Are You Being Seen by the RIGHT People?

Remember, this month we are talking about getting seen by the right people, and last week we started with a really important idea. You don’t need to be everywhere to be seen. You don’t have to be on every social media platform.

You don’t even have to create content every single day, and you certainly don’t have to keep up with what everyone else is doing. Instead, you need to be intentional about where you’re showing up and who you are trying to reach. And that brings us to today’s episode, because here’s the thing: you can show up consistently, post regularly, create videos, write blog posts, and send emails.

You can even have people seeing your content every single day and still not be attracting the right people. So today, I want to ask you a question: Are you being seen by the right people? Not just people, not just followers, not just views. The right people. The people who actually need what you have to offer.

Not Just Numbers

I think sometimes we get caught up in numbers. How many followers do I have? How many people watched my reel? Or how many people liked my post? How many people downloaded my freebie? Also, how many people visited my website? Those numbers, they can be helpful, but the numbers aren’t the whole story. Because ten thousand people seeing your content doesn’t necessarily mean that you’re reaching the people. The ones who are most likely to become your readers, your clients, your students, your members, or your supporters.

You might have a post that gets five hundred views, and maybe four hundred and fifty of those are people who aren’t your audience. Or you could have a post that gets fifty views, but five of those people are exactly the kind of people that you want to read your book to, hire you as a coach, or become a customer of yours.

It’s about The Who.

Which one is the most valuable? Sometimes a smaller number is actually a bigger winner, and that’s why I don’t want you to focus on how many people are seeing you. I want you to think about who is seeing you. So let’s start with the most basic question: Who are you trying to reach? And I know that sounds incredibly simple, but I think it’s one of those questions we need to come back to over and over again. This is because the answer can get fuzzy as your business begins to grow.

So you might be saying, “I help Christian women,” but that’s probably not specific enough. Maybe you’re an author, or you’re trying to reach people who want to grow spiritually.

Are those ladies moms?
Are they business owners?
Are they people walking through grief?
Are they married?
Are they church leaders?
Are they teenagers?
Are they somebody else?

Or maybe you’re a speaker, and who are you speaking to?

to organizations,
to churches,
to women’s groups, to conferences,
to corporate audiences?

Or if you’re a coach,

Who are you coaching?
What problem are you helping those people to solve?

The clearer that you can get about who you’re trying to reach, the easier that it becomes to create content that speaks directly to them.

Content

Your content has to say something! Here’s a simple test. When someone sees one of your posts, reads your website, watches one of your videos, or listens to your podcast. Do they think, “That’s me,” or do they think, “That’s nice,” and then continue to scroll? There is a big difference.

“That’s nice” is polite. “That’s me” creates that connection that you want. So when your content speaks directly to someone’s problem, desire, question, or experience, they’re much more likely to stop and pay attention. Instead of saying, “Here are five marketing tips,” you might say, “If you’re a Christian author who is overwhelmed by social media, here are five simple things that you can do today.”

Conversational Approach

Now I’ve told a specific person, “This is for you,” and that is what we want. So another way to make sure that you’ve been seen by the right people is to use the language that that audience actually uses. Sometimes we get so familiar with our own industry that we start talking like experts instead of talking like the people we’re trying to help.

So we use terminology that maybe they don’t use, or we describe problems differently than they describe them. And sometimes we focus on what we want to teach instead of what they want to know. So listen to your audience. Pay attention to the questions that they ask and look at the comments that you receive.

Listen to conversations that you have had with potential readers or clients. Pay attention to the emails that people send you. What are they struggling with? What words do they use? What are they frustrated about? What are they hoping to change? And these are the conversations that can give you some very good content ideas because then you’re not guessing what your audience wants because they’re telling you.

Your message

Now, let’s talk about your overall message. If someone lands on your website today, or they look at your social media profile, or they watch one of your videos:

Would they know what you do to help them?
Would they know who you help?
Would they know what problem you solve?
Would they know what makes you different?
Would they have to figure it out?

We don’t want people to have to work that hard. Your audience is busy. They’re scrolling, they’re searching, and they’re making decisions just like that. So you want your message to be clear enough that someone can understand who you are, who you help, how you help them, and ideally, what they should do next.

