Happy New Year! The silly season has come and gone, the reset button has been pressed and now’s the time to get your marketing in shape. Here are five New Year’s resolutions to help you put your best foot forward in 2017.
1. UPDATE YOUR LOOK
If brand elements like your logo and marketing materials haven’t changed over the years, chances are they don’t accurately reflect where your business is today. And if potential customers don’t know the full story, you could be missing out.
Make 2017 the year you give your brand the shot in the arm it needs. Have a visual and written representation of your company that clearly reflects where your business is right now and where you envision it to be in future. It may simply be a minor update to freshen up a logo and roll out to corporate stationery, or the launch of a sleek new website. Maybe you need a complete brand overhaul like what we did for the Rouse Hill Rams. After launching the rebrand, the Rams experienced a record 66% increase in new memberships. Talk to the team to find out how we can help your brand.
2. GET IN SHAPE
When it comes to websites, the phrase “shape up or ship out” certainly rings true. Your site needs to incorporate both form and function with fresh design, seamless functionality and search optimised content to attract visitors and convert them to customers.
One way to get your site looking trim and terrific is to optimise it for mobile. A leading report has revealed that over 60% of searches are conducted on mobile devices and this number will continue to grow. Orion can design your site responsively so people can view it with ease on their smartphone, tablet or desktop. It eliminates the need to zoom in or scroll the page from left to right. Responsive design makes everything easy to read and navigate, which instantly improves the customer experience. It also helps draw more people to your site, because Google and Bing rank responsive sites higher for searches on mobile.
3. KEEP IT FRESH
The phrase “you get out what you put in” rings true for all marketing, particularly in the digital space. And it largely comes down to your website content. Keep your website updated with fresh, quality content and, if done well, the universe will reward you with higher search engine results, which can lead to more visitors and higher sales conversions. But set, forget and neglect your site, and that’s exactly how people will view your business: no updates, nothing new to offer, no thank you.
New content can come in the form of regular blog posts, media releases, case studies, e-newsletters, social media posts and links. You also need to make sure the content you produce is relevant, reads well and appeals to your target audience. Orion can assist by writing your web copy and producing fresh, up-to-date content that’s optimised for search.
4. BE MORE ADVENTUROUS
Good marketing means taking the occasional risk and testing new waters: from mixing it up with your campaign creative to trialling new marketing channels and promotional mechanics. Gone are the days where you had to have a big marketing budget to get any kind of cut-through with the likes of TV advertising, billboards and large print runs. You now have more marketing channels than ever before in both the digital and print space. These tend to be more affordable, better targeted and easier to track performance compared to traditional mediums. They can also deliver higher ROI, as this report from Kissmetrics reveals.
You could try advertising through online catalogues, AdWord campaigns, QR coded point of sale and interactive outdoor display, online games/competitions, mobile apps, campaign microsites and landing pages, content/video marketing, social media, cross-promotional partnerships and sponsorship. Even email marketing is adapting to become more interactive, automated, personalised and geared for mobile. Litmus has reported that in 2016, mobile opens increased by 17% to represent 56% of all email opens.
The sky really is the limit with how you can tell your story and get your message out there in an interesting and effective way.
5. BE MORE SOCIAL
If you’re serious about getting “more eyeballs” on your brand, you need to embrace social media. With 1.79 billion users (more than the entire population of China) and record revenue earnings, Facebook is still a Goliath of the social media world, with no signs of slowing down. There are now 60 million Facebook business pages and 49% of consumers “like” a page to support a brand.
If done well, it’s a great way to increase brand awareness, generate leads, build loyalty and keep your finger on the pulse via customer feedback and competitor activity. Check out the 2016 Shorty Award winners for best social media campaigns for inspiration.
To get results, you can’t do social media in half measures, so if you’re not sure where to start or simply don’t have the time to create content or manage social media marketing yourself, we can help.
Ready to turn over a new marketing leaf in 2017? Get in touch with us today!
