Part 5: Building Credibility Through Marketing

Building your credibility is the most effective marketing effort you can make. It’s also the most elusive and practically impossible to measure!

Credibility can precede you and prime your prospects so that all you have to do is show up and they’re ready to buy. It can also be used to weed out the tire-kickers and demonstrate your expertise.

Here are some of the active marketing tools that build your credibility:

· Blogging. Post on your own blog or offer to be a “guest blogger” on industry blogs where your prospects go looking for advice. Than take that material and post it on LinkedIn’s publishing platform for wider reach and visibility.

· Writing. Expand your blog posts and email newsletters into longer form articles and submit them to online and offline publications in your target markets.

· Speaking. Re-purpose your written materials (blog posts, email marketing messages and articles) and turn them into presentation topics. Then submit them to associations and conferences where your target market gathers, in-person or virtually. Or, organize and sponsor your own networking or educational events (even webinars) on topics of interest to your market.

"Unofficial" (but essential) Marketing Tools

When I ask creative professionals how they market their services, many say they don't, that they get all their work through word-of-mouth. But when we I probe a bit, I find out they are in fact using the "unofficial" or more passive marketing tools, such as an "elevator pitch" or a website.

Along with your active marketing efforts, you want to make sure your passive efforts are helping build credibility, too. Those efforts include:

· Your Blurb. One formula that works when it comes to answering the question, “What do you do?” is this:

"Who you help + what they get/you provide for them?"

Here are some examples of blurbs:

Getting the blurb right

If you want a certain type of work, adjust your blurb (on the fly, even) to mention those services specifically. In fact, mention them first and see if that grabs your prospect’s attention.

If you’re a designer, talk about designing web sites or WordPress or direct mail pieces with pURLs or whatever is trendiest at the moment (because that’s what they’ll think they need).

If you’re a writer, talk about writing for the web or creating content that creates loyalty or generates sales.

If you’re a marketing strategist, talk about the latest online marketing tools.

The point is: Include your specialty in your blurb so you don’t inadvertently alienate those who are looking for it.

So the blurbs above could be modified as:

And don't worry if you’re not an “expert” yet. Talk about “moving in that direction” or “doing more and more web work” or “exploring web and app design” (or writing).

Download my Elevator Pitch Worksheet! It will help you get your blurb right:

Social Media

Make sure you have a presence on the social media most frequented and used by your prospects.

For most professionals, it’s LinkedIn, but Twitter is very popular for business, and some also use Facebook for business purposes.

Use social media as an extension of your in-person networks.

Whichever networks you focus on, make sure they’re up to date and consistent with each other and with your web site. Use them to demonstrate your position in the markets (vertical industries) you serve and be sure to mention specific services you offer, as in your blurb.

Join groups on LinkedIn that are related to your target industries as well. On your profile, the icon and group name will show up and become part of the impression made by your profile, thereby enhancing your positioning.

Your Website

It must be up to date. If it’s not, you might as well just forget about getting clients who need anything related to their web sites. You’ll either be too embarrassed to send them to yours or they’ll go there and be unimpressed by what they see.

Video: 6 Excellent Examples of Marketing Smart Homepages of Designers

Here are the top five things your web site must have

1. Strong positioning: You must communicate clearly on the homepage who you best serve and how.

For example, the positioning statement at Marketing Mentor is:

“The go-to online resource for creative professionals who want better clients, bigger budgets and better projects"

2. Good SEO/keyword usage: You must offer useful content that addresses your client’s business needs, integrating the language your best prospects are using to search for your services.

3. Intuitive navigation: The site mustn’t confuse your visitors with “creative” ways to find what’s on the site.

4. Calls to action: You must tell visitors what to do and where to go, taking them through a path that will generate qualified leads for your pipeline.

5. Up to date technology and social media links

Bottom line: If you do marketing well for yourself, it’s obvious that you can help your clients with the same. You must practice what you preach, especially when it comes to interactive or digital media.