Happy 2018! As we flip our calendars into the New Year, many of us are thinking about what we can do to make this year the best year yet. It’s that mentality that leads gyms to be full the first week of January, smokers to trade in their cigarettes for nicotine gum and savings accounts to be acknowledged—at least for a little while. While it’s true that the majority of New Year’s resolutions don’t make it past a month, recognizing where you can improve is at least a start. That being said, if you are looking to improve your digital marketing efforts in the New Year, read on to see McNutt & Partners’ digital marketing New Year’s resolutions for 2018.
In 2018, I resolve to:
- Take inventory of my digital assets. If you don’t know where your brand is being represented digitally, then you can’t exactly take advantage of it. Taking inventory of your digital assets involves listing all of your websites, social media accounts, email addresses, ad placements, etc. and determining which ones are active, and which ones you may need to do away with if they are not being used. If anything, this task will help you stay organized when it comes to your digital marketing strategy.
- Keep passwords organized and protected. With multiple digital accounts, you end up with the need for multiple passwords—and remembering all of them can get a little overwhelming. In fact, we’ve seen clients locked out of important accounts many times simply because they could not remember their passwords. Along with creating an online identity as an individual or business comes a need to protect that identity—and that’s where a password manager comes in. A password manager will automatically generate and store passwords for every account you have. Read more about password managers.
- Post fresh content on a consistent basis. It is important that, once you have established a solid arsenal of digital assets, you don’t just sit back passively and expect something to happen. The internet is on 24 hours a day, seven days a week, 365 days a year, so your digital presence should be one that is constantly generating fresh content—for both your websites and social media networks. Not only should you post new or updated content to your websites and social media, but you should do so on a consistent basis to both help with SEO and keep your followers intrigued.
- Take better photos for social media and your website. While posting fresh content consistently is important, it should also be quality content. Resolve in 2018 to take better quality photos for your social media and website (or hire a professional to do so). Again, this will make you appear professional in the eyes of your followers, which should encourage them to do business with you. There’s nothing wrong with snapping a photo on your iPhone to upload to Facebook, especially with the quality of smart phone cameras these days. Just make sure to remove clutter and unnecessary objects from the background, and/or strategically place relevant objects around the subject when possible.
- Pay attention to SEO strategy. Search engine optimization (SEO) is something you should address head on if you are to be successful in the digital marketing world. SEO affects where your website appears in search engine rankings, the results of which can make or break whether people are finding your business online. There are a multitude of ways that you can enhance SEO for your brand, such as including backlinks, writing with keywords, structuring your website smartly, and optimizing your Google My Business listing, among others.
- Respond to feedback from your followers. Replying back to comments left on your social media posts or blog and online reviews about your business (good and bad) is important for boosting your brand’s credibility and letting your customers know that you are paying attention to what they have to say. In addition to responding when people reach out to you, you can also show off your active web presence by commenting on other individual and business’ social pages and websites, so long as you keep the discussion positive. If you get in the bad habit of never responding to anything anyone says, then eventually they will stop communicating with you.
- Maintain brand consistency. Cultivating a consistent overall image for your brand is critical to ensuring recognition among your consumers. If you are using one style of logo with one set of colors on your website and another style of logo with another set of colors on your social media, then customers will be confused. This also gives off the appearance that you are lazy—or that you don’t know what you are doing. The benefits of maintaining brand consistency can be significant for your business’ growth and success.
- Innovate wherever possible. Often, getting too comfortable in sticking with what works puts us in a marketing rut. Cue the need to innovate—to continue to push the envelope in terms of digital marketing strategy to attract new followers. This includes being receptive to new technology, heeding suggestions and also tying in your strategy with current events and calendar dates in order to connect with a broader audience.
Follow our digital marketing New Year’s resolutions for 2018 to improve your business’ digital presence as a means of generating brand followers! Need help implementing any of these strategies? Call the McNutt & Partners team at 334-521-1010 or visit our contact page!