After all, if you’re the most brilliant human alive regarding topics no one cares about, what’s the point? Again, it comes back to the beauty of the information age, and there’s a variety of methods to get into the heads of your market.
While most people look to the internet to find answers to questions of their own, it’s just as useful to find out what others are curious about. It just takes some out of the box thinking.
By learning what’s important to your audience, you better pull together thoughts on how to go about addressing these questions. You can choose to contribute to the discourse online if you want, or you can just observe the discussion threads to give yourself some context into:
- Common questions
- Common misconceptions
- Misguided advice (or blatant misinformation)
- Market frustrations
- Gaps in overall accounting literacy
- Real-life stories and examples (both positive and negative)
Don’t be Afraid to Have an Opinion
Maybe your profession doesn’t allow for a completely cavalier attitude toward the rules and regulations, but that’s not to say that you can’t have thoughts, ideas and opinions that go against the grain or challenge new ways of thinking. In fact, it’s the ability to challenge your audience with new ways of thinking that separates you from a common subject matter expert in your field.
Not too long ago, those touting the power of the cloud to transform SMB accounting were few and far between. But given the leadership of early adopters, and their vision for how the digital ecosystem could significantly benefit firms and clients alike, they are looked at as go-to resources for providing a take on the pulse of the accounting tech environment.
The topical opportunities are limitless, it’s just a matter of choosing a message and committing to it entirely.
Packaging Your Message
By now, you’ve taken inventory of your expertise and cross-checked it against what resonates with your market. What next? Unless you amplify your voice, no amount of insight matters.
One of the greatest things about the marketing ecosystem is the sheer amount of opportunities to get your message in front of an audience. To start, work with your capabilities and focus on the properties you’re the most comfortable with. As you learn and grow, you’ve got a large amount of channels to amplify your message.
- Website
- Blogs
- White papers / e-books
- Podcasts
- Speaking engagements
- Videos
- Newsletters (print or digital)
- Published articles
- Social media
Like anything associated with marketing, consistency and regularity are crucial to success. If you confuse your message or positioning, you can easily lose your audience. And if you let too much time pass between touch points, you can just as easily lose any momentum you’ve built.
