By: Tracey Tait (Source:https://www.transcendyou.co.uk/14-ways-can-increase-visibility/).

Are You Fed Up Posting, Tweeting and Blogging and Still Struggling to Increase Your Visibility?

Fed up being ignored while other businesses make their visibility seem easy?

You want more eyeballs on your business so you can sell more, but sometimes the problem is what you’re not saying.  You could be missing vital steps that hold the key to your audience buzzing around your business like bees around honey and ready to buy from you.

Here are 14 ways you can stop being ignored and be swiped up so you can increase your visibility and make it easier on yourself to sell more.

Create Content that Your Audience Want, Like and are Interested In

There’s a quote by Peter Drucker – The aim of marketing is to know and understand the customer so well, the product or service fits him and sells itself.

This is where the content you create comes into its own. No need to feel icky when it comes to selling. Your content literally does it for you.

Ask yourself:

Are you sharing content they want to read, hear and watch? Avoid the trap of writing what you think they want, like or are interested in.

Research Your Audience

Get around the tumbleweed, and spend some time ‘listening’into their conversations. What are they talking about that’s troubling them? What solutions are they looking for?

Then you create content that smacks them right between the eyeballs, and they’ll think you’re able to read their minds.

You’ll then hear squeals of joy as they announce, ‘How did they know that’s exactly what I was talking about the other day?’

Sound like a Human Being

Ditch the robotic, telephone voice and sound like you, but without the techy speak. Your reader is going to be confused, bamboozled and bewildered if you do so remember to ditch the curse of knowledge.

Also, there’s something that seems to happen to your brain when you sit down in front of the computer to write.

Our fingers can’t type as fast as our brains work or the words come out of our mouths.

You may find it easier to:

• Write your content out using pen and paper and then type it up
• Record your content so it sounds more conversational and gets a VA to type it up for you
• Type it up, and then leave it for a wee while. Stop and do something else then come back to it with fresh eyes.
• Read it out loud. Not only can you check if this sounds like you, but it’s great for spotting those random typos too.

Talk to One Person

Stop broadcasting. This goes hand in hand with number 2.

I’m talking to you right now. You and I having a chat about why your content isn’t being seen and what you can do to put it right.

Notice how many times I mentioned ‘you’.  It’s a powerful word to use.

So when you’re reading back your content, be sure to be talking to one person at a time. (Even though you’re hoping thousands of eyeballs will come across it).

Tell Them You Know and Understand Their Problem/Pain Points

People buy what solves a problem for them. Let’s talk about drills. Stay with me.

Why do people buy a drill? Is it for the multiple drill bits, the handy-dandy case it comes it, the extendable flex or the flex-free option?

It’s none of the above. They buy a drill because they need a hole.

Be clear about what specific problem your product or service solves for them and how they can have the happy ending they’re after.

All those DIY adverts you see – what does the room look like before and then after a quick lick of paint, new furniture, lighting and curtains? Hey Presto! The people in the ad are smiling again.

It’s done with food, holidays, cars, vacuum cleaners, hair care products and now your products or services.

Have a Clear Marketing Message

Your audience is busy. Your audience is bombarded with a gazillion million messages a day so aim to get your point across.

• Be understood
• Be clear
• Be succinct
• Be memorable

Once you get clear on your message, you can use it to spread the word about what you do. It’s simple to remember so your audience remembers you more easily, which means your chances of them buying from you is increased.

It’s also the lynch-pin to the content you create. There’s a consistent theme that will stick with your audience.

Be Where They are Looking for a Solution to Their Problem

If you’re putting an ad in the free local paper and your audience recycles it the minute it pops through their letterbox, you’re wasting your time, effort and money.  Your audience isn’t looking for you there.

Appear, as if by magic, where they’re looking for you.

• This may be via a search engine to make sure your website has the keywords they’ll type in when they’re looking for you.
• If they’ll look for you on a social media platform – you’re there too.
• If they’ll look for you at a networking event – you’re there too.

You get the idea.

Be Where They Are

The audience might not be looking for you in a particular place, but you know it’s where they hang out. So you just happen to be there too.  In a ‘fancy seeing you here’ kinda way.

The thing is your business relies on clients. That’s how you make money.

Put your client first in what you do. Use them as your guide.  Step into their shoes. Get to know them better than they know themselves and you’ll notice a big difference to how many more clients you attract.

Use Images to Show Your Product/Service in Action

Your audience wants to see your product/service in action.

• Think about what you see on TV.
• The vacuum cleaner is the star of the show.
• The car is the star of the show.
• The food blender is the star of the show.
• The baby food is the star of the show.

They all take center stage, being used and what a difference they’re making to the lives of the people in the ad. You can use this approach online too.

