‘You have to be more visible!’ If you own a business you must be hearing this everywhere, from everyone. But how can you be more visible? And what does ‘being visible’ mean? I’d like to give you an example of how visibility can lead to a purchase.
When we bought our house 10 years ago, it came with dark hardwood flooring. Not exactly to our taste, but too good to replace it. After all these years, the time had come to either give it the maintenance it deserved, or to replace the whole thing. We had grown to love this floor, its forgiving nature and its tough as nails surface which came in handy on many clumsy occassions. And we also thought it would be a waste to throw out a floor made of tropical wood.
Renovating it was!
In these situations I usually ask friends and family for recommendations. If they are happy with the service they received then I am happy to follow their directions. Word of mouth advertising at its finest. But nobody in my circle of friends had any experience with renovating floors. Where possible we try to buy local, which made me decide to post a message in a local Facebook group, asking for recommendations. Many people responded and three names were mentioned multiple times.
How to choose?
We invited all three to come and have a look, they all seemed to be very knowledgeable and they all made a tempting quotation. So how do you make a choice? I’m currently sitting in my home office, folded in between all our furniture from downstairs. While André, the flooring expert, is bringing the floor downstairs back to life, I am wondering what made me choose André. Because there are so many things that consciously and unknowingly influence a decision to purchase.
Price is not everything
Apparently, reviews are more important to me than I thought. because after receiving the quotations I checked out the websites and Facebook pages for the three businesses, looking for validation of their expertise but mostly for experiences from others. The quotation with the lowest price was from someone who didn’t have a website or Facebook page. Even though he was the cheapest, I didn’t fully trust hiring him would be a good decision. Two businesses remained. Both had nice websites, both had good reviews. At that point I noticed a photograph on André’s Facebook page. A picture, clearly from decades ago, of a man with a massive sanding machine, sanding down a wooden floor.
It’s a photo of André’s father with the caption ‘The man who taught me everything’. At that point I thought ‘Ok, this is someone who is proud of their business, has a passion for what he does and has years of experience’. In hindsight, that was the moment I decided.
Show yourself
That’s what I mean with visibility. You can explain on your website that you have a lot of experience, or that you are the best at what you do. But a photo is much more convincing to a potential customer like me. The thing is: If you don’t share content like this, how can your customer know what you’re all about? Of course this is a personal example, something that convinced me. Different customers will choose for you for different reasons. But the more you show yourself, the bigger the chance they will see something that appeals to them. And the more your existing customers are validated in their choice for you (‘see? that’s why I chose that business’). The post in the example received twice the likes and three times more responses than other posts on the page. Of course this doesn’t mean you should go and pull your family albums from the attic right away. But what I want to say is: don’t be afraid to be yourself. Stay authentic, honest and share why you do what you do. That way, you will attract exactly the right customers!
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