Selling your knowledge and monetizing your expertise is a very convenient and lucrative business. It is, however, also very competitive. With hundreds of contents out there competing for customers’ attention, very few niches are left untapped. Irrespective of your field or your means of reaching your customers, you would quickly find that you aren’t the only one in your space.
Be it selling an E-book or an online course; there is always going to be intense competition. The competitive nature of marketing knowledge and content online makes it very hard to stand out. You might have the best book on building a streetwear brand or a bakery and still not have many sales. The key to converting your good content to good sales is marketing.
Five Marketing Tips on Selling Your Knowledge Online
Here are a few tips on marketing your knowledge and building a successful business out of the selling of your expertise.
Online Ads and analytics
Online ads are the first step to successfully marketing your content or product, be it a class, a book, a website, or a consultancy service. Ads are the primary form of marketing for any online business and Involved most companies in producing and publishing online ads.
However, with many ads out there clogging up customers’ browsing experience, ads have become less effective. Customers generally ignore most online ads, and pop-up ads have become nothing more than an irritation.
Nevertheless, through analytics and targeted advertisement, you can still get your customers hooked. Rather than publishing your ads on any website that would agree to take your cash, be purposeful in your ad publication.
Look for websites you think people who care about your product would visit and publish your ads there.
Also, follow up with analytics. Monitor the response of your audience, and it’s demographics. With analytic programs, you can find out who is viewing your ads, who is clicking, how long they stay on your page before leaving, what page converts them, etc.
Aside from getting new customers, online ads with the help of analytics give you an insight into who your target audience is and their behavior. By utilizing this information, you can focus your ads more appropriately to get optimum results.
Build a community
Building a community of engaged fans is one sure way to keep your customers loyal and get new customers. By creating a platform where your customers can discuss your content and ask questions, you turn your customers into followers. By engaging in discussions and getting their questions answered, your customers would get more value from your offer’s content or service.
With this, it would inspire them to tell their friends and colleagues about your product or service. Building a community around your product or service makes your business more valuable to your customers.
Besides the class, book, or consultation, you would also be offering a network of like minds by creating a community. In this day and age, where the world is a global village of strangers, a system of like-minded people is more valuable than you think.
Engage your community
Discussions within the community you have created would also help you improve your business. For example, if you offer an online class and a question keeps popping up in the comment section, then the answer to that question is your next topic. An active and engaged community is the best way to get honest feedback from your customers. This feedback is crucial in guiding you to serve your customers better.
Use Social Media
One easy way to build a community around your business is by leveraging the power of social media. Open a social media account and share the link with your customers or students. Stir up the conversation on social media and watch it flow organically. Depending on the service you offer and the platform you utilize, you can have discussions on the same venue you offer your services.
Most platforms for online courses have easy to use discussion platforms. Amazon Kindle Direct Publishing also has a comment and review section where your readers can review your books and voice their opinions. However, it is still better to have a platform where a broad range of discussions can occur rather than a few strangers just dropping their one-off reviews.
Perform in-depth research before publishing your content
The fact that you are an expert doesn’t mean you shouldn’t do some research before publishing your content. As time goes on, the world changes, and although you might be a master of your field, it’s your job to stay up to date; this also includes staying up to date with the relevant topics in your field from a marketing standpoint.
Detailed knowledge of what people want to know would guide you in proving useful knowledge and skills. With this, it also entails researching what keywords people are searching for concerning your field.
SEO (Search Engine Optimization)
One significant way to grow organically and draw a lot of attention to yourself and your business is to ensure that your contents are (SEO) Search Engine Optimized. Optimized contents are easy to understand by readers as it utilizes terms that they understand and address the question on their minds. Due to the way search engines are structured, optimized contents are also more visible than un-optimized content.
Apart from figuring out what your customers want to know, you must also research your competition. Researching your competitors would give you free insight into what works and what you can do better; this would guide you on the best marketing strategies in your field, as well as needs that have been left unmet.
Conclusion
The key to growing your business online is intentional and analytical strategy. You can’t just market blindly. Spending money on ads without a detailed analysis of the market and your customers is a recipe for failure. The key to success is finding out the marketing methods that work in your space and your target audience, then combining them in the most effective way possible.
Marketing your skill online could be difficult but it could be easier if you have an expert support group to help you in your every step of the way by joining our growing group of successful entrepreneurs you’ll get the support of your fellow entrepreneur and industry experts.
