In B2B marketing, becoming a recognized expert in your niche can be significantly beneficial to career and business success.
This episode of The Marketing Smarts Live Show features health and fitness entrepreneur Adrian Moreno. He and host George B. Thomas offer invaluable insights for marketers aiming to elevate their status in their respective fields; to that end, they delve into the transformative power of building relationships with leaders in your niche.
George and Adrian discuss strategies that can help you position yourself as an authority in your niche. They emphasize the significance of not just expanding your network but also deepening connections to create lasting impact.
Key Takeaways:
- Identify and engage with influencers. Understand who the key players are in your niche and find ways to engage with them—through social media, industry events, or direct outreach.
- Provide value first. Before asking for anything in return, focus on how you can add value to the relationship: Share your knowledge, offer assistance, or collaborate on projects.
- Be consistent. Building a reputation as an expert requires consistent effort: Regularly share your insights, participate in industry discussions, and stay updated with the latest trends.
Steps to take:
- Harness social media: Use social platforms, including LinkedIn, to connect with industry leaders. Share your thoughts with them on current events and trends, and engage with their content.
- Attend industry events: Whether virtual or in-person, events are great opportunities to network and learn from the best in the business.
- Create engaging content: Whether blog posts, podcasts, or webinars, high-quality content can establish you as a thought leader.
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The insights from this episode are a goldmine for marketers looking to become go-to experts in their niche. By focusing on building meaningful relationships and consistently providing value, you can elevate your status and become a recognized authority in your niche.
Watch the video for more insights:
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Episode Details, Guest Information, and Referenced Links
Episode No. 59
Guest's social media profiles:
MarketingProfs resources referenced in the show:
"In B2B News" article referenced in the show:
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Transcript: How to Become the Go-to Expert in Your Niche, With Adrian Moreno
Welcome to the "Marketing Smarts Live" show by MarketingProfs and the Marketing Smarts Podcast. Where we dive into B2B news, resources, valuable guest content, and much more each week.
If you're a B2B marketer looking for a place to learn, keep up to date, and have some fun along the way, grab a beverage, a notepad, or at least some style of writing utensil, and welcome to the show!
Hello to all my Marketing Smarts Live viewers today. I'm super excited to bring you EPISODE 59 of the Marketing Smarts Live show.
This week's topic is all about How to Become the Go-to Expert in Your Niche.
So, if you're ready to get your learn on, buckle up and let's get ready to rock and roll.
Hey, I'm your boy George B. Thomas, speaker, trainer, catalyst, and host of this here show, the Marketing Smarts Live show, as well as the Marketing Smarts podcast found on your favorite podcast app.
Our guest clips today are brought to you by Adrian Moreno.
Adrian Moreno began his career in the health and fitness space while also gaining unparalleled experience in hypnosis and natural language processing, establishing himself as a respected transformation specialist through the power of hypnotherapy.
Going against what his mentors taught, Adrian spent his marketing efforts pitching and getting booked on top podcasts. He grew his hypnotherapy company to a quarter of a million dollars in only 12 months.
Now, he teaches coaches, course creators, and content creators how to do the same thing.
Now, remember the clips of Adrian Moreno today are pulled from the full Marketing Smarts podcast episode, and if you want to listen to the full interview with Adrian Moreno and myself, make sure to tune into the Marketing Smarts podcast, link to the full show will be in the description below after the live show ends.
Now, in this episode, again, I'm talking with Adrian Moreno about How to Become the Go-to Expert in Your Niche.
In this first clip, I wanted to pick Adrian's brain on the idea of becoming a go-to-expert and what he calls the Dream 100. Listen in as he talks about creating an audience based on where your future community already gathers.
Adrian: For sure. First things first, the concept of Dream 100. I remember I got 40 high-ticket clients in one day from one talk. The reason why I got 40 high-ticket clients is because I spoke to a room of 60 ideal clients. The reason why 40 of them wanted to work with me after the fact was because the individual that endorsed me was somebody that they saw as a very high authority in their mind. They paid this guy hundreds of thousands of dollars to work with him, and now he's saying, "You all should listen to this" 20-something-year-old kid at the time. Before you knew it, I had a roster full of clients after that, and I had a good little wait list for a while after that, and that's because I got endorsed by somebody that my clients see as an authority and respect.
