Proving Your Authority To The Right People

Proving your authority only matters to the relatively small slice of the planet you serve—your ideal clients and buyers and those who influence them.

Yes, there’s a thrill in seeing your name in a marquee publication, but if it doesn’t hit your target demo, it is wasted effort.

Instead, spend your valuable time proving your authority to the exact audience who will most benefit from your message—and that allows you to best leverage your business and revenue model.

Imagine you’re a high-end designer who works with newly downsizing baby boomers. And your superpower is working with couples with differing visions of how their home should work for them.

Who would you want to prove your authority to?

You’d probably start with your ideal clients and buyers—couples in their late 50’s to mid 70’s with healthy six figure incomes.

And while your ideal clients don’t mind flying you in (you’re not restricted by geography), your style plays best in a few design-centric Pacific coastal communities that are driving or short hop flight distance.

You want to stay on the radar screen of the real estate brokers and agents who sell to and for that demographic.

And since clients typically contemplate their move for one to two years before pulling the trigger and read voraciously while they consider their options, your strategy includes being visible in a handful of digital and print publications.

You approach this strategically, so you’ve built an email list that you publish to weekly. It has an aspirational lifestyle feel (since ultimately that’s what you’re selling as your transformational outcome) with plenty of tips and vicarious glimpses into the beautifully functional spaces you create.

Your social media handles all funnel directly to your email list and keep your vision of your clients’ lives front and center.

You’ve targeted a handful of niche digital and newsstand publications from Coastal Living to Sunset Magazine along with digital lifestyle outlets in your top two resort destinations.

Seeing your work in those pubs led to the occasional quote request from those with wider design readership: Domino, House Beautiful, Elle Décor and Better Homes & Gardens.

You’re busy enough that you need to be highly strategic about how and where you appear.

And while you’re willing to do quotes for wider publications (it keeps your industry visibility high with your referral sources), the deep work developing content or showcasing your properties is reserved for sites you own or those that squarely hit your target demo.

So why this designer example?

Because this is the strategic work that—once you’ve done it thoughtfully—will drive every decision you make about where you want to prove your authority and where you’ll take a pass:

Defining a focused niche with a specific client avatar to give you clarity on who you’re helping and how to reach them.

Sidebar: building unreplicable authority in a desirable niche is what will ultimately allow you to be on the premium end of the fee scale.

Concentrating your energies where they can provide the best leverage to keep your marketing and media time to a minimum (and ensure you’re doing your best work in your sweet-spot).

When you have unrelenting focus, it’s just flat-out easier to quickly identify the people and outlets with powerful synergies.

Don’t be wasting your precious time with the wrong people.

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