5 Reasons "Expertise Marketing" Programs Fail.

As a company dedicated to “Expertise Marketing” we work with some of the largest organizations from higher education and healthcare, to top global corporate brands. What these organizations have in common are smart, educated professionals…and a lot of them. The types of individuals that would be valuable ambassadors, true thought leaders, helping you deliver on your organization’s reputational and revenue goals.

Instinctively marketing and communications teams recognize the intrinsic value of this human capital and have created a variety of “Thought Leadership” and “Expert Marketing and Directory” initiatives. The overriding objective is how to best connect their experts to audiences that matter. Seeking opportunities ranging from acting as media sources to event speakers to providing a valuable entry-point for research and business collaboration, even lead generation. To execute on this goal, one of the most effective approaches, and starting points for any expertise marketing program starts with better profiling their experts and related insights on their website. Building out and leveraging this expert content is at the core of most expertise marketing efforts.

Despite the promises these web initiatives offer, most programs don’t deliver organizations the results they were hoping for. Success most often has nothing to do with how smart your people are. Some of the largest organizations with deep rosters of expertise fail where smaller organizations consistently punch above their weight. When creating an expertise presence on your website there are important areas to consider. The following represents the top 5 reasons many expertise marketing programs fail and how to maximize your success. 

Reason #1

You’re missing critical team members

There is no “going it alone” when starting a program like this.  Having the following individuals onboard at the start is crucial. Don't worry, these aren't all full-time resources by any means.  As your program progresses, these individuals may come in and out in terms of importance, but having access to them over the lifetime of your program will positively impact your success. At the core, you need access to the following individuals.

• Program Champion - Having a senior leader as a champion is pretty much table stakes for any successful company-wide initiative such as this.  Someone who can articulate to others, both up and down in the organization as to how this initiative fits into the broader long-term goals of the organization is imperative. Failure to establish this individual upfront puts your program's future at the whim of shifting priorities and budget cuts.

• Marketing/Communications - You need someone with ongoing responsibility for maintaining and promoting your roster of experts and their content.  This ensures your most relevant experts are showcased at the right time to meet the changing demands of your audiences and the news cycle.

• Digital/Web - You need someone with the keys to the website/CMS. Ensure you have connections to people who control not only your small area of the website such as a newsroom or department level webpages but also those that have access to the layouts and navigation of the broader website.  The latter is important as it helps prevent your expert content from combing isolated and disconnected from the rest of your website.

• IT - The level of involvement of IT is highly dependent on how you’re looking to implement your expert content on your website. By leveraging a variety of content implementation tools from simple "cut and paste" embeds to WordPress plugins you can severely limit the necessity to involve IT. However, depending on your budget and goals, IT can leverage a platform's API, accessing advanced layouts and functionality, including integrating with other systems your organization may already be using.

• Engaged Experts -  Last but not least, having your experts on board is critical. By properly communicating upfront and ongoing with your experts around the goals of the program, you're helping ensure your content best represents the talents that lie within.

We realize it is often difficult and sometimes cost-prohibitive to assemble such a team. It is important if you don’t have access to all these members in-house that you access them through an external partner's professional services offerings.   This could include assisting with building out content such as profiles and posts or providing technical assistance in integrating this content into your website.

Reason #2

You’re relying too much on IT for implementation or updating.

To be successful long term, it is important that key owners of the expertise marketing program feel empowered to take control of their expert content. From creation to ongoing management, those with marketing communications roles and others closest to their organization’s expertise need the flexibility to update content in real-time to remain relevant and up-to-date.

Being able to quickly log into an external platform that syncs content with your website is key.  It eliminates the need for special access to your CMS or the possible requirement for IT to be in control of your updates. It also allows for a mix of individual expert and administrator access providing the highest level of flexibility.

Often left out in IT-focused builds is how you will effectively handle inquiries.  Simply showing emails and phone numbers is a recipe for missed opportunities (and SPAM) as these experts are some of the most time-constrained individuals in your organization.  Ensuring you have access to a customizable workflow feature is essential in ensuring your organization doesn't miss potential time-sensitive inquiries.

When working with IT to implement an Expertise Marketing Program on your website, you will often be presented with a “we’ll build it for you option” vs using a purpose-built platform. Understanding the tradeoffs of this approach is critical. One of the greatest benefits of using a SaaS platform, besides costs, is that you constantly have the most up-to-date software, with the latest features and functionality to best showcase your expertise. To learn more, download the “True Costs of DIY” to better understand the tradeoffs and functional requirements needed for success.

