Increasing your Business Visibility is the biggest thing that you can do to grow your business. It sounds simple right – be more visible … but how? What do you need to do? When do you do it? What works and what doesn’t?
Let me tell you, when we were building our brand as Xero Accountants and Business Advisors in Hampshire we had to work hard on our visibility and we tried lots of different approaches – some worked (see below) and some bombed badly! We also found that some approaches took up way too much of our time when we looked at the Return on Investment (ROI) so this something that we now take into account. A key tip when you are trying something new is to Fail Fast – give it a go, monitor results and if it isn’t working then move on.
Five ways to Increase your Business Visibility:
Social Media Platforms – your business needs to be on as many social media platforms as possible. More than 1 billion people are active on Facebook and over 100 million people use Instagram each month. This is a space that your business can’t afford to miss out on.
Start off with the platforms that you know your ideal client will be hanging out on – for us this was Facebook and LinkedIn. Then once you’ve mastered content in those platforms move on to others. You can share and repurpose content across a multitude of channels with little effort (once you know what you’re doing). If you think that platforms like Pinterest aren’t for your business then think again – Pinterest acts as a search engine for Google so if you want to get up the Google listing then Pinterest is a winner for you.
If you need some help with your social media check out our friends at Yellow Tuxedo who are masters at making SEO simple (plus they have some amazing free videos on what to do and how to do it, including how to repurpose your content).
Website & Blogs
Your business needs a website. No question – it absolutely does. If you rely on other platforms (like Facebook) to run your business then you are giving ownership of your business to Facebook. Imagine if the platform shuts down. Imagine if you get banned. What happens then? How do you find your Clients? And more importantly, how do they find you?
A website can also be searched and found. If I type in “Xero Accountants, Hampshire” to Google, Green Zebra comes up in that listing – and it’ll come up for anyone else who asks the same question. If you don’t have a website you are missing out on that organic search opportunity. Websites don’t have to cost the earth but they do need to be set up for Search Engine Optimisation – it is definitely worth spending money to ensure that you’ve got a site that is properly set up for SEO.
Once you have a website, share the heck out of it! You want to drive traffic to your site (to increase your Google ranking) and to build your email list – get a sign up form on your website to capture email addresses, and then you can email and contact your clients whenever you want to (no more worrying about Facebook shutting down)!
Collaborations
In my mind, collaborations are massively under rated and under utilised. I’d love to see more business owners uniting to promote and support one another! The key is to find businesses that add to your business – so for us as Xero Accountants, we work with businesses who can add other services that our Customers need (think financial services or legal advice). In return, those businesses recommend us to their Clients if they think that we can add value.
We tag each other on our social media, we share blogs and we tell our Clients about each other. There’s no competition, just collaboration. My only word of advice is to be absolutely sure that you can trust and rely on your collaboration partner and that their values mirror yours.
Community
Get involved in your surroundings. Right from the start we have supported local causes that we relate to and which we feel reflect our values. We sponsored The Murray Parish Trust Ball to raise money for a new Children’s Ward at Southampton Hospital. Cathy was the Chair Person for a local School Committee and Wayne still gives his time every month to be the Treasurer of a local Children’s Charity. Being involved in our Community has meant that we got to know more people and those people have gotten to know us for our values rather than just for our business. It has resulted in referrals and recommendations that we just wouldn’t have received otherwise.
Networking
Last but by no means least. Networking is a really important part of increasing your business visibility. We have found that online networking groups have worked really well for us and that we receive a large number of recommendations and referrals as a result of being an integrated part in those network groups. You do however have to choose your Groups wisely. There are hundreds of networking groups on social media and even more face to face groups – research them to be really sure which ones are for you. When you’ve worked out which ones you want to be in then jump right in – start conversations, give value for free, get to know people personally, help where you can. If you are passive then sadly, it is unlikely that you will get value from any kind of networking group. We have a blog article coming soon on How to Master Business Networking so keep watching this space!
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Five ways to Increase your Business Visibility
We are Xero Accountants, Xero Bookkeepers and Business Development Advisors based in Andover, Hampshire. We help ambitious business owners to grow successful businesses through proactive Accountancy & Business Consultancy Support.
We are passionate about making Business & Accountancy easier – we believe in simple explanations, we have a low jargon promise and we are friendly, reliable and knowledgeable.
Need heed help with your Business Accounts, Business Development or Growth Plans? Just get in touch with Cathy or Wayne to have a chat.
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