Don’t let your marketing die of natural causes. Here are five marketing challenges that are most likely to be overlooked.
Your Website
Remember when you launched your website? You thought you were done, didn’t you? Websites are fluid and constantly changing. You need to keep it as current as the jeans you wear or the phone you carry. Websites need to be redone every two years to stay current. As many as 60% of all websites fall into this category.
There are several reasons for this:
– Non-mobile friendly websites are penalized with lower Google rankings. This means your search engine optimization (SEO) will suffer and your customers will find it difficult to find you.
– Your website needs new content to keep the search engine optimization high. This includes videos, photography, broken links, and outdated images (i.e.: flip phones), new team members not listed, blogs or newsroom without new posts and pixelated images.
– Your company will look out of touch if the design seems outdated. Some signs of this include use of Flash, page clutter, auto-play videos, background music, slide shows, keyword stuffing, clichéd stock photos and hard-to-read fonts.
Your Mobile Footprint
Most online searches are happening on mobile devices. 75% of Americans admit to bringing their phone into the bathroom! 4 out of 5 use their smart phone while shopping. Time on mobile devices has exceeded the time spent on desktops with a preference to mobile apps vs mobile sites. People are spending an average of 3:23 on apps and 50 minutes searching the web via phone. It is absolutely necessary to have a mobile strategy.
Your LinkedIn Profile:
This falls into a similar category to your website. You set it up with the best of intentions and haven’t posted in three years. When people do their due diligence, they notice this. You don’t look attentive and current. Industry standard is to post content one time per day, preferably in the morning and never on weekends. 97% of people on LinkedIn do not do this. For this reason, posting one time per week will make you look like a contributor.
Your Video Library:
Video connects buyers to your products and services. Adding video to your landing page, for instance, can increase “conversions” by 80%. Videos build trust because seeing is believing. 57% of consumers say that video gives them more confidence to buy online. And they can be used for everything. They can be used on your website, which Google rewards with high search rankings. Add video to your social media sites and pepper in online for lead generation campaigns. They can be made with a quality camera or cell phone. New software and phone options allow anyone to do it. Spontaneity has replaced quality in the race for effectiveness. I recently read, “video is like pizza, when it’s bad, it’s still pretty good.” So don’t strive for perfection, strive for telling a story and doing it regularly.
Digital Marketing:
No matter who you are marketing to, chances are they are on mobile at least 50% of the time. The only age group this does not apply to are those over 70 years old. Even boomers (54-66 years of age) are online. The way each age group uses digital might vary. Here is a big picture description of the big digital arteries:
Adwords or search engine marketing – people looking for your product find you when they search.
Facebook / social media ads – tempt people with offerings while they are checking their posts.
Display or video – reach specific types of people with a message or offer.
Rosaria Cain | Founder & CEO