Visibility & growth playbook: get your next 100 customers

Start here: a simple path to sustainable visibility

Growing your visibility does not have to feel like shouting into the void. Think of it like joining a conversation your best fit customers are already having. Choose one group to focus on, show up where they naturally spend time, and talk like a person, with stories, examples, and little wins.

Use a practical, low stress plan to reach more of the right people each week and turn attention into customers. It works whether you sell services or products, B2B or B2C, and whether you are a solo founder or a small team.

What founders ask most about visibility, and what to do

The same themes come up again and again. Which channels actually work on a tiny budget? How do you get seen without posting daily? Does SEO still matter? Where do reviews fit? How do you know it is working?

Here are clear choices, quick wins, and weekly habits you can keep up. No jargon, no fluff.

Step 1 - Focus your audience: one ideal customer, one outcome

Visibility compounds fastest when you are specific. Pick one priority audience for the next 90 days and the one outcome they care about most. Everything else hangs off this choice.

• Write a one line brief: We help [who] achieve [outcome] without [pain]. Use it on your website hero, social bios, and outreach openers.
  
  
• List three places this audience already spends time, for example a subreddit, a niche newsletter, trade events, local Google searches, or YouTube tutorials. Show up there first.
  
  
• Collect ten to fifteen real phrases from customer emails, sales calls, or reviews. Use those words in your headlines and posts for instant relevance.
  
  

Step 2 - Pick two high leverage channels, not ten

Most small teams grow faster by running two focused channels well rather than spreading thin. A practical pairing is search plus one social, or email plus one social, or partnerships plus events.

Channel short list you can run lean

• Local and organic search: Set up Google Business Profile, optimise three to five high intent pages, and answer common questions. Strong for services and stores.
  
  
• Short form video, Reels, TikTok, Shorts: Bite size demos, before and after, tips. Efficient reach and trust for product explainers and founder stories.
  
  
• Email, simple and segmented: A monthly round up and a short welcome series. Your owned channel that converts quietly in the background.
  
  
• Reviews and word of mouth: Ask at the right moment, respond fast, and showcase proof everywhere. Crucial for services, local, and higher trust buys.
  
  
• Partner swaps and communities: Co written posts, webinar swaps, or bundle offers with aligned brands or creators. Borrow trust and audiences.
  
  

Step 3 - A weekly visibility rhythm you can actually keep

Here is a realistic 90 day rhythm that most founders can stick to in two to four hours per week. Adjust the volume up or down, but keep the structure.

1. Monday: 30 minutes of listening. Scan one community thread, three competitor posts, and three customer emails or reviews. Capture phrases and questions.
   
   
2. Tuesday: Create one useful post or short video that answers a real question, plus two to three repurposed snippets for other channels.
   
   
3. Wednesday: Improve one page on your website or Google Business Profile, add a Q&A, a mini case, a review, or an FAQ.
   
   
4. Thursday: Outreach, one partner message, one customer story request, one review request.
   
   
5. Friday: Scorecard, check five numbers, note one learning, and plan your next test.
   
   

Five numbers that prove visibility is working

Do not drown in data. Track just these five weekly KPIs. They are simple, comparable, and point to real momentum.

• Website: unique visits and contact or intention events, for example demo, enquiry, add to cart, or email sign ups.
  
  
• Search: impressions, clicks, and top ten keywords from Search Console.
  
  
• Social: reach and saves or shares on your best post, useful signals.
  
  
• Email: new subscribers and replies, not just opens.
  
  
• Proof: new public reviews or named testimonials added this week.
  
  

Evidence based guidance, without the noise

Search and reviews still move the needle for small businesses. Short form video continues to deliver strong reach and trust. A balanced split between building your brand and driving activation, the last click actions, gives better long and short term results. Small, steady activity tends to outperform occasional sprints. Keep a simple plan and show up consistently.

The No Fluff Visibility Framework, NVF

When you are busy, you need guardrails. Use the NVF to score ideas before you commit time or budget.

• Audience proximity: Does this put you in front of the exact people chosen for this quarter?
  
  
• Proof potential: Will this create reviews, case studies, or clear before and after moments?
  
  
• Compounding effect: Will this keep working after the first week, for example an SEO page, a YouTube video, a partner guide?
  
  
• Feasibility: Can you do this well in under two to four hours per week?
  
  
• Measurability: Can you see movement in the five numbers within two weeks?
  
  

Score ideas one to five on each line. Run the two highest scoring ideas. Park the rest.

Quick wins to ship in the next 14 days

• Turn FAQs into traffic: Add three question and answer blocks to your top service or product page, written in your customers words. Submit to Search Console for faster indexing.
  
  
• Google Business Profile spring clean: Add categories, services, fresh photos, and one post per week. Pin a New customer, start here post for clarity.
  
  
• Review drive: Add a single review ask to your email invoices and thank you messages. Make it specific, two sentences about your before and after would mean a lot.
  
  
• One minute video series: Show how to solve one tiny problem your audience faces. Film on a phone. Post to TikTok, Instagram, YouTube Shorts, and embed on your site.
  
  
• Partner swap: Offer a co created checklist or a webinar swap with a complementary brand. Share the list and outcomes in both audiences channels.
  
  

Which channel pair should you choose?

Match your choice to your business model and where your customers are already looking.

• Service businesses, local or niche B2B: Local SEO plus reviews. Add one short video per week. This combo captures demand and builds trust.
  
  
• DTC and e commerce: Short form video plus email. Use video to attract and email to convert and retain.
  
