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“I want to grow my audience!”

… but I’m not ready to put in the work…

“I want to be seen as an expert!”

… but I want to see results by tomorrow…

I head this way too often! So before we dive into the different ways you can boost your visibility online, I think it’s important to mention that when it comes to your marketing strategy – you have to be ready to play the long game.

I know, it sounds a little disappointing because we all want results fast. But while one TikTok video may make you viral overnight, it’s the consistency that will really bring growth and exposure, and build trust with your audience.

I know you may be looking at other creatives in your industry with thousands of followers, and the SWIPE UP feature, and their email list is probably 10 times bigger than yours… but boo – they’ve probably been doing this for a long time as well! And, most importantly, they have been consistent with it. They’ve been consistently showing up for you. They’ve been consistently making time for their business. And – they’ve also consistently been trying new things, making mistakes and learning from them.

Remember that your current situation is not an indicator of your final destination.

The other thing to remember is that showing up takes guts. And sometimes you gotta get out of your shell and your comfort zone to make things happen.

And I know it can feel uncomfortable – trust me, I’m a huge introvert and showing up, on most occasions, is a very big effort for me – but you need to spread your seeds before you can enjoy the fruits of your labour.

Alright, now that I’m done with my pep talk, let’s talk about what are some things that you can start doing in your business to increase your visibility and be seen as an expert in your industry.

Two ways to approach growth

When it comes to visibility, there are two different categories:

• Visibility you create using your own resources, platforms and audience;
• And then visibility you generate by leveraging other people’s communities.

With the first one, it can be quite tough especially when you’re starting out and your audience is quite small. But your channels are the place where you will build trust and relationships with your audience, so it’s important not to forget about that.
Creating a strong content strategy

While this may seem a little basic, you need to be clear on your own strategy in order to use your resources in the most efficient way possible.

I’m not saying you need to post everyday. I’m not saying you need to “slay the Instagram algorithm by making “6-8 reels a week”. I’m also not saying taking someone else’s strategy – someone who managed to “reach 10K in 2 months” – and copy pasting in to your business.

No.

I’m saying putting together a strong content strategy that – most importantly – you will be able to stay consistent with and enjoy doing it in the process.

Here are a couple of things you should think about:

Get crystal clear on who you’re talking to.

Yep – the Ideal Client once again. Get in the head of where your Ideal Client is right now in their business. What platforms they’re using most? What challenges are they facing? What quick, free solutions can you share with them through your content? What do they need to know about your industry? Your services? You, particularly? What objections do they have when it comes to investing into your services?

Are those gears turning, or what??!

With every piece of content I want you to ask yourself – what’s the purpose of this? And does Anna (or whatever the name of your Ideal Client is) actually care about this?

Posting for the same of posting and getting a couple of likes is pointless.

It’s a waste of your time, a waste of your energy AND actually a waste of your algorithm if you’re really into that.

Be intentional, purposeful, useful and valuable with the content you create.

Break down your content into three main categories.

• Content that engages – to drive engagement and conversation with your followers, as well as help you gain more visibility to grow your audience
• Content that makes you shine – to help you demonstrate your knowledge and be seen as the true expert that you are.
• Content that sells – to help you increase interest in your services, get more enquiries and book new projects.

What I often see people do is create way too much engagement-driven content and not do enough selling. Or they’ll educate their audience too much for free, but never go for the pitch.

If that’s your case, how can you expect people to buy if you don’t prompt them to do so?

Create video content

The other things you can do to increase visibility on your own channels is to create more video content.

I know some of you may criiinge at the thought of it, but the reality is showing your face matters. You are your own brand and people buy from people.

Video content is strongly outperforming static content and it will only continue to increase, especially with the way the world has changed in the last year. With less physical contact, we seek any touch with humanity we can get and video is the closest medium to get us there.

So experiment with video, whether it’s quick IG lives every other week, stories or even simply using GIFS of yourself instead of static photos on your feed!