What is your bucket that you focus on? Is it health, wealth, or relationships? Chances are it's wealth if we're talking B2B marketers. That's the big bucket. Now what's the subcategory to that? List-buying, or list-building, let's just say that's what it is. Start looking for the biggest influencers in the marketing space that have mentioned list-building. Start looking for the biggest influencers in your space that people are already listening to. Again, you want to find where they're already gathering.
The easiest way to find where your people are gathering is to find out who they're listening to. You can use BuzzSumo, I believe. It's a pretty cool platform that helps you pick certain niches and see who the influencers are. Making a list of all of the influencers that your people listen to is going to make the next step a lot easier.
The next step is looking up all of the podcasts that those people have been on. When you look at the podcasts that those influencers have been on, you start seeing shows that your listeners are listening to. Your ideal customers are listening to these podcasts because they're interested in these influencers. You want to start making a spreadsheet of all of these shows. Using Hunter.io, scrape their emails. Make sure you always get a host's direct email. I just use Hunter.io for that.
Then it comes down to sending the pitch. How do you pitch yourself? If we're focused on becoming a go-to expert by being booked on podcasts, now how do you send a pitch that makes you stand out? Number one, do it through a video. Nobody in the universe is sending videos right now, I promise. I've been a podcaster for six or seven years, I ran a top show for a long time, so many pitches that I've gotten, and none of them are video.
Did you hear that? A waitlist!
Do you know your focus, and under that, do you know your niche?
What research are you doing around that niche you want to be the go-to expert in?
Do you have a list of influencers? Are you doing podcast research?
Are you or someone from your organization getting on podcasts to connect with an audience and be seen as the go-to-expert?
Put the answer to that in the chat pane or let me know on Twitter using the hashtag #mpb2b and, of course, tag me using @georgebthomas.
We'll get back to Adrian Moreno and his thoughts on How to Become the Go-to Expert in Your Niche, But first, I have to ask...
Are you part of the MarketingProfs community? If not, become part of the MarketingProfs community by heading over to mprofs.com/mptoday - That's mprofs.com/mptoday.
Now, it's time for one of my favorite sections...
In The B2B News - Where we talk about breaking B2B news or really important tips we find on the Google news tab related to you and your B2B business. This week, the title is...
FIVE B2B MARKETING TRENDS FOR 2024 by Jordan Buning
This time a year ago, marketers planning their 2023 budgets were bracing for a recession. A common motto might have been "fasten your seatbelts, folks, we're going to be in for a bumpy ride."
Your view now might be blue skies ahead, or you know there's going to be some turbulence, but it's time to get airborne. The motto for 2024: "How do we take control of this plane and move more aggressively?"
Mere survival is no longer the operating principle. Fifty-six percent of marketers say their companies plan to take risks when it comes to business strategy. That might entail an aggressive growth strategy, like a big purchase to broaden your organization's capabilities.
To read this article, check out the link below when the live show is over.
So, let's get back to Adrian Moreno and his Marketing Smarts podcast episode.
In this clip, I wanted to ask what hurdle or hurdles will get in the way of leveraging this idea of being an expert in your niche.
Listen to Adrian on his thoughts around the major hurdle, but also listen in on a couple of mindsets that are important for you on this journey!
Adrian: Themselves, to be honest. It's just the whole, "I feel like my story is not that good," and insecurities. The reality is that's the only thing that ever gets in our way.
Now you know what to do, but if you don't do it, it's literally because there is something going on internally. As somebody who comes from really deeply emotional background in hypnotherapy and all of that, a lot of people say, "Drop the doubt," and all of that, I just say ignore it. It's not a matter of dropping the doubt. It's like you're going to sit next to me and I'm going to do the damn thing anyway.
Another thing is people say have faith. Act like you have faith. You don't have to have faith, but act like you do. Whenever you're pitching people, act like they're going to say yes. Every pitch I send, I assume it's going to be a yes. That level of assumption shows in my pitches, too. It's a strong pitch.
