In this day of constant information flowing through every conceivable communication channel, it’s more difficult than ever to stand out in a crowd and really get noticed. The five steps below will provide a good start to helping you get in front of your intended audience:

  1. Understand your audience’s needs: Ask questions, identify real needs, and ensure that your solution satisfies the audience’s needs.
  2. Segment your Market: Breaking up the market based on needs and demographics is just the start, but a necessary component to delivering the right solutions to the right audience.
  3. Create your Message: Now that you have an idea of who your market is and what they want, creating a focused & relevant message is paramount.
  4. Get Involved: Quite simply, find out where your audience is consuming information and put yourself (and messaging) in front of them. Join forums, attend workshops, offer your time, create an article, a whitepaper, a comment, etc., in order to let others see you as an asset.
  5. Spread your Message: The game has changed – it now takes up to 12 touches (exposures) before you might make an impression on someone or cause them to take an action. So take your message and consistently spread it throughout all of your communications channels including phone calls, email, social media, groups, etc. Do these frequently and with an action plan.

Many of these steps may appear to be obvious, but to really effectively reach your audience, a plan needs to be developed and executed.

Getting noticed is not an arbitrary option for business these days with the continued competition from smaller players finding customers through social networks. Businesses both small and large should look at a combination of activities, including “value sales”, social media marketing (online & mobile) and channel expansion in order to maximize exposure.

Many companies that try to go it alone and handle their marketing, sales and other “getting noticed” activities can often stray from their own core competency and focus of running their business. Some companies can waste valuable advertising dollars, sales efforts etc., on activities that they themselves take on instead of a professional who understands and focuses on these areas. So the next time you want to get noticed, instead of shouting from the rooftops to everyone, create a plan that involves hiring professionals, hiring yourself and/or a combination of the two.