What’s your influence strategy?

Your reputation depends on what other people say and write about you.  If you have a good reputation, it means you’re doing something right.  But what happens if your reputation is good, but is almost a trade secret?

Lots of people do a great job for their customers, but only those customers know about it.  The problem is that people expect good service, so they only talk about it if it falls short of expectations.  The stats used to be that you told 5 people about an exceptional experience and around 20 about a bad experience.  With social media, the potential is to tell thousands about a bad experience – and it’s not ‘news’ if you’ve had a good experience, unless it was mind-blowing!

While we’d all like to be known for exceptional service, the truth is that people are amazed at first, then accept it as the norm, so talk about it less.

To expand the community that know how good you are, you need a strategy to influence more people.

What to include in your strategy

Know your audience.  Sharing information randomly, will be a long, uphill struggle.  If you know who you’re trying to reach and know what they’re reading, where they’re active online and what they’re interested in, everything you do will be much more likely to hit the target.

Get the testimonial habit!  Ask customers to give you feedback – ideally when they’re happiest – and always ask for permission to publish.  Put them on your website, use them on social media, add them to your marketing material.

TIP:  Always ask the customer what their outcomes were, this is the most powerful part of any testimonial.

Be visible.  This might be on social media, at local networking groups, or in online communities.  If nobody knows you’re there, they can’t enquire about your products or services.

TIP: Put time in your diary to maintain consistent activity in your chosen places.

Share your expertise:  Showing off your knowledge and expertise is an excellent way to influence people.  You can do this on your blog, on social media, in articles for selected publications, through lead magnets and in your networking presentations.

TIP: Have a plan for at least a few months, ideally a year ahead.  What will your subjects be and what will you share about them?

Have a punchy and memorable answer.  When people ask ‘What do you do?’, don’t answer with your industry.  Create a one liner that is different and helps the question asker to remember you.  For instance, I use a couple of different ones:

I help people to RAVE about you.  RAVE stands for Reputation, Authority, Visibility and Expertise.  Does your marketing tick all four of those boxes?

I have a magic keyboard that creates compelling copy and a talented team who manage all your content marketing.  When would be a good time for us to talk?

These took time to develop, so invest some time on creating something that really grabs attention and interest.

TIP:  When you’ve got your one-liner written down, practise saying out loud over and over, until it’s automatic and you don’t have to think about it.  Then it will emerge smoothly the next time the question is asked.

There are many more things you can add to your influence strategy – but these will get you started!