery of topics. There’s no better way to build that trust than by using research-based data and insights to back your points. Opinions and predictions based on gut checks add to the noise. Research-based insights will distinguish you from other speakers, help you stay ahead of your audiences’ new and next challenges, and, in so doing, hasten the process of earning your audience’s trust, not to mention their business. 

A relevant, useful, and fresh take on a topic 

Your presentation is an audition–not a sales pitch–for a role as trusted advisor on prospective clients’ business issues. Our research indicates that buyers’ top criteria for selecting their service providers is the latter’s industry and subject matter expertise. Your presentation should therefore demonstrate–not stipulate–how well you understand your audience’s priorities. You can do no better than by delivering information they can use to solve their problems.

When thinking about topics for speaking engagements, give careful thought to the event’s participant profiles. What are their issues and priorities? What are their job titles and levels of experience? Next, look for theme descriptions or content streams on the event website. Which one of your topics is the best match? 

Other questions to consider: What compelling story will you share? What actions can your audience take today? What research or data underpins your insights? Presentations that are based on research are more popular than ever as businesses scramble for ways to deal with new challenges in an unfamiliar environment. Presentations that include clients are also in greater demand because they provide data points on how problems have been–and can be–solved. 

Once you’ve chosen a topic, what do you cover? Most 50-60-minute presentations will answer frequently asked questions about a topic:

1. What is it?
2. Why is it important or relevant today?
3. What are the most current trends?
4. How do you use or implement it?
5. What can participants apply today?

How you answer all these questions will help you structure your presentation abstract and the accompanying 3-5 takeaways.

The pitch

Your speaking engagement pitch–along with hundreds, if not thousands, of other submissions–will be read by an event’s planning committee looking for presentations that:

• Audiences will care about
• Will make audiences feel like insiders
• Will offer practical value

Let’s start with developing a catchy title. What makes a title catchy? It reflects who will care about your presentation and hints at what practical value you offer. If you start with this structure in mind, you can figure out how to express the title in clever ways.

Next, your description. Highlight what novel idea, new perspective, case story, or research-based insights will help your audience feel like they’re “in-the-know” of something important. Event planners are looking for useful, relevant content that participants won’t find in other events.

Finally, your learning points. Most conferences request three to five points that establish your presentation’s practical value. The sooner your audience can implement these learning points, the more likely they’ll remember your presentation, follow you online, or even contact you.

Conclusion

Getting booked for speaking engagements is more a marathon than a sprint. It requires a great deal of research into what’s important to your audience, the events they attend, and how you can help them the best. It also entails a lot of prep work on the tools you need–press kit, proof of performance, thought leadership assets, relevant topics, and pitches–to establish your expertise and set yourself apart. 

Once developed, these tools will set up your submissions for success and, over time, help you grow your platform as a sought-after visible expert. 

The post How to Get Booked for Speaking Engagements appeared first on Hinge Marketing.

What is a personal brand, you ask? A personal brand is an individual’s reputation in their field, what we at Hinge call a Visible Expert^®. Visible Experts are technical professionals who have attained high visibility and expertise in their industry, establishing a personal brand that is widely recognized. And just as a firm can have an overall brand positioning statement, so can a Visible Expert. We call this a personal brand statement or expert positioning statement. 

In this article, I describe how you can write a personal brand statement in three easy steps—one that will differentiate you from other thought leaders in your field and help people associate you with the value you deliver.

A personal brand statement is a carefully crafted paragraph, usually 4–5 sentences in length, that describes your expertise, who you serve, and most importantly, how your approach is different from that of other experts in your field. It may also specify key issues you believe in.

How to Write a Personal Brand Statement

Many professionals find it difficult to succinctly say what they do. This exercise will help you with that. To start, you’ll need to answer a few questions: 

• What are you an expert in? 
• What do you specialize in (if anything)? 
• What other factors make you different from your competitors? 

The answers will provide the ingredients you need. 

Whether you choose to write in the first person or the third person is up to you, as long as you keep the tone conversational and to the point. Your personal branding statement will speak to a wide variety of audiences, so try to avoid technical language and industry jargon. 

Three easy steps

Step 1: Identify your specialized area of expertise and describe it.

“I am an expert in ________________.” The more niche your expertise, the easier your rise will be. 

Step 2: Build out the middle.

Tell your story—how you’re different, what problems you solve, where you stand on issues. And don’t forget who you serve. Who buys your services? Do you serve a particular industry? How do you want people to perceive you? Two or three sentences should be all you need here.

Step 3: Write a concluding sentence.

 Wrap up the paragraph—and if you can, speak again to your expertise or most compelling differentiator, making your conclusion the most impactful part of the statement.

A Couple More Tips

A little aspiration can be a wonderful thing

As you go through the process and ask yourself questions, you may notice some areas or skills that you need to work on. In fact, you may find yourself speaking about a version of yourself that isn’t fully-baked yet. Don’t get discouraged. As long as it’s attainable, use your aspirational brand statement to set some personal goals.

Focus on issues where you can shine

No matter where you are in your personal branding journey, an expert positioning statement will help get you there by focusing your expertise in ways you hadn’t before. 

A piece of advice? Choose issues that don’t have easy solutions and aren’t likely to go away any time soon. If you are struggling to think of relevant issues, try answering these questions:

1.     Where do your interests lie?
2.     Where do your clients struggle most?
3.     Where can you deliver the greatest value?

Now what? 

Take some time to apply your new positioning to the personal bios and profiles on your website and social media accounts. While you are at it, ask yourself a couple of questions: Do they present you as a highly credible professional? Do they convey a consistent message? 

If done correctly, your personal brand statement will help take your career to a new level of visibility, respect and value. And every time you prepare a new promotional piece or sit down to write educational content, you can dip into your personal branding statement for welcome inspiration.

The post Three Steps to Writing a Personal Brand Statement appeared first on Hinge Marketing.

