I’ve had this ad from The Creative Portal since Grafik issue 148 in February 2007. In the days when I used to keep every single magazine I bought! I’d guess I tore this out of the magazine and chucked the rest away around about February 2010 when I started Whiteacres and decided to move my vast magazine collection into my office – and then decided I only needed to keep the pages I was interested in. It’s been on display in my office ever since as a reminder to me that I need to tell people that I exist in order to get work!
Click to tweet – “Your talent should open doors but what are you doing to get noticed?“
Today I thought I’d share a few ways to get yourself noticed.
“If you get noticed, you get remembered. And if you get remembered, you get business. Period.” Scott Ginsberg (that guy with the nametag)
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1. Doing great work.
If you do great work, provide a brilliant service or product and make people happy then you’re going to get noticed by others too because your happy client will recommend you to others! So make sure you do your best, provide a fantastic experience and make sure that your clients are over the moon about working with you.
2. Events
Attending an event for networking is the quickest way to get to know someone, find out what they do and of course to get yourself noticed. If you’re feeling brave, you could even speak at an event – which would mean that everyone attending would know what you do and who you are. There are loads and loads of different events you could attend from really casual networking events to more structured ones, regular events to one offs, small events, large events like an expo, seminars or trade shows. Put your best smile on – grab your attention grabbing, noticeable business cards – and go and talk to people.
3. Social Media
This is great for me. I have Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, LinkedIn, YouTube, Google+ and Instagram. I also have Tumblr, but it doesn’t really count. I don’t use them all well or consistently. I think I do Facebook pretty well. Social Media is a great way to get noticed because:
- It’s free
- It’s easy! (once you get the hang of it)
- There are lots of people who use it and if your audience DO then you need to be there
- It doesn’t have to take a lot of time. I pop onto Twitter when I boil the kettle, post a quick picture to Instagram on my way back to the car, dip into Facebook while I’m waiting for the pan to come to the boil – if you have a smartphone then it really is a doodle. I sometimes schedule tweets as well – usually for these blog posts! Buffer lets you do several platforms all at once.
- People can not only see your content, but they can share it, like it, comment on it, start a conversation with you about it, interact with it, contact you about it, link through to somewhere else with it – it’s great for getting you noticed for very little effort!
- It’s fun!
- You don’t even have to leave the house. Bonus!
4. Blogging
Blog on your own website, guest blog for other people, ask people to blog for you (if you would like to be a guest blogger here, please let me know!) comment on other blogs, share your posts. Blogging is the perfect opportunity to share what you know, educate people about your business and also to give YOU more confidence in yourself. If writing isn’t your thing, do a video or a podcast. Do all three. Do something!
The benefits of blogging are that it drives traffic (gets you noticed) which create leads. It also shows you know what you’re talking about and it can work for you longterm. See this post from Hubspot about why you should blog – and this one from Matt Banner at On Blast Blog with 11 really thorough reasons why you should bother, including loads of handy links to help you get going. There’s no excuse now.
5. Email
OK – so to email someone else, they have to notice you first, however, once you’ve got someone on your list, you can email them when you need to and they will notice your emails – even if for whatever reason they don’t read them! If they do open your email though, you have a fantastic opportunity to tell them what’s going on with you and your business and to make sure that they know what you are offering. As well as newsletter or being part of your list, you can also make use of your email signature by including links to your website, social media and anything specific, like a particular programme that you’re promoting or a product that’s selling well for example.
6. Running a competition
Running a competition – or doing anything that will create a bit of a buzz about your business – is a great way to get noticed as people will talk about it, interact with it, share it … think of ways to get people involved. With all the apps around to help you run a competition, it isn’t hard to create a bit of oomph around your business. Here’s an old (but still relevant at time of writing!) post about running competitions on Facebook.
7. Print
Printed items. Keepable. Solid. Sharable. Throwawayable… Print is great. You need to think carefully about what you need, where it’s going and who’s going to be looking at it to make sure that you don’t waste your money. If you get it right – it’s so worth it. Printed items can include:
– business cards
– fliers
– postcards
– pull up banners
– brochures
– magazines
– leaflets
– booklets
– reports
– packaging
– greetings cards
– promotional items
– the list is endless…
As long as the purpose is identified and the design stands out then you’re bound to be noticed.
I hope that helps! This is just a handful of ways to get your business noticed – I’d love to hear from you other ideas that you have. Please let me know in the comments.