I once met with a business owner who had assured me that there was little we could do to help them with their online presence. They were all over social media, they’d invested heavily in their website, they emailed their database regularly. All sounds good, right?

When did you last look at your website?

On reviewing the website, it was clear they had invested. There were all sorts of features and shiny-swirly-gigs going on. But nothing worked! All the click me, do this, do that buttons went nowhere. Lots of the blocks on the page didn’t fit so the home page on mobile was an absolute mish-mash. Some of the text couldn’t even be read!

Lesson 1: Look at your website with fresh eyes and do it regularly.

Websites date, either the tech they’re built on changes or Google’s rules change! Please don’t be complacent. Investing £1000s doesn’t mean you can simply forget about your website for X number of years. It should be a work in progress. It should also have functionality that works and brings you business. It should communicate what you do, how you do it and who you can help in an instant!

How are you doing on Social media?

Scheduling is great for keeping a consistent presence across your key social media platforms. However, every now and then the software might fail, or the access granted between your software and social media account might need to be refreshed.

Lesson 2: Do not make the mistake of thinking you have scheduled and therefore your platforms have been populated without having regular checks in place.

When your content is going out consistently it doesn’t necessarily mean the message is right or that you are leveraging your presence! Are