It’s that time of year again! Time to tip out the junk drawer, sort out the files and review how your marketing is going so far this year.
Every once in a while, it makes sense to review where you are, check why stuff is not getting done and congratulate yourself on what is working. If you are letting the daily to-do list overtake the need to review and maintain your marketing, it will come back to bite you at some point. You will miss out on sales, diminish the perception of your brand and waste your time and that of your employees.
If you want to breath a bit of new life and spring bounce into your marketing, here are our tips:
Check on your goals
Give your marketing efforts a quick audit. If your brand presented consistently across you’re your marketing – web-based and in print? How does your social presence look? Is it interesting, updated regularly and presenting your business in the best way? Can people find your website and social platforms quickly and simply via your marketing materials? Can they quickly understand what you do and how you can benefit them?
How are you going against your New Year’s marketing plans?
What is taking up your time? To be fair, it is usually social media which swallows up everyone’s time and some of you will be asking yourself if it is worth it? Now’s the time to review which platforms are working for you and where your best engagement is coming from. Check the analytics of each social platform you use and your website analytics? Make sure you are making your social marketing time work for you by having a clear view of the types of followers you want to reach and the content you want to share. If you are not using a tool like Hootsuite or Buffer to help you automate your feeds, take five minutes to see which one will work best for you. Go through your followers and accounts and give them a shake up by un-following irrelevant or inactive accounts and actively looking for new ones to connect with.
If you did not put in any metrics to measure your marketing objectives, put them in now or it will quickly come around to the end of the year and you will not know what has worked and what has not.
Give your lists a quick dusting!
Most of us have different marketing list – customers, potential customers and lapsed customers. To ensure your lists remain as efficient as they can be, give them a quick dusting over and make sure they are up to date. You’ll save time and money in the long run.
Check your contacts and update them if needed. Remove any old or duplicate contacts and take out any which no longer exist. Think about your list management and the practices you have in place to ensure they are kept up-to-date. It can help to send out an email with the purpose of verifying your contacts and asking them to check and update their information.
Shake up your email marketing
If you have an automated system of welcome, win-back and loyalty-type emails, now’s the time to review them and make sure they are still relevant.
Have a look at your designs – do they need a scrub-up? Check they still fit with your brand, website and general online presence. Check your links and details to ensure they are up-to-date.
Most importantly, dive into your results and compare what you are getting from your email efforts compared to what you were getting. If things are on the up, then give yourself a pat on the back. If not and your results are dropping, now’s the time for a shakeup.
Wash out your website
Take a look at your website with fresh eyes and put yourself in the place of your customers.
From your front page, can your first-time visitor see exactly what you do, understand the benefits of using your service or product simply and quickly and work out what they need to do to buy it.
Run your eyes over the images. Do they need a freshen-up? Are all your product or service descriptions correct? Are your staff listings up-to-date with current photographs? Are your main and staff contact details correct? Are there any events showing which need removing or updating?
Have a look at your Google Analytics. If you look at your top ‘most visited’ pages, are there any surprises there? Are the pages which are key to your business hitting this top list or do they need some work to get there.
Tidy up your brand
Are your images, your logo and your branding guidelines up-to-date and easy to find? Are your contractors or freelancers able to access them quickly and simply? Do you have the right logos or images in place for your social media options or print options? Does your brand image need a refresh?
Just like the office or home spring clean, your marketing needs a little love and maintenance now and again! If you need some inspiration, give us a call on 01638 731513 or email us at info@bluelizardmarketing.com