Where did summer go? While most of us are still in the midst of a massive heat wave, it will be fall before we know it. Seasonal transitions are a great time for a business ‘checkup’ to mindfully determine where you are, how you’re doing and if you’re on target to meet your goals.
Below are seven prompts to get you started:
- Review your company website as if you’re seeing it for the first time. Is the content what your customers / clients are looking for? Is your design dated? If you haven’t refreshed your design, added new content or updated any changes in the past few years, it’s time.
- Take inventory of your marketing collateral: are you running low on business cards, brochures or leave-behinds? If you need to order more, check it off now rather than waiting until you’re out.
- While taking inventory, review your marketing materials to make sure they’re up-to-date. Do they still accurately reflect your business and provide the most recent information? Have your services or products changed? Do they use the most current logo, fonts, colors, etc.?
- When was the last time you checked-in with your clients? If you don’t send a regular communication (digitally or through the mail), now is a good time to touch base and see how everyone is doing, and how you can be of service.
- Speaking of regular communication, now is a perfect time to start an e-newsletter! Conveniently stay connected with your audience, share business news and tips, and more to help build an ongoing line of communication with your customers / clients.
- Create and / or update your social media strategic plan — if your current progress is getting a good response, great! Keep it going. If you aren’t posting consistently or getting a good response, it’s time to work on a strategic social media plan focused on the results you want.
- Review your overall marketing plan. What grade would you give yourself at this point? Do you need to update your SWOT analysis? Do your 3rd and 4th quarter activities make sense, or do you need to make some changes?
Pandemic-proof Planning
If this pandemic taught us anything, it’s that business’ need to create a strategic plan for when our economic climate moves and shifts again. We don’t know when this pandemic will be over, so we need to think about ‘pandemic-proofing’ our business as much as possible. Does that mean your employees move towards working virtually, for example? Make sure you have the infrastructure to do so smoothly. Do you need to prepare to postpone attending a trade show? How will you compensate for missed in-person sales opportunities? Have a plan in place, such as sending a custom mailer with an invitation to a virtual meeting, for example. Review the remaining year’s marketing plan and create an alternate version (or versions) to be ready for changes.
These are just a few prompts to get you going. Once you’ve thoroughly addressed these topics (and others that may be specific to you, your business or industry), there’s a good chance there will be some work to do. Whether it’s website updates, new photography, content creation, graphic design or e-news, Elements is here to help at 203-776-1323 or amy@elementsdesign.com
—Amy
