By Ken Lizotte CMC, author of The Expert's Edge
 
To stand out from the crowd, especially in these less-than-boom times, many businesses have latched onto an underutilized but powerful marketing technique available to us all: writing and publishing articles.

A great benefit of this approach is that it permits the promotion of one's ideas and services while educating your target market all in one fell swoop, converting you the author into a bona fide "thought leader."
 
How to get started? First, do NOT write an article, do not pass go! Instead, obtain a "go-ahead" from an editor at a publication read by your target market, i.e., by decision-makers who typically hire you. Do you contract with CFOs? Pitch to a financial executive publication. Are you hired by CEOs and presidents? Try a broad management/executive publication. HR VPs like to send you checks? There are plenty of HR pubs out there to set your sights on.
 
Before you pitch, though, determine your prime business objective. Which services of yours would you most like to promote? Be sure to structure your article ideas around topics that would highlight such services.
 
For example, one client of mine specializes in employee benefits, so we pitched an article idea called "Putting Defined Benefits Plans in Place: What to Think About." We then approached publications read by corporate benefits planners.
 
And how did we get the editors' attention? Via a simple process, really: we emailed targeted editors directly, armed with a succinct, to-the-point synopsis of the article idea. We also tried more than one publication, in case the first wasn't interested. Before long, we have found three on our list that wanted to see this article.
 
When you set out on the same path, you will likely reap similar results. Ultimately, you'll watch article after article gloriously find their way into print. After that, "thought leader" will become your new moniker, one you can truthfully, and proudly, tack up in front of your name.
 
Ken Lizotte CMC is author of "The Expert's Edge: Become the Go-To Authority that People Turn to Every Time" (McGraw Hill) and Chief Imaginative Officer (CIO) of emerson consulting group inc. (Concord MA), which specializes in transforming companies, professional service firms, consultants, executives and individual business experts into "thoughtleaders," separating them from the competitive pack.

 

Also author of four other books as well as hundreds of published articles, he speaks frequently to industry conferences on competitive advantage, publishing books and articles, creativity and balancing work and family. An activist member of IMCUSA, co-founder of the National Writers Union, seminar leader at Harvard University and former columnist for the American Management Association, Ken can be reached at 978-371-0442, ken@thoughtleading.com or by visiting www.Thoughtleading.com.