Reason #3

Your expert content is siloed, one-dimensional, and rarely updated.

This is by far one of the biggest reasons programs fail.  Well, it's actually a number of reasons, but it all relates back to how your content will be perceived and ultimately drive connections with interested audiences.  By addressing the following you'll present not only better but more easily discoverable expert content that drives inquiries.

• You have boring, not engaging profiles for your experts - Before people feel comfortable reaching out they need a good sense of the person. Profiles that lack media assets such as video, publications and even podcasts are one-dimensional. Furthermore, showcasing past media and event appearances provides an enhanced level of credibility.

• Focused solely on a directory & profiles - Your expertise is more than just showcased through a profile found in a directory. Adding long-form posts where experts can share their insights and even expert focussed Q&A (download report on "The Power of Q&A") provides audiences additional ways to connect with your experts. Ensuring all these additional assets connect back to your profiles provides more insight into the person behind the expertise.

• No main website navigation - Despite adding menu navigation on a specific web page, such as a newsroom or About Us page, most organizations neglect to add navigation to their main website’s menu structure. You can never assume visitors will know where this content resides. We recommend multiple links in both headers and footers to your expert content. Names such as “Find Experts”, “Media Sources” or “Research Experts” are some of the most common, accessible from overall menu items like “About Us”, “News” or “Research”.

• Expert content stuck to one small area of your website - If you restrict your expert content to just one area, you’re just making discovery that much harder and limiting exposing the breadth of expertise you have in-house. Highlight your experts and expertise on your homepage or in key sections of your website. Refine your experts and their insights found in posts or Q&A by tagging them based on specific topics and showcasing just those experts in various areas of your website. Using a dedicated SaaS platform means that when you update content it updates everywhere, making changes quick and easy.

• Expert content never gets updated - This is a big issue for organizations that build in-house or through their CMS. Visitors can quickly understand that the content isn’t fresh and it reflects poorly on the individual and the organization as a whole. The key to ensuring content is maintained is to provide multiple access capabilities where admins (internal or external) and the experts can maintain the content.

• Failure to respond in a timely manner to inquiries - Displaying content that exposes phone numbers and emails of your experts is not the best approach...both from a privacy and timely communications standpoint. Without an advanced inquiry workflow that alerts multiple members of your team, you risk missing out on time-sensitive requests such as those from journalists. 

Reason #4

You haven’t considered everything needed to win the SEO game.

Building out content on the web without having a plan for how external and internal search engines will interact with your pages is a big mistake. Organic search can play a big role in discovery leading to valuable opportunities. Before you consider your new expert content pages ready, ensure you've taken into account the following.

• Proper Meta Data - Do your expert profile pages have dynamically created titles, descriptions and keywords that automatically adjust to changes in areas such as an individual's expertise?

• Schema Data - Do you have proper schema tags that indicate to Google and other search engines the type of content displayed as well as the credibility of both the individual and organization behind it.

• Sitemaps - Have you ensured all your pages have been added to your sitemap. Is it automatically updated when new experts or pieces of expert content are added?

• Google Search Console - Are you pushing pages directly to Google by requesting important new content is updated in the search index.

For more info on better SEO read my Spotlight "Why Expertise Ranks Higher".

Reason #5

You’re not doing enough to actively promote your expertise… a “they’ll just find us” approach usually fails.

It's like owning a Porsche and leaving it in the garage…pretty to look at but you’re not realizing its full potential. Simply putting your expert content on a web page is only the start. Successful organizations actively distribute these assets, sharing links to profiles and other content elements like news posts or Q&A in a variety of ways.

• Social Media Channels - They start by promoting these assets on their social media channels, from their Twitter feeds to Facebook and LinkedIn posts.

• Media Distribution Software - Whether it is systems like Cision or Meltwater, including links to expert profiles and related content when reaching out to journalists adds a layer of depth to your pitches.

• Press Releases - Every time you reference your organization's expertise, include links to additional content and individual experts for more insights and pathways to connect with real people.

It sounds like a lot, but with a bit of planning and some ongoing maintenance, a properly constructed expertise marketing program can deliver incredible results for many years. To be successful it's more than just firing up a few new web pages. However, with the advent of specialized platforms specifically designed for these programs, and a bit of guidance, it is easier than ever to create an expert content footprint on your website and deliver valuable connections for your organization.