How to Make Your Expertise Available to Clients Online
Making your expertise work for you is the single best approach to online marketing. Not your product. Not your services. You need to sell the stuff you have tucked away in your noggin. There are a myriad of ways to do this, but three that can work continually for you are a YouTube video, long distance seminars, and an e-zine or E-newsletter.
Often times smaller business owners shy away from these possibilities because they worry about the time commitment or learning curve. But surprisingly, these can be a simple process to set up. Some entrepreneurs even find themselves enjoying the process and discovering more ways to share through these types of media. Here’s a quick breakdown of what they are and how easy it is to use them to your advantage.
YouTube
YouTube is a wonderful tool for not only sharing your expertise but also getting your name and face out in the market. Aside from establishing your expertise, YouTube offers a chance to reach potential clients and keep them coming back for more information as easily as sitting on their couches.
The key to leveraging YouTube is to make your video either hilariously entertaining or very informative so that the viewer gets some value out of it. A mixture of both is fine too. Just remember that you want to make them short and sweet, condensed and approachable.
Creating a video can be as simple as setting up a webcam and filming you speak for a few minutes on a topic. Series are a great way to piggy back off the last one you taped. Or if you’d prefer not to be on screen, offer pictures or screen shots and record your voice over the pictures transition. Some people also invest in a flip cam for on-the-go recording of processes or locations that are a part of your information. For this type of filming, consider letting people see the product creation or a finished service project.
Once the video is shot, you can use Windows Movie Maker, Snipping Tool, or a similar video editing program to fine tune video, voice volume, add titles or credits, or even music over parts of the presentation that don’t have explanations. Save your finished file either on the hard drive or on a SD card.
Creating a YouTube account is as simple as any other online community or email. Once you’ve done so, you can upload your finished video to YouTube and start a following.
If your computer has a Windows Live Account associated with it then you can directly publish your video to YouTube from its tool bar. You’ll need to choose a size that’s best. We recommend the happy medium of 640×480, as both older and brand new computers will be able to enjoy it.
If you don’t have a Windows Live Account, simply log into YouTube, click the Upload button on the top right of your home screen. (You can just record from webcam here.) Upload the video you created, enter information such as title, description, tags (think SEO keywords), categories that apply, and the privacy setting. There is also a check box that allows you to show other related content. We recommend unchecking that, as you don’t want your viewers to be directed to your competition.
Once it’s uploaded, YouTube will take you to your videos first playing. Below it are the options to share on other social media, as well as an embed button that offers you the HTML code to put the video on your website or other web pages.
Teleseminars & Webinars
Both teleseminars and webinars offer you a chance to teach or discuss your expertise with clients and potential business partners. If you decide to do make either of these two options part of your regular marketing strategy then it’s vital to set up a schedule and stick to it. This will form loyal clients or attendees, and possibly generate leads for more sales. A schedule will also make it easier to promote on social media.
The best part about either of these is that they will cost you little more than time. Great sites like freeconferencecall.com (long distance fees may apply), anymeeting.com, onwebinar.com offer free hosting and great features like multi-chat, video conferencing, polls, sharing links and files, slideshow presentations capability, and free call recording. Think of this as a speaking opportunity that you can do from anywhere.
E-zines/ E-Newsletter
Having an email list that you send information to is a great way to share business news, special events, sales, and your expertise. It can also garner income by selling ad space for sister companies in your company’s broader field. Going into a ton of detail on creating an electronic mailing is like jumping down a rabbit hole and will probably require another post. Depending on how fancy or simple you want the newsletter to be will determine the initial time-cost to create a brochure you can regularly modify and send to customers.
Hiring someone to produce an e-zine or E-newsletter for you can get expensive if you want something with a lot of graphics (read: HTML code). But there are a couple resources that can make this process super painless for you. There are several free list-hosting or auto responder services that can keep track of recipients. You can have these added to your blog or website to capture subscribers and then send them your carefully crafted E-newsletter. They also typically offer simple unsubscribe options that keep your list current.
As for the newsletter itself, it’s important to take advantage of branding by having it be similar to the style or design of your website, or at least have your company’s logo on it. Mailchimp.com is a simple and free website that can help you with this. If you have Microsoft Publisher, it can also help you create and share or use html code to send it out to your mailing
list. It’s a great idea to have a published web version of the email on your website or blog, as well as to have a text only, ungarnished version.
Even more important than design is the content you choose to put within that mailing. Again, it needs to be entertaining or engaging, and short is best. If you want to use YouTube or webinars, the newsletter is a great way to announce them, provide a calendar, or link to them and give more details on specific parts of what is discussed there.
Have you used any of these outlets to get your information and company out into the market successfully? Are you interested in using any of them now that you’ve read what they can do?