But won’t our competitors try to poach the firm’s “best people”? It’s the age-old question our friends in Human Resources can’t help but ask.

Based on the latest data from the second edition of our Employer Brand Study, I’ll be exploring the reasons why employers and HR managers shouldn’t be afraid of personal brand building and how encouraging the development of their employees’ individual brands actually increases the overall visibility of a professional services brand, while simultaneously building the firm’s brand as an employer.

Generally speaking, brand building is a crucial component of any firm’s marketing and business development process. In fact, “brand awareness” is a key metric used by high growth firms to measure the efficiency of their marketing efforts. We can also look at a firm’s brand in different capacities: overall as a firm, as an employer and at the individual level—the personal brand.

What is a personal brand? Simply put, a personal brand is an individual’s reputation in their field. So it’s understandable that some organizations might be leery of their employees building personal brands and touting their individual expertise. But this activity doesn’t mean they’re looking for another job. And it doesn’t mean other firms are going to steal your most valuable people.

Instead, raising the visibility of your employees’ expertise and deliberately promoting their personal brands can significantly drive your firm’s visibility, growth and ultimately, reputation as an employer. It can also make your team’s experts happier, more satisfied employees—the kind that stick around for a long time.

Let’s look at some of the benefits that can arise from supporting your employees’ personal branding efforts:

1. A stronger employer brand. Hinge’s Employer Branding Study found that after cultural fit and compensation, the opportunity for career growth was a top selection criteria among job seekers. By promoting the personal brands of your employees, you are more attractive to prospective candidates who are looking to advance their careers.

2. Better reputation x higher visibility = Better brand strength. As your employees build their personal brands and position themselves as Visible Experts, your target audiences will seek them out for their knowledge and experience. Their knowledge is a vital resource that can lead to a better reputation, increased visibility and as a result, a stronger brand—for themselves and their firm (see Halo Effect below). At the end of the day, professional services firms are essentially teams of experts that meet client needs by delivering the very thing some firms are scared to promote, their expertise.

3. The Halo Effect.When your key employees have a strong personal brand, people are more likely to have a positive perception of your firm as well. This is called “the halo effect,” and it goes both ways—a strong firm brand reflects well on the individuals it employs, as well. Firms would be wise to make sure their employees have the tools, skills and support they need to be their firms’ brand ambassadors and leading experts.

4. Greater employee engagement. This year’s Employer Brand Study found that the many job seekers in professional services want to contribute to their firms’ success and to be recognized for their efforts. Employees who focus on developing their own personal brands are by definition more highly engaged. More-engaged employees are happier employees, which leads to higher retention rates overall.

5. Fuel your content marketing program. Cultivate a team of subject matter experts, writers and speakers to impart their knowledge. This fosters a work environment that values teaching, which is key to implementing a thought leadership program and building visibility in the marketplace.

6. Expertise-based referrals. A whopping 81.5% of professional services firms have received referrals from people who have never worked with their firm at all. Often, these referral sources are basing their recommendation on their experience with an individual expert whom they follow online, heard speak at a conference or read on a regular basis (think blog posts, articles and books).

7. Easy succession planning. By developing a core team of visible experts, you are in effect, creating your firm’s core group of future leaders. By supporting your key experts’ personal branding efforts, you are helping boost their confidence and grooming them to take over the business.

In summary, a firm should not be afraid to support its employees’ personal branding efforts. Building a stable of high-profile industry experts is a natural way to develop leadership—both inside your firm and among your industry peers.

The post Why Your Personal Branding Efforts Shouldn’t Scare Your Employer appeared first on Hinge Marketing.

But some experts stand a little taller. And a few tower like sequoias above the rest. You probably think of these individuals as industry stars or thought leaders. But we’ve given them a special name: Visible Experts^®.

Until recently, the path from unknown expert to prominence was poorly understood. Over the past few years, however, we’ve studied hundreds of Visible Experts, and we’ve learned a great deal about their professional journey. We’ve paid special attention to the strategies and techniques they used to raise their profile.

We also learned that these stars are not always gods among women and men. More often than not, they are regular folks like you and me. When they speak to a crowd of their peers, they are not necessarily the brightest minds in the room — which they freely admit. Most are ordinary people, albeit people who have taken their reputations to extraordinary heights.

So what’s their secret?

In this post, we’ll explain what Visible Experts are, what they do differently from ordinary experts and, most importantly, how any competent expert — even you — can retrace their path up the mountain until you reach your peak.

What Is a Visible Expert?

Visible Experts are professionals who have achieved prominence in their industries. They are quoted in the media and invited to speak at conferences. They are admired by their peers and sought out by clients. Their celebrity status allows them to command higher fees. And in rare circumstances, they may even become household names. Visible Experts are exactly what their name implies: individuals whose expertise and exposure rise above the rest.

At the very highest echelons, Visible Experts are often trend setters, innovators and leaders. But those aren’t essential traits. Most of them are mere mortals whose big idea was their conscious decision to build a personal brand. In fact, there are only three things you need to become a Visible Expert (other than actual expertise, of course — that’s a prerequisite):

1. A willingness to teach
2. Good communication skills
3. Commitment

Visible Experts are teachers. That’s how they build their reputations. They willingly and openly share their expert knowledge without any jealousy or fear of revealing their secrets. In today’s Internet-fueled world, information on virtually any topic is a few keystrokes away. If you aren’t sharing valuable knowledge, then someone else will.

When you share your knowledge and teach people in your target audience how you solve the kinds of problems they have, something magical happens. You position yourself as a special kind of expert — one who not only demonstrates a mastery of the material but is unselfish, approachable and utterly helpful. You become essential and easy to trust. It doesn’t take long before that trust develops into preference. And when your followers are in a position to buy services like yours, guess who goes straight to the top of their list? That’s right, you!

