Building authority

Let’s talk about the importance of building authority as a critical ingredient in attracting clients into your business so that you can have a successful, fruitful career. It can very often feel like there’s a lot of noise, especially when you really immerse yourself. And one of the biggest questions that I get asked by clients is, Lauren, there are already people doing what I want to do, how can I stand out and cut through the noise. If you don’t build authority, then there is definitely a danger of becoming part of the noise and feeling a little bit like a copy-paste version of somebody else.

When you don’t stand out in a crowded space it can feel like you’re on a hamster wheel, putting in all the effort, but for very little return. And what happens when you do build authority is this. Clients start to seek you out. People feel like they know you. The industry respects you. You get the speaking invitations, the partnership opportunities, and who knows, maybe you even get the book deal that you’re dreaming of. So the whole concept of authority comes from this idea of you being an author. That’s the Latin root word. So what do authors do? Well, they write, they share ideas, they tell stories.

And in the digital era, this takes the form of your content and your service offering. In order to build authority you need to remember that your audience will find you at different stages of their journey, and will go through a process with you depending on which stage they’re at. So the first critical ingredient in building authority is to offer the right content at the right time for your audience. Your audience or your potential clients will be one of three things on a scale when they find you, whether that’s via a paid ad, or a partnership with a person that they already trust, or some organic content that you’ve created like a video, a social media post, or a podcast.

They’ll be suspicious, and that’s the biggest pool of people. They’ll be intrigued, and that’s a slightly smaller pool. Or they’ll be convinced, and that’s an even smaller pool of your audience. So we can think of them as cold, or warm, or hot. And just like you need to dress appropriately for the season, you need an offer that is suitable for every season. So if a lead cold and suspicious, then they’re not ready to book a call with you.

So if the first call to action on your website right now requires a suspicious person to get on the phone with you or worse, pay for something straight off the bat, then you’re not allowing your audience to get to know you, to like you, and to trust you. So don’t make the mistake of thinking that everyone is hot. Your cold audience wants something for free. So a perfect first call to action on your website or your Instagram account would be a lead magnet. This is a free resource. But in order to access this, your lead will have to provide their name and email address, turning them into a lead that you can now follow up on.

The free resource is the magnet that encourages them to do so. So we want to provide them with something that can be accessed with minimum hassle, but that has high value like a critical checklist, a 10 question quiz, a mini guide, a 10 minute recording, or a five minute video training, all of which will showcase your expertise. And if they liked this very resource, then they’re now a warm lead. So they’ll want something a little more meaty, maybe a three part video training, a live masterclass, an e-book, or possibly a discovery call or session with you to find out how they might work with you.

And now they’re past intrigue and convinced of your expertise, they’re hot and they are primed to buy. So they’re ready for a sales page detailing your expert offering, your services, your session details, your programme offering, or maybe details of whatever it is that you sell to clients to make money as an expert. The simple trick here is that you don’t need 15 elements for each stage. You’re going to decide on the one or two tools that you’ll refine at each stage of the journey. And guide your audience through the process of getting to know you, and like you, and trust you enough as an authority to buy from you.

So there are some simple but common mistakes that you can avoid when creating content that builds authority. Firstly, make sure that you have easy to access, high value resources that showcase your expertise available from a website, the importance of which we’ll cover in this course. If you do have great free resources, but they take more than three seconds to find or any amount of scrolling on a web page, then they’re almost completely redundant. If you’re assuming that everyone who finds you is a warm or a hot lead, or that they know what they want or need, then you’re probably scaring leads off.

Or if you’ve not got a clear process or system to take a lead from cold to warm to hot, then your content isn’t working hard enough for you. With these critical ingredients in your business and a clear consideration of how hot or cold your audience are at different stages of discovering you you are going to maximise the return on your content creation, become more accessible, build trust, and create a more consistent flow of clients.