Right now, if you're thinking it's not going to work for you, it's because you're assuming something. I want you to get this. Everything in your mind that you think is true is an assumption, and you can assume anything else. In the same exact way that you assume you're going to use the restroom when you go to the restroom, assume that your story is going to be interesting, assume that people are going to receive it enthusiastically, assume that you are going to be the kind of guest that forces people to want to follow you. Just have that level of deep assumption about yourself and about your expertise, and that will take you further than any podcast will ever take you.
Are you in your own way to becoming seen as an expert in your niche?
Are you stopping your success?
Do you have some work to do around the mindset that Adrian mentioned?
Are there some hacks you can incorporate?
We will get back to Adrian Moreno in a few minutes but first it's time for some...
Dope B2B Learnings From The Vault of MarketingProfs Articles
That's right, It's time to dig into the treasure trove of valuable information and pull out two pieces of gold to help you be a better B2B marketer.
Article one this week is: B2B Influencer Marketing: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly with Mike Alton
If your mental image of influencer marketing is a social media ad of a famous model holding a bottle of branded sunscreen above a CTA banner that says "Buy now," you might want to rework your perceptions.
"We may need to think a little bit outside the box of what kinds of influencers there are," says Agorapulse's Mike Allton in this episode of the Marketing Smarts Live Show.
"Influencer marketing is essentially word-of-mouth; it's essentially the establishment of trust and authority on behalf of your brand through somebody else, and every business can benefit from that."
Article two this week is: Five B2B Influencer Marketing Guidelines for Brands by Alexander Frolov
B2B brands worldwide are embracing influencer marketing as one of the most cost-effective and time-efficient, yet still impactful, marketing strategies.
Although influencer marketing was once considered a B2C play, B2B brands can also achieve heightened brand awareness and an uptick in revenue growth by running influencer marketing campaigns. In fact, 92% of consumers trust influencer marketing over traditional advertising, according to Nielsen's Consumer Trust Index.
So. how can B2B marketers associate with influencers to deliver a dramatic boost to the credibility and authority of their brand in the eyes of the buyer?
Want to keep learning more? If so, check the links in the description below after the live show to get access to both amazing MarketingProfs articles.
OK, back to Adrian Moreno... Let's dive back into this conversation of How to Become the Go-to Expert in Your Niche
In this clip, I wanted to get Adrian's ideas and thoughts on what success looks like.
So, I asked the question, How do we know we are perceived as experts in our industry or our area of expertise? What equals success?
Adrian: First of is if you're being chased, you're no longer chasing people. The only pitching I do is just to podcasts. I don't pitch people to buy my stuff anymore. You Google my name, I'm starting to become known, I've done a lot of things, so every single day I'm having 50, 60, 70 people join my email list and buying from me. People want to buy from you, they pay you more expensively, and they don't throw objections your way.
For me, for some context, your average hypnotherapist charges maybe $60 to $120 a session. If you wanted to do three sessions with them, you're maybe looking at about $500 on the high end. I charge $5,000 for three sessions. People were not giving me any objections. They were like, "Okay, I expect you to be expensive," paying me in full, and being wonderful clients. You're attracting those kind of people who don't see your invoice and say, "Oh God, please, I hope this works." You're attracting the kind of people who say, "Paid, done, thanks." You're getting those kind of people, but you're becoming the kind of person who is being chased.
Then when it comes to the success side of things, the other day, I didn't get a chance to go to my nephew's graduation because I wasn't in town, so the other day I took my nephew to go see Super Mario Bros in the middle of the day. I probably made $500 while we were sitting there watching the movie. To me, that's success, the ability to take my nephew where I want to take him, when I want to take him, the ability to go hang out with friends when I want to be able to do that.
For me, success is not a certain number in my account. It's the ability to do what I want with who I want when I want, however I want to do it. That's what it means to me personally. I don't care about having a certain amount of money. It's just, do I have the freedom to live how I want to live. One of the things I value more than anything is time and family. When my grandma passed away, it was the hardest thing I've ever experienced, and the biggest pain was that I told her I was busy every time she asked me to hang out.