Of course, you can’t be a good teacher if you aren’t a strong communicator. Visible Experts are usually very good at translating complex ideas into easy-to-understand concepts. When you are writing or speaking, leave your technical jargon at home. Instead, communicate at the level of a non-specialist. For some people, this comes easily. Others have to work at it. If you are in the latter camp, don’t fret. Nobody is good at everything, and to a large degree, clear communication skills can be learned.

All aspiring Visible Experts have to acquire new skills and develop new habits in the course of their ascent. And that requires a sustained commitment. Whether you are learning SEO techniques or trying to write a blog post every week (or both), you have to set aside the time and summon the energy to make the steady, incremental progress it takes to climb the mountain. Visible Experts aren’t made in a day or a week or even a few months. You’ve got to maintain your new mindset for the foreseeable future. The good news is that it gets easier the longer you stay on the path.

Figure 1. Benefits of working with a Visible Expert (percent of respondents) Source: Hinge 2020 Visible Expert Study

What Visible Experts Do Differently

At Hinge, we’ve interviewed hundreds of experts, many of whom are legitimate Visible Experts. And it is always heartening when we discover that most high-profile experts are ordinary people. Behind the scenes they are no different from the rest of us. So what propelled them to prominence? What did they actually do differently from ordinary experts?

As it turns out, there are five things an expert can do to give them a distinct advantage:

1. Claim a niche. The more narrow your expertise, the more valuable it is likely to be. Most Visible Experts focus on a specialized area. By building knowledge that goes deep rather than wide, they can truly master a subject or discipline. And by writing and speaking exclusively on that subject, they increase their odds of becoming closely associated with it over time.
2. Study their audience. You can’t build a following if nobody cares about the content you produce. That’s why Visible Experts talk frequently with people in their target audience. Even better, many experts conduct formal research on their audience to get a less distorted view of their interests, concerns and burning questions. Visible Experts use this information to choose the topics they write and speak about. Because these experts address issues their audience cares about, their readers and listeners are far more likely to become avid followers.
3. Sharpen their expertise. It doesn’t take extraordinary knowledge or intelligence to become a Visible Expert. But it helps to have a firm command of the material. Fortunately, the path to Visible Expertise—writing, speaking, teaching—forces an expert to learn along the way. Over time, their knowledge will grow deeper, their arguments sharper, their reputation stronger.
4. Develop a visibility plan. Most Visible Experts don’t happen by accident. They are the product of deliberate planning. Building visibility requires an effective, systematic approach to personal marketing. But these experts don’t have unlimited time, so they have to put their effort into tactics that are likely to work. Fortunately, there are resources to help aspiring Visible Experts develop a visibility plan that works.
5. Implement the plan. Of course, even the best plan is worthless if it’s never put into action. That’s why it’s so crucial that rising Visible Experts commit to implementing their plan. Only by putting in the time it takes and sticking to their plan’s prescribed schedule can experts establish critical connections with their audience and earn their admiration and trust. The process is simple, but commitment can be hard. Like forming any habit, carrying out the plan becomes easier with repetition.

3 Kinds of Visible Experts

Artists do it. Musicians do it. And so do Visible Experts: to attract a loyal following, they establish a signature style that defines the way they deliver their expertise. Here are three of the most common kinds of Visible Experts:

The Contrarian. This expert takes an unconventional—often controversial—stand on one or more important issues. He or she seeks to stand out by challenging traditional wisdom and presenting an alternative path forward. This type of expert is often suspicious of “best practices” and pushes the industry to be more innovative and more tolerant of risk.

The Curator. This expert collects, analyzes and promotes the best thinking from across the industry. He or she liberally shares others’ content and ideas, giving credit at every turn. This expert embraces diverse perspectives, helping people make sense of them and turning a confusion of ideas into easy-to-understand, practical applications.

The Bridge Builder. This expert sees connections where others don’t. He or she takes seemingly incompatible disciplines (for instance, autonomous vehicles and employment discrimination) and demonstrates how they they are related and why we should be thinking about them together.

There are, of course, many other ways that experts can pattern themselves. My point is this: it is far easier to create a memorable public persona if an expert behaves in a distinctive and consistent way.

The 5 Levels of Visible Expertise

In our research, we identified five levels of visible expertise. To extend our alpine metaphor, think of these levels as outposts positioned increasingly higher on the mountain. Most climbers are content to reach the first of these lofty stages, while a few determined souls feel compelled to push through the thinning air to the summit.

Level 1: Resident Experts. This is where most experts begin their careers, and the vast majority of them never leave its ranks. These individuals are appreciated within their firms, and clients respect and rely on them. But beyond those boundaries they are virtual unknowns.

Level 2: Local Heroes. When experts get active in their local business communities, their horizons expand, especially if they use their outreach as an opportunity to educate their audience. They may speak at business events, write blog posts or conduct webinars. And they may even attract a few new clients.

Level 3: Rising Stars. Frequent writers and speakers on their area of expertise, these individuals are relatively well known among peers in their region. They can bring in excellent clients who are willing to pay more for their perceived expertise.

Level 4: Industry Rock Stars. Every industry has a small cadre of these. They are the experts who keynote major conferences across the country and are quoted in top media publications. Because they attract the best clients and can charge top fees, these high-profile stars are key players in their firms.

Level 5: Global Superstars. These are the elite experts, and their reputations often extend around the globe. No longer niche players, they are broadly associated with their industries — and some are even recognized by ordinary people. These superstars command ultra-premium fees and are in high demand.

Figure 2 below illustrates how much buyers value Visible Expert at each level. Some Global Superstars, for instance, can command fees up to 13X higher than an expert who has no visibility!

Figure 2. Premiums buyers are willing to pay, by Visible Expert level

Solo vs. Team Ascent

When you hear “Visible Expert” or “thought leader”, you probably think of individuals who have climbed to prominence of their own volition. And in fact, most high-profile experts make their way up the mountainside solo.

