When you first start your own business, it can be scary and even seem impossible. It is the old riddle about how you can get experience without having experience.
Blog regularly towards your audience
Start a blog on your website and blog directly to your audience with many forms of content, discussing many issues that the audience has. It’s a great way to drive traffic, but it’s also a great way to show expertise.
Write a white paper about a problem
A technical report is a long report that addresses a problem and then offers solutions to the problem. By writing an article or two about individual problems your audience has, you can show your expertise even when you’re just starting out.
Publish an e-book about your experience
Writing an ebook and authoring is always a great way to showcase your expertise. Address the book to your target audience and answer any questions they may have. Tackle a problem and solve it and then you will get more respect by knowing what you are talking about.
Make checklists to help your target audience
If you know the kinds of things your audience has questions about, you can create helpful checklists, cheat sheets, or tip sheets that are available to view and / or download on your website or blog.
Share responses freely on social media
Social media like LinkedIn, Facebook, and even forums and message boards are great places to answer other people’s questions in a way that highlights your experience.
Become a contributing writer
Blogs, websites, newspapers, and magazines want more content and will accept well-written and expertly delivered articles. Some of these will even pay you for the content. Write originally for each one and rely on your bio to send traffic your way.
Get on a speaking circuit
Create a couple of presentations that you can easily turn into public speaking material. Practice putting that information on video on your blog, YouTube, and other video-recording venues.
Create a dedicated YouTube channel
Many people have become famous thanks to YouTube, and you can too. Use YouTube as a way to demonstrate your expertise on topics of interest to your audience.
Host a free webinar or teleseminar
Technology allows you to do a lot to spread your knowledge and experience. You can make “how-to” videos, tip videos, and more to show the world, and most importantly, your audience, what you know.
These ways of showing your expertise when starting out don’t require you to have a large customer list, or even a large following just yet. Doing these will help you gain a following, improve search engine optimization (SEO), and help you build your business.