How to position yourself as an authority through your content
Learn how to attract more of your ideal clients and make more sales by positioning yourself as an authority through your content!
The key to selling your services (or selling anything in the online space!) is down to the FIVE things that make up what I call the Five Point Positioning Formula.
Ensuring you cover these five things within your content and messaging will help you to position yourself as a solution. It will help your audience get to know you, understand what you offer, why they should work with you and build trust and visibility for your brand (now and for the future!)
The five points of the positioning formula are:
- Transformation
- Features and Benefits
- Sharing Your Story
- Social Proof
- Your Differentiation
Transformation
- To share the transformation, you need to understand their problems, what they desire and then position yourself as the solution or bridge to help them get there.
- You need to show them you understand what they want and not only that, that you understand why they want it, what that means to them, how it will change their life etc. Once you have shown them you understand the transformation they seek, you can show them you have the answers to help make that possible.
- Paint a picture of the future using an ‘imagine-if’ scenario outlining how they might feel as a result of working together, the impact this could have on their business, and how this will help them get one step closer to achieving their goals and ambitions. What will it help them start doing or do more of? What could it stop happening? What could it make easier?
Features and Benefits
In this pillar, you want to share the features of your offer, services or package. This means sharing what’s included or what it actually does. The benefits help your audience to understand why those features matter, what they might help your client to do, and the difference they might make to your business. Benefits help clarify to clients why they should pay attention and why something is worth their time, consideration and investment.
For example, a feature of a car is an indicator. The benefit of an indicator is that people can see your intended actions and are less likely to crash into you as a result!
If you find this difficult add a ‘so you’ statement – ‘So you can/will/feel/stop/start.’
e.g Feature: 30-minute consultation
Benefit: So we can get crystal clear on your goals before we start and make the best use of our time together.
Your Story
Your story will always be unique, and that’s why sharing your story helps your audience get to know you, your values, your passions and why you do what you do. This helps to create connections and build relationships.
Sharing your story can help inspire your audience, help them understand more about you, create talking points and start conversations. Sharing your story can also motivate you, reminding yourself how far you’ve come and what you’ve achieved and helping you practise talking about yourself and your business more positively.
Social Proof
Social proof helps build trust in you and your brand, as potential clients can see the difference you make in other people’s businesses, making them want it even more for themselves. Sharing social proof can help clients identify that they are your ideal client, as they might share the same goals, problems or challenges that the clients you have supported do.
Social proof can take many forms including:
- Reviews and testimonials
Kind words from your clients are a great way to build trust and can be used in many ways, from sharing on social media to add to landing pages and emails.
- Case Studies
Provide a more in-depth look into a piece of work you have done and give your reader some context. You can outline what problems your client was having and how that was making them feel, what you suggested or what you did to resolve that problem and then the outcome – what changed? How did that help your client? How did they feel as a result? - Visual examples of work
If you are a creative business, visual representations or mock-ups of your work are a great way to build trust in you and your work and encourage clients to reach out and make enquiries. For example, you can share examples of any graphics you create, ebooks or digital assets you create or sales pages you design. - Certification and qualifications
If you have any formal acknowledgements or certifications in your field, you should regularly talk about them! These can also include whether you are a brand ambassador for any companies or you have completed the certified training programmes, for example, in Dubsado.
Differentiation
Your differentiation (sometimes referred to as your USP or UVP) makes you unique as a service provider and helps you set yourself aside from others offering the same kind of services. You can leverage this so your audience can see why they should work with YOU.
It’s key that you know what makes you unique in your business, whether it’s your experience, your approach to things or your personality (it’s probably going to be a combination!). Having clarity on this means you can show up with more confidence in what you do and who you are as a business owner.
If you can focus on finding clarity in these five areas, your messaging will become clearer, stronger, and more compelling and will help you make more sales. Clients will know exactly what you do, who you help, the difference working with you makes, what you stand for and why they should choose to work with you.
Which point do you think might need more work in your business and content now?
If you are an ambitious female entrepreneur and would LOVE to learn more about creating better content, attracting more of your ideal clients, pricing and packaging your services and growing a happy and profitable business, I would love to invite you to join me over in my free Facebook Group The Happy Business Hub.
Here you will find a like-minded community of female business owners with monthly free training and co-working sessions to support you in growing your business.