Hopefully by now you have evaluated your companies goals and missions and have updated them all to reflect the current you and where you want your business to go. Now its time to start looking at the pieces of the puzzle that make your brand. The first piece we are going to take a look at is your web presence. Hopefully, you have a website and if you don’t it is definitely time to consider adding one to your arsenal.
This will take a little bit of time and research but you should be able to get a sense within an hour if your website is doing the best job it can be.
Website
- Search on Google, Bing and Yahoo for your company by your actual company name.
- View your competitors websites. Ask yourself if your site makes you look as professional as their does. If so, that is fantastic, if not you might want to consider a face lift. In today’s market the majority of buyers of both services and products research on the internet. Does this mean you need to have a big fancy site? No. It just means you need a site that instills credibility and trust and hopefully conveys your business values.
- Are you using any of the latest technology on your site? (Social Media Follow buttons, share features, twitter feed, blogs, etc)
- Does your site look old?
- Can you update your site frequently and easily yourself? If not, and you are considering updating your website you may want to consider going with a content management system (CMS). This allows you to be able to update basic content areas of your site yourself keeping your site (I hope!) fresh. Most web developers these days develop sites on CMS platforms and the pricing should be about the same or a little bit more than a traditional site. It is well worth it to go this route as you have the ability to update your site as frequently as you like at no additional charge from the web company.
- Is it easy to find your contact information? If people visit your location you might want to consider adding a map to your contact us page.
- Do you have any analytics to see how your site is performing? This is single most important item you need to have! Without analytics you can’t determine if what you are spending marketing dollars and time on are really of any benefit to your business. There are all types of analytics programs out there, Google analytics is a free tool and is one of the most powerful. If you can afford to do nothing else this year to your website be sure you have analytics software installed.
Social Media
Do you have a social media presence? If so, is it working for you? Is social media working for your competitors? If you don’t have a social media presence, look and see if your competitors are using it and if so how successful are they? You may be able to get some good ideas from them prior to launching your own social media campaign.
Directories
Are you listed in any directories? For example: Yelp, Google, Superpages, Yahoo, Foursquare, etc. If so, is your listing accurate does it include all your contact information? If not add updating these to your list of things to do. Directories are a great way to reach others that may not find you otherwise. Some directories allow for reviews and tips such as Foursquare and Yelp. Be sure to look at any reviews that may be posted so you know what your customers are saying about you.
Advertising
Are you currently running any banner advertising campaigns? If so check your analytics and the reports they are giving you and see if they are working. Most companies should be able to provide you a report of at least the click throughs to your site or page so you know if what you have designed is grabbing their attention. If the click throughs are low that doesn’t mean it isn’t a good place to advertise. It could simply be that your ad does not speak to what the user is really looking for on that particular page. Always remember to put yourself in your customers shoes.
These are just some of the basics but after reviewing these you should have gotten a feel for how your company looks at this moment on the web. Unless you have been very diligent all year I am sure you have some work to do to get your web presence up to par with your companies goals for the year. If it seems overwhelming, just take it one simple task at a time. If you have any questions or are not to sure about what to do next. We are always hear to help. Feel free to send us an email connect@brand1111.com
Our next blog in the series will be on Evaluating your Print Presence.
Livia says
Going to put this artilce to good use now.