A marketing review is an analysis of your current strategy to determine how closely it aligns with the goals of your business, provides insight into the strategies that are working well, and areas that could be improved upon. Here is how you get started.
1. Website
Your website is a critical piece of your digital strategy. An intuitive website experience gives your business credibility and allows its visitors to quickly gather the information they need.
Take a moment to view your website through the eyes of your target audience.
- Does it tell the story you are intending?
- Does your audience know how to efficiently navigate through your website to access the information or products they are seeking?
You will want to experiment with different journeys on both desktop and mobile to test your website’s responsiveness, its ability to adjust and scale correctly between devices, and its readability.
2. Email Marketing
Email marketing has evolved significantly since the launch of internet-based communication. Before Facebook, Google Ads, and other mediums, email marketing was the most effective way to engage with your audience. Today, email marketing does not always see the returns it once had, but it is still an important part of any brand’s digital marketing strategy.
Start your email marketing audit by reviewing the campaigns you are running and look for gaps.
- Do your campaigns follow a specific journey, and if so, are you missing pieces of that journey? For example, review a welcome series of messages for a new subscriber to your email distribution list.
- As a new subscriber, do your email campaigns inform them about your products and services effectively?
- Does your email drive the new subscriber to view more on your website? Are your open rates and clickthrough rates where you expect them to be? If not, consider performing A/B testing of new email campaigns to increase these metrics.
Another part of your audit should consider all ways a customer engages with your business through online forms, direct emails, transactions, etc. Are you missing opportunities to include marketing messages? For example, when customers purchase something from your business and receive an order confirmation email, could you add in a marketing feature below the order confirmation information? These are highly engaged opportunities to promote your products and services further.
3. SEO & Content
Search engine optimization (SEO) is one of the most crucial pieces of your digital strategy that is rarely discussed. SEO is responsible for your business appearing in online searches across all search engines.
What is SEO and how does it relate to content?
SEO is the search engine’s process of ranking keywords and analyzing content to properly index your website in that search engine’s results. Therefore, the more keywords your website ranks for, the more likely you are to rank highly in search results for that content. SEO’s structure makes creating new and relevant content vital for any business.
As you begin to audit your SEO rankings and website content, we recommend using tools like SEMRush and Google Search Console to learn about keywords and search queries that your business ranks. Using this information, you can identify gaps in your SEO and learn what keywords your competitors are ranking for that you may want to integrate into your website. As you start to identify new keywords for your business, creating new highly targeted content will further strengthen your SEO.
4. Social Media
Social media has matured since its inception along with social media marketing strategies. While great content is still important, it is critical to establish goals for your social media accounts that are in-line with your business’ objectives and values. Social media goals should be specific and consistent so you can evaluate performance. For example, if original content is a big part of your marketing strategy, you may use social media to generate more awareness for the content you share on your website.
As you audit your social media presence, consider these questions:
- Do your social channels make sense for your business?
- Does your content align with your marketing goals?
- Does your audience know how to contact you quickly and efficiently?
- Is your audience highly engaged with your content and are you engaging with them?
- Does your content adequately represent your brand?
- Are you utilizing your social accounts to capture new customers through tagging and sharing?
- Do your customers know how to connect with you on social media (hashtags, account names, etc.?)
5. Digital Advertising
If you want to grow your business rapidly, investing in digital advertising has been an industry default, but it can also be the fastest way to invest with little return. If your business engages in paid advertising, focusing on your ads’ performance is key to success. As you audit your paid media strategies, they are only as effective as your website is at converting prospects. David Ogilvy, widely known as the Father of Advertising, once said, “Great advertising will only make a bad product fail faster.” With this insight, you should review your website experience before you dive into paid advertising.
When performing your audit of your paid advertising campaigns, consider the following:
- Is the journey from clicking on an advertisement to visiting the website consistent?
- Are the ad campaigns managed regularly and optimized for the best performance?
- Are you tracking your conversions accurately? (Form-fills, purchases, etc.)
- Have you tested your ad creative to maximize your ad performance?
- Is your ad budget properly distributed across your advertising platforms based on the success of the platform?
Your marketing audit should be a time of discovery to learn more about your presence and identify new areas to reach your customers.
Get inspired by the process to brainstorm new and exciting ways to market your business and grow your brand. If you identify areas that you would like to explore but don’t have the bandwidth or knowledge to execute, schedule a meeting with our expert marketing partner Breef.
Breef provides small businesses with access to more than 5,000 vetted, boutique agencies that deliver more than 40 project types at all price points. From brand creative and public relations to digital marketing, web development and design, Breef connects companies with vetted agency partners in under seven days, simplifying the marketing outsourcing process to drive measurable business outcomes.
To learn more and get a free marketing consultation with Breef, visit Breef in your NEWITY portal.