As online business owners, one of the most important things to know is how to build your authority online. Once you become the authority in your niche, you will scale your business, which we all want!
IE 256: The Fastest Way to Build Authority Online with Amanda Abella
My guest today is Amanda Abella, and she knows all about scaling an online business because she has done it and helps others do it.
Amanda is the founder and CEO of Make Money Your Honey, a marketing and sales training company for women coaches, consultants, and service providers. Amanda spent eight years as a personal finance blogger, freelance writer, and branding consultant.
Why Building Authority Is Crucial
One of the exciting things about starting an online business is that absolutely anyone can do it, and that’s both a good thing and a not-so-good thing.
Good because you don’t need any degree or experience to get started. Not-so-good because not everyone does a great job at it, so customers get a bad taste in their mouth about online business.
Building authority online is building trust with your audience.
People are getting smarter about how online business works, and a great funnel doesn’t sway them as it might have a few years ago. They know what you’re trying to accomplish by getting them on your email list.
After 2020, we are all Zoom’ed and funneled out. Kids have done online school, adults have done online meetings, we’ve worked from home and spent more time online than ever before. And we are tired.
People want to interact with a living human instead of another email system or webinar.
One way to build your authority online is by interacting with your audience and letting them know that an actual human is behind the business and someone will take care of them.
Build Authority Through Stories
I say the word stories, and my audience says, “Here she goes again.” But I’m not only speaking of Instagram Stories this time.
Amanda shared how to use your stories to build authority with an audience, and I mentioned that she was a personal finance blogger and freelance writer for several years. One of the most popular topics in personal finance is the FIRE movement, which stands for Financial Independence Retire Early.
When people read stories of others who have saved half their income, paid off all their debt, quit their jobs, and bought a farm in the country, they want to consume everything they can about those people.
They visit their websites, buy products, and use affiliate links. They can’t get enough of hearing stories, and sharing your stories is a great way to build authority online.
Pitching Your Story to Media
One of the fastest ways to build authority online is by having your business shared on large or local media sites, whether that’s a podcast, a television show, a website, or the social media channels of a more significant business.
As someone who gets pitched regularly, Amanda shared what makes her take a second look at a pitch: a unique story or at least a unique spin on a story.
When you are going before someone else’s audience, ask yourself how you can tell a unique story that makes you stand out, which makes them stand out in front of their audience.
Telling the same tired story over and over will not help you build authority. People get tired of hearing the same boring life story repeated, so find the thing that makes you different. Maybe you see things in a different light, and you play devil’s advocate.
Amanda recently had a guest on her podcast from the personal finance space she knows so well, but his take is so unique that it was a different episode style.
It’s also crucial to keep your pitch short and sweet. Amanda went into detail in the episode on exactly how to write out a pitch to media!
Which Platform Helps You Build Authority Faster?
This is the question that every blogger and influencer wants to be answered. Which platform should you be consistent on to grow the fastest and build authority the quickest?
Amanda says, “It depends.”
For some, being a guest on podcasts will be a great fit. For others, maybe it’s a TV spot. It really depends on what type of business you have.
The most important thing is knowing where your audience is and what you can offer to the audience you want to reach through media. If you can be a guest on several podcasts in your niche, and they will allow you to promote your products, that might be the best way to start building authority through media.
How Media Increases Your Bottom Line
In my past life as a blogger, I discovered that getting in the media was pretty easy; it was making money off those appearances that was difficult. How can you use media to increase your bottom line and sell more products?
Amanda had the same problem, but she found a way around it. Actually, a couple of ways.
First, she always tries to promote her products in any interview she does. But if that’s not possible, she always has the opportunity to share her website, and it was built entirely on the precise of making sales.
So, she will have a free opt-in for the reader to get in exchange for their email. That will get them on her email list, which is a sales funnel. They will then begin to receive her sales funnel email sequence.
The bottom line is, if she can get people to go to her site, she can steer them toward products at that time, even if she didn’t get to mention the products in an interview.
Media Pitch 365 Calendar System Training
Amanda created this training after clients repeatedly asked her to teach them how to get media attention without hiring a PR firm.
Because she was a freelance writer, it is easy for Amanda to write pitches; however, it’s not easy for others. She also understood the deadlines that media works with. If you want to write a pitch for the New Year, you have to pitch in the fall.
So, Amanda and her team created five calendars in various niches such as health, finances, relationships, spirituality, and business. Each niche calendar contains 365 pitch ideas, and the calendars tell you when to pitch that idea.
This system removes all the guesswork from pitching. It even includes the email templates Amanda used to get featured on some huge sites.
Grab your free download here! And join Amanda’s free Facebook group for female entrepreneurs who want to build sales, marketing skills, or online authority.
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