7 Easy Ways to Build Credibility
You know your stuff when it comes to how to run your business. But how do you build credibility so that your potential clients know that you are worth their time (and money)? Here I dive into my top 7 ways to build credibility so that you can rock your business and blow your clients away.
Articles
Articles are probably the easiest ways to build credibility because they are essentially just fancy blog posts. You can self-publish articles on LinkedIn, or reach out to more sophisticated publications to have your articles published to their audience. If all else fails, you’ve got a killer blog post now.
Case Studies
A case study chronicles the journey of a person or business through a problem or period of time. Writing a case study allows you to build credibility by showcasing your ability to analyze the experience of the person or business and highlight how a shift in product use or business mentality helped or hindered their experience. Case studies are a great way to showcase the success of your product or business advice using a real-world example that readers can relate to.
Books
If you’ve got a lot of time to kill, writing a book is an AMAZING way to build credibility. What better way to position yourself as an expert in your industry than by writing an entire book on the subject. I will say that calling this option “easy” is a bit of a stretch, as writing a book is a huge undertaking. The reward is well worth the risk, however - I should know, I just wrote one! (link to Elizabeth's book)
Presentations
Similar to webinars, presentations put you in the spotlight. Whether discussing your business as a whole, or a key part of one of your services, presentations are a great way to show that not only do you know what you’re talking about, someone else recognized your capabilities and asked you to speak on it.
Webinars
If you LOVE talking about your business then webinars are your time to shine. In a webinar, the floor is yours to explain what you do, how you do it, and why it’s important for viewers to work with you to solve their problems. If presented with confidence, webinars are helpful in building credibility by giving you the floor to speak with authority about your business.
Whitepapers
Similar to an article in structure, a white paper takes a more authoritative tone as a persuasive report that presents a problem and identifies a solution. White papers are generally written as sophisticated, detailed, fact-rich problem-solving guides. In addition to helping build your credibility, white papers often hold the promise of such value that they make great opt-ins, as the trade-off of an email address is generally worth the information provided in the white paper.
Predictions
Perhaps the riskiest of the seven ways, making predictions about trends, policy implications, or other things that can impact your industry can help boost your credibility big time. There’s nothing more valuable than to be able to say not only did I know this first, I knew it before it happened. With predictions, however, you do run the risk of being wrong, which could have a more negative impact on your credibility than you would hope.
While some methods may be easier than others, building credibility is simply about showcasing your knowledge through hard work and dedication and is well worth the effort once the clients start calling.
