In the world of entrepreneurship, one of the most challenging aspects of business ownership is finding ways to let the most people know that your business exists, i.e. visibility.

There are many factors that will determine which channels are used to gain visibility; factors such as business type, industry, customer demographics, and more. As you may assume, social media is a very popular way to get in front of customers, but there are many other components that lend to the success of that form of marketing and to other forms. It would be difficult to give a social media strategy lesson to a group of business owners with differing messaging needs and wants, but there are other visibility tools and tactics that can help businesses gain visibility with some time and effort.

Here are 4 ways to gain visibility for your business:

Post, Post, Post
Whether you are on social media or subscribe to event posting websites, these platforms give ordinary people an opportunity to create content that others with interests matching that content can easily find. If on social media, join groups that were created for interests revolving around the product or service you provide. Get to know members of those groups and network; many will allow members to post about their businesses and be seen by those who are in their core target audience. Many local publications have event posting platforms where they allow locals to post information about their upcoming events and services, which is a great way to gain more visibility and tell more people about what you do.

#Hashtags
Yes, this is specific to social media, but this tactic can apply to anyone without getting into strategy. Hashtags serve as a great search strategy on social networks and allows users to find information based on the topic of the hashtag. Search for hashtags that are relevant to your industry, and you will be able to potentially find others in your industry, post content using those hashtags so that others can find you, and find additional resources that could allow you to post about your business to gain more visibility.

Google
Most of us know Google as the super search engine that helps guide us through our daily lives on a constant search for information, but Google has many tools for business owners that can help them gain visibility for free. Google has a platform where businesses can create a free business profile that will allow users to find them when they are searched on Google by name, or when people search for an item the company may sell. The great news is that the Business Resource and Innovation Center will be offering an introductory virtual class on Wednesday, December 2 as a one-on-one, appointment-based service to help entrepreneurs set up their business profiles to gain more visibility on Google.

Traditional Advertising
Although some look at social media as a free form of advertising, it can be said that there is still some value in creating traditional advertisements on those social media networks. Most social media networks and even Google have advertising platforms that allow anyone to create ads by specifically targeting specific audiences, setting a budget, and creating the unique content they want to be displayed. This type of visibility isn’t free like the others, but you help in gaining visibility to a very targeted audience.

Gaining visibility is a never-ending activity and can be accomplished in many ways; making a consistent effort to get in front of the target audience is necessary for the success of any business.