For drilling businesses, reputation is everything. The drilling industry as a whole is one built on honesty, integrity, hard work, and shared knowledge. However, becoming a voice of authority in the field can be difficult when so many voices are vying to stand out across the globe. Luckily, with the right outreach strategy and message, any drilling business owner can make their name synonymous with drilling excellence in no time.
What it Means to be a Drilling Authority
As an authority in any field, your goal is to share knowledge as a leader with those who seek guidance at every level. This can mean sharing information on how to get into the drilling industry in general, but it can also mean sharing a very specific technical tip that only highly experienced water well drillers would need help with. However, to become an authority, you need to be seen as an authority figure, which can be difficult when your name isn’t well-known, and your brand isn’t one of the drilling monoliths.
So, how can you transform your name and brand to have the kind of status and value you need as an authority figure? This is where networking comes into play. After all, your company likely wasn’t built overnight, so why should your status be?
Networking for ‘Face Time’
In show business, they call it ‘getting in face time’ (get used to thinking of yourself as a performer in show business, and your success will follow, trust me), which is when an aspiring artist or performer attends events, parties, and shows to mingle with anyone and everyone attending. The ultimate goal of these efforts is to be recognized as an authority and a success and to meet the right people to advance their careers. This same strategy can be used to become an authority in the drilling field as well.
By attending conferences, meeting with other industry professionals, speaking at events, and communicating with other drillers and drilling company owners online, you can develop your own personal brand, which will help ensure your authority in the field well before you begin creating content as a voice of authority. Each of these conversations can also help you to find new opportunities as well for brand growth and help further establish your name and company in the long run.
Once you have a strong foundation as a voice of authority, it’s time to begin drafting valuable content and outreaching avidly. This is where the benefits of being a drilling authority finally come to fruition.
Drafting Content That Rocks
This is actually the part of the process I have heard far too often to be the hardest part for drilling leaders. I’ll talk with them on the phone and, in a single conversation, they will tell me what I’d consider to be ten incredible article synopses I’m sure our audience would adore. But, when it comes down to writing these articles, these drilling experts are at a total loss.
So, how can you put the proverbial pen to paper and draft content that actually stands out and affirms your authority status in the drilling field? At the end of the day, it all comes down to the old saying, “See a need, fill a need.”
While an article on leadership is good, an article on leading a team of inexperienced drillers is even better. The same goes for technical topics—while an article on how to complete a drilling job successfully is a decent subject, an article that specifically covers the pitfalls of a geothermal project in New York is guaranteed to get the kind of engagement you normally have to pay for without a dime in exchange.
The difference is that broad topics don’t prove your value as an authority—but giving solid advice and surefire strategies for success does. For instance, if you were trying to sell a pair of ultrarunning shoes for men with flat feet and all you ever talked about were ‘men’s shoes,’ your true audience would be nothing more than a drop in the bucket, and your true value wouldn’t be highlighted either.
Instead, you find the audience that actually sees you as an authority and chooses to work with you over the other brands in your market; you must determine what your audience wants to know and be willing to share that specific information in the content you create.
Furthermore, to determine the content your audience wants to read is easier than you might think. It doesn’t take analytics, data points, or even polls and surveys—although all of those things are nice to have. Instead, all it takes is having your finger on the pulse of your industry online. Try joining social media groups in your industry, following brands and publications like The Driller, and paying attention to comments and chat forums associated with your field. The questions, topics, and interests will reveal themselves, and you will also have the opportunity to share some of your knowledge in a passive setting to continue to affirm your position of authority as well.
Once you have the topic ideas solidified, all that’s left is creating the content from an earnest and informative angle to ensure that your readers feel comfortable and respected by you as an authority figure. This is key as no one likes to be talked down to when trying to find information or learn new subjects. After your first draft is complete, it’s finally time to outreach and find the right places for your content to be shared.
Outreaching Actively and Effectively
While you can always share your content on your own social media accounts or site blogs, the best way to solidify your position as a voice of authority is by being featured on sites other than your own. After all, I could always create ‘SammyHagerisIncredible.com’ and fill it with all of my own accomplishments, but it definitely holds more weight when my name appears somewhere like The Driller or even entirely exterior sites like Forbes and HuffPost.
To have your content featured on other sites, you will need an outreach approach and template that are sure to grab the attention of Editors like me and audiences like yours. To help with this, I want to share my very own template I have used to acquire writing opportunities for years:
Contributor Outreach Template
Hello [Publication or Editor Name],
I am trying to find out how to go about contributing content to your publication! My name is [Name] and I am [job title] with [X years] in the drilling field and an extensive background in [specific field] drilling in particular.
That's why I want to write some articles for your site and contribute to its success. I was hoping to cover topics such as [topics you’ve compiled], what are your requirements for contributors looking to share content on those specific subjects?
I'd love to talk more in-depth about my ideas, so definitely send me a message, and let's chat!
I look forward to hearing from you shortly,
[Name and title]
The secret to my template is that it’s short, sweet, and ends with a question that entices editors to respond. After all, as you know, we just love to hear ourselves speak (take this article, for example). When using this template, I have been able to write for various major publications and create a name for myself in multiple industries and while some may recommend you focus your efforts on only the main publications in the field, I strongly recommend you broaden your outreach efforts and don’t hesitate to write drilling-specific articles for environmental, geothermal, news, state-specific, and construction sites as well. The industry is broad and the audience can be found in a myriad of places as long as you’re searching intelligently.
As you begin to find your stride and develop your authority image, you should also consider writing a series and doing video panels likewise. Fortunately, we at The Driller are happy to consider each and every piece of content that comes our way, and we highly encourage new contributors to reach out for written content as well as video and audio content. As we rely on experts like you to share the best of the best in the drilling world, we hope new leaders and voices of authority continue to turn to our publication for a chance to share their invaluable knowledge with the industry and its many sectors.
To submit content to The Driller, you can always send it directly to me at hagers@bnpmedia.com or utilize our content submission form. Just remember, the more detailed and informative your content is, the better!
‘Respect my Authoritah!’
Now that you have developed a personal brand that truly signifies your experience and value in the drilling field, all that’s left is connecting your voice to your company and reaping the benefits. To understand how being a voice of authority can benefit your brand, just take a look at Mr. Beast’s chocolate brand, Feastables. Do you truly think that a generic chocolate bar would have as many sales as Feastables does? The undeniable truth is that the chocolate brand is successful because of the big name attached to it. Now, imagine the boost your brand could see with a big name attached to it in the same way.
Having said this, don’t hesitate to add stories and direct links from your company to your content. If used intelligently, you can promote your brand all while boosting your personal image and sharing knowledge with the industry. Now, that’s a win-win-win if you ask me.
For more tip and tricks for drilling business branding, check out our Groundbreaking Business Tools series and stay tuned for even more content on marketing, networking, sales, and success!
Learn more about increasing your credibility as a driller in Brock Yordy’s past article, “How Can Drillers be Viewed as Credible Experts?”