Work on your own SEO

Finally, if you have your own website and blog – work on that SEO.

I won’t go into too much crazy technical detail about SEO here, but just like with posting on your social media, if you’re writing a blog just for the sake of writing something… you’re probably wasting your time.

Do your research on what type of content your Ideal Client not only would be interested in reading, but is actually actively searching for as well. What keywords do they use? What questions are they typing into the search bar? What problems are they looking to solve right now? And then based on the answers, create SEO-rich content.

If you’re completely unfamiliar with SEO, I have a really good freebie on SEO fundamentals to get you started with right here.

Pitching to Podcasts

Now we’re moving onto strategies where you can leverage other people’s audiences and communities to grow your visibility. And the first strategies is… pitching to podcasts!

I often get asked how can one do that and it always surprises me because I think it’s actually the easiest strategy of all from a technical standpoint. All you really need to do to start pitching to podcasts is:

• Make a list of podcasts that align with your audience
• Check they do guest interviews by looking at their past episodes
• Visit their website to find info about becoming a guest
• Send them a pitch following their guidelines

Ta-daaaa! Of course, there are some more bells and whistles involved to make your pitch stand out and land more Yes’s, so if you’re interested, I encourage you to listen to episode 6 on the podcast with my dear friend Mai-kee Tsang, which is all about how to grow your authority by guesting on podcasts.

And remember – anyone can actually do this. I think one thing that stops a lot of people from pitching to podcasts, blogs, and other communities is that they think they’re too small of a fish in the pond and that nobody will care about what you have to say.

But in reality, this has absolutely nothing to do with your audience size, number of likes, awards etc. It’s all about your mindset and the willingness to share and spread value.

The numbers truly don’t matter. Your attitude, confidence and the value you share does.

Guest Blogging

The next strategy, similar to podcast pitching, is guest blogging.

I personally find this a little trickier but it can be incredibly powerful to grow your authority and improve your own SEO. You’ll also need to do your research here and think about where does my ideal client hang out online? What blogs do they read, what websites do they frequent? And how can I put my name out there by being a guest writer?

You can also explore writing content pieces on platforms like Medium to increase your visibility.

Live Videos with Other Experts

The next idea is to do live videos in collaboration with someone else, like an IG live or a live workshop in a Facebook group.

Of course, you could use your own channels here and invite other experts as guests, but if you don’t have an engaged audience you may find it a little harder. However, just like with podcasting, you could pitch the idea to experts with a larger audience and suggest to run a value-packed session for their audience.

If you’re a member of a Facebook group that is actively led by an expert, you could suggest to run a pitch-free workshop for their group members.

This is a great way to get in front of a new audience, share value and increase your visibility at the same time.

Create Collaborative Resources

The last strategy I want to share is creating collaborative resources with other experts. This could potentially take any form that you want, like a PDF guide with a collection of tips from other experts, a series of mini video or audio clips with their advice, or a full on masterclass or summit with pre-recorded videos.

Whichever idea you choose, the trick is to ensure that every person participating agrees to share about this resource on their platforms with their audience.

A great example of this would be my episode 004 where I invited 4 social media experts to share their thoughts about thriving on Instagram with the Likes feature. Not only did the experts have the opportunity to be in the spotlight, they also helped spread the word about this episode which resulted in higher numbers of listens and downloads!

So there you have it, friend! Hopefully these ideas got your creative juices flowing and got you a little excited about marketing yourself! I think so many people are “afraid” of the world of sales and marketing because they have this misconception that it’s hard, pushy, or sleazy… but it really doesn’t have to be that way!

Instead, I encourage you to think of marketing as something exciting and positive. Instead of thinking about it as “the strategies I need to execute to sell myself and attract more clients” think of it as “the steps to take so you can serve and help more people”. Now I don’t know about you but just the thought of this makes me more energised and excited to get out there and spread my message and I hope you’re feeling the same way too!