Pestworld Magazine Focusing on the Business of Pest Management
Springtime is here, and homeowners across the country are busy tackling spring cleaning chores like decluttering the pantry, pest-proofing the home, and more. Springtime, however, isn’t just for getting your house in order. It’s also a great time for business owners to evaluate and freshen up their marketing strategies. From assessing your company’s website and social media presence, to cleaning up and updating email distribution lists, these spring cleaning tips will help bolster your business’ marketing program to ensure it’s as streamlined and effective as possible.
CONDUCT A WEBSITE AUDIT
The website is one of the most important marketing features for a small business—that is, if it is properly maintained and updated. As your business grows and evolves, it’s important that your company’s web presence does as well. Conduct a website audit to ensure all information and services are up-to-date, being sure to delete any obsolete information. Check to make sure all links are working properly, your messaging is consistent and in-line with your brand voice, your logos are updated, and any important company news is reflected on the site.
According to a study conducted by The New York Times, the COVID-19 pandemic has actually changed the way we use the internet. The study found that while there has been a steady increase of mobile usage over the past few years, desktop usage has surged throughout the pandemic as more people are staying at home than ever before. While it is still important for your website to be optimized for mobile, desktop optimization is now equally as crucial.
EVALUATE YOUR COMPANY’S SOCIAL MEDIA PRESENCE
Social media can be an excellent and effective marketing tool if used properly and to its full potential. An important component of spring cleaning your company’s marketing strategy is taking a look at your social media accounts to see what appears to be working, what’s not working and where you can improve moving forward. Check your analytics on each platform to see which posts received the most engagement amongst your audience to help you get a better idea of what content is resonating most. The leading social media platforms for businesses, Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter and Instagram, all have analytics sections that are user-friendly and help to give an overview and understanding of your page’s performance.
It’s also critical that you are brushing up on best practices and general rules of thumb for the social platforms your business is on. A simple Google search yields endless how-to guides for following best practices on all the top social media platforms. One example of a best practice that may seem trivial but can have a huge impact on a page’s performance is incorporating video content into your posts. According to Digital Marketing Institute, video content generates 1,200% more shares on social media than both images and text combined. By brushing up on best practices and incorporating these tips into your page’s content, you can boost engagement and expand your audience.
SCRUB YOUR EMAIL LISTS
Email marketing is essential for small businesses to be able to deliver timely news and updates to their customers. According to Forbes, email marketing delivers the highest return on interest of all marketing channels: $42 back for every dollar you spend. With this in mind, the next step in ensuring your email marketing messages successfully reach your audience is conducting an audit of your email distribution lists and “scrubbing” them to remove any unengaged or inactive subscribers. According to Stirista, email lists decline by 20 to 30% annually, so if you haven’t updated your lists in a few years, they can potentially be full of inactive email addresses.
According to Campaign Monitor, reputable email service providers won’t even allow you to send to distribution lists that are more than two years old, so if that’s the case, you’ll have to start fresh with subscribers that have joined in the past two years. You can run these email addresses through a program that scans and validates emails, such as Kickbox, to eliminate inactive ones. Once you have this list of active and up-to-date email addresses, you should send a new opt-in message to make sure everyone you are reaching out to is interested in hearing your company news.
This spring, it’s out with the old and in with the new—and that includes your marketing program. Be sure to analyze your website and social media platforms to ensure they are current and accurate representations of your business and update all email distribution lists so your messages are effectively reaching an engaged and active audience. While this guide is great to use each spring, consider revisiting it throughout the year as well to ensure your marketing program is as current as possible.
Cindy Mannes is the executive director of the Professional Pest Management Alliance. Visit www.npmapestworld.org/ppma for more information.
