Five Steps to Defeat Your Cloak of Invisibility

All businesses start with a cloak of invisibility. Like Harry Potter’s. If you are invisible, no one will see you, no one will come, and you will have no customers, no revenue, and no business.

Removing the cloak and becoming un-invisible requires some effort. Once you have perfected your business model and operations, there are several ways to increase your visibility.

 1. Word-of-Mouth

 First, small, local services like babysitting, pet care, or house cleaning can become visible by relying on word-of-mouth (like NextDoor) or on-line marketplaces (like TaskRabbit). Likewise freelance professionals may rely on channels (like Fiverr) that can match them with potential customers.

 2. Social Media

The next step up to improve visibility is often social media, like a Facebook page or a Linkedin profile. These are likely to attract more attention. You can invite followers and communicate with them through your posts. Turning that attention into sales leads, however, can be difficult.

Social media is a straightforward do-it-yourself effort, requiring only your time and creativity. However, social media has some downsides:

• You don’t own it—they do

• If you appear to be “marketing too much”, you can be banned.

• You don’t “own” your followers

• You cannot access followers email addresses and personal information

• Surprisingly, the reach of your posts is often less than 10% of your followers

• You have to pay to extend your reach (Facebook will “boost” your posts for a fee).

• Sponsored advertising is displayed alongside your social media page and posts

• The provider may go out of business (remember Ping or MySpace or Meerkat?)

• You lack flexibility and control in complying with their guidelines and requirements.

• Social media appeals to a younger market.

This does not mean you should avoid social media. It should be an important part of your marketing strategy. Even with the downsides, it may be sufficient to promote your business.

 3. A Website

The next step up for maximum visibility may be a website, which can serve as an adjunct to your social media presence. If your target customers rely on digital media to find a solution to their problem, a website is critical. Potential customers expect you to have a website. If you don’t, it may say that you don’t care about your customers. Websites add credibility and trust, generate leads, and improve your customer’s experience. They are more expensive than a social media presence but can provide significant advantages to your business whether you’re selling a product or service.

4. Search Engine Optimization

Even a website may not deliver the visibility you seek unless you are able to attract attention to it and your business. This means showing up in search engine results on sites like Google, Bing, and Yahoo). This requires Search Engine Optimization (SEO), the art of showing high listings of search engine results.

The art of SEO (and it is art) is changing almost daily with the introduction of artificial intelligence and AI overviews in search results. Success requires creativity as well as knowledge.

5. Paid Advertising

Beyond SEO comes paid advertising. Like SEO, success requires creativity and knowledge.

More money than you can imagine can be wasted on paid advertising. Without a plan, a focus and an understanding of your customers’ purchasing journey, you might as well take the cash allocated to your marketing budget and set it on fire.

Defeating your Cloak of Invisibility

Defeating your Cloak of Invisibility is not magic—it only seems so. The “magic” is creativity, inspiration, knowledge and unrelenting effort. Market Master can bring all these, and more, to help you generate more leads, more customers, and more sales for your small business.

Just call 610-466-5773 or set up a free consultation to discuss your challenges.