But there is another, less lonely way to reach the summit (or whatever level you aspire to achieve). And that is to make the journey in concert with others in your organization. Some firms put groups of professionals through a program designed to raise their expert profiles. The benefits to the firm should be obvious — increased visibility and higher fees. But the individual experts get the benefit of working through their challenges and skills training together. They can lean on each other for answers, insights and motivation when the going gets tough.

One firm that has done this is Nishith Desai Associates, an international law firm based in India. They recently put seventeen of their attorneys through a year-long Visible Expert program. While a handful of participants failed to complete the program, the vast majority not only finished but produced impressive, tangible results that could be directly attributed to their new-gained visibility. For instance, many of the participants, some of whom had never done public speaking before, were now visible enough to be invited to speak at events around the globe. One of the firm’s practice areas, managed by a newly minted Visible Expert, was recognized by a major law journal as a leader in its field. An Indian government agency reached out to one of their experts to help develop new regulations. And the firm was able to attract multiple new clients as a result of their enhanced market exposure.

A Map to the Mountaintops

Every aspiring Visible Expert needs a guide to reach the peak of his or her potential. Below is a roadmap any expert can follow to take their reputation to new heights of visibility:

Phase I: Set Your Strategy

1. Determine where you are today. Are you at Level 1, or are you starting from a more elevated position? Use the five levels described above to find out.
2. Decide how high you want to climb. Are you determined to be a Global Superstar? Or are you content to achieve Rising Star status? Your level of ambition will determine what goes into your Visible Expert plan and how hard you will need to work to achieve your goals.
3. Find your niche. Define your expertise as narrowly as possible so that people will easily be able to associate you with the expertise you will become known for.
4. Define your audience. When you start writing and speaking, you’ll want to know exactly who’s reading, watching and listening to you.
5. Learn about your audience. Even if you’ve worked in your industry for years, you probably don’t know your audience as well as you think. Using secondary and primary research, now is the time to correct any misconceptions and fill in the gaps. The more thorough you are, the more you will have interesting things to say to the people who follow you. Also, try to find out what they read and what events they attend. That way, you’ll know exactly where to reach them.
6. Explore the competition. Learn who you are really competing against, as well as what other experts will be competing against you in the marketplace of ideas.
7. Choose your issues. You can’t be known for everything. In fact, you will have more success if you write and speak on a narrow set of issues. These will be the things people associate with you and reporters will call you about. Even though you address only a few issues, you’ll find there is plenty to explore in each one.
8. Assess your skills. Determine what you are good at and where you need help. At minimum, you should assess your skill and experience levels in the following areas:
   • – Writing
   • – Public speaking
   • – Blogging
   • – Search engine optimization (SEO)
   • – Finding outside speaking and writing opportunities
   • – Email marketing
   • – Social media
9. Develop your visibility plan. Keeping your goals in sight—and building upon the expert issues you’ve identified and what you’ve learned about your audience—start outlining your visibility plan. You can use some of the free resources from Hinge (for instance, this Visible Expert Guide) to help you. Once you have identified your tactics, turn them into an implementation calendar, applying specific deadlines to each task or deliverable. As you develop your calendar, consider which items should take priority and how much effort you can afford to put into each.
10. Determine who is going to help you. Chances are you will need some help in one or more of these areas. Identify and line up your resources early.

Phase II: Build your visibility toolkit

11. Create your media kit. You are going to be a public persona, so you’ll need an appropriate kit to promote yourself. Don’t skimp on your headshots—hire a professional to present you in your best light. If you do public speaking, put together a reel of clips from recent engagements. Organizations will be more likely to hire you if they can see you in action.
12. Enhance your bio/build your website. Don’t be shy about promoting yourself on your website. Make sure your bio makes you sound like the expert you are and presents your credentials clearly and prominently. Don’t forget to be interesting! If you are a solo practitioner, make sure you have a website that not only supports your position as a Visible Expert but has clear calls to action and conversion mechanisms.
13. Get set to blog. Blogging, combined with SEO, is one of the easiest ways to build visibility. Learn how to do blogging right and make sure you have a great platform available to get your voice out there.
14. Set up your conversion tools. Conversion mechanisms are an important way to turn blog readers and web visitors into prospects. Get these set up as soon as you start your new writing push.
15. Set up your social media profiles. Start with LinkedIn, and make sure your profile is complete. Later you may want to add Twitter, Facebook and YouTube.
16. Select and prepare your email platform. You’ll need a platform that is designed for sending emails in quantity. Whether it’s Salesforce, Infusionsoft, Constant Contact, MailChimp or a similar service, make sure it has robust reporting features so that you can see how successful your email is.

Phase III: Implement the plan and track your progress

17. Get going! By this point, you should already be well on your way to building new audiences and greater visibility. Focus intensely on doing the tasks in the plan. And try to set aside time each day to work on new skills. Make learning something new every day a habit.
18. Track your implementation. Your success depends on your ability to stick to the plan. Be honest with yourself and track every time you hit or miss an item on your visibility plan calendar. Your goal is to hit them every time.
19. Track the impact on your audience. You can measure this in a variety of ways. How much traffic are you getting to your blog posts? How many people attend your speaking events? Are you getting emails from people who are interested in your point of view? Are these trends increasing over time?
20. Track your business results. Are you getting more leads as a result of your Visible Expertise? New clients? Higher revenues? Has your firm seen any tangible benefits from your rising stature in the industry? Are you able to charge higher rates or command higher speaking fees?

How to Get Started

If you want to become the next Visible Expert in your industry, the first step is to commit to it. If you are part of a firm, talk to your colleagues and explain what you are trying to do and how it will help the business achieve its goals. If you can get the support of the people around you, you will find it easier to carve out time during the day to do many of the tasks it takes to build your profile.

Then start working through the 20-step Visible Expert process. Download and read our free book, The Visible Expert: How to create industry stars. And why every professional services firm should care. It contains much more detail about the process, as well as the research behind it. And if you need training along the way, find a robust online resource that can answer your questions and teach you the skills to overcome any obstacles.

