Visiblity is the First Step to Getting Clients, Customers, and an Audience

My friend and colleague Dave Lakhani says, "You've got to be seen to sell." And if you read this blog or Biz Tips Blog, you know I write a lot about creating online visibility. If people don't know about you, how can you expect to get new clients, fill your coaching or mentoring groups, sell your products or have an audience for your radio show?

Recently I was having an email conversation via LinkedIn with Bonnie, who participated in the Social Media Success Summit. She said:

My biggest challenge with social media this moment is to drive traffic to my BlogTalkRadio show...Even though I ask guests to Tweet the show and my show is auto-Tweeted via BTR, listenership remains low. Any ideas on key word strategies or other social networking tips to bring the show onto more folks' radar screens?

You can substitute "group coaching program" or "online TV show" or "info product" for "radio show."

Yes, she's doing some of the right things. And in fact, her frustration is not uncommon and a complaint I hear nearly every day. It's part of what inspired me to partner with Wendy Y Bailey to offer our teleseminar The Secrets to Filling Your Coaching Groups, on Tuesday.

In my opinion, it boils down to one thing for most people: lack of visibility.

Many will argue that it's all about the list. But let me ask you this ... how do you build a list? You've got to be visible, then offer something of value that people will trade their email address to get from you. Just because you have a squeeze page for your opt-in list or an info page for your radio show, doesn't mean a ton of people are going to find it. There's a heck of a lot of info competing for attention out there in Internet-land.

You have to promote and market CONSISTENTLY AND CONSTANTLY.

Here's my initial response to Bonnie - yes, it seems simplistic, but I really didn't have much background info to start with:

Do you have a Facebook page for your show? Do you set up an event on FB for each show and push it out to your peeps?

Do you ask your guests to promote the show?

Do you blog about your show?

When Bonnie replied, it was clear she was doing all these things. But what also came out was that she was not consistent in her efforts. Posting an event once on Facebook with no follow up will not produce results. Sending one tweet about a show will not drive thousands of listeners to your show. Sorry, just won't happen. Here's my second bit of advice for Bonnie:

You're doing all the right things. They need to be done constantly in order to see results, as you know.

I would queue promo tweets for several times per day for several days before and on the day of the show.

I would continue to do Facebook events. Yes, people don't always understand, but that's because they respond from their notifications page and don't click through to the the actual event page. If people do respond as yes or maybe, you have the opportunity to send reminders.

As for polling on twitter, you need to tweet your question multiple times during the day as people are on and off all day long. To catch people you need to be visible frequently.

Being repetitive and consistent was the "ah ha" for Bonnie.

The final point I want to make is that one-shot promotion for a product/event/program won't be very effective. Your visibility strategy has to be ongoing. That means all the time. Even when you're not selling or trying to fill a group or round up an audience for a show.

The more consistently visible you are, the more likely you will generate the clients, students and audience when it IS time to promote your stuff.

There are tons of tactics for creating massive online visibility. This is just the tip of the iceberg. Feel free to join me and Wendy on July 14 to learn more! And go check out Bonnie's radio show Up Close & Personal. I'll be a guest sometime in the coming months!

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