Hands up! Who’s ready for their offspring to go back to school next week? Six weeks is a long time to keep them entertained or to pay for childcare. At least the weather has been generally good, for the UK anyway!
Most of you will have taken a holiday, maybe relaxing on a beach somewhere exotic, exploring ancient ruins, or visiting rarely seen relatives. Hopefully you’ve come back refreshed and relaxed, ready to kick-start things within your business.
September is not only the start of the academic year but is often seen as the time when we start to take stock of our lives. We’ve enjoyed the summer, got a nice tan and some happy memories, not to mention a lighter wallet, so now is the perfect time to re-evaluate things. We start to see things a bit clearer and want to simplify our working practices, we spend a lot of time at work and it should be as enjoyable as possible.
So what are you waiting for? Grab a pen and paper, or your IPad, whichever works for you, and look at ways to improve your business.
STEP 1 – Your website
Let’s start with your website – Ask yourself some important questions
- How old is it?
- Does it represent your business properly?
- Is it up to date, or have things changed?
- Are you/your staff represented? Remember that people buy from people!
- Are your social media links there?
- Do you regularly add content/blog articles?
Try and look at it from a customer’s point of view, ask friends to look and give you their honest opinion. Sometimes you’re too close to be impartial, so an outsider’s opinion can be very helpful.
The next step is to make any changes you’ve identified, which might include adding pages, adding a blog, updating content, adding social media links or even a complete overhaul of the design.
STEP 2 – Social Media
Social media plays a very important part in any business, but it needs to be regular and consistent. Think about who your target market is and what your aims are? Think about who your ideal customer is, then write for them. As a business, you should have a good idea of who you are pitching to. If not, spend some time working this out. This makes it easier to write articles and posts that will engage them.
Create a planner based on your findings and remember that people buy from people so don’t preach, write on a personal level. Offer advice and help, share best practice, ask for opinions and try to connect with your followers.
Make sure your website and social media platforms are linked properly, this is important for SEO. If you blog, make sure your readers can share it on social media easily.
STEP 3 – Marketing
Marketing is something we all must do, whether you’re a huge business or a one-man-band. Your budget dictates the scale of your strategy, but you need to do it, and do it efficiently. If you’ve got a small budget, it’s important to spend wisely. It could be printing leaflets and doing some cold calling, running an AdWords campaign or Facebook Ads, or even an advert in the local press. Sometimes it takes a while to work out which approach works best for you, so remember to measure the success of whatever you try. If it’s not working, try something else.
What next?
Now you’ve taken a good look at your business, how does it measure up? Do you feel overwhelmed with the tasks on your to-do list?
You shouldn’t try to do it all, do what you do best and delegate the rest.
Give us a call to discuss any improvements you want to make and we can help you come up with a plan. We can do as much or as little as you can afford, but together we can make your business efficient and successful.