Spring is just around the corner! Yes, hard to believe, especially with the type of wintery weather that some people still have in some areas of the country. Spring Training, Spring Break, Spring this and Spring that… they all sound great! Spring Cleaning… well, not so much. Just like in our own homes, marketing strategies and obsolete assets can accumulate clutter in our offices over the course of the year. So let’s apply some “spring cleaning” to our marketing too so that it remains clean, current, effective and optimized all the time. Here are three easy tips that you can implement with very little effort.
1. Scrub and Clean Your Email Marketing Lists.
If you’re an active email marketer, you know that bounced back and duplicate emails are ineffective and can damage your reputation with your clients and prospects. Go through your email lists to verify that names, email addresses and other information are still current. Delete inactive addresses as well as duplicate or incomplete entries. This is especially important for your client list. Job mobility is a way of life and you soon realize that some of your clients are now working for a different company, yet you are still sending them information to their old email address. Ensuring that you’re always contacting the right people at their right location is critical when it comes to generating new revenues for your business. In addition, once you clean up your email lists, you will probably also reduce your monthly email marketing bill from your Email Marketing Service.
2. Polish Your Social Media Strategy.
Social Media is a constantly moving target. What worked well 12 months ago is not necessarily going to work well today. Revisit your Social Media channels and take a look at the type of content and strategy that you’re using for each of them. You may also find that you have to add new channels and remove others that are not working so effectively for you. If you have limited resources, focus primarily on those channels that work best for your business. Quality is always better than quantity.
Check that your main message still aligns with your overall marketing goals.
- Has your strategic message changed at all?
- Have your social media goals changed?
- Do your analytics show any weak areas that need improvement?
Discuss the above with your team. When you answer these questions you will be able to evaluate whether you need to polish and update your social strategy for the next 12 months.
3. Review Your Website Content.
I’m sure that you’ve been updating the most relevant areas of your website on a regular basis. Items like pricing, rates, photography, main content sections, product information, etc. should always be updated to reflect your latest information and product offerings. However, it’s easy to neglect other areas that include specific information about your company. Sections like your Mission Statement, your terms and conditions, your company history, your own accolades, milestones, press releases, and even your team bio’s may inadvertently become outdated before you know it!
A quick review of your website with one of your team members will allow you to create a friendly “To Do” list of items that you would like to update. Even if you consider that those items will not bring you any more sales, if they help boost the morale of your own team members you will be gaining in more ways than one!
See how easy it is? And you thought spring cleaning was hard! Sometimes the best way to improve your marketing is by simply cleaning up what you already have rather than adding new tools to your existing arsenal. As we say in the world of auto racing, “if you can get rid of all your underperforming and dead weight parts, your performance will immediately increase without adding any costs to your budget.”
Enjoy your spring season!
Until next time, this is Manuel Gil del Real (MGR)