While not everyone is cut out to be a Visible Expert, it is a perfectly achievable goal for most professionals. But you have to want it. And you need to know that there is a proven, repeatable process you can follow to identify your strengths and weaknesses, set your strategy and develop the skills and infrastructure it takes to climb to the peak of your ability. Now start climbing!

The post The Visible Expert^®: How Ordinary Professionals Become Thought Leaders appeared first on Hinge Marketing.

The good news is, you are a highly valued, technical professional whose expertise is the reason prospects seek out your firm. The bad news is, your days are a constant balancing act. For many AEC firms, the seller-doer role is well established —after all, most potential clients want to get to know the professionals they will be working with. In fact, the seller-doer mentality keeps many firms from hiring a full-time sales force.

So how, then, does a seller-doer find the time for business development and project delivery? How can AEC firms take advantage of a seller-doer strategy?

By making their expertise visible.

Enter the Visible Expert^®

A Visible Expert^® is a knowledgeable professional who has attained high visibility and a reputation for his or her area of expertise. These individuals create a personal brand that is recognizable industry-wide.

In this post, I’ll discuss how almost any seller-doers can achieve Visible Expertise by sharing their knowledge widely using a mix of digital and traditional marketing strategies. And I’ll point to research findings from Hinge’s new Visible Expert Study to support this strategy.

The study, believed to be the largest and most comprehensive of its kind, investigates 220 Visible Experts and 275 of their clients. It updates our groundbreaking 2014 study on the topic.

The Path to Visibility

So how does an AEC seller-doer become a Visible Expert? As I tell my clients, it takes a specific set of skills which we at Hinge call the Three Pillars of Visible Expertise:

• Writing
• Speaking
• Networking

In fact, the Visible Expert Study found that all three of these skills appeared in the top five marketing techniques reported by Visible Experts.

But don’t be intimidated by this list. As I advise many of my AEC clients, you don’t have to be the best at all three. You should adopt a mix of techniques that suits your strengths and skillset. You can always work on developing new skills later.

Where Do You Start?

All Visible Experts are teachers. If you want to raise your professional profile, you will need to become one, too.

One thing these skills have in common is that each is a way to deliver content marketing. Content marketing is the process of producing valuable, informative content that educates your audiences on topics they care about.

Educational content can come in a wide variety of forms: blog posts, videos, eBooks, webinars and white papers, to name just a few. The key is to teach without directly promoting your firm. The more you are perceived as unbiased and generous with your knowledge, the more your readers and listeners will trust and rely on you. And the more they trust you, the more likely they are to seek out you or your firm when they need help solving the complex problems you write and speak about. Producing this content also helps increase your firm’s visibility (for instance, in online searches) and makes you more visible to prospective clients.

Getting the Bang for Your Buck

What are the techniques that Visible Experts found to be most impactful? Once again, we turn to the study for answers. You may notice in the chart below that most of these techniques are components of content marketing.

Three Facts About Content

Seller-doers who set out to create content should keep the following best practices in mind:

1. Content comes in two flavors—technical and non-technical. In the AEC edition of Hinge’s most recent study of professional services and buyers, Inside the Buyer’s Brain, we found that after asking their peers for a recommendation AEC buyers were most likely to do a general web search when they wanted to learn more about a business-related topic. But these searchers vary in levels of expertise and technical comprehension. Some are decision makers while others are influencers.
2. Your content should address the different stages of the buying process. Early stage buyers, for example, gather information and seek to understand challenges and trends (think blogs and speaking engagements), whereas later stage buyers are willing to consume longer, more technical content (think guides or webinars).
3. Lastly, and perhaps most importantly, marketing content is not content marketing. This is the mistake we see aspiring thought leaders make the most. Good content marketing is selfless—it focuses on issues your target audience cares about. In contrast, marketing content is about your firm and its capabilities. It is by necessity self-serving and salesy. Marketing materials have their place, but they should never take center stage in your content marketing.

Reaching Your Destination

Using a content marketing-based strategy, you can shorten your path to Visible Expertise. But it does require a commitment of time, as it won’t happen overnight. And you have to be willing to “give away” some of your knowledge. With the right mindset, AEC seller-doers can build their expertise and their personal brands—and in turn, help increase the visibility of their firms.

The post The Making of Visible Experts: A Path for Seller-Doers in AEC appeared first on Hinge Marketing.

What does it take to become a high-visibility expert? Where do you start? How do you know where to focus? What are the best ways to build visibility? Should your firm try to encourage your professionals to become more visible? These are the types of questions this study was designed to answer.

About the Study

The current study investigates 220 VEs and 275 clients that retained the services of high-visibility subject matter experts. It is believed to be the largest and most comprehensive study of its type. The Research Summary includes both quantitative data and quotes from high profile VEs.

This study builds upon and expands our original 2014 study of Visible Experts^®. Over the past six years, the marketplace has undergone significant change. While the initial study’s broad lessons study still hold true, many of the details have changed. This latest research brings the findings up to date. 

What Is a Visible Expert^®?

A Visible Expert^® is a professional with a high level of marketplace visibility and a reputation for specific expertise. These are the individuals who are the keynote speakers, thought leaders and industry experts who drive their professions forward and propel their firms to new levels of profitability and growth.

Many Types of Experts

There are many types of experts, covering the whole spectrum of professional services expertise. These experts differ not only in the subject matter they master, but in the level of expertise they aspire to and the strategies they embrace.

We have identified five levels of expertise, ranging from an individual expert known only by their coworkers and clients (Level 1) to those internationally known superstars whose influence extends well beyond their profession (Level 5). The accompanying table describes and defines each of these five levels. 

