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April 2010
We hope you have everything in order--it’s time for an audit. Don’t worry, not that kind of audit!
When’s the last time you took an objective look at your company’s promotional activities? Though it may be painful, putting your brand on the chopping block can help you discover a new recipe for marketing success.
To give your business a “communications audit,” consider the following areas:
Branding and Messaging
- Your brand represents why your customers buy from you. Do your communications put your brand’s best foot forward? Well-written promotions featuring distinctive logos and compelling designs form the foundation of an effective brand presence.
- What’s your unique selling proposition? Your communications should emphasize the benefits your products and services provide, with little focus on features and technical jargon. Use clear, simplistic language (8th Grade reading level is the rule of thumb) to tell prospects why you deserve their business.
- When it comes to maintaining your brand, the devil’s in the details. Pore through your promotional materials, ensuring logos, fonts, colors and formatting are consistent throughout. Take any opportunity to integrate collateral pieces (putting a link to your website or Facebook page on your brochure, for instance).
Website
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A well-organized website should smoothly guide your visitor from the home page to the estimate page. Does your site feature an attractive design that doesn’t distract from content? Is every paragraph, link and image in the right place? Is pertinent information readily accessible on each page?
- Is your site a fresh source of compelling, industry-relevant content? Consider maintaining a weekly blog and including Twitter or Facebook feeds on your website to keep visitors tapped into a constantly-updating information stream.
- Where does your site land in search engine rankings? Are you on page one, two or fifty? If it’s the latter, consider press releases, keyword metatagging and SEO activities (like Google Adwords) to drive prospects to your site.
Public Relations/Social Media
- Press releases distributed through a general service don’t add up to a comprehensive PR strategy. Are your company’s top business influencers prominent in industry publications? Even better, has your company been featured in local or national media?
- Are you leveraging press releases to drive traffic to your website? Can you track how many hits have been driven to your website via a press release? Have any of your releases been picked up by respected media outlets?
- Your company’s activities on Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn should drive prospects to sign up for your email list, visit your website, or call you for an estimate. If this isn’t happening, you might need to beef up your social media presence. (For more tips on how to track social media ROI, see our September email.
What Can Grow Sales, Inc. Do For You?
If your company doesn’t measure up in one or more of these areas, a dramatic shift in marketing efforts may be necessary to achieve desired sales results. For more than 14 years, Grow Sales has been improving client’s communications, consequently increasing their bottom line profits. Give us a call at 301-294-9900 to find out what Grow Sales can do for you.
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