7 Steps to Becoming an Expert in Your Field Once seen as an expert in your particular field, it can open up the door for higher paying jobs and other business opportunities that can grow your business and fuel your success.
By Brian Ainsley Horn Edited by Dan Bova
Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.
Whether you're a one-person consulting business or a 250-person manufacturing operation, you've spent years developing the knowledge that made your company a success. Why not maximize the return on your knowledge by leveraging it gain authority, or even celebrity status in your marketplace?
Once you are seen as an authority, or expert, in your particular field, it can open up the door for higher paying jobs and other business opportunities like speaking engagement that can grow your business and fuel your success even more.
Below are seven simple ways for you to do just that.
Related: 4 Ways to Look Like an Expert When You're Just Starting Out
1. Become an advocate and educator for your customers.
Part of having authority status is being both an educator and an advocate for your clients. As an educator, you work hard at communicating with your customers on a regular basis. For example, financial expert Dave Ramsey has a site on which he posts various tips and articles for his customers.
In addition, he offers seminars that help his customers learn more about money management. He even offers free printable resources. All these elements, and many more, are examples of how he educates his clients.
2. Micro-specialize.
Instead of trying to please everyone, focus your efforts on a small amount of possible clients. This approach will help understand the niche better and be able to cater your marketing better. You'll perfect the art of appealing to and pleasing that smaller scope of customers.
An example of micro-specialization in the design field could include designers who only do corporate CEO's offices or those who choose to only work with local real-estate companies to stage private homes for sale.
3. Write articles for news sites and profession publications.
Make a concerted effort to write articles pertaining to your area of expertise. Send them in to newspapers and trade journals along with other professional publications.
If you can manage to do this, you will have content to back up your authority status in your field. Don't simply write a few articles here and there, but instead commit to regular content creation for a variety of outlets, as it helps build up your personal brand faster.
Related: Use Entrepreneurship to Reinvent Yourself
4. Write a book using problem-solution format.
Another tip to becoming an expert is to take what has been your most read, or best received articles, and delve deeper into the subject broached in those pieces.
Keep in mind, the book doesn't have to be long. In fact, in terms of today's readers, shorter is often better.
However, the book format does give you the benefit of the space to really explore a problem and offer up your solution, which will give you instant authority status.
5. Start speaking.
Speaking in public is scary for many people. However, giving speeches or participating in seminars or panels is a great way to present yourself as an authority in your field.
One way to obtain a few speaking gigs is to align yourself with other successful speakers. If given the opportunity to speak alongside someone who is already well known, you will have a good-sized audience, and you can offer a different perspective on whatever the topic. Hone your speaking skills, study voice projection and observe other engaging speakers, ensuring you will be ready to give an interesting, stimulating speech an opportunity comes along.
6. Get interviewed on radio shows and podcast.
Podcasts are typically a niche driven industry, making them an ideal way to get your message across to a large amount of people.
To get on a radio show or podcast, contact the host. You can usually find contact information, such as email addresses, on the show's website.
Tell the host why you would be a great fit for the show.
Don't forget about Twitter, Facebook and other social-media outlets, as you can often contact a radio show host through these means. If those ideas don't work, try contacting past guests who have been on the show to find out how they went about achieving an invite.
7. Use trust triggers.
After you have been a guest on a radio show, spoken alongside a reputable speaker or had your worked published by a trusted outlet, you can begin sharing that experience as a way to build trust.
For example, if you are an expert on dog grooming and you have been a guest on It's a Doggy Dog World podcast, putting on your site that you were on that podcast is a great way to trigger trust.
If customers trust that podcast as an expert on the subject, and you were featured, customers will feel you are worthy of trust as well.
However, it is always a good idea to ask permission before using someone"s name to build trust.