• Level 1: Well known in your firm
• Level 2: Well known within a narrow niche outside your firm
• Level 3: Recognized name in your industry
• Level 4: Leading expert in your industry
• Level 5: International expert recognized across industries

We also found that Visible Experts^® vary in their approach to their work. Some are very focused on the newest ideas, while others are natural collaborators and accumulators of best practices. We have identified five distinct styles or “personas,” shown in the chart below.

• THE BRIDGE BUILDER – This expert spans two different areas of expertise, connecting ideas from both. This combination of knowledge makes this expert truly unique.
• THE LASER – This expert is highly specialized in a very specific area. Not many businesses need their services all the time, but when the time comes, this is the preferred choice.
• THE CURATOR – This expert gathers the best information from multiple sources. Often, Curators have access to an extensive network of experts.
• THE FIRST MOVER – This expert was the first to pioneer an area of expertise. Businesses turn to First Movers for the latest innovation or new idea.
• THE CONTRARIAN – This expert takes novel points of view on industry issues and challenges clients to make bold or unconventional moves.

The chart above shows the premium (above the billing rates of an average professional) that clients of VEs expect to pay for experts at various levels of Visible Expertise. Even at the lowest VE levels, clients expect to pay a premium to access the expertise of these valued professionals.   

Delivering Exceptional Value to Clients

As compelling as these benefits are for VEs and their firms, there is an equally compelling set of benefits enjoyed by the clients who engage Visible Experts.  

Top Benefits of Working with a Visible Expert

The chart above shows that getting the specific problem solved (e.g., “They get the job done” and “The ability to solve complex problems”) is not even the top benefit. Well over half of clients (56.1%) value what they learn by working with the VE! And an almost equal percentage say that the VE came up with solutions they had not even considered before.

The list of benefits goes on. Working with a well-known VE can actually help the client’s visibility, credibility and new business efforts. Complex issues can be solved more quickly, with lower risk and a higher return on investment (ROI). Clearly, using a VE can be a win for the client as well as the expert.

How Experts Become Visible 

High levels of marketplace visibility rarely happen by accident. In fact, the average expert employs 6.5 marketing techniques. The top 5 marketing techniques and the proportion of experts using each is shown in the next chart.

Referrals and social media are the two most frequent ways VEs get in front of prospective clients. Rounding out the top 5 list of frequently used techniques are speaking engagements, attending networking events/trade shows and writing articles or blog posts.

But widely used techniques are not necessarily the most effective. And in fact, some of the most widely used techniques are losing their effectiveness, even as other techniques become more effective. Download the Research Summary to see the effectiveness and usage of the full range of techniques.

A Final Thought 

Visible Experts® are the new rainmakers of professional services. They not only enjoy exceptional professional success, but also propel their firms to stronger brands, faster growth and higher profitability. The results of this research both make the case for developing VEs and show you the path to success.

The post New Visible Expert® Study Released appeared first on Hinge Marketing.

What is a personal brand? Simply put, a personal brand is an individual’s reputation in their field. And the context of professional services, the strongest personal brands are those that have not only a reputation for, but also high visibility around what the B2B marketplace prizes most: differentiated expertise.

At Hinge, we write almost daily about company brands and personal brands. We counsel to develop a personal brand as an industry expert and leader, you must have one master skill above all others: an ability to translate complicated material into easy-to-understand language. While not all experts are teachers, all Visible Experts and thought leaders are. What I mean by this is that as you develop your personal brand, your success will be strongly correlated to the extent to which you educate your audience. Your driving impulse is to be helpful. You will be a teacher first and sales person a distant second.

So what skills help you educate? I’ve noted 6 skills below, and some may be able to tackle this list on their own, personal brand coaches can be of huge value here. Enlisting the help from outside professionals or members of your team – a personal brand coach in other words – can save you not only time, but also money, depending on where your natural skills lie. Either way, here’s what you will need to get started:

Six critical skills for developing your personal brand

Writing. You may be a good writer or an indifferent one. But if you want to be an effective teacher and build a compelling personal brand around your expertise, you must be able to produce clear, nontechnical prose that’s a pleasure to read. If you aren’t an excellent writer already, you have two options:

1. Learn to write clear, plain English. There are many readable books and online courses that will get you up to speed relatively quickly. (One of my favorite books is The Plain English Approach to Business Writing by Edward P. Bailey, Jr. — it’s a quick read and very practical.) Learning to write in plain English can be one of the most rewarding things you’ll ever do.
2. Work with an experienced writer or editor. If you don’t have the time or inclination to work on your writing, that’s okay! You can always hire a writer or editor to turn your subject matter expertise into sparkling prose. Experts work this way far more often than you might think — in fact, at Hinge, we provide this service to many of our own clients. Just think of all the successful ghostwritten books out there. It works for blog posts and anything else you need to write, too.

Public Speaking. Not all experts are comfortable speaking to their target audience and fellow professionals. In my experience, this is where a personal brand coach can be immensely helpful. If you have a fear of public speaking, you should at least try to conquer it, given that speaking is a top technique of high-growth firms and the Visible Experts within those firms. If you are new to public speaking and a coach isn’t your cup of tea, start by addressing small groups — at the local chapter of your professional association or chamber of commerce. Or try a peer support group, like Toastmasters. You’ll need to build up a speaking resume before most national conferences and trade shows will consider you.

Blogging. Writing is one part of building your personal brand, but the other part of the equation is getting your posts online. It’s not difficult to learn, but this is another skill you will need to master, nevertheless.

SEO. Search engine optimization is an entire discipline in itself, but you can learn the fundamentals in a day or two — enough to begin thinking more strategically about what you write. While there are technical aspects to SEO that may be beyond your capabilities (for instance, building your website and blog in a way that Google can easily discover your content), the basic mechanics are very straightforward. The most challenging part will be learning how to research keywords that are relevant, attract enough search volume to be worthwhile and not too difficult to rank for on the first page of Google’s search results page. It’s as much art as science. Hinge University and can be a good place to learn the basics, though there are many valuable online resources.