When I reflected on that, I realized that I had to change the way that I did business. I was like I'm not going to be working 60 to 80 to 100 hours a week just so that I can be rich and make money. I'm going to set up a business where I don't have to do that, and I can see my other grandma who is still alive, and I can do these things. I just don't want to feel that again, so for me, success is the ability to create a life where I don't have to feel that.
Success is the ability to create a life where he doesn't have to feel that!
Well dang. What freedom could you be enjoying?
What life can you design?
By becoming a go-to expert in your niche, you can design the life of your dreams.
We're going to get some words of wisdom from Adrian Moreno here in a few minutes but right now, it's time to turn the spotlight on you, the MarketingProfs community. Yep, time for...
From The #MPB2B Community
We searched far and wide in the #MPB2B universe to find amazing information and conversation to bring to the masses.
So, first, make sure you are using the hashtag, and second, make sure you have fun and add value to the community.
Then, we'll spotlight you or your crew on the show. This week, it's...
TopRank Marketing on LinkedIn - Their post goes a little something like this.
Check out the all-new edition of our ?? LinkedIn ?? Elevate B2B Marketing Newsletter, featuring ?? B2B influencer marketing in 2024 and the features of ?? highly-effective programs, 10+ expert ?? predictions on AI in B2B influencer marketing, how to measure the ?? value of SEO, how to develop a ?? strategic planning process, and so much more!
hashtag#B2BMarketing hashtag#Newsletter hashtag#B2BInfluencerMarketing hashtag#MPB2B hashtag#B2BIMR hashtag#InfluencerMarketingReport hashtag#TopRankMarketing hashtag#ElevateB2B
But you need to check out the description and click that link to check out the post and read or learn more!
Marketing Smarts viewer, I have to ask... are you going to be next to get the spotlight?
Remember, community, use the hashtag #mpb2b on Facebook, LinkedIn, or Twitter and get the light shined on your awesomeness in the next episode or a future episode of the Marketing Smarts Live show!
Pro-tip, it won't hurt if you tag me in your post as well, I'm @georgebthomas on LinkedIn and Twitter.
OK, let's kick it back to Adrian Moreno and some words of wisdom around this topic of How to Become the Go-to Expert in Your Niche.
Here is what Adrian Moreno wanted to leave us with...
Adrian: The world belongs to the people who ask for what they want. Experts ask for what they want by forcefully putting themselves out there into the world, by forcefully asking for opportunities. You didn't come to me. I asked for this opportunity. That's because the world belongs to me. With that kind of belief system, understanding that as a marketer the world belongs to the people who ask for what they want is very important.
One more thing about becoming a go-to expert, a nugget of wisdom. Remember that anticipating a kiss is more desirable than the actual kiss itself. What I mean by that is most people try to become the greatest experts by teaching the world everything they want to know and by giving all of the value, everything they want to know, but when you do that, you kill desire, you kill people's energy and interest in wanting to continue to follow you.
If you don't know what I mean, next time you go to your partner, don't kiss them, just hang out inches away from their lips and see the intensity of that experience as opposed to the actual kiss itself. As a go-to expert, dangle what people want in front of them. Don't be so quick to give all of the answers immediately in all of your content.
Every piece of marketing content that you do should be a vehicle. They're jumping in a vehicle and you're taking them to a destination. If they get in the vehicle and they're at the destination already, I know people are like, "You want to take them to their destination, that's great," but in terms of marketing, you want it to be a vehicle, you want it to be something that they're anticipating the entire time.
Do what you want with that. That little piece of knowledge right there made me a really interesting marketer for people to follow and it made my conversions increase, and all of that. I gave a lot of value here, but if you follow my content, I do give value, but I dangle it in front of people, I don't give it directly to them. It's an interesting way to do it.
Are you an expert?
If not, how do you get there?
If so, are you asking for what you want in your life and your business?
Have you enjoyed today's journey? Let us know, use that hashtag #mpb2b on whatever platform you are joining us on.
