It's becoming more important for businesses to not only have an online presence but be seen above the rest. Nicola Moras explains how to win at being visible
The fight to be seen online, to be visible, has never been more fierce than it’s been in 2020. Business owners especially have been somewhat forced to embrace the online world in their marketing and delivery of services. This has meant new learning for many who have relied in the past on local area marketing.
Shockingly for some, you’ll note that your potential customers and clients are spending more and more time online. In fact, recent data indicated that “You’ll probably spend more than 100 days online this year”. That’s almost a third of the year online.
What you need to determine is how to establish yourself as being different, as a business that can be trusted
For businesses, this is a great opportunity to carve out your patch of dirt on the internet and really own it. This will ensure that you have an audience to market to. It will mean you are able to have a consistent conversation with that audience, and they’ll be more likely to buy from you.
What you need to determine is how to establish yourself as being different, as a business that can be trusted. There are far too many charlatans who have come out of the shadows and taken people for a ride. As a result, the BS detector that every consumer has these days is on heightened alert and they’re a lot slower to trust.
This begs the question: how do you create more visibility when everyone is wrestling for the click, the comment, the like and the share? Follow these five steps so you can win the visibility fight and soar.
1. Assume the position of industry leader
Confidence breeds confidence, and you know it! You’ve seen people online, and you have felt drawn to them. You may not know exactly why, but you have been. This is usually because someone who is confident in what they’re saying and sharing is magnetic.
When you assume the position of an industry leader before you even begin to dial up your visibility efforts, everything else becomes easier to implement. You’ll have more confidence to show up and do what needs to be done.
2. Show what makes you different
This is not about your unique selling proposition. This is where you need to determine what makes you different as people. If you’re a solo entrepreneur, this is going to pretty easy, because you are what makes you different to everyone else. For those of you with larger-than-you businesses, you and your team are what make you different.
Take stock of your history, your stories that you interlace through all that you do, and why you exist. It’s ever so important to share these online on your pages and websites. As people are slow to trust these days given the sheer volume of fraudsters, when you start sharing your stories and what makes you different, it helps your audience see you as a company they can trust. This is because they start to see the human behind the logo.
3. Own your niche
When it comes to visibility online, you do not need to be visible to everyone. You do not need to appeal to the teens and the silver foxes as well as the coffee mums and corporate career chasers. The more specific you can be about who you want to be visible to, the easier it is to get on their radar.
When you know exactly who your niche is, you can start to create content specifically for them. For instance, if you know your niche is a 35-year-old woman with two children who hates her body, your business may provide a total workout and meal plan solution that has her falling in love with her body post-children, without feeling stressed and overwhelmed. Or if your niche is a 43-year-old man who now has time and wants to start a hobby making wooden rocking horses but he’s having trouble knowing how to set his shed and equipment up, you can create content for him specifically.
When you know who your audience is, you’ll get results faster. They are likely to joke that you have cameras in their house! (Yes, this is a good thing. Just don’t go installing any cameras!) You’ll be inside their heads and they will love this.
4. Be consistent and persistent
Visibility takes time, but when you are consistent with your efforts, it will pay off. Be aware that you have to play the long game with visibility growth as well as the short game. This is not dissimilar to joining a gym. You have to keep going to the gym to achieve results. Haphazard attendance will reap haphazard results.
Create different types of content and share it multiple times daily. You’ll be visible in no time.
Nicola Moras is an online visibility expert and the author of Into the Spotlight, a guide to help you step up your online visibility, become a rock star in your industry, and make your business thrive.
