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From Unknown to Well-Known - what it costs to get there

Guest post by: Maria Carlton

Article Overview: The process of becoming 'famous' to your target market takes planning, knowledge and help from some special experts along the way. What you save on from cutting corners on your online and offline marketing, including mistakes made by self publishing a book badly, will be eaten up with redoing things when you realize you need to get smarter at it. It's the costs you bear while coming to that realization in lots opportunities that are the most expensive.

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From Unknown to Well-Known - what it costs to get there

Let me tell you about Brian. He's been speaking professionally for about 3 years, has won some awards and last year self published a book - which sold a few hundred copies immediately, then slowed down, and now he's simply bursting with impatience to get to the next level. The level of being ‘famous' to his target market! He imagines this means that his phone will be so busy that he'll need an assistant, and his fees will increase for both his speaking and his consulting work, and he's going to be THE big name at the industry conference next year.



But - just as he's starting to enjoy the view ahead, he gets a call from a major industry player who has heard that he's a good speaker to have on his programme - a BIG paying job potentially. Karen says that she's been looking up details about Brian online and was concerned about some things and needed to check them out. Her ‘concerns' were that she couldn't find anything about him on Google, his Linked in profile was incomplete and missing anything like recommendations or a summary about his experience, and that what she could find out about Brian's book was underwhelming too.


Brian sat and took the call, and as he did so, looked at the copy of his book on the table beside him and suddenly saw it in a very new light. He noticed the frayed curling cover, the multiple fonts and hard to decipher text on the back; the ‘self published' look about it made him realize that perhaps a lot of what he'd been told about publishing a book was right and that he'd maybe cut too many corners.


This one opportunity was worth more than it had cost him to produce that book, and he'd scrimped on promoting it well, which was possibly going to cost him a dream engagement.


He also flashed back to when he'd attended a free seminar last year about social media and how to use Facebook and Twitter for authors, and realized he'd only got half the picture right there too. There were many things he needed to be doing better now that he was really making progress as a professional expert in his career, but, the time and money required to do everything was too much, and the learning curve too steep.

How could it be that something so simple as an inadequate Linked In profile could maybe cost him this engagement? And - had it cost him other opportunities he'd not even been aware of?

What was he missing?


Well - the reality is that now many people seeking others for various jobs and opportunities are media savvy enough themselves that when they see someone who is not stepping up online, they will judge them by it. The subconscious messages you send by not being fully present online in the key areas where you need to be is that you might ‘know your stuff', but you don't know how to get yourself out there to your market, and haven't taken the time to get your image right - if you don't care enough about this, then what else do you scrimp on.


There is a process to getting this right. It starts with knowing what you most need to focus on in terms of your online and offline marketing - including handouts and leave behinds for prospects, and those you speak to in an audience or at a trade show; how to get your key message clear and focused sharply towards solving challenges your market has, and then how to ensure your actual presentation technique is powerful and focused too, whether on a stage, in the boardroom, media press conference, or when being interviewed.

There are a lot of things that you really do need to prioritize, and some you can leave well enough alone until you have the funds and time to attend to them properly. The confusion over which social media to use is challenging, but worth getting really good advice about, from someone who specializes in your industry of being a professional expert; someone who really does know how to present themselves and their clients well, with the big picture clearly focused on.


When it comes to writing a book - you can take lots of shortcuts, but there are some which are just plain foolish, and you'll not necessarily know which ones are which if you decide to just use a proofreader instead of an experienced book editor, or a graphic designer instead of a book designer. You can print your book in a number of ways, and the quality is dependent on knowing the difference between a digital print or offset print copy, and when to use which option, and why.


A smart book shepherd will take you by the hand and lead you through all these questions and options, and it's worth paying someone to do this, rather than thinking you can just ‘write it, proof it, print it and voila! - you published a book!' It's really not that easy. But it can be with good help.


If your career depends upon your ability to sell your knowledge and to do this extremely well, and you have taken enough time to write a book in the first place, then don't you owe it to yourself to put your best foot forward, and do a great job of not only publishing your book, but promoting it and using it as leverage to get your own expertise out to your market place?


Brian missed the job that was a road show worth $20,000 to him in an otherwise quiet month. But he invested some time and money into increasing the quality of the revised edition of his book, and on his marketing so that he was more easily found online (complete with glowing recommendations on Linked In); he learned how to promote himself easily to his market using Facebook, and had an exceptional year, with increased fees, and another major opportunity with that same client the following year.


So where are you right now on the road to ensuring your target market knows you as the ‘Go-To person in your industry?

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Home > Business-Coach > Maria Carlton > From Unknown to WellKnown what it costs to get there >
Article Tags: getting online media working for you, How to get famous, self publishing a book
Referred by: http://www.ianberry.au.com

About the Author: Maria Carlton
RSS for Maria's articles - Visit Maria's website

I'm the GO-TO GIRL, working with professional speakers, non-fiction authors, and industry experts helping to make them 'famous' to their target markets. This is done using a combination of Publishing (books), Speaker development, and online/offline marketing strategies. I've written a number of books, spoken in several countries, and am described as a 'Maven, Connector and Influencer' by my peers. That means I know a lot of people, and LOVE to join the dots on opportunities and people.

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