Want to know what the Content Marketing Trifecta is and why it is so effective…
Want to know how to make your business more visible online? In today’s world having an online presence for a business is (virtually) essential. The fact is you can provide an amazing service, but if no one knows your service exists then no one can buy from you. That is why as a business owner increasing the visibility of your business should always be a priority. Keep on reading to find out 11 ways to make your business more visible online.
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11 WAYS TO MAKE YOUR BUSINESS MORE VISIBLE ONLINE
1. Create a website for your business
This may seem very obvious but it still amazes me how many businesses I come across that don’t have a website. A website is the official online home of a business and you should prirotise having a professional website created. The website should include all the information someone needs in order to buy from you, and in many cases should also have the capability for someone to be able to buy from you.
When it comes to creating a website for your business you have two options: hire a website designer or do-it-yourself (DIY). Regardless of which option you go you’ll need to choose what website builder to use and not all are the same.
I highly recommend using WordPress or Squarespace. I’m a big wordpress fan and have been making websites with it for years. However, it isn’t the most user-friendly so for those DIY-ing their website I’ll often recommend using Squarespace instead.
2. SEO
Having a website for your business is a great start, but a website by itself won’t automatically increase the online visibility of your business. In order for that to happen you will need to drive people to your website and a great way to do this is through SEO. SEO stands for search engine optimisation and it is where digital assets such as websites, videos, images etc are created, or adjusted, using a number of techniques that maximise the chances of the asset ranking on search engines.
Once you’ve got a website you should ensure that it has been optimised for search. Again this is something that you can hire a professional for or you can do yourself.
A great way to improve the SEO of a website is by regularly updating your website with fresh content. Many business owners do this by using a combination of content marketing and SEO. They will use their long-form content (blog, podcast or YouTube channel) and then house that on their website as well.
3. Content Marketing
As mentioned above content marketing is great for SEO purposes, but it also can increase the online visibility of your business in other ways. Content marketing is a great way to be able to provide valuable information that can be shared. By focusing on creating high-value long-form content, whether that be a blog, podcast or YouTube channel, you then have content that can be shared. You can personally share that content in your other marketing, such as social media, email, digital adverts etc. But that content can also be shared by other people and this can be very powerful.
When someone is sent content from a trusted individual they are considerably more likely to read, watch or listen to that content. This means your business can be easily introduced to new people. Thus, increasing the visibility of your business.
If you aren’t already using content marketing in your business and would like to get started, but aren’t sure whether to start a blog, podcast or YouTube channel then read this. I go through the pros and cons of each option (I’ve ran all 3) so that you can make an informed decision.
4. Social Media
Social media is by far the most popular way to make your business more visible online. Given the large user base on social media platforms, the fact it is free to have an account and the ease of using social media platforms it is where most business owners start to build an online presence. However, if you want to use social media to increase your business’ online visibility then you’ll need to have a strategy for how you use the platform. Depending on the platform(s) you are using you’ll need to understand how to grow your followers so your content is being seen by more people. Otherwise it is easy to spend hours on social without really increasing the visibility of your business
The focus should be on using growth tactics. How are you using the platform to increase the number of people who are aware of your business? Regardless of the platform you use you’ll want to ensure you have a proportion of sharable content that people will forward onto others. Also, if you are on a platform that still has good organic reach (currently that is LinkedIn and TikTok) then you’ll also want to include a proportion of content for engagement purposes.
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5. Collaborations and partnerships
Collaborations and partnerships are great for raising visibility. I use collaborations and partnerships to mean anything from being a guest on a podcast, doing a joint live on a platform, being interviewed in a blog post, speaking in a summit and more.
Here the focus is on working with one or more business owners or brands collaboratively. This is great for making your business more visible online because you’ll be appearing in front of the audience of the other business/brand.
The key to using this tactic successfully is to think carefully about the businesses/brands you work with and ensure that their audience contains the type of people you’d like to increase to be more visible to.
6. Use affiliates
Another way of working with other people to make your business more visible online is through running an affiliate scheme. Affiliates promote another business and in return will receive a percentage of the sales that come via them. This percentage varies drastically from a few percent all the way up to 50% for high-ticket online courses.
In order to run an affiliate scheme you’d need to have the appropriate software in your business so that affiliates can provide a link or promocode to their followers and when that link or promocode is used the sale is associated with them.
7. Get reviews on third-party websites
Very often reviews sit on the business’ website and that works well to reassure people who are already on your website and ready to buy, but it doesn’t help you to be seen by new people. Some industries will have specific review sites and by getting reviews on these third-party websites you can be maximising your chances of being seen by new people, but most importantly new people who are actively looking for the service you offer.
For example, I’ve worked with a number of financial advisors and financial coaches (You can find out more about the services I offer financial and money coaches here). They would encourage clients to review them on VouchedFor, which is a review website for Financial Advisers. Building up a good rating on there would mean that in the future when people who are actively searching to work with advisers they could be seen.
8. Online advertising
So far the concentration has been on free, or very cheap ways to make your business more visible online. However, there are paid options and online advertising is a great way to increase your business’ visibility. There are numerous ways that you can advertise online. You can run adverts on specific platforms (Google, YouTube) or on social media platforms (Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn etc). You can also do advertising on a specific website or even across numerous websites. There are so many ways to use online advertising.
Online advertising is usually broken up into two categories; prospecting and retargeting. Prospecting is where your ads are being shown to new people based on your targeting or them visiting a site your advert is displayed on. Retargeting is where your ads are shown to people who have already interacted with your business in some way. Since the focus is currently on raising visibility you should focus on running prospecting ads.
9. Email marketing
Another way to make your business more visible online is through email marketing. When people think about making their business visible online they often concentrate on ways to be more visible on social media or through search. They think about the open side of online. However, there are lots of people who are consciously deciding to spend less time on social media and consuming less content in general. But most of these people still use email marketing.
Email marketing allows you direct contact to an individual and unlike many of the other options discussed where you have to use a mass message you have the ability to be able to send your targeted messaging.
10. Online directories
Depending on what type of business you have it may be that there are online directories that you can join. Often online directories will rank better in search for specific keywords. This could mean that whilst you can’t rank for the keyword you’d love to, you could still end up getting seen by some of that traffic as they’ll likely end up on that directory.
Directories differ with some allowing you to be added for free and some will charge a fee. The important thing with directories is to work out how much traffic they receive and ensure you are happy with the search functionality.
11. Press
Last, but definitely not least is press. Getting mentioned in the press is a great way to make your business more visible online, and is often overlooked by business owners. Whereas with most of the other ways mentioned are forms of marketing and therefore you are in control, when working with the press the press is with the journalist or editor. You can spend a lot of time sending out press releases and building relationships with journalists for little return. But it can also result in you getting great coverage that increases visibility and also can add to perceived value of the company.
That’s it. You now have 11 ways to make your business more visible online.
As you can see there are lots of different ways to make your business more visible online and I’m definitely not recommending you try and do all of them. You need to look through all the options and based on your type of business and the available resources what is best to try.
Let me know in the comments what your business is and what you are going to try going forward.
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