Outreach to blogs and publications. There’s more to SEO than keywords. To get the most from your blogging and SEO investments, you’ll need to generate outside links to your posts. A common way to do this is to write guest posts on other people’s blogs — or articles for online publications — that include one or more links back to your blog and/or website. To find these opportunities, you will need to research these online publications and reach out to their owners or editors. There are techniques you can learn that will make this process more efficient and successful. A personal brand coach can be instrumental here as well, helping manage the outreach functions.

Email marketing. Email marketing is very different from sending personal emails. First of all, you will need to subscribe to an email service provider. You may have heard of MailChimp or Constant Contact, but there is a long list of other providers offering different features and price points. More sophisticated marketing platforms such as Salesforce or HubSpot also include email delivery services. Whatever service you choose (and, please, do not use Outlook or any other desktop email client), you will need to learn how use this tool to send out a basic email broadcast and understand its analytics. Later, you may want to try out more advanced features, such as personalization, segmentation and automated drip campaigns.

If you have the resources to enlist personal brand or marketing coaches, you may not necessarily need to master all of these skills. That said, the more you know, the more likely you are to grow. So it would be wise to at least familiarize yourself with the fundamentals of each. It’s a time of opportunity!

The post In this Time of Opportunity, Consider a Personal Brand Coach appeared first on Hinge Marketing.

What gave them the leg up? They took to the digital ecosystem like ducks to water. As the pandemic reshaped their target audiences’ needs, many of them donned a digital publisher’s hat and developed valuable, optimized content that they distributed through both their own digital channels and earned media.

We know the benefits of frequent blogging: more online traffic, credibility building, differentiation, and conversions, to name a few. But what about guest blogging? Despite a few eulogies written about it, a guest blogging strategy continues to offer benefits any subject matter expert wants:

1. Raising your profile as a thought leader
2. Expanding audience reach 
3. Increasing referral traffic
4. Presenting opportunities for backlink building

The last two benefits make a guest blogging strategy indispensable to a firm’s SEO performance. When you write high-quality articles for high-authority external blogs or publications, you build up backlinks that will ratchet up your search engine ranking. And if you write articles regularly for certain publications, you can build a readership and channel high-quality traffic to your own site. 

Landing guest blogging opportunities is not easy, especially as more and more professional services firms get into the digital content game. As a result, there’s a shrinking number of placements for a growing number of pitches. So how do you navigate such a crowded field? The following ten steps can put you on a path to success.

Step 1. Find out where your audiences are looking for answers.

You’ll need to do some research on the top publications that focus on your industry or area of expertise. They often have the high visibility and reputation you need to drive up your search engine rankings. Next, observe where your peers and colleagues look for articles to share on Twitter or LinkedIn. Finally, Google your topic and append the term “guest blog.” For example, if your area of expertise is diversity, equity, and inclusion, you might search on “DEI guest blog.” If your niche is pandemic building commissioning, use that as your key word. Sometimes a search like this can retrieve valuable results. 

Step 2. Target higher authority publications.

Ideally, you will want to target publications with a Domain Authority score of 50 or higher. Getting backlinks from these high-profile sites are one of the fastest ways to build your own site’s authority. However, these sites are more selective, and many allow only far less valuable “no follow” links. But there is still a path forward. If your firm’s website  Domain Authority score is low, any publication with a Domain Authority higher than your own site’s can give you a lift. If you don’t know a publication’s Domain Authority, you can find out its audience reach by requesting for their media kit or digging around their website. A bit of sleuthing will uncover this information.  

It’s just as important to conduct some reconnaissance on where your competitors are guest blogging. You can find out from their websites’ newsrooms, from their social media pages, by entering their company name in Google News’ search field, and by setting Google Alerts on their companies. You can also use specialized tools like Semrush, which can help you conduct a thorough analysis of competitors, including which keywords they’re vying for.

Step 3. Look up their submission guidelines.

A growing number of pubs, especially those with high Domain Authority, require the submission of draft articles, not just pitches. Put those pubs on a separate list that you might consider returning to later on. When you are pitching, be sure to read any submission guidelines beforehand so you can tailor your pitches.

Step 4. Research relevant topics.

Our research has shown that professional services buyers are as likely to conduct web searches as they are to turn to trusted colleagues for answers to work challenges. This means if you want your audience to find you online, pick topics that lie at the intersection of what’s important to them and your expertise. That’s your sweet spot.

Next, find out what topics your target publications have covered over the past 12 months and which ones they plan to cover the rest of the year. This will give you an idea of how your topic has been addressed, how you can differentiate your content, and which articles you can cite or link your article to. 

You may be able to glean some of this information from their editorial calendar or content plan, if those are publicly accessible. While time-consuming, this research is indispensable and will hike up your pitch’s success rate.

Step 5. Develop a clear, brief pitch.

Some editors receive hundreds of pitches each day. There’s no guarantee they’ll read yours, but the following elements can help your email catch and retain an editor’s weary eye:

• A catchy subject line (which can be stand in for the article’s title)
• Your intention to submit a guest blog
• Why their readers will care about your article (explained succinctly)
• What makes you an authority on this topic
• The article’s main points, including any supporting research 

Don’t make busy editors slog through a long, boring pitch that’s verbose, complex, or, worse, both. Brevity and simplicity, without coming across as generic, will go a long way towards piquing their interest. 

Tailoring your pitch is important, so you will likely develop different versions of the same pitch for different types of publications. Develop a system for managing those versions and clearly label which segment of your list each version applies to. 

Step 6. Follow up.

A dwindling number of editors welcome follow-ups by phone. Most prefer gentle reminders via email. Regardless of which method you use, wait 1-2 weeks before you follow up. If you still don’t get a response, take another angle of the same topic or pitch a different topic altogether. If that fails, wait a few months and try again. Sometimes the problem is poor timing, not the topic. Keep the publication on your list and let some time pass. You can always return later with a fresh pitch.

