Creating Authority Online [with Brent Hodgson]

About This Blog

Regularly referred to in the media as "Australia's Richard Branson", Pete Wililams is a serial entrepreneur, author, internet marketer and ego maniac. This blog is where he shares his rants and raves on all things business, marketing & publicity - in particular, how to successfully mix internet marketing & business...

Posted on 02 March 2008

Today’s post is the first in a short series, inspired by my good mate Brent Hodgson…in reply to his two recent posts Over-The-Shoulder Selling and Making Money from Twitter

As Brent mentioned in his post, we caught up for a long over-due dinner earlier in the week and as always got to talking about all things internet marketing…

Anyway, Brent mentioned he was working on an article about Robert Cialdini’s 6 factors of influence and how they can be used when selling online…

For those who have a mmory like me.. for reference the 6 factors are:

Reciprocation - When people receive a favor, they feel the need to return that favor;
Commitment and Consistency - When people commit to an ideal or goal in some way, they feel the need to honor that commitment;
Social Proof - When people see other people doing something, they become more likely to do it themselves;
Scarcity - Perceived scarcity in supply will create an increased demand;
Authority - When asked to perform an action by an authority figure, people will usually comply;
Liking - People are easily persuaded by people who are similar to and/or liked by them;

As Brent mentioned in his blog, the two factors which we spent most of the conversation discussing were “Authority” (how do you establish authority online?), and “Liking” (how do you get someone to connect with your identity through a sales letter?)…

So here is my take on the first of these two factors…

1. Authority

Traditionally, creating authority online has been done by having esteemed “experts” provide testimonials, or endorsement throughout your sales letter and launch process.

Just look at the latest Frank Kern, Mass Control launch, every perceived Internet marketing expert came out and endorsed the product - Ed Dale, Brad Fallon, Andy Jenkins, Mike Filsame, Jeff Walker etc etc etc

By having these experts, who already have authority in the niche of internet marketing, endorsing Frank (or anyone) and saying how great his stuff is, that he is a brilliant copywriter, that the course is amazing and so on.. the authority that expert has gets “magically transposed’ to the person they are endorsing.. in this case Frank Kern (who by the way didn’t really need these experts to get authority, but just roll with me here)

Another way people have traditionally gone about building authority in their sales pitches online (and offline for that matter) is through PROOF. You’ve all seen the proof online… normally in the form of a click bank screenshot showing how they’ve made like $109,543.37 in the past 46 hours etc etc

…. But how can you create authority if you are not an insider into this elite guru group or don’t want to give away your nett worth to all the identity stealers out there?

Ever thought about… PUBLICITY.

Yep I said it, free exposure in the real world media - radio, newspapers, TV - a very over-looked and under-valued internet marketing tool.

The reason publicity works so well as a authority generator for online marketers is that it’s the most amazing third-part endorsement. It’s the (ultimate) testimonial you can’t buy, fake or get off a buddy in an inner-circle.

If you get exposure from a media source that gives your website or product an endorsement via the story, then no amount of paid advertising can bring you the same amount of kudos or credibility.

If the prospect sees an article about you, your website or your product in the media, it’s instant KUDOS - you are the expert!

Also, if you’re selling information on playing the guitar, imagine the credibility and pre-eminence in the market you will gain by being able to refer to print or television media on your website. This will bring you instant expert status and result in harnessing one of the most precious commodities of the internet – trust.

Make sure you check out the second post in this series before you leave…

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Technorati Tags: selling, marketing, over-the-shoulder, Robert Cialdini, Cialdini, Brent Hodgson, Publicity, Authority, Expert, PR, Press Release, Media Release, Pete Williams, Pete, Williams, Preneur