In this second video of a series about scaling a local internet‑marketing agency, Joshua Nelson of the Seven Figure Agency explains how to achieve "expert positioning" to accelerate agency growth. He argues that once an agency commits to a specific niche, establishing authority becomes straightforward through two core actions: (1) publishing a niche‑focused book (e.g., The Complete Guide to Internet Marketing for Plumbing Contractors) using low‑cost tools such as Microsoft Word, Amazon CreateSpace, and Fiverr for cover design; and (2) becoming a speaker at industry association events by joining relevant trade groups, networking with event organizers, and leveraging the published book as credibility. Nelson details the practical steps, approximate costs (under $150 for the book), and the strategic benefit—prospects view the agency as an authority, come pre‑sold, and are willing to pay premium rates. He invites viewer comments and teases the next video on multi‑step marketing strategies.
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Well, hey, this is Joshua Nelson with the Seven Figure Agency, and thank you for joining me on this second video in our series on how we were able to grow our local internet marketing agency to the Inc. 5000 list, really how we've been able to grow from a startup with zero clients to the point where we now have $250,000 per month in recurring revenue, team of 28 full-time employees. On the first video, I talked all about the importance of being in a niche, why that's valuable, how that helps to accelerate growth, and some of the things you might wanna think about when selecting a niche. So if you missed that one, go back and watch it. Now on the second video, I'm gonna talk about expert positioning. And really, expert positioning is the key to, to the long-term growth and success of your agency. And you can't get that expert positioning very easily if you're not in a niche. However, once you're in a niche, it becomes pretty simple. There's some things you can do to position yourself as the expert. As far as I'm concerned, there's really two elements that make you the expert, or at least to be perceived as the expert. The expert is the one that does the publishing and is the one at the front of the stage, right? If you have those two things, you're the author, which is the authority, and it makes you just more magnetically attractive to anybody that's looking to you for advice or potentially looking to hire your services. And so very simply put, what we did early in our agency that really helped to accelerate our growth and position ourselves as the expert in the plumbing and HVAC space was we published our book. And our first book was The Complete Guide to Internet Marketing for Plumbing Contractors. And this sounds like a really complicated thing, it sounds like it took a lot of time, and it did, we put a lot of energy into it, but the fact is with various tools like Amazon CreateSpace, you can write a book in Microsoft Word You can upload it to CreateSpace, have a nice cover designed on Fiverr or through a graphics design resource that you might have access to, and be on Amazon and be able to say, "Hey, we wrote the book on internet marketing for attorneys, for roofing companies, for pool builders," for whatever particular niche you decide to target. I talked a lot about why having a niche is important and some of the elements you want to look at when choosing a niche. It's relatively simple to create a book, have it published in a place that gives you a lot of authority. Now, the second critical element for positioning is being the speaker at the front of the stage. Now, when you choose a niche, you're gonna realize there's affinity groups within that niche. So again, just using plumbing and HVAC as our example, there are various organizations, the plumbing and Plumbing and Heating Cooling Contractors Association, and groups like that. And there are organizations like that in every niche that you can imagine. And what you wanna do is research those organizations, join those organizations, and then attend their events and look for opportunities to speak at the front of the stage. And what we did was we published our book, gave us instant credibility. We talk about it in a second on the next video, how we can use that book to get ourselves in front of our ideal target audience in a very positive light. But you can also use that book to get speaking opportunities, which again gives you that expert authority, which makes you magnetically attractive to the people within your niche. So join the association, go to the events, figure out who runs the events and who's in charge of putting the speakers up, 'cause they're all looking for talent, and then use your book. Say, "Hey, look, I happen to have written the book on internet marketing for chiropractors, and I think that your chiropractic members are all looking for ways to get more leads and more sales, and I'd love the opportunity to present my ideas and strategies to your group." And of course, you would present that not in a salesy way, but in a way that adds value and educates that niche that you're targeting. And so you can do a lot of different things to improve your positioning and to improve your authority, but if you do just those two things— write a book and have it published on Amazon— if you do it right, it can cost you less than $150. The second is to join the industry associations, get to their events, and get it so that you can speak at the front of the stage. When you do those two things, the people in your niche see you as the expert. And they're going to come to you looking for your advice, looking for your expertise, willing to pay a premium price, almost pre-sold prior to the sale. So this is an extremely powerful strategy that's worked really well for us, helped us again to grow from zero to the Inc. 5000 list over the last 6 years, and I hope it's an insight that you can think about and apply within your agency. So, love to get your comments and your feedback. In the section below. You can just tell us, "Hey, this rocks," or, "Hey, I really appreciate you sharing this," or if you have a question, if you have other feedback, post it below. And stay tuned for the next video, which is gonna come out in the next 24 hours, where I'm gonna talk all about how to put together a multi-step marketing strategy, an aggressive marketing strategy, to get the customers in your niche coming to you. And again, I found that if you've got those 3 things, firing on all cylinders, you're not gonna have to chase customers, you're not gonna have to go make cold calls, you're not gonna have to sit in B&I meetings, but you'll have customers coming to you prepositioned to buy and pay a premium rate. So post your comments below, stay tuned for the next video, and I look forward to seeing you on the next video.
