How to spring clean your marketing!
First of all, what do we even mean be spring cleaning your marketing? And do you really need to do it? You might be thinking thinking that the idea sounds a bit gimmicky, but in fact it can be incredibly helpful to look at your current marketing efforts and plans and give them a virtual clear out or scrub up. This way, you can streamline your efforts and be sure that everything is tidy. So, where to start?
Tidy up: When we literally clean our house, there’s a certain order we do things in. For example we know that there’s no point vacuuming if the floor can’t be seen for clothes, so we put them away first. It’s silly to take the rubbish out right before you clear out the fridge. And you don’t put away all the dishes until you’ve dried them. Digital marketing has its own equivalent, in that before we start polishing up what we have, we need to work out what’s important. And that will come down to your customer journey.
You may remember from a previous article that your customer journey is the route people take from hearing about your business to becoming a customer. You can guide them along this path by making sure you have regular directions in place. For example, your social media might direct to your website, which directs to your newsletter, which directs to your premises. Or your social media might direct to your newsletter, which directs to your online shop. Or perhaps Google refers to your website, which refers to your newsletter, which refers back to your website when people are ready to book. It can be helpful to work out where the majority of your customers come from when designing your customer journey. Once you know what that is, you will know the specific stepping stones you need to keep in place for your digital marketing. Everything else is in addition to those things.
Declutter: As with a physical spring clean, decluttering is helpful because it clears away unnecessary encumbrances and helps highlight what actually needs doing. In the digital marketing world, this could mean letting go of things that aren’t working fo you or your business. For example, you might have a Pinterest account that you’ve never been able to make work, or your computer might be full of half finished articles, press releases or other marketing materials that you’ve never used. This stuff often makes you feel bad about the things you haven’t done, rather than focusing on the things that are going well — a bit like holding on to old clothes that no longer fit, because you’ll go on a diet one day. If it’s getting in the way then it’s time for it to go. Of course, you don’t want to get rid of anything important, like your website! That’s why decluttering should be done after tidying up, once you know those vital steps in your customer journey.
Clean and polish: Once you’ve got rid of the unnecessary things that aren’t working for you, you can take a look at the things you do actually need. Are they working as well as they could be? Maybe your social media posts are a bit perfunctory and irregular, with no real plan or strategy behind them? Maybe your website needs updating or improving, or maybe it’s been a year since you took at look at your automated email welcome message. Work on getting those vital stepping stones on your customer journey as good as they can possibly be.
Get help: Finally, there are certain things with a physical spring clean that most of us will happily pay a better equipped professional to do for us, such as cleaning the windows or the carpets. And sometimes there’s things with a digital spring clean that we may not be able to do ourselves. That might be improving our website SEO, helping us get set up to send our own newsletters, or providing high quality photographs. It’s worth hiring someone to get these things in place, as it makes life and work much easier when done well.