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With the new year, and the uncertainties of what will happen with changes in AI, SEO, and digital marketing in general, sometimes getting back to basics and doing some clean up is exactly what you need before you tackle the next big “what if”. Oswald has created a helpful guide to walk you through small steps that have big rewards when it comes to your digital marketing. Use these as you plan out your own goals, or let us know how we can tackle this treasure map of goodies for you! 

1. Do a Website Check:

First and foremost, check your website! It’s easy and has great returns for mostly minimal effort.

The best place to start is just take a review of your website and when the last time you updated it. If it’s been more than 6 months it’s probably time to make sure you’ve updated:

•  Case studies and highlights of your work. Think back to the stand-out projects your company has completed and how you can tell that story to get even more of those stand-out projects.
• Review your homepage first and foremost. See if what you are currently featuring front and center are still the items that your business is striving to grow in or highlight. If not, go back to the drawing board and prepare to update.
• If you show pricing on your site (we will save the post for why we are pro-pricing for another time) and it’s not updated dynamically, now is a great time to go back and make sure your packages and offerings are accurate and your pricing is in-line with the market.

2. Branding

Along with reviewing your website, review your branding and creative on your website and across the board. Does that vision you had previously still align or are there tweaks that need to be made? If it’s your creative, website, and branding are older than 3 years, it’s probably time for a rework or refresh.

If you’ve never done any branding before, of course, we are here to help. Our Creative Director, Maggie Miller, loves branding almost more than she loves K-Pop and a beautiful design. However, if you are looking for more research, we love the branding roadmap that Donald Miller has come up with. You can find more info here: https://storybrand.com/

3. Blogs

Look, we get it. Creating blogs consistently is hard work and takes a lot of time – except it doesn’t. This blog took an hour to write and post. 

We are a blog #1 fans. It helps constantly add new content (and helps solve issues 1 & 2 above) meaning you get ranked and help generate more content through social, email, and many other channels. 

Utilizing a blog also only costs you your time. If you consistently build up a strategy and maintain it means you’ll be building your site for long-term success – both with SEO and with customers who are looking for new information from trusted sources. 

4. Social Media

Invest in social media! Not just posting because you feel like you have to – but invest in consistent and relevant social media. 

This means finding your voice on social and what separates you from your competition. If it’s extensive knowledge – show it. If it’s funny branding like Wendy’s or Duolingo – show off! If it’s your amazing company culture – post every team outing and training you guys do. That is the content that will get the most engagement and keep people coming back to your page and growing it organically over time. 

Social media is truly like a transatlantic voyage. It takes a lot of time and planning, but it’s so worth it and can be quite fun (and minimal risk of scurvy). All it takes is a content calendar, a brand voice, and someone with the account logins. 

5. Audience/Persona Review

Are the people you’ve been targeting with your marketing and sales calls for months (years?) the people who are really ready to buy? Have those personas or audiences shifted as you have shifted initiatives and sales goals? 

Reviewing or creating your audience and personas is crucial for sustained marketing success. 

This can feel like a daunting task, but if you’ve been collecting customer data in anything from a spreadsheet to a CRM, you have a starting point. Simply go back and review and start putting people into buckets. These buckets can be anything you want, but if you don’t know where to start, look at what similarities your customers have. Are they all established businesses are start-ups? Is the main contact the decision maker or gatekeeper? Is company size something they all have in common? 

No matter what those patterns are, start taking notes and compile that info into a document you can share with team members to really define your audiences. Then think about how they like to be marketed to, and from there – boom! You have a marketing plan! 

6. Review Your Competition

Check on your competition! Your competition should be your biggest inspiration. Find out what they do well, what you do well, and what you can learn from them. Just because you are competing for business doesn’t mean you can’t learn from and grow with your competition. 

You can find potential opportunities you are missing out on. We work with competition all the time to share ideas and get feedback because no one else will be able to pick apart what you are doing and ultimately help you than your competition. They aren’t the enemy! 

7. Reviews, Reviews, Reviews

Regularly getting and asking for reviews/testimonials are not just great user-generated content (UGC) but social proof is make or break depending on your business type. 

But how? Well, we give you a few options: 

• Creating a template email that you can send out after a service call
• Leaving QR codes at your reception area or main entry points in your office customers can easily scan
• Sending out emails regular requesting them and highlighting reviews

Similar to creating great social media, it does take effort up front and you don’t always see returns right away. But making this a part of your regular business and sales strategy will turn this into a habit that will feel second nature. 

The second point of this strategy is also coming up with a review response strategy. Ideally, you respond to every review with a custom response each time. Again, this takes some effort but you will see more engagement and a better reputation online with customers than canned responses and one-liners. Take some time, read the reviews, craft a response, step away if you have to, and then review and post. It makes a world of difference! 

8. Database Review

This is a hard one for everyone. Unless you have a database manager (and not many companies do) your customer list, database, or CRM won’t be squeaky clean. 

That’s okay. 

However, regularly cleaning out your customer database will help with all of the steps listed above. In this instance, quantity takes a back seat to quality. We want solid leads/contacts that will turn into business and repeat business. If someone hasn’t worked with you in years, reach out but feel free to cut them loose. They will come back again if you are marketing well. Anything else is dead weight and ship them overboard. 

Also, go back and clean up incomplete data if needed.  Find the correct email or phone number and if your contact has left their old job or retired, then update that information and it’s a great excuse to hit them back up. 

It is not a mortal sin to delete bad data. Your database will be healthier and will give you better trends to find more people like that healthy database. 

And if you haven’t, look into a quality CRM. There are so many that are cost-efficient and let you scale as you grow but having a system that you can edit and manage will revolutionize your business. 

9. Keyword Audit

Most of the time, you can find free services that will allow you to do a keyword audit. If not, reach out to us and we would love to help provide you with that information.

But, a keyword audit will help make sure that as you plan out more content you’ll be finding opportunities to incorporate more keywords that people are looking for that you haven’t added to your website. Looking for density and competition results will help you gauge what you should or shouldn’t invest time into writing content for those keywords. 

Ultimately, planning out your keywords leads to planning out your content and eventually your ads. They give you great insight into what your audience is searching for and if you are going to show up for those results. 

10. Local Listing Audit

Finally, double-check that your local listings (particularly Google My Business) are updated. If you’ve moved locations, added new branches or divisions, or just need to make sure your name, address, phone number, and URL (NAPU) this step is crucial.

There are so many things that go on with a move or new division launching that this often gets thrown to the wayside but people won’t be able to find you online if these are accurate. It takes 15 minutes to review and confirm and if you aren’t verified, start the steps. Your digital footprint will thank you! 

Conclusion

All of these steps feel like a lot. But take them in reasonable steps. Start with things you can tackle quickly (like local listings, keyword audits, etc) and then move on to larger projects that may take more time (like social planning and blogs). Not all of this can be tackled on your own and that’s where a marketing agency comes in. 

With our knowledge and experience we take the hassle out of managing these items and so much more. So use this checklist and when you need extra help, let us know! 

You can always call us on our shell-phone.