I recently had a new client sign on to work with me for six months, but less than a week later they called and said ‘we’re sorry, our numbers aren’t what we thought they were and we have to make seven people redundant next week. We can’t go ahead with you.’ Hiring a consultant to increase their visibility and support their plans to scale one week, downsizing to protect their business from unstable economic times the next. Rapid change in direction, huh?
I’m sharing this personal example because it shows how quickly things are changing for businesses right now. The high cost of living is reducing consumer spending, putting pressure on margins and profitability, clients are reducing cutting budgets, while many companies have talent that they need to let go to reduce expenditure.
One of the first expenditures to be cut is generally PR, marketing, advertising or anything associated with the business’s visibility. It’s an easy way to reduce budget. But, if you’re business can afford to continue the investment, times like this – when most of your competitors are reducing budgets too – is a strategic time to be visible and get stronger results than when everyone has more budget to allocated to marketing.
1. Competitive advantage
If you can allocate budget and resources to your visibility strategy, your exposure will get better results while your competitors are being quiet on this front to reduce spend.
This can work really well for SMEs and scale ups that may be managing their visibility in-house or with the support of a small consultancy, so less budget is needed than it is for the bigger players. Your audience’s appetite for expert insights and commentary won’t dissipate during this period, so your visibility can fill the gaps caused by competitors reducing their spend in this area.
2. Your thought leadership will have a greater impact
Timing is particularly relevant when it comes to thought leadership. Building business leaders into thought leaders takes time and resourcing. For start ups and SMEs, the leaders will mostly be doing this work themselves, while the leaders of the industry dominators will have teams and consultancies that help them be visible.
If you’re looking to build your thought leadership profile as a way to build visibility for your business, do it when the market is uncertain and your larger competitors may have fewer resources to be dominant.
3. Greater impact with PR
Businesses navigating budget stress will likely be reducing their PR outreach, so now is a good time for businesses that are their industry’s best-kept secret to start building their profile via PR. If competitors have fewer resources to engage PR and less to announce due to reduced client load or redundancies, now is the time for your business to announce new hires, client wins, share innovative case studies of results delivered for clients and best-in-class strategy, write opinion pieces and pitch them out for publication, and build meaningful relationships with journalists. A profile via PR will build trust with your audience and can also be highly valuable.
4. Build credibility faster
With brands making less content and less resourcing around leaders of bigger industry players, you have the opportunity to build credibility faster than at any other time. Clients and the industry are now more than ever seeking credible insights to help them navigate this period. Who better to do that than you? Emerging as a thought leader with other businesses and leaders who are under-resourced or distracted in their businesses (justifiably) is a great time to establish yourself well and get rapid results.
A lot of the time, leaders who know they should be building their profile to accelerate the growth of their business feel overwhelmed with how to get started. They think they need to be on every platform, regularly, booking speaking slots and podcast interviews. All of this is true, but it doesn’t need to happen at once and it doesn’t need to happen tomorrow. During a time like this, you likely have your own business challenges to navigate as you start to build your profile, so get your basics right, start on the platform that feels most comfortable with you and with content you know you’re an expert on and build it out from there.
It doesn’t need to be hard. Actually, if it feels hard it’s like anything – it means there’s something not quite right. You just need to be smart about how you do it and optimise whatever work you do so it works hard for you and gets results.
One space left! – Elevate your visibility in 2024: private, one-to-one reputation advice for professional women
I have one space left in my low-fee, high-value one-to-one support offer for women who want to build their visibility in 2024.
This is the last space available at a significantly discounted price and the last available until July, so if you have questions or think now is the time for you to start being visible, please DM me or set up a time for us to chat.
- Month 1: 60-min one-on-one with me then 30-min one-on-ones each month
- Unlimited whatsapp support
- Unlimited email support
- Editing one article per month (blog, thought leadership, editorial for media etc)
- List of 5-10 key journalists you want to build relationships with, with their contact details
- Template email to intro yourself to journalists
- Free guide to building visibility with journalists
- Access to my media database for any other journalist contacts you want
- LinkedIn profile revamp template
- Free guide to building your profile on LinkedIn
- Free e-book on overcoming the most common barriers to building your reputation
- Free reputation roadmap template
- Bio writing templates to write your bios for the media, pitching yourself as a speaker etc
- Support with editing (bios, speaker pitches, awards submissions)
- Recommendations on speaking, events, panel opportunities
- Feedback and advice on pitching for speaking opportunities
The women I have worked with (and still do!):
- Sign on to work with me for three months and are still working with me one, two and three years later
- Gain clarity and confidence fast and how they can be visible and where they want their visibility to take them
- Build regular media profiles as experts in their field
- Secure speaking and panel opportunities, positioning them as experts in their industry
- Fast-track their career or business growth
- Overtake the peers they once admired for their visibility
Fee: $550 per month + gst. Renewable every three months, finish up when it suits you
More info: Email me here if you’d like to sign up or click here if you’d like to book a 15-minute call with me so we can talk about the program, how I work and the results you’d like. As I mentioned above, it’s critical we’re a good fit so I can support you in the way you need and get your results fast!
Angela Cross is a reputation strategist who works with leaders and brands to elevate their reputations through PR, corporate social media, industry communication, and stakeholder engagement. If you would like to build your reputation with purpose and authority, email her here.
You can also download her guide to overcoming the most common barriers to building your reputation here.
