Telling your customers that you are an “expert” isn’t enough to build credibility. Today’s B2B Marketing Agency Insights sees CEO Austin LaRoche delve into why it’s crucial to show your expertise to your customers rather than positioning yourself as one.
Video transcription below:
Welcome back to B2B Marketing Agency Insights. I’m your host, Austin LaRoche, CEO at ATAK Interactive. Today, I want to talk about a word that kind of drives me nuts: “Expert”.
Clients ask me all the time: “Hey, should we tell everybody that we’re experts in this field?” And I always tell them: “No.” It goes back to one of my favorite Game of Thrones quotes, “The king doesn’t have to say he’s the king.” The point of calling yourself an expert is to try and build credibility. If you’re looking to build credibility, show your expertise through the content you produce, the things you say, and the point-of-view that you can provide that nobody else can. Because being an expert means really going through that 10,000 hours.
When you haven’t gone through that 10,000 hours – but you are capable, you are on that path – maybe at that point, you want to call yourself an expert because, deep down, you are not there yet. And it’s okay; you’ll get there. But if you call yourself an expert, people will think you are a little bit of a fraud.
Let’s go back to the writer’s adage. Show, don’t tell. Show people what you can do. Talk about how you do it differently. Build content that really supports this because people will then interpret you as an expert. That’s what you are going for. The reason why you are even thinking of using the word “expert,” why you are thinking of calling yourself an expert, is because you want to be viewed as an expert.
Calling yourself an expert is not the way to do it. The way to do it is to really take all of those things that you have learned, all of that expertise you have accumulated, and share, educate, and tell the people in your industry why you are different and what you know. That will resonate with them. That will make them interpret you as an expert.
Thank you guys so much. I’m Austin LaRoche saying good luck growing.