#8 Make Yourself Visible

No matter how amazing you or your product or service offering is, your business cannot grow unless you create some visibility and buzz around it. This means showing the world that you exist, sharing your expertise, getting clients to talk about you, staying connected to your niche, leveraging relationships--and more.

To do this, you'll want to always be in front of clients--past, present and prospective. Consistency is key. Commit to at least one visibility activity a week. More if you can. Realize it takes time for people to get to know you, and to appreciate and value your expertise. Stay at it! Your efforts will pay off. Below are just a few ways you can show the world you have something amazing to offer.

Writing & Publishing Articles

In Strategy #3 of Illumin's 10 Easiest Ways to Grow Your Business I mentioned the power of writing. Share your expertise. Write articles that provide information that your clients can use such as guidelines, resources, links, best practices, templates or solutions to common industry problems.

In addition to distributing your articles to your client base through Constant Contact or similar email marketing software, submit them to article distribution sites such as Ezine Articles or Article Hub where they can be picked up and published by other websites, newsletters, trade or industry publications, and more. The key is to share your expertise and get your name out there.

If you need a little help getting started, tap into these two great resources. Instant Article Templates makes writing fun and easy, while guiding you to construct a clear message and relevant content. If you're not sure your headline has punch, try Headline Analyzer to gauge your headline's impact.

The beauty of writing articles is that they can be "reinvented" many times over. David Bernstein of Able Press puts it this way, "When you write an article, use it and reuse it -- serialize it on your blog, excerpt it in your newsletter, read it as a podcast -- reinvent it for different mediums, and for different client types. It's not necessary to write something new each time you need to provide a new piece of  content."

Blogging

From a business perspective, blogging is a way to let others benefit from your expertise. It's also a way to create momentum in and around a project, group, product or cause. The way people generally find out about a blog is through links or word of mouth--blogging is very viral.

If you want to start your own blog, try SquareSpace or WordPress. For recommendations on how to write great blog copy, check out Copyblogger. This site is chock full of easy to read wisdom and resources. Should you wish to convert your blog to audio for podcasting, check out Talkr. It's free.

If you don't want to create your own blog, but prefer to contribute to someone else's, try to find one that targets your market niche. For instance, if you're passionate about organic, sustainable or "green" products consider blogging on Treehugger. To find a blog that targets your industry or interest, check out Technorati.

Joining Social Networking Groups

There are many social networking groups. Join those that your target market uses or that have mass appeal such as the larger sites like LinkedIn, Facebook, Ziggs or Digg. Social Media, based on the six degrees of separation theory, enhances your online presence, supplements your marketing, raises your visibility, and increases your prospective client reach--exponentially.

In addition to the many better known sites, consider your college alumni website or a site like Classmates.com. Don't forget about  social networking sites that target your hobby or passions like JANERA.com if your passion is travel and social change, for example. If you're targeting a specific demographic, consider demographically focused networks like The Femme Network that connects women virtually through sites such as AdFemme, Marketing Femme, Femme Moms, to name a few, as well as through events.
 

Public Speaking

Public speaking is a very powerful way to share your industry expertise. Physically get in front of as many people as possible to talk about your business or share your knowledge. Consider volunteering to do this at professional or industry events, your local Chamber of Commerce, through your place of worship, or other places where people gather to work, learn or socialize. Consider conferences where subject matter experts give keynote speeches or run breakout sessions. If you can get paid for it, even better! Doing these types of events allow prospects to get to "know" you, get a taste of your style and expertise, and thus makes it easier for them to buy from you.

If you want to fine-tune your speaking or presentation skills tap into Larina Kase, PhD of PAS Coaching.

Hosting Workshops & Seminars

If you're trying to convey a large amount of information to customers, consider offering a workshop series or one day seminar. The value of doing them is multifold; 1.) greater ROI (return on investment) of your time, 2.) increased visibility; 3.) increased word of mouth, to name a few. One of the best ways to make a seminar or workshop successful is to fully engage the audience. Stay away from lecturing. Make  seminars and workshops fun and interactive as participants retain more through actual engagement and on-site application. If you've been writing articles, consider creating workshops from that content. Don't overload the participant. Coming away with even 2-3 key nuggets of valuable information makes customers feel that their time and money were well spent.
 
If you're interested in learning how to lead great seminars and workshops, check out Lizbeth Phelps' Inspired Leadership Training.
 

Attending Networking Events

Leverage your memberships at professional associations as well as social or philanthropic organizations. You never know what someone may need or whom they may know. There are a plethora of organizations out there. The key is to find those that your prospective clients and strategic partners attend.  Gotham City Networking is a fabulous resource that lists many of the most active networking groups in the New York City area. Also, check out MeetUp for entrepreneural or niche networking meetings in your region.

We've all attended events that we felt weren't the best use of our time. Choose carefully which ones you'll attend as you're spending valuable resources--your time and money.  Make it a goal to leave each event with at least one valuable takeaway that you can follow up on. That could mean contacting a prospect(s), sending a thank you note to the host or a speaker on your stationary, or applying the wisdom or inspiration of a guest speaker to your business. All of which raises your visiblity that much more.
 

Be sure to diversity your activites. By gaining visibility in a variety of communities (online, newsletters and networking, for example), you reach a broader audience and larger prospect base resulting in even greater visibility.

Remember, stay at it, be consistent and diversify your activities. It will pay off!