Marketing. Just when it seems you’ve finally got the hang of it – everything changes.
That’s why it is important to stay up to date on the latest marketing trends and periodically take the time to evaluate your marketing strategies and tactics. And, when better than the beginning of a new year – a time we traditionally reflect, set goals, and plan for the future?
Here are four steps you should take now to get your marketing back on track in 2019.
- Have a purpose for everything you do
Few businesses have an unlimited supply of time and money. It’s important to make sure that all of your marketing activities and tactics serve a strategic purpose. Too often, business owners keep doing the same things, in the same way, year after year without ever thinking about the “why.”
As an example, consider social media. Many businesses assume they need to have a presence on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram, Pinterest, Snapchat, etc. “just because.”
There’s an old saying, “A jack of all trades is a master of none.” It is time-consuming (and expensive) to create content for multiple platforms. Instead, focus on the platform that best fits your brand, reaches your target audience, and generates a return on your investment. When it comes to social media –it’s better to do one thing well than many things poorly.
- Perform a website audit
Is your website doing what you need it to do? Whether from poor design, outdated content, or lack of maintenance your website may, over time, fail to generate the traffic, leads, or conversions that it should.
A detailed web audit will help you determine the strengths and weaknesses of your site. An audit should include a review of your site’s content as well as a technical analysis of speed, links, page responsiveness, authority, and the various factors related to search ranking.
Free tools for website analysis are available online. Keep in mind, however, that most of these are essentially lead generation tools designed to obtain your contact information and ultimately sell you something. When you use these tools, you’ll get some basic information, but not enough to implement meaningful changes.
Your best option is to work with an agency or specialized firm to conduct your audit and make the necessary corrections and updates.
- Evaluate your content strategy (or create one)
Nowadays, digital marketing revolves around producing and distributing content to your clearly defined target audiences.
A trusted source defined content marketing as “a strategic marketing approach focused on creating and distributing valuable, relevant, and consistent content to attract and retain a clearly defined audience — and, ultimately, to drive profitable customer action. Instead of pitching your products or services, you are providing truly relevant and useful content to your prospects and customers to help them solve their issues.”
Do you have a content strategy? If you do, are you generating a sufficient number of leads, conversions and sales? If not, it is time to reassess your approach.
Content marketing is not just about posting and forgetting. Your content should be tailored to appeal to each of your targets and correlate with each step of the purchase funnel.
A simple Google search will reveal many free resources about content marketing available online. Most businesses, however, do not have the time or expertise to create and implement a truly effective content strategy. Typically, it is more cost-effective to work with a content specialist or agency to develop and implement your approach.
- Reassess your networking strategy
Your marketing strategy should include networking. Professional networking is one of the best ways to get referrals and uncover leads.
Have you joined a group association or chamber?” Look at your time and financial commitment versus the return – i.e., the number of referrals and the quality of those referrals. Did they become clients? Are these groups focused on meeting your target market?
For maximum benefit, it is best to network among like-minded business owners or salespeople who sell to the same target market but do not overlap services.
Are you ready to get your business back on track? The experts at NWI are ready to work with you to evaluate, refocus, and implement your strategy in 2019.
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