4 Big Projects to Improve Your Marketing Results

When it comes to marketing tactics, it’s easy to get caught in the details. If you focused on one, big project what would improve your marketing efforts the most?

Here are some suggestions.

Improve Your Lead Attribution

How will lead attribution help?

I hope this is a no-brainer, to you. However, I keep finding websites that cannot fully attribute the source of their leads. This is a shame. It’s a missed opportunity. Better tracking helps you know what’s working. If something is working, double-down. If it’s not, put your efforts into something else. Better tracking will not only save your marketing dollars, but help you get more out of them. It’s a worthwhile investment. Perhaps you should make “Better Lead Attribution” your New Years Resolution?

What you can do?

I’m assuming you’re already using web analytics, such as Google Analytics. If you’re not, drop everything and install this today. It’s a shame how many companies aren’t doing this already!

Are you tracking your web forms by source? Make sure you can attribute web forms by source, in Google Analytics. Don’t forget to remove those email addresses already! Exposed email addresses get spammed to death, making them useless. They also make it impossible to know which marketing channel sent that visitor.

Are you tracking phone calls by source? Some customers don’t want to wait for an email. They’d rather talk with another human. That’s why you have your phone number, on your site. Make sure you know how that phone call found you, in the first place, with phone call tracking. It’s not as expensive as you think! Great systems like Call Rail can pay for themselves, by clarifying lead attribution.

Are you tracking the quality of your leads? Not every lead has the same quality. If you’re getting leads, make sure you know which are good and which are poor. Use a system like WhatConverts to qualify them. Otherwise you might be spending money on leads that aren’t good.

Are you following up with your leads? Invest in a CRM. I work hard to make sure clients have good leads. I hate to hear a client is not following-up with them. Invest in a good CRM and make sure you get the most benefit out of each lead.

Improve Your Content

How will content help?

Every marketing channel needs content. Fresh, relevant content helps with your SEO. Take advantage of the power of the long tail, too. It can also help with your social media– by giving you something to share. It can also help your conversion rate, building confidence in your company. Content can be re-used over several marketing channels, making it a great investment.

What you can do?

Identify your content roadblocks. Even the most well meaning of my clients have a hard time keeping up with regular content production. Do you need to hire a writer? Do you need to interview people in your company? Do you need to update your content? Be creative but make this a priority for next year.

Improve Your Citations

How will citations help?

If you have a brick-and-mortar office, you need to focus on this. The more consistent and accurate your NAP (Name, Address, Phone) is, the more likely Google is to serve your business in the SERPs. You can also think of this as a way to reach mobile users or build links to your site for better SEO.

What you can do?

I use Yext to manage my clients NAP. This makes things simple to manage and cleans up inaccurate data.

If you wanted to take this a step further, invest in a syndication over Infogroup, Axciom or Localese. These will submit your business’ information over several other platforms, that Yext doesn’t cover.

Improve Your Mobile

How will mobile help?

Every marketing channel uses mobile, these days. Want better social media engagement? Most social users are engaging over their phone. Make sure they can engage your site. Mobile-friendly sites have better Quality Scores. This makes PPC campaigns cheaper and more effective. Mobile might also be a ranking factor, so this will help your SEO. Want better response from your email campaign? Make sure people reading your email from their phone can read your site.

What you can do?

Don’t just create a mobile-friendly site. Make sure it loads fast, too. These can be expensive changes, and take a lot of time. Their ability to help your efforts across several channels, can justify the time and expense.

Of course, if you need help implementing or managing any of these projects, give me a call. I’m happy to help.