Gaining Online (In)Credibility From the Start

One factor which is going to make or break you in whatever niche you become involved in is whether you are seen to be credible or not. While being passionate about your niche and taking the necessary steps to becoming famous online are important, without credibility you will not succeed. Even if you are the new kid on the block it is possible to gain credibility in your niche very quickly and I want to talk about the easiest ways to do so in this post.

Proof and Credentials

To be seen as a desirable, credible person, there are essentially three different types of proof that people want to see. They can be described as:

• Proof you can do it.
• Proof you can teach others to do it.
• Proof you can teach someone worse off than your prospects to do it.

The last proof example is the most powerful of the three and it is necessary to demonstrate it in a sales pitch. You have probably seen it numerous times before, such as an expert taking a someone who is either homeless, bankrupt or a college dropout and helping them to create a six or seven figure business in a short period of time.

The above proof levels are key to your credibility because people are not interested in wild, unrealistics claims of success any more, they need to see your credentials.

Proof plus claim = credentials and this is what transforms a claim into something which has real power.

For example, you can credentialize the content in your own blog, ebooks etc. by referring to a case study where you have helped somebody out who had the particular problem you are discussing.

The more proof you can show, the easier it is for people to accept you as a credible source and buy whatever you want to sell them.

Marketing vs Selling

Marketing is all about creating the need and desire for your products or services so if you describe the problem really well people will identify with it. Also, if you describe a problem really well, then people will assume you have the solution to it.

As an expert, you don’t want to be seen as being a pushy seller or as someone who is trying to sell all the time because that makes you look desperate. One style of marketing you could use is a more casual approach where you tell your prospects it won’t make any difference to you personally whether they buy or not, but it will change their lives if they do.

Where a lot of failure happens is when people just try and sell rather than market because successful marketing requires a lot of effort. The people who fail this way do not understand it is difficult to sell to people you have no credibility with.

You need to market your ideas, concepts and credibility consistently and as I wrote in a previous post, your marketing should be a long term commitment to helping the people in your community succeed. It should not be viewed as a ram raid on the marketplace to make a fast buck. This is what I am trying to achieve via my own blog, mailing list and wherever else I contribute online.

Rich Schefren says he receives comments off the back of his reports from people who don’t even know what he is selling but they know they want to buy it when it becomes available. That is powerful, real marketing in action.

Get Testimonials

The most obvious way to gain credibility and be seen as an expert in your niche is to obtain testimonials. There are different types of testimonial, such as those about a particular product or service, or those about you personally. There are also different types of people you can obtain testimonials from, such as your average Joe or from leading experts in your niche.

If you are in a position where you can get a testimonial from a leading expert, you should consider getting it about you personally, rather than for a particular product you may have created. This is because you can then use the testimonial over and over again and across different platforms, getting as much mileage out of it as you possibly can! You can always get product-specific testimonials from your prospects.

One way to obtain testimonials from top level people is to organise a free seminar for them and provide them with incredibly valuable content in return for a testimonial.

Credibility by Association

I am going to write separate posts on positioning yourself and getting your name out there but I want to touch on a few methods here you can gain credibility by association. As well as the freebies in return for testimonials tactic mentioned above you can also:

• Conduct Expert Interviews. These are not as hard to organise as you may think. Anybody who writes a book is usually available for an interview. You may have noticed a glut of interviews with Gary Vaynerchuk recently. Is it a coincidence his availability has increased ten-fold now he has copies of his new book, Crush It, to sell? Visit Amazon, see who are the top and most recent authors in your niche and conduct a series of interviews with them. All of a sudden you have content which in some way puts you on their level.
• JV & Affiliate Endorsements. What people write about you in their emails to promote your products as a JV partner or affiliate can be very credentializing. Any time you are endorsed, whether it is in an email, blog post, sales letter etc. you can confidently use it as a testimonial because it has been said publically.
• Guest Blog Posts. Writing high quality content for other people’s blogs will give you exposure to whole new group of people. If it is an authority blog, it will credentialize you.

These are only a few methods you can use to become credible in your niche. I am interested to hear what other ideas you have and tactics you employ to gain credibility, even in crowded marketplaces! Please leave your comments below!