Online presence

This is where I want you to think about social media. Rather, think beyond social media, because getting seen by people isn’t just about your Facebook page or your Instagram page. It is about your entire online presence. So you have to put all of those different things together: your website, your social media profiles, your YouTube channel, if you have one, your podcast (if you have one), your email marketing, your lead magnets, your blog, graphics that you use, and even videos.

Also, they all need to communicate the same message. Do they or do they not? They don’t have to look exactly the same, but they have to belong to the same business. So someone might start out by discovering you. Let’s say, on Instagram, and then they’ll visit your website. Then they might download your lead magnet, and then they just receive in their email an email from you, right?

Recognizable

You want that experience to make sense. You want them to say, “Yes, this is from the same person. I recognize them. This is the same message. This is exactly what I am looking for.” And that’s how you start becoming recognizable. So now there’s something that can be difficult for many people. It’s okay if your messaging isn’t for everyone.

It’s okay if your message isn’t for everyone. Actually, that’s a good thing because when you try to make your message appeal to everyone, it becomes so generic that nobody feels like you’re actually talking to them. Think about the difference between “I help people grow their business” versus “I help Christian authors, speakers, and coaches build and maintain their online presence.”

The second statement tells me more. If I’m a Christian author, speaker, or coach, I could definitely think, “She’s talking to me.” You don’t have to exclude everyone else, but you do want to make it clear who you are specifically equipped to serve. So if you’re listening and you’re thinking, “Okay, Alyssa, I think I’ve been attracting the wrong people,” that’s okay.

Making adjustments

You can adjust your message. You can start by looking at the content you’re currently creating. What are you talking about? Who would be interested in it? Is that the person you actually want to attract? Then look at your bio, your website homepage, and your lead magnet. Also look at the titles of your podcast or video episodes, look at your social media content and ask yourself, “If someone that needs my services found me today, would they recognize themselves in my message?” If the answer is no, don’t panic. That’s actually good information because you know what you need to work on. I want to give you a simple exercise. Grab a piece of paper or open the notes app on your phone and finish this sentence. “I help the blank, who are struggling with blank, so they can blank.”

So let me fill in the blanks. Here is my example: I help Christian authors who are overwhelmed by online marketing so they can build a consistent online presence. Or I help women who are struggling with anxiety so they can feel at peace. Make it specific. Then take that sentence and look at your online presence.

Does your website communicate it?
What about your social media?
Does your content communicate it?
Do your lead magnets support it?

If there’s a disconnect, you have found an opportunity.

Visibility

Now, I want to bring this back to something that’s really important to me as a Christian business owner. Sometimes we can think about visibility as being about us.

How can I get more followers? Maybe it’s how I can get more views. How can I get more attention? But what if we looked at visibility differently? What if visibility is actually about service? There are people who need what you have. There are people who need your story.

There are people who need your expertise. There are people who need your book. As well as, there are people who need your encouragement. There are people who need the solution that only you can provide. However, they can’t find you if they can’t benefit from what you’ve been called to offer. So getting visible isn’t necessarily saying, “Look at me.”

Not chasing attention

It’s about saying, “If you’re looking for this, I’m here to help.” And I think that’s a very different mindset. So we’re not chasing attention. We’re making ourselves available to the people we are called to serve. So here’s your challenge for this week. I want you to go through your online presence and ask yourself, “Would my ideal person know this is for them?”

Start with your social media bios.
Then look at your website’s homepage.
Next look at your most recent five pieces of content.

And don’t worry about changing everything. Just find one thing that you can make clearer. Maybe you need to change your bio. Maybe your website headline needs to be more specific.

Simple changes

Maybe your content needs to speak more directly to your audience. Maybe your lead magnet isn’t attracting the people that you want. Make one change and then watch what happens. And once you’ve figured out who you’re trying to reach and made sure your message speaks to them, the next question becomes, “What do you actually say?”

Because I hear this all the time: “I know who my audience is, but I don’t know what to post.” So next week we’re going to talk about creating content that gets you noticed, and we’re going to talk about how to stop staring at that blank social media screen wondering, “What am I supposed to talk about today?”

You don’t need to create more content just for the sake of creating content. You need content that has purpose, and that’s what we’re going to tackle next week.