It’s not enough to simply exist in the online marketing world. You have to make your business visible. In the modern era, online visibility is key to growing your business and getting more customers. So how do you do it?
What is visibility?
Although Merriam-Webster defines visibility as the “capability of being readily noticed,” when I talk about visibility, I mean finding a way to show up so that your audience can find you AND so that they see you regularly where they hang out.
If you’re a service-based business, this means showing up as YOU. Product-based businesses can benefit from personal visibility as well as product-driven visibility — meaning, the goal is to get your audience to relate to you AND want to buy from you.
Even if they aren’t ready for your products and services yet, when you’re top of mind, you’ll probably be the first person they come to when they ARE ready. This is especially relevant when you’re in a busy space.
What’s a busy space? Take copywriters for example — there are over 130,000 copywriters in the US. That means to continue growing my success, I have to find new ways to differentiate myself and build connections with my audience that are meaningful.
Visibility is as much about standing out as it is about showing up.
Why is visibility important in business?
By now, you’ve probably realized the adage, “If you build it, they will come,” is… well… not at all accurate.
You have to build something that people want or that they need (and ideally both). Your aim should be to give people an experience they love — from their initial interaction with your brand to the follow-up email after working with you.
The value of a firm foundation
Getting visible is important, but so too is having a great site to direct people to. So as you’re building your visibility plan, take some time to firm up your foundation — especially your website and your lead gen funnel so that when people get there, they want to take the next step. (Not sure if your website is up to snuff? Grab my 10-point website checkup here.)
The Online Visibility Formula
My strategy for increasing business visibility is two-fold. Let’s start with the base formula:
Visibility + Consistency = Awareness
If you show up to an office cubicle every day and do your job, you get paid at the end of every month or fortnight.
Similarly, if you show up online every single day and talk about a legit offer or benefits, you’ll get known for what you do…and you’ll probably get sales.
Showing up (aka visibility) gets you attention. Consistency keeps you top-of-mind.
However, what you want to achieve goes beyond the basics of visibility. As a growth-minded entrepreneur, you’ve got to take things up a notch.
You want consistent sales, and while consistent sales do come from consistent visibility — when you take it a few steps further, you can grow and start charging even more.
Let’s dig into how to make visibility work for you:
Visibility = Showing Up + Knowing Your Audience
When you do market research and understand your audience, their pains, and how you can uniquely solve their problems, you set yourself up for success.
You’re still gaining visibility when you show up (however you show up), but when you talk about their needs, you’re on the path to helping your audience be the hero of their own story.
How Does Visibility Relate to Sales?
To understand this we need to dig into another formula:
Sales = Awareness + Consistency + Great Offers
HOLY CATS — that’s a lot of pluses. But it’s true. To get sales — and consistent sales, at that — you’ve got to have the whole package. And know this — it may take some doing to get it just right.
Here’s the thing. Showing up is pretty straightforward. You have to just do it! You have to use your audience research to speak to them, do it consistently to create that awareness, and then deliver with great offers.
Your offers and your marketing strategy will change over time — and both may require testing and a little trial and error.
Customer Research For High Visibility With Your Audience
If you don’t know who your customers are, their pain points, where they hang out, and what they aspire to be, your visibility will inevitably be low. Then again, you might be all kinds of visible — just not aligned with your audience — which means you’ll get crickets.
Customer research bridges the gap between just existing and gaining high visibility for your business.
Working towards online visibility without doing customer research is like throwing darts at a dartboard while blindfolded. You’re as likely to hit the wall as you are the target.
Research allows you to refine your efforts until you hit the target most of the time, blindfolded or not. (Learn more about how to get to know your audience here)
By knowing your audience, you’ll know what matters to them and what you should say when you show up. You’ll know where and when to share content.
Different mediums are good for different types of content, and for that matter, different audiences. If you hate a platform, don’t join it. Plain and simple. Don’t like a style? Not a problem. There are zillions of options.
So What Does Visibility Look Like?
Well, that depends on you, your business, and how far out of your comfort zone you’re willing to go. How you show up needs to feel right to you, otherwise, it’ll be a burden you won’t stick with over time.
Visibility could look like this:
- Creating content for the most common social media channels like Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, YouTube, or Snapchat
- Guesting on blogs, podcasts, and speaking gigs at events
- Publishing articles and books
- Networking and 1:1 calls
For most of us, it’s some combination thereof.
Genuine stories help potential clients relate to you. It gives them hope that there is a solution to their problem — and that you can help them overcome the hurdle in front of them.
How Can I Be More Visible In My Business?
There’s no one right way to be visible. However, the basic requirements are authenticity and showing up in your customers’ space.
Of course, showing up is often the main roadblock for business owners like yourself. You know it’s possible, but actually doing it is a whole different ball game — whether “it” is a podcast, social media, live video, and on and on.
Need some content ideas? Use your past experiences to guide your visibility strategy. Or talk about what you’re doing and how what you learned in a former career relates to what you’re doing now.
Take some time to brainstorm what you’re going to put out there. Then, just do it.
Creating buckets that your content fits into will help keep your mind organized, so you’re more likely to take the big step.
Here are a few things to share for more online visibility:
- Your experiences
- Life lessons
- A glimpse behind the scenes
- Your pets
- Fun tips
- True stories
- Testimonials
- Talking about what you’re doing
Need Help Showing Up?
Part of getting visible is eating the frog — you just have to do it.
You’ll make mistakes along the way. And that’s okay. But if you don’t do it, you’ll never get started. Once you start, you can build and refine a strategy.
Or, you can get someone like me who’s done it before for people like you. I help business owners like you reach your visibility goals by strategically showing up consistently with relevant content. If you need support in building a visibility roadmap, book a strategy session and we’ll get started.
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