Being an Expert Can Interfere with Your Messaging

While it’s not especially flattering to admit, we all tend to seek approval from others. Being an expert in a particular niche, that sort of confirmation will most commonly come from others in your field. Yeah, so?

So, it should come as no surprise that those with similar interests find comfort and support by associating with each other. Educators tend to associate with educators; online coaches tend to hang together; website designers and marketers are often most comfortable with others of a like mind and profession. Whole industries can become exclusive and the subjects of discussion among experts can frequently climb to higher and higher levels.

In fact, this is the very reason industry-related associations exist.

The danger with such insular relationships is two-fold: first, that our view of the world can become dangerously narrow, and second, that we may forget who butters our bread – those with less knowledge.

Why Messaging is So Critical to Online Marketing Success

We’ve written about this before, but it seems important enough to mention it again. The reason for this redundancy in our messaging should be obvious by now. It is that not everyone “gets it” the first time around (or maybe even the second). That is precisely why well-crafted messaging is so critical to your online marketing success.

Receiving support from other experts is rewarding, but what happens when you're thrown together with a group of laypeople; or just one, a potential client?

Both clients and prospects will commonly voice a desire but, because they lack the base of knowledge to make it happen, they search for an expert. In the “information age”, they’ll jump online to search for solutions but will surely need more.

That is where you come in. And that is where your experience, your respect for them, and their efforts to learn, will enable you to deliver a message that will resonate with them – and help you close more clients.

While you obviously can’t “know too much” about your area of expertise, you must always be mindful that most of your clients and prospects will know far less than you. It’s your job to help them learn what they need to make an informed buying decision.

When you're able to use being an expert to help them, the fact that you're the one who did so should take care of the rest. (That is, closing the sale.)

Need Help with Your Expert Messaging?

If you still have questions, we can help with that too. Well, Ted can. With more than 25 years of experience in the trade, he offers business consulting that includes messaging for designers and dealers. For more… Contact TD Fall today.