  
• SaaS and B2B solutions: SEO plus partner content, for example guest posts, build with tutorials, or co webinars. Consider founder led LinkedIn only if you can be consistent.
  
  

Make content that earns attention, without chasing viral

You do not need cinematic production. You do need clarity, empathy, and outcomes.

• Use the helpful first formula: context, mistake to avoid, how to do it, and a small next step. Keep it human and specific.
  
  
• Say what others will not: share a pricing range, a failure, or an honest trade off. People remember useful honesty.
  
  
• Show your receipts: screenshots, timelines, and before and after visuals make abstract promises concrete.
  
  
• Let customers speak: named reviews and 60 second story clips carry more weight than brand claims.
  
  

Lean SEO for founders, just the essentials

• Pick three to five intent pages: Home, one or two services or products, pricing, and a comparison or alternative page. Make them fast, clear, and skimmable.
  
  
• Answer engine content: Publish two short Q&A posts per month that answer exact questions from sales calls. Link each back to the relevant page.
  
  
• Metadata and basics: clear titles, descriptive H2 and H3 headings, internal links, compressed images with alt text, and a simple FAQ schema on core pages.
  
  
• Local signals: consistent name, address, phone, service areas, and fresh reviews often beat chasing hard keywords.
  
  

Email that quietly converts

Email is still underrated for small businesses. A short welcome series plus a monthly digest keeps leads warm and customers close.

• Welcome series, three emails: 1, your best quick win. 2, a customer story. 3, options to start, book a call, a starter plan, or a resource.
  
  
• Segment lightly: Split by intent, for example downloaded something versus requested pricing, or by product interest. Even simple segmentation improves performance.
  
  
• One clear CTA: one button, one action. Remove the rest.
  
  

Reviews, your most persuasive content

Reviews increase discovery on Google and provide the proof people need to act. Focus on named, detailed reviews that describe a clear before and after. Then make that proof easy to find.

• Ask at the right moment: after a visible win, delivery received, onboarding completed, or a project milestone.
  
  
• Make it easy: share a direct link and two to three prompts, what changed for you, what almost stopped you buying, what would you tell a friend.
  
  
• Showcase everywhere: website, proposals, product pages, and social captions. Prioritise named reviews with specifics over star counts.
  
  

Borrowed audiences, partners, swaps, and creators

When budgets are tight, partnerships multiply reach without multiplying workload.

• Webinar swaps: Co host a 30 minute mini class with a complementary brand. Each of you invites your list, both get the replay and leads.
  
  
• Channel takeovers: Do a day in the life on an aligned brands Instagram or a guest post in their newsletter.
  
  
• Creator clips: Gift a product or share early access to a feature in exchange for a 30 second honest review. Focus on niche creators your audience already trusts.
  
  

Pacing and team, keep it founder led for now

Do not rush to spin up a complex growth team. Early stage growth works best when decisions stay close to the customer. Keep experiments small, prioritise learning speed, and scale up what proves out.

Scorecard, a simple dashboard you can build today

Create a one page scorecard with your five weekly KPIs and two quarterly goals, for example rank in the top ten for a core term and 20 percent of revenue from partners. Review every Friday.

• Green = moving in the right direction week over week.
  
  
• Amber = static, choose one experiment to unblock.
  
  
• Red = down, stop one thing and double down on the winner.
  
  

Mini case snapshots, what good looks like

• Online course company: 90 day focus on courses for HR managers in mid size firms. Channel pair, SEO plus short founder posts on LinkedIn. Two Q&A articles per month and one partner webinar. Result, steady growth in demo requests and named stories to fuel sales.
  
  
• Luxury accessories brand: Short form video plus email. Weekly how to style clips and a simple three email welcome. Result, more saves and shares, higher repeat purchases, and richer reviews with photos.
  
  
• Neighbourhood community app: Local SEO plus creator clips. Optimised city pages and 30 second honest reviews from niche creators. Result, more organic installs in priority cities and a growing reviews flywheel.
  
  

Troubleshooting if visibility stalls

• Nothing sticks? Narrow the audience and sharpen the outcome. The message may be too broad to land.
  
  
• Traffic but no leads? Add proof, named reviews and clear before and after, and a clearer next step. Check page load speed and mobile forms.
  
  
• Great content, low reach? Change the format to video, improve hooks, or partner to borrow distribution.
  
  
• Busy but inconsistent? Halve your publishing frequency and keep the Friday scorecard sacred.
  
  

Your 90 day Visibility Plan, print this

1. Pick one audience and one outcome, write the one liner.
   
   
2. Choose two channels that match your model, search, short form video, email, reviews, partners.
   
   
3. Set the weekly rhythm, listen, create, improve, outreach, review.
   
   
4. Define the five KPIs and build your one page scorecard.
   
   
5. Ship one quick win per week, ask for one review per customer.
   
   
6. Every 30 days, keep one winner, fix one bottleneck, and drop one drag.
   
   

FAQs

Do I need to post daily? No. One useful post or one short video per week, repurposed into two to three snippets, is enough to build steady reach when it answers real questions.

What if I dislike being on camera? Use screen recordings, product hands, or customer stories. A voiceover or captions are fine. Clarity beats polish.

How long until results show? Many teams see early signals, more searches, saves, replies, and reviews, within two to four weeks. Compounding effects from SEO and partnerships usually build over three to six months.

What budget do I need? Start with time. If you have budget, put it toward better landing pages, a simple video setup, and creator or partner distribution before pure ads.