Content Marketing,Content Marketing,Content Marketing,Content Marketing,Content Marketing,Content Marketing | 5 min read
Are you responsible for this year's marketing budget? Before you copy and paste last year's budget - take a look at these 12 ways to get better results from your marketing in 2021.
1. A fresh, updated brand style guide
A brand style guide is the source of all truth about how your business represents itself in the marketplace. It should be the place that people refer to when writing a blog post, updating your website, designing new flyers and so much more. If you've recently been frustrated that people aren't following the guidelines, or there's no guidelines in place for a specific component of your business - then it's probably time to pull out that document and either run an internal education session or get some help updating it. If you're not sure what should be covered in one of these documents, have a go at our Branding Scorecard - this will give you an idea of what you're doing well and what you can focus on in 2021 to get it on track.
2. Bring in the right leads with strategic landing pages
A new website can cost tens of thousands of dollars, suck up crucial resources in your business and take months to complete. The end result can have a significant boost for your business but what if you want those results now? The answer is strategic website landing pages. These pages can sit on top of your existing website and bring in the right types of leads for your sales team - meaning customers who understand your value and are ready to invest in your business to get the result they want. A typical landing page can be switched on in 2-3 weeks and can be built for less than a tenth of the cost of a full website rebuild.
3. Invest in ongoing Social Media
In the old days, social media meant getting a uni student to post some fun pictures on Facebook or Instagram. Thankfully, those days are over and businesses are embracing the power of strategic social media campaigns. This can include posting thought leadership posts on a mature platform like LinkedIn to grab the attention of possible sales prospects.
4. Prepare your website for May’s BIG Google SEO update
In May of this year Google will be releasing the next version of its search engine algorithm. In plain speak, this means that people’s search engine rankings will jump all over the place. To avoid your website from falling off into the ether, you’ll need to make sure you score well for speed, mobile usability (Google is judging websites on their mobile experience as a priority) and overall Page Experience.
Google’s PageSpeed Insights tool is a great place to gather feedback on how to prepare for the update.
5. Create a COVID-friendly image library
Does your business have a library of images for brand collateral? It might be time to add some new ones to the mix, especially if you have an overseas presence. 2020 transformed the way that we view images - gone are the days of large crowds at events, physical contact or people sitting on public transport without a face mask. Portion some of your budget to a photoshoot with a photographer who understands your brand and finds creative ways to incorporate "COVID friendly" into your photo library.
6. Outsource your marketing
Do you have parts of your marketing you struggle to complete, keep putting on the shelf or wish you had more expertise with? Outsourcing those components of your marketing could be a great solution for your business. A great way to get started is to discuss an ongoing retainer with your preferred agency
7. Review your CRM
Yes, a good CRM system should be tightly integrated with your marketing. In an ideal world, your CRM will track your marketing ROI, allow you to schedule marketing content and link all of your online assets (website, social media etc.) with your CRM.
Does your CRM tell you when a sales prospect has been poking around on your pricing page?
If not, it might be worth implementing a new system that gives you everything you've been wishing for.
8. Run a marketing strategy workshop
This is one of our favourites. Why? Every workshop we've run so far every client has said "wow!" within the first 15 minutes.
A strategic marketing workshop will help you create crystal clear clarity about who you love working with, how to find more of them, what messages to send them and when (depending on what stage of the buyer journey they're at).
These workshops are a must if you need more structure around your marketing calendar and more structure around delivering and measuring your marketing.
9. Get someone to write content that converts into customers
Do you ever get stuck trying to write an email newsletter or trying to figure out what words to put on your website landing pages?
A good content writer will save you hours of heartache pouring through a thesaurus, or putting off that next content piece until the last possible second.
The whole point of their existence is to help businesses see their content in a new light and to have the right customers take action when they read that content.
10. Get your brand seen on the road
Everyone "knows" that successful brands keep their success by maintaining brand awareness - i.e. people seeing their brand everywhere. A clever way to do this is to get your vehicles wrapped with a branding decal.
Sometimes it only need to be something simple like a logo, tagline and website or you can go the whole hog and get your vehicles fully wrapped.
You never know - your next big customer might see you drive up to your kid's sports match and be in desperate need of your services.
11.Physical marketing 2021 style
Yes, physical marketing drops in and out of fashion so here's a slightly different take on the subject. Imagine having a targeted account that you'd love to work with, have a social media strategy to warm them up - i.e. targeted LinkedIn posts that catch peoples e.g. a pink teddy bear - followed up with a physical pink teddy bear couriered to the people you want to target. Think that would get their attention.
Sometimes physical beats digital hands down!
12. Customer reviews and referrals
What better way to market your business than to get your favourite customers to do it for you.
A clever strategy to do this is: 1. Interview your clients over something like Zoom and record the session. 2. Get one of your marketing resources to chop up and brand the video so it looks professional. 3. Get your web development agency to design and build a new section on your website to showcase case studies. 4. Add the video interview and any other case study details to your website. 5. Shout out the case study on social media tagging the person you interviewed.
Usually they'll be so excited about you tagging them that they'll share the video with their network and hey presto - you have some new sales opportunities knocking on your doorstep.
If you enjoyed reading this article and would love to know more about any of the above suggestions - then please feel free to book in a 15 minute chat with Bernard our branding expert.
Published on January 11, 2021