Step 7. Include keywords in your article

Even if a publication doesn’t ask about keywords, go ahead and optimize your article for any keywords you want to target. After all, your article is useless if your audience can’t find it. Many editors appreciate authors who optimize their articles and make their jobs easier. The more traffic your article draws, the greater are your chances these editors will accept your future pitches. At the minimum, optimize your title. At the same time, you don’t want to go too far in the other direction. Don’t load up your article with keywords. It’s bad SEO practice and could sour your relationship with an editor. 

Step 8. Link to other, related articles within the publication. 

Why? First, it shows the editor you’ve taken a genuine interest in their publication. Second, it’s a great way to build your relationships with other experts, who have their own audiences and might consider sharing your article with them. The research you do in  Step 4 will often uncover articles related to your topic.

Step 9: Find a brutal in-house or outsourced editor

Every writer needs an editor. At the minimum, editors will catch embarrassing typos and misspelled words. Good editors also fix stylistic issues without imposing their own style on yours. They eliminate overused business jargon for more concrete words that bring your writing to life.

Step 10. Promote your post. Again and again.

Sharing your guest post shows support for the publication. Provide a link from your site to the guest post and share the direct link on social media and with your email list. If possible share it more than once. When sharing on social media, include a hearty shoutout to the publisher or editor. 

Many professional services firms lack a coherent guest blogging strategy  To do it right  demands research and a commitment from subject matter experts who often feel strapped for time. But guest blogging  is a great way for experts to build a reputation and grow their audience. And that’s worth a lot for your experts and your firm. Even if your team doesn’t have time to do all the heavy lifting, there are ways to deliver a powerful guest blogging strategy. You can, for instance, outsource some or all of the work to an outside resource who knows your industry or niche. In fact, many firms work with outside strategists and writers—and produce outstanding results.

If you persist, you’ll become what experts should be: Visible Experts in a digital world. And the benefits to you, your firm, and your clients will be well worth what you put in.

The post A 10-Step Guest Blogging Strategy to Improve SEO appeared first on Hinge Marketing.

In this video blog, Liz Harr will be sharing seven secrets on how to develop a personal branding strategy.

TRANSCRIPTION:

Hi, in this video blog, I’m going to be sharing some secrets on how to develop a personal branding strategy. It’s something that I talk to a lot of professional services executives about, whether they have their own show and they’re flying solo, or whether they are in a large firm and just need to cultivate a brand around themselves as an expert.

So, it’s something that we talk to a lot of people about in professional services. Now there are seven steps that I’d like to share with you when it comes to crafting a personal brand strategy. First and foremost, you have to start from the ground and figure out where you are. And what I mean by that is, determining where you are today, where you want to go, helps you figure out what you need to do to get there.

Do you aspire to be a global household name or do you want to break out of regional territory and become a national player? Those are the types of things that are really important in figuring out. And then on top of that, understanding your competition will be a layer on top of those goals and helping you figure out where you sit versus where you need to be.

Now, once you figure that out, then you’re ready to think about your expertise platform. It’s really difficult, in fact, almost impossible to craft a personal branding strategy around being a jack of all trades. So, figuring out how you are specialized and how to talk about that is the second step that you would take.

Then you need to think about your audience. Now, think about the roles that your decision makers play within their own companies. Who are their influencers? The influencers is another real important audience that you want to think about as you’re crafting your personal branding strategy and figuring out whom to be visible to.

Fourth is to figure out, what are you going to talk about? What are you going to be an expert in? This is, of course, your angle. And I think the best way to do this is to think about the services that are important to you and your firm as you grow and scale. You may have 12 or 15 services, but which are the ones that you think are really important to your growth?

And then, over on the other side, think about the things you know from your research, and from the dialogs you have with your audience, about the things that are important to them, the things that are keeping them up at night. It’s the intersection of the services that are important to you and the things that are important to your audience, the intersection of that that helps you identify those finite set of issues around which you should be speaking, writing, and networking.

Download the Inside the Buyer’s Brain, Second Edition Executive Summary

Fifth is, know your skills. If you do some due diligence and look at your real strengths, be honest about your weaknesses, this helps you see what you’re coming to the table with. Do you love to speak but you get writer’s block when you have to put nose to grindstone and write a piece of thought leadership?

Well, this is very helpful to know when you’re crafting your personal branding strategy because you may want to do things like what you’re watching today, a video blog, if you enjoy speaking, but you don’t like writing. So, knowing your skill sets is really critical. And I don’t want to get too far to the end, but it helps with the final step. Before you get to that final step, once you’ve thought about your skills, then you need to think about what tools do you need to allow this personal branding strategy to really come to life?

What do you need on your website? Did you find that your audience likes to learn digitally, and so, webinars, or podcasts, or video blogs would be a good way for you to start educating and letting them know about your expertise? Then you would want to invest in those types of tools. Once you have figured out your audience, you’ve done an honest assessment of your skills and you’ve thought about what tools you need to bring your personal branding strategy to life, now you need to do it.

But you likely won’t be able to do it on your own. This is not a largely DIY type of scenario. In some cases, because of your skill set, you’ll find some natural places where you can take this on and do it on your own. In other cases, you may need to consider outsourcing some of the skill sets. Depending on the goals that you have for your firm, you may want to hire and groom these skill sets organically.

But you’ll likely have a mix of DIY, with the outsourcing, with the hiring, and build a team that helps you bring this to life. Some of the skill sets that you’ll be looking for, you know, it isn’t just about writing, it isn’t just about speaking, what about the design that goes behind anything you publish?

What about the design on your website? What about measuring analytics and using metrics to see how far you’re mapping towards your goal? Those are the types of skills that you want to surround yourself with as you’re building your toolkit. So, if you found this helpful and want to learn more, I’d encourage you to go to our Visible Expert Course in Hinge University.

Hope to see you there.

The post 7 Steps to Develop a Personal Branding Strategy [VIDEO] appeared first on Hinge Marketing.