Spring is in full bloom and spring cleaning around your home and office seems only natural. But what about decluttering and putting a shine on your marketing efforts? You probably started the year with a list of goals you wanted to hit, activities you wanted to try and even a game plan for getting there. How’s that working out for you? We know. Life gets in the way sometimes, but now is a great time to do a quick reset and reinvigorate your committment to your own marketing efforts with a few housecleaning tips to streamline the process and amp up the results.
Tackle That Pile of Analytics
That’s right. Tackle one of the toughest jobs first. Do you collect the numbers, but never really look at them? Have you put off adding tracking to key elements of your communications program? Now’s the time to take a deep breath and dive in. Getting a clear picture of your site, social and campaign analytics can help you decide which is the next most pressing area to tidy up. Taking control of this pile of data will give you a sense of accomplishment and might even show you that your efforts are producing better results than you thought!
Scrub Your Email Lists
You’re probably purging your unsubscribes on a regular basis (not that you have any, of course), but keeping your list(s) optimized requires doing a little more. Clear out inactive addresses — meaning not just bounces, but the ones who have literally never opened one of your emails. A more streamlined list will give you a more accurate analytics picture and help you to focus your content. You can think about grouping your contacts by industry or engagement rates so you can start to create personalized content and campaigns just for certain subscribers. While you’re at it, you might even want to give your email content a fresh look like Yalo did recently. (Subscribe to see what you’re missing.)
Dust Off Your Content
Been a while since you really looked at your website? We mean really looked? You’re not alone. Do a quick content audit to see where you can freshen things up a bit with new case studies, new service offerings, new blog content or even just a new client logo. Doesn’t have to be a major overhaul, but giving return visitors a slightly different experience from last time they came can help give the impression that you’re a dynamic organization with a lot going on. And while you’re making changes on the front end, double check your behind-the-scenes descriptions and tags because those search engine bots get excited by new content, too!
Polish Up Your Social Presence
Not posting regularly? Posting content that’s all over the place? This is another place where that analytics exercise can help you figure out where to go next. See which posts are getting the most engagement and start developing a plan to give your audience more of what gets them going. Spend some time thinking about buckets of content you can go to over and over again, including serial content, which gives your audience something to look forward to on the regular. And commit to doing more than just posting a link to an article every now and then. Original content, even if that means just adding a sentence or two of analysis before that article link, goes a long way toward helping you stand out.
Organize Your Output
The key to follow-through is planning! From mapping out a legit content calendar (you know those six bullet points you jotted down during your last team brainstorm aren’t gonna get you far) to formalizing your content creation process and schedule (so painful, yet so worth it), laying a solid groundwork is your number one key to success. Once you’ve gotten this part of your house in order, your whole team has clear direction on what’s needed from them and when. That means it’s easier to avoid that last minute “Oh snap! We’ve got an email going out tomorrow!” moment and develop content that’s more cohesive, more creative and tells a better story about your organization.
