Have you ever wondered how your favorite business influencers show up so consistently? Do you wonder if that consistency leads to big visibility for them?
In this article we’re going to talk about consistency versus visibility. If you can only have one, which one should you choose? Or is this all a trick so that I can help you grow your business just by believing in you? You’ll have to read further to find out.
First, I want to preface everything we talk about right now by letting you know that everything you see from me has to do with business writing. Haveyou ever watched a video of me with my epic glasses on? Yeah, I wrote a script so I would say good words to you. Did you happen to hear me via podcast? Even in my interview episodes I have a ton of stuff written down before I ever start talking. I have my guests write things down for me too in a Google form before we chat. Everything is based on business writing. So consistency and visibility are also based on business writing. I’m sure you’ve noticed by now that business writing is my consistent theme. Alright, caveat over.
Consistency
What does consistency look like in your business?
The word consistency is one of my best friends. I use it when I talk about marketing all the time because if you can show up using the same business voice and making sure your ideas aren’t all over the place, you can earn trust from people who need your help. Whether you’re selling a banana slicer or coaching services, you want to share the same ideas in the same voice over a long period of time. No, people don’t find this boring. Their purchaser brains love it when you do this. And the way we talk about this practice is by saying, “You need to be consistent.”
Consistency moves past business messaging and company personality though, it also applies to how often you do something. When you show up someplace consistently, it means you go to that place with some cadence of regularity. For example, if I go to Panera once a week on Wednesdays during lunch to read a book and eat some soup, I go to Panera consistently. (I don’t do Panera lunchtimes anymore because I’m busy, but maybe after I get my webinar built out, I’ll start that practice back up again.)
Showing up on your platform of choice or your email list’s inbox with consistency is extremely important. If people don’t hear from you or see you, they are going to forget about you. And you don’t want that for them because they need your help, remember? So even if you set a goal of writing something or recording a video once a month, that still fits into consistency.
I like to show up on the platforms I frequent every day. I do have help in the form of amazing humans (thanks Autumn and Maria!) and supportive software. If you want videos of yourself on every platform every day while only having to record a 10-minute video every other week, you should talk to Autumn who owns LoSho & Co. If you want her contact info, email me.
You can work your way up to showing up with more consistency over time. If you haven’t been showing up as your amazing business self on multiple platforms every day, then don’t try to go from nothing to everything. That isn’t sustainable. But it is good to be curious about how you can increase your consistency in a way that supports you communicating about your expertise.
Visibility
Now, let’s talk about visibility. Being visible means that people can see you. So, if you show up consistently, will that increase your visibility? Not necessarily. What? How? Why?
If you are emailing a list of 10 people once a month, you are being consistent. But you aren’t increasing your visibility. But, if you go out and use a lead magnet (something you give away in exchange for someone’s email address) to gather more email addresses and your list is growing each month, you are growing your visibility. However, if you stop being consistent by sending emails, you lose that visibility because even though your list is growing, the people on the list aren’t hearing from you regularly.
Visibility also happens when you show up on different platforms. This can mean LinkedIn, YouTube, a Spotify podcast, TikTok, etc. But you have way less control over how much visibility you get on these platforms if you just post and run away. That’s why the key to increasing your visibility is to engage with individual people. Tag a few friends and ask them what they think. Visibility cannot happen in a vacuum. Some people do get accidental virality (they don’t know what they did to go viral), but virality and visibility are not the same. This is especially true when the thing you did that went viral isn’t related to your business in any way.
Visibility is also affected by your search engine optimization (or SEO). A lot of people ask me, “Kristin, why do you use your middle initial on your books and on social media?” This is an amazing question and shows me when someone is detail-oriented. My answer is, “There is an extremely famous wedding photographer named Kristin Spencer, and it used to be that when you looked up that name, you were directed to everything her. I needed a way to direct my potential clients to everything me, and my middle initial did that for me.”
This is a piece of visibility that a lot of people don’t think about. If someone hears about you and they want to know more, let’s say they go to Google or DuckDuckGo. Will they be able to find you? Do you show up? If not, you aren’t as visible as you should be.
So, which one wins? Is visibility better than consistency? The simple answer is, you need both things. But the truth is, you cannot have visibility without consistency. You can, on the other hand, have consistency without visibility.
How do you get both?
Be brave! Do some business writing. Show up as you and communicate in confidence clearly using your business voice. Share your mission. Share your expertise. And share these things as often as you like while being consistent.
Want help? Be on the lookout because if you attend my upcoming webinar (called Grow and Scale by Embracing Your Business Voice) and stay until the end, the gift I’m going to give you is called the Content Creator Blitz Framework, and it’s going to change everything.
You are amazing, I believe in you, and your business story matters.
Are you ready to learn more about how Literary Symmetry can help you communicate clearly with confidence to grow and scale your business? Awesome! Head here for two amazing, complimentary resources.
