How to Profit from Your Expertise (Part 2 of 2)

Last month we looked at the first step in how to naturally profit from your expertise: packaging your knowledge into articles and talks. Done right, you’ll exponentially multiply the number of motivated, pre-qualified prospects you reach in a fraction of the time that networking and referrals require.
This month, we’ll look at how to get in front of the right audiences to put your attention-getting articles and talks to work in promoting you and your firm.

Before we go there, make sure you’ve:
• Given your talk or article a compelling title that answers your target audience’s “WIIFM” (What’s In It For Me?). It doesn’t matter how brilliant your content is, if people don’t read past your title or sign up for your talk. Your title is ALL that matters, at first glance.
• Got a title that’s clear and easy to understand, targets the audience specifically, includes core benefits directed at the reader/listener’s self-interest, and leads the reader/listener into the copy/talk.
For specific tips on how to make your titles compelling, read last month’s issue of this e-newsletter at [http://www.turningpointemarketing.com:8080/icms/icms.php/cs/9/linktarget.html].
So if sharing your expertise through articles and talks is the fastest way to promote your professional service firm, how do you get in front of audiences that are full of good prospects?
STEP 1: Find the right audiences
In the beginning, this is about promotion and getting the word out through knowledge sharing…not getting paid to speak or write articles. So if you’re doing this for free, get a return on your investment by being in front of your target audience.
Finding the right target audience for your talk or article takes some old fashioned footwork. Here’s what you do:
1. Think about who you want sitting in your audience or reading your article – your ideal target client – and find out where they go for professional education, what associations they belong to, what they read, where they network, etc. Where are you most likely to bump into them?
In some cases, it could even be events held by your larger clients for their own employees (i.e., national and regional meetings for sales, HR, finance, IT staff, etc.)