UPDATE: Your chance to Become THE Expert with John W Hayes

John W Hayes, author of Becoming THE Expert, will be holding two extra 'thought leadership' bootcamps in Liverpool and Brimingham in February and March to help small business-owners understand how they can use their expertise as a powerful marketing tool. Here, John explains the benefits of word-of-mouth marketing and what you could get out of attending one his full-day seminars.

You can find out how to book a seminar at the end of the article.

Nothing in life comes for free, writes John (left). You might think this is especially true when it comes to marketing your business - but you'd be wrong. In fact, the best marketing is not only free, it can be your biggest driver of sales, will help you retain your existing customers and will definitely enhance your reputation as a go-to person in your particular industry (no matter what that industry is).

We are of course talking about word-of-mouth marketing. Social media has made word-of-mouth marketing big business.  The great thing about social media is that its main currency isn't the pound, dollar or euro. Social media activity is fuelled almost entirely by ideas, stories and engaging conversations - which cost you nothing but experience and a little time.

The power of thought leadership

In my book - Becoming THE Expert: Enhancing Your Business Reputation through Thought Leadership Marketing - I  explain how businesses-owners and marketers can use their experience to generate engaging thought leadership (content marketing) strategies to build reputation, drive leads and ultimately, sell more. These are strategies that get people talking, sharing (your) ideas and have the potential to go viral - the modern day equivalent of high octane word-of-mouth marketing. This all sounds very simple. But when I meet marketers, they often tell me they struggle to find the inspiration or time, or lack the basic skills to produce engaging, interesting and timely content, often citing several (self-imposed) roadblocks to adopting a solid thought leadership marketing strategy. More often than not, the building blocks of thought leadership marketing are staring the business-owner in the face. They just cannot see them for all the other distractions in the working day.

Becoming THE Expert - the content marketing bootcamp

To help them find content marketing success I will be hitting the road in January and February with the Becoming THE Expert: Content Marketing Boot Camp - a full-day seminar based on the book and explaining in plain English how-business owners and marketers can:

• find the inspiration to create and publish compelling content that potential clients and existing customers cannot ignore

• generate leads, maintain relationships and sell more via email, blog posts, video, events and other content-led strategies

• improve their rankings on the major search engines

• win local, national and global media coverage with well-placed PR Campaigns

• engage their prospects with social media

• reduce their reliance on traditional (high cost) paid advertising techniques

• shorten the sales cycle and reduce the need for cold calling techniques

• connect all the dots to build a cohesive content marketing strategy.

Book your place to become an expert

Becoming THE Expert: The Content Marketing Boot Camp will be visiting: Liverpool, February 20, 2013 Book now! Birmingham, March 7, 2013 Book now! More dates will be added soon - or to book an in-house seminar for your business send an email to becomingtheexpert@gmail.com

Buy Becoming THE Expert for £12.99

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