The last 12 months have made many of us masters of remote working. Our marketing materials should reflect mastery, as well. Most of us are relying a bit more on PowerPoints and electronic presentations. How do yours stack up? With the promise of spring (and vaccinations well underway), now is the perfect time to make a fresh start. To do a little spring cleaning on your marketing or your website look and feel, perhaps? Here are four areas that you might want to clean up or refresh now, so you’re ready to roll when we’re all meeting in person again.
When was the last time you refreshed your website?
Potential clients are still making your website their first stop. Make sure that your site is inviting, easy to use, fast, and compelling enough for visitors to return. The past year has given us some unique glimpses into our clients’ and colleagues’ lives, as a certain casualness, realness, and familiarity became more common. Perhaps your website — voice, message, imagery — could reflect that as well. Trends in marketing have leaned toward one-on-one, conversational communication. Less jargon, more real talk. Now could be the perfect time to not only assess user experience, but to refresh your website’s look, feel, and voice (including overall communication style), as well.
Ways to do that:
- Consider a website audit. Look for broken links, look at calls to action (do you have them?). Look for ways to keep in contact with web visitors. Offer downloadable tools, add some video.
- Change out your home page header or leading headline. Sometimes just an image update can give you that fresh look you want.
- Make sure “what you do” is easy to find on the home page. (You’d be surprised how many businesses don’t say).
- Look at analytics.
- Check traffic patterns – where are people coming to the site from how long are they staying? Which pages do they view the most?
- Are people downloading your resources? Which ones?
- Check which social media is to driving traffic back to your website.
- Be sure you’re supporting SEO. Although this is a longer-term strategy, it pays to utilize keywords, tag photos, add meta descriptions to each page, and update content frequently.
Freshen up your social presence.
Social media has been a lifeline for many in the past few months. How does your business brand look on social? Did you know that on Facebook alone, “Marketers can reach 32% of the population (aged 13 and older) with advertising?” Even if you don’t think of Facebook for advertising, there are plenty of ways to utilize it for your business. Of course, continue using LinkedIn and Instagram, as well. All platforms have seen surging engagement over the past year, as more and more people are online.
- Does your content have a consistent brand look?
- Do you write and share useful information and engaging content?
- Do you tag people and interact?
- Do you invite people to sign up for your newsletters (and invite them back to your website?
- Do you link back to your website?
Your social media should work in sync with other components of your marketing, providing additional touchpoints so that you will be seen and remembered.
Boost your virtual presentation game.
We’ve seen way too many painful presentations in our work. But it doesn’t have to be that way. Be sure that if you’re using PowerPoint or a similar platform in your virtual presentations, that you’re not simply reading information that appears on slides. “Read” presentations are even worse on Zoom than in person! There are so many ways to make your presentations more engaging:
- Start with one big idea. Create specific points to cover. And think in terms of single images (or data) that could help tell your story rather than text.
- Use text for general categories of themes or to introduce a case study or story. Maybe ask a question to lead into a specific talking point.
- Be sure your cover page and interior slides use the same color palette, font, and style (branded and consistent).
- Include your logo and contact information on the last slide.
- Also, have your website URL and contact information handy to put into “chat” so your audience can easily cut and paste the information. OR ask your audience to add their name and email to the chat so that you can send follow-up information (a special tip sheet or offer).
Prepare now for when you can meet in person.
In addition to ditching the sweats or PJ bottoms and actually dressing for a meeting, it’s time to think about your in-person presence. You probably haven’t had to hand out business cards for a while. Now might be a great time to refresh them or even create a quick handout. We’ve been getting some pretty creative postcards and mailers, and this can be a great idea for a post-meeting follow-up. You might also consider sending postcards or note cards, including your business card, in advance of any meetings (even in advance of a virtual meeting). These personal touches are important and effective!
Personal connections and word of mouth referrals (and networking), especially for B2B, are always important. After a client engagement or a great meeting, stay connected.
- Send check-in notes and thank you notes. Who doesn’t like to get mail with a personal note?
- Make it compelling. Have a unique and branded message created (i.e. notecards) that you and others on your team can personalize.
- Remember to be human first. The first message should be friendly, motivational, and fun. Maybe that’s all it’s for. Sales are secondary.
- Follow up by email and connect on social.
- Consider asking clients for feedback and/or referrals. And when appropriate, offer to write a testimonial for them.
Ah, spring! Take a deep breath and get busy! Look at your marketing and communications and think refresh – even if it’s just one or two of the items we shared. Not sure where to start? Worried that you can’t keep up with the constantly changing technology? Contact us to start the conversation. We’d be happy to help!
