With daily signs of the COVID-19 threat easing, more organizations are starting to reopen. Now is the time to carefully take stock. Are your marketing tools getting the results you want? Check out these best practice tips to make the most of your marketing efforts and get your marketing toolkit ready for reopening.
#1: Branding for a Big Impression
Branding is an incredibly impactful tool for communicating your mission, vision, voice and values to your audience. For best practice, be clear about who you are, articulate what differentiates your brand and highlight the benefits you offer. A brand style guide, which contains all the specifics on how your brand should look, feel and sound (colors, typography, image style, tone of voice) can help ensure brand consistency. Use it for messaging, tone and visual elements to reinforce your brand’s unique identity and make it more memorable for your audience.
#2: Engage Your Web Audience by Improving User Experience
It only takes 0.05 seconds for someone to make up their mind about your website, so it should load quickly. Simple and logical navigation, mobile-friendly design, concise sentences, short paragraphs and a clear call-to-action will encourage users to engage with your site. Visuals can help tell a story in an engaging way and break up the text. Always ensure your site is up to date with security features and SSL encryption to prevent security issues and help earn your user’s trust.
#3: SEO (Search Engine Optimization) to Help Users Find You
SEO (search engine optimization) helps users find your website and the information they’re looking for by increasing your ranking on Google. This long-term investment may take time to work, but once it does, it pays off in dividends. Best practices for SEO include optimizing your site’s loading speed, title tags and images, building backlinks and using internal linking, and leveraging keywords in your content and metadata. Content should always be aligned with search/user intent for maximum effectiveness.
#4: Responsive Email Marketing for Reaching Your Audience
Did you know that email marketing generates $38 for every $1 spent? Even if you’re not selling anything, these stats clearly indicate that email is a highly effective marketing strategy for reaching your audience. Best practices for email include a clean email list, meaning only people who have opted in will receive your messages. Since 70% of emails are read on mobile devices, your messages should be responsive, with easy-to-read text and high-quality graphics. A clear call-to-action should tie back to what you’re hoping your audience will do after reading your message.
#5: PPC (pay-per-click) Advertising for Instant Traffic
PPC advertising is a cost-effective way to quickly reach audiences and gain instant website traffic. There’s a myriad of options on Google’s PPC ad platform including search ads, display network, shopping ads and YouTube video ads. Best practices for PPC ads include optimized ad copy with content that is clear, concise and contains your top keywords. More long tail (specific) keywords will further focus on your desired audience. Other best practices include displaying ads at optimum times and optimizing your bidding strategy.
#6: Social Media for Connecting with Your Audience
Social media is a great opportunity to connect with the people who are interested in your organization. When it comes to best practices, be specific about what your organization is trying to achieve through social media to help shape the content. Plan a social media calendar to consistently deliver on-point content, create a strategy for each network and adhere to graphic guidelines. Other best practices for social media include sticking to your brand voice, values and tone and always remaining polite and professional on all interactions with your audience.
Rethink and revamp your marketing toolkit now so you’ll be ready for the season ahead. Whether it’s improving your SEO, rebranding, creating a PPC campaign or redesigning your website, we’re here to help you. Contact the experts at Greenleaf Media today.