How To Increase Website Conversions By Establishing Yourself As An Expert

If you are an online retailer selling in a crowded space, it can be very difficult to find ways to differentiate yourself and your product. The challenge is even greater of your products are similar to others and you are all selling in the same price range.

That means you have to differentiate yourself in terms of your marketing strategies. One of those strategies that can be very successful is to establish yourself as an expert in the general product area or industry where you are selling. This is especially effective if you are selling in a business to business context. So, how do you sell yourself as an expert?

Blog

One of the easiest things to do is to write a blog and begin commenting on the issues of the day. Invite people to add posts to your blog and to subscribe to your blog as well.

In addition to having your own blog, you can get exposure by commenting on the blogs of others who speak to your target audience. You can find other relevant blogs by searching through Technorati, the blog search engine. Once you find other appropriate sites, begin posting on them and essentially establishing a relationship with other bloggers.

Eventually you can add links back to your site and lead their audiences to you.

Expert Sites

There are a number of 'experts' sites that you can participate in that give you the opportunity to show off your expertise and attract new customers. Most of these sites allow you to link back to your website or recommend articles that you have written. One of those sites is Allexperts. There is an application process but basically, as long you can write a few coherent sentences, submit them without spelling errors and demonstrate some credentials, you are in.

Yahoo Answers is another possibility. You can search on unanswered questions, post an answer and get a great deal of exposure because search engines like Google often pick up the questions and answers from Yahoo Answers in their keyword searches.

EBooks, articles and white papers

You can publish materials about your subject either on your website or in article directories with a link back to your site. If writing is a problem for you, it is well worth the money to hire a freelance ghost writer to prepare materials for you. Go to Elance, the freelancer marketplace and post a project for whatever you need. Freelance writers will bid to help you write whatever document you need. You can either give the writer information, be interviewed by the writer, provide draft material or even ask the writer to provide the research themselves. (But if you are an expert, you will want to add some of your own special knowledge to anything the freelancer comes up with that is the whole point of the exercise.)

Any or all of these techniques will help you draw attention to your site by establishing it and you as authorities in the field. People will feel more confident buying from someone who has shown that they understand the products and its uses.