• Use pictures of happy, smiley people in your images.
• Use testimonials of happy clients and ideally with their picture.
• Use before and after pictures.

Showcase the transformation you can give your audience.

Build a Relationship with Them before You Ask for the Sale

When clients contact me to help them attract more clients, what I hear from them is they don’t understand why people aren’t buying.

They’ve used Facebook ads; they’ve posted about their product or service every day on social media 24/7 and still nothing.

People buy from people that they know, like and trust – people with whom they have a relationship.

And you can create and build a relationship when you:

Offer a Fab Freebie

Something of value your audience wants and over time you strengthen the relationship with the great content you send to their inbox.

Share Your Fab Content – Consistently

Write Blogs that your audience wants to read and be sure to include a call to action.

Become a video star and create videos for YouTube.

Turn Blogs into a Slideshare.

Network

If your ideal client is at networking events – you kinda should be too.

Be Social

Social Media is a great way to reach your audience, so #startthechat.

• Ask questions.
• Comment, like and share on pages they are interested in.
• Be in groups they’re in and chat with them. Offer advice and support.

Share What You Know

Sounds bonkers giving what you know away for free, but when you do make them an offer to buy from you, they’ll imagine how much they’ll gain when they pay you.

Talk to Their Emotions

In his book, Cashvertising Drew Eric Whitman talks at length about speaking to the emotions of your audience.

People buy because of emotion.

• They want to worry less
• They want to feel better
• They don’t want to be scared
• They want to feel happy
• They want to keep up with the Jones’
• They don’t want to miss out
• They want to be successful

Talk to the Feels

Again this is a great way to build your relationship. You know what they’re going through. You’ve connected with them.

And importantly you know the happy ending or the outcome they’re after.

Tweak, Test and Review

Even the big guys don’t get it right the first time.

Proctor and Gamble nearly fell flat on their face when they launched Febreze. ‘Tis true!

They do so much research, hold focus groups and trialing of products you’d think they’d be successful with everything they do.

Not the case.

They did all the research and got hundreds of people to test it and then used what they’d discovered to create their advertising.

It launched. They sold some, but as the weeks went on their sales were hurtling towards zero. Stores had stock that wasn’t leaving the shelves.

They knew their product was fab.

What were they missing? Doing wrong?

They visited the households they had given the trial product to.  And one house stood out, for lots of reasons.

When the lady of the house opened the door, the smell hit them. One of the P&G guys was wrenching. It was that bad.

Into the house, they went. The house was very clean and very tidy. But the smell was overpowering.

The lady told them she had 9 cats and didn’t like to open the windows as the dust came in, making her house unclean.

So the P&G peeps asked her how she’d got on using Febreze. She told them she’d used it a few times, but stopped because she’d forgotten about it and it didn’t make a difference.

They were bamboozled. They knew this stuff was amazing and stopped horrible smells in their tracks.

Then the penny dropped! Clunk!

The people that needed this product the most didn’t believe they had a problem.

Back to the drawing board they went, revamped their marketing completely and bosh! They created another ‘must-have’ product.

Their product stayed the same. Their message changed and as a result, their profits went through the roof!

Use Different Ways to Present Your Content

There was a wee chat over on LinkedIn about video posts. Do you love them or hate them?

The chat was really interesting.

Some people devoured them, others bypassed them completely and some said if they don’t deliver within the first 2 minutes they’re off.

What some also included in the chat was their preferred way of consuming information.

Reading came out on top but even that was in a variety of formats. A full-blown in-depth, meaty article or Blog with lots of detail, bullet points or a summary were some of the variations mentioned.

Some preferred to listen to content. They liked to have something to listen to while walking the dog, sitting in traffic jams or during their bus journey to work.

Some liked a combination of pictures and words and mentioned how they found slide-share a great source of easy to digest content.

Give Your Content a Reason or a Purpose for Being Created in the First Place

Specify what you want your content to achieve for you.  Then you can use these goals to plan out what actions you’re going to take with that particular piece of content.

• Is it to be informative?
• Is it to be humorous?
• Is it to be a call to action?
• Is it to ask for shares?
• Is it to ask for comments?
• Is it to build your list?
• Is it to announce an event?

Ask for the Sale

Many business owners are fab at creating really good content, they’re really engaging and they’re great at giving help and support.

But…

They don’t ask for the sale. They don’t offer their product or service.

The thing is your audience expects you to offer your products for them to buy.

Being shy and hoping they’ll find their own way to your sales pages on your website doesn’t work.

• Give them the call to action.
• Call them to find out more.
• Drop an email to arrange a visit from you.
• Point them in the direction of the ‘Buy now’ button.

By: Tracey Tait (Source:https://www.transcendyou.co.uk/14-ways-can-increase-visibility/)