How to Leverage Authority Marketing

Authority marketing can separate you from competitors, drive revenue and turn you into a niche celebrity. But for many salespeople, it’s a struggle with where to start and how to get it done.

We sat down with Michael Greenberg, Chief Strategist for Call for Content and author of the Authority Marketing Playbook, to talk about how to effectively establish yourself in your field as an authority.

What Is It?

Authority marketing is the positioning of yourself as, well, the authority or expert on something, in order to bring more business to you. It’s the thought leadership component of your personal brand. “It’s accomplished using some sort of social proof to prove your authority or expertise,” Michael said.

That social proof of authority can take many forms – it can happen online through social media and contributed content, or offline through educational degrees and certifications. But most importantly, it should be specialized. “The narrower the field that you work with and the narrower the niche you target, the faster you can reach status as an authority there,” Michael said.

“The narrower the niche you target, the faster you can reach status as an authority there”

MICHAEL GREENBERG,
CHIEF STRATEGIST AT CALL FOR CONTENT

Establishing Authority

Authority and expertise don’t happen overnight, but they’re not something to wait around for either. So, once you’ve found your specialty, how do you establish yourself in your niche? According to Michael, authority comes in two forms:

1. Stamps of approval. These are things like degrees and certifications.
2. Success, at some level.

After you’ve obtained authority through a previous success or stamp of approval, you can begin establishing yourself through teaching and creating educational content. Michael says that this is often the quickest way to successfully positioning yourself as an authority. “You get that initial boost of authority from having a prior stamp of approval and you can use that to leverage your way up.”

“You get that initial boost of authority from having a prior stamp of approval and you can use that to leverage your way up”

MICHAEL GREENBERG,
CHIEF STRATEGIST AT CALL FOR CONTENT

The Biggest Challenges?

Authority marketing requires an active investment on a personal level to be successful. According to Michael, there are two main challenges that individuals face:

1. Building up a content base. This can be especially difficult if you’re taking a shotgun approach. “If you’re building content that’s not immediately or directly impactful to your customers, then you’re going to end up burning out before you can really see the results of creating that content.”
2. Not specializing enough. “A spotlight will outshine a floodlight and a laser will outshine both.”

“A spotlight will outshine a floodlight, and a laser will outshine both”

MICHAEL GREENBERG,
CHIEF STRATEGIST AT CALL FOR CONTENT

What is Most Effective When Someone is Trying to Sell You?

We like to ask our podcast guests this question. Here’s how Michael answered:

“If you’re trying to get some insight on how I market, then I am always happy to talk about that. If you’re going for sales, then show me the numbers and show me how you got them, because I don’t want to hear your pitch. I want to see what value it provides me with.”

Acceleration Insight

In every episode of the B2B Revenue Executive Experience, we try to pull one nugget of wisdom from our guests that they would impart on a sales professional. Here’s this one:

1. Authority is relative. Know who you are and know who your customer is.
2. Create content regularly.
3. If your content isn’t working, then you need to turn up the brightness and focus down to a laser.

This post is based on a podcast interview with Michael Greenberg, Chief Strategist for Call for Content and author of the Authority Marketing Playbook. To hear this episode, and many more like it, you can subscribe to the B2B Revenue Executive Experience.

If you don’t use iTunes, you can listen to every episode here.