Strategic Visibility
How do potential customers find quiet startups?
While we as quiet founders do not actively seek attention, the reality is that without some level of visibility, building a sustainable business is nearly impossible.
Ouch.
So what do we do?
Instead of chasing broad attention, quiet founders should seek strategic visibility.
This means showing up in the right place at the right time so your target audience can find you.
Here's what strategic visibility could look like in practice:
- Speaking at an event
- Being interviewed on a podcast
- Writing a guest blog post
- Collaborating with another brand on a co-hosted webinar or bundled service
- Sponsoring a relevant newsletter
- Hosting a Q&A on a relevant platform (e.g. Reddit AMA, dedicated Slack group, etc.)
But how do you find these right places?
It starts with deeply understanding your ideal customer. Where do they hang out online and offline? What do they read, watch, and listen to?
One of the best ways to do this is through informal conversations with existing customers of similar businesses to yours. Don't pitch them, just seek to understand where they are and what they're already doing.
Your mission is to learn.
This will help you identify where your audience already exists.
It's much easier to stand in front of an existing crowd than to build your own from scratch.
While the eventual goal is to have your own audience, in the beginning, everyone starts without one. It needs to be built up, one person at a time.
By practicing strategic visibility, you'll solve your early discovery problem and grow an audience at the same time - all while staying true to your values.
So, how are you strategically making your startup visible?