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Showing Off Your Expertise: 10 Practical Ways to Use Tip Sheets to Niche Market What You Sell

Guest post by: Susan Friedmann

Article Overview: One of the best ways to be viewed as an expert is to educate your niche market. Learn ten simple and practical ways to write and use tip sheets so that you can easily share your expertise with your target market.

Showing Off Your Expertise: 10 Practical Ways to Use Tip Sheets to Niche Market What You Sell

One of the best ways to be viewed as an expert is to educate your niche market.

As a savvy nichepreneur™, a powerful tool for you to use to show your subject matter expertise is the power of writing.

Sharing your knowledge through writing articles, special reports, blogging, and the like, can dramatically increase your expert identity, and attract business. If you love to put pen to paper, or your fingers on the keys, start writing.

On the other hand, just saying the word “write” is possibly making some of you reading this break out into a cold sweat. You might well be thinking, “I’m not a writer.” I hear that time and time again.

I’m going to let you in to a big secret. When I started my business over 25 years ago, I said exactly the same thing. I didn’t see myself as a writer. However, over the years I have learned many different techniques, some of which I will share with you in future articles.

The easiest way to begin is to use a tool that most people love to read - tip sheets!

Tip sheets are exactly what they sound like: helpful hints that will tell your readers how to do something easier, faster, or more efficiently.

Due to crazy schedules, people are often too busy to sit down and pore through magazine articles, or special reports. However, glancing over a few tips can take just a few minutes, plus people enjoy reading them.

What to include in a tip sheet?

Consider the following three questions:

1. What is one area my clients consistently have trouble with?

2. What is the most common mistake my clients make?

3. What is the one thing I wish my clients knew?

The answers to any of these questions could well serve as a foundation for a tip sheet! For those of you who don’t like to write, here are three quick and easy steps to make this a fun and simple exercise.

How to create your first tip sheet?

1. Grab a clean sheet of paper and write the numbers 1 to 10 down the left-hand side of the page. Now make a list of the ten most common mistakes people make when choosing to buy whatever products or services you sell. For example, “The 10 Common Mistakes People Make Choosing a Lawyer,” or “The 7 Deadly Sins of Choosing an Insurance Broker” or “10 Things You Must to Know Before Hiring an Accountant. “ Use a number in the title as it grabs attention, and gives you a simple format to follow as you put your tip sheet together.

2. Write one to four sentences for each tip. Keep each sentence short and to the point. Aim to write seven to ten tips for your first attempt. Use language as if you were talking directly to your reader. In other words, make it conversational.

3. Format each tip with a bold heading or title.

This exercise should take less than 30 minutes. If it takes you longer, you’re spending far too much time, and thinking too deeply. You know the answers. You’re just taking what you already know and putting it down on paper.

Once you’ve created these ten points, you’ve created your first tip sheet. That’s it! Congratulations!

What to do with your tip sheet?

A tip sheet sitting in your desk drawer is worthless. You need to get the information into circulation. However, before you can distribute your advice, you must decide whether to have the tips printed on your letterhead, or hire a graphic designer to work their magic creating a slicker looking piece. Make sure to include all your contact information, phone number, website, email address on your piece.

Now let’s look at ten ways to put your tip sheets to use.

1. Send them out to your current clients and prospects.

2. If you’ve been ambitious and put together a series of tip sheets on different topics, give out the appropriate sheets to the clients and prospects who would benefit most from the specific information. For example, your first-time home-owner clients might benefit from mortgage insurance information, whereas your retirees might be better served with fire or flood insurance information.

3. Contact your local paper and see if they’re interested in writing an article that could include your tips.

4. Make the tip sheet available online as a downloadable PDF. Use it as an incentive in exchange for your visitor’s name and email address to add to your database

5. Distribute your information at any presentation or workshop you teach. You want the participants to leave with something tangible to remind them of you. They are more likely to keep your tips than your literature.

6. Distribute your tip sheets at networking events, local meetings, trade shows, and more.

7. Elaborate on each tip and then use the content in a blog or ezine.

8. Tuck a copy into any client or prospect correspondence. In fact, make it a rule that any time the tip sheet can add value, include it.

9. Consider creating a free subscription on your website for daily, weekly, or monthly tips.

10. Promote your tips on a calendar, or other promotional item to hand out to clients and prospects.

In fact, the sky’s the limit as you start thinking about ways to use your tips. Have fun creating and distributing them, and send me your ideas to share in future columns.

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Article Tags: entrepreneurs, expert, expertise, niche marketing expert, niche marketing help, niche marketing tools, nichepreneur, small business, target marketing, tip sheets



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