One of the best ways to increase the number of clients, customers or sales leads you get, is to make sure you are as visible as possible to the right people.
That’s what today’s post is all about. It contains tips and ideas on how to be more visible online and offline!
Where are you?
As regular readers will know, I live in a small village in South Yorkshire, England. We get a lot of tourists all year round, who usually come for a boating or walking holiday. I see tourists pretty much every day at home – yet for the past week, I have been a tourist myself. My family and I have been exploring North East England and South Eastern Scotland.
As a tourist, you see a location very differently. You have little if any local knowledge, so you rely on maps and road signs in order to navigate yourself around. You quickly learn that some places are better signposted than others and that many areas would do a lot more business, if they only realised that they were really hard for tourists to locate.
As business owners, we need to ensure that OUR businesses are easy to find.
If your business relies on people visiting your premises
- Start by making sure that your marketing material contains crystal clear directions on how to locate you.
- Assure people that they are welcome to call you, if they need directions. Very few businesses make a point of saying this in their marketing material, even though almost all of them would happily do it – so be one of the few who actually says it!
- Tip: Test your directions! A great way to see how effective your directions are is to ask someone, who has never previously visited your location, if they can find you using just the directions you send them. Always try and use someone, who matches your client or customer profile.
If your business relies on people being able to find your website
- Start by making sure all your online accounts (Facebook, Twitter, Google+ etc) point to your site. Don’t make any of those social networking sites the focal point of your online presence. Those accounts can be suspended, deleted or rendered useless with a change to their terms and conditions. Build your primary Internet presence on a site you own and control.
- Make sure your emails all contain a link to your website in your email signature.
- SEO. Use site building software like the one I use on all my sites, (affiliate) so that your website or blog can have all the core on-site Search Engine Optimisation in place, easily. A well optimised website or blog will help people find your site, when looking for your specific type of product or service.
- Make your site easy to share. Once someone finds your website, make it easy for them to share it with their friends. Add social sharing buttons like those below this blog post. They allow people to link to your site from their favourite social networks, with just the click of a mouse. If enough people link to your site, you will get the additional benefit of improved SEO.
Don’t take visibility for granted
It’s easy for us to forget how difficult it can be for people to find us. Take the tourists view of finding your business and ensure it’s as visible as possible.
What visibility tips would you like to add? Share them with a comment!
Let’s work together and grow your business. To find out more click here!
Go out and tell people about your stuff. One really effective way is to get some magnets or bumper stickers made up with an attractive graphic and your URL on them, then give them out for free. Flyers also work too, but they’re less interactive.
If finding your business location is important, make sure you have a well-optimized Google+ Local page. That way when people search for your products or services from their phone (especially Android phones), your business will show up in the search results (and Google Maps too).
A business that relies on customer traffic should also look into location-based marketing such as FourSquare.
Travis Van Slooten
Goedenavond, sir!
I regret to say that there seem to be an awful lot of business people (certainly here in the Northwest of England and I dare say elsewhere) who don’t yet realise that the Google+Local service can be of benefit to them. When they do sign up, all too often they fail to maximise their listing with pictures and information about their services. Even worse still, they then fail to manage the sites and critical comments may be left unanswered for potential customers, clients or guests to see.
And now Google are introducing Google+Local Business Photo tours… for those who are savvy enough to have secured their Google+Local listing. Those who take up the opportunity of featuring a tour inside their businesses are surely going to benefit big style.
And the icing on top of the cake? Good old Google has no problem with the tours being embedded in the business’ own website too. More SEO for their own sites!
What is interesting, though, is that Google doesn’t seem to be making much noise about this service – or maybe I’m looking in the wrong place….. err, maybe that should be ‘wrong Google+Location’
Kind regards,
L
Definitely agree with your point about social sites as a focal point, Jim. I think the blog, or absent that a website, is the center of the social framework. Hub & spoke! Cheers.