Digital marketing now plays a crucial role in almost every business and organization. As marketers, we always want to work on projects that generate positive results in the shortest time to provide “traction.” If you had 10 days to make changes that will most likely “move the needle” for your organization, would you be interested? I think you would, so let’s dive right in.
Working as a digital marketer for almost a decade, I have encountered many clients who want positive results in a very short time. If you find a similar situation with your client(s) or just want to focus on the right things to bring quick results for your small business, then here are 3 important things I would recommend you spend your time on in the next 10 days.
First, focus on your organization’s website. No matter how much money, time and resources you spend to promote your organization and its services, if your website doesn’t present and communicate what your audience expects from you, you will not maximize the return from your investment.
I do not recommend you do a complete overhaul or redesign of your website here, because 10 days is not enough time. Instead, you should follow these five mini steps to get your audience interested in what your website has to say. You should be able to get this done in just a few days.
- Go back to the basics by placing yourself in the shoes of your audience. Make a list of the top 10 things your clients really need and want, or their “pain points.”
- Next, narrow that list down to 5 things (or fewer) and begin to produce content that explains how your products and/or services can solve their key issues. Keep each of those content sections clear and short. People nowadays are quick to discern which content will be helpful and which to skip, especially when using their smartphones.
- Place this content at the top of your website, above the introduction about your company or services. Why? When searching for providers, people look first for products and services that can benefit them or solve their needs and wants, not how many years your company has been in business or how many team members you have. From the first encounter (on your Home page), if you can show that you understand their “pain” and have a proven solution for it (with past clients’ testimonials), you will gain their interest. They will then take the time to learn more about your organization.
- If you can add new graphics, images and videos into your new content to make your points stronger, the response rate from your audience will be much higher.
- Get your Google Review rating up to at least a 4-Star Review on average. Ask each of your happy clients to write you a good Google review. Make sure you take screenshots with detailed notes to give them step-by-step directions on how to access Google Reviews and post their testimonials. The easier you make it by providing detailed instructions, the higher the chances that they will take action. Otherwise, you are just wasting your time asking them because people usually don’t like to jump into something difficult or time-consuming without a significant reward. Remember, this is a favor you are asking of them. As a side note: you should write a thank you in response to their testimonial ASAP.
When you see the positive results from these minor activities, you can then plan your budget for the entire website makeover for your organization. That project should generate more significant results for you.
Second, make it very easy for your audience to contact you from your website, either through email, phone, chat, or all three. Once you receive their emails, make sure you reply within 24 hours or less. You can create a template for your email response with a request to connect with each potential client via conference call to go over their needs. The setup for this should only take you a day or two at the most, and this efficient response will save you time and avoid lost opportunities that can happen when you forget to respond or wait too long. Getting back to your leads within the 24-hour window is essential.
Third, build a marketing list of incoming emails from your potential customers over time, even if they decide to go with a different provider. Who knows? They might change their minds later. Set up a monthly or bi-monthly Adroll email marketing letter connect with your MailChimp account to send out special offers. The least this email marketing can do for you is to remind them of your services, and the most it can do for you is influence them to switch to you instead of their current provider.
After this program is set up, which should only take you 2 to 3 days, it then only takes you 5 minutes to send out future emails to your list of potential clients. Remember, this is your 5-minute email program to a very relevant target audience. It’s the most efficient 5 minutes you will spend on email marketing.
If you are looking for a few key activities that can help you achieve meaningful results with your digital marketing efforts, these are the 3 important and actionable projects I would recommend. This approach gives you the highest chance to test, and possibly prove traction, so you can ask for a bigger marketing budget and get funds for a larger project.
After you have implemented these ideas and seen beneficial results, here is a list of marketing books, with the review(s) from people who walk the talk, that I highly recommend you read. If you carefully implement what you learn from these books, your results should increase tenfold compared to the results from what I was able to cover in this short article. I hope you have found this information helpful. If so, please share with others so they can benefit from it as well. Thank you!
- The New Rules of Marketing and PR by David Meerman Scott
- Content Chemistry by Andy Crestodina
- Tribes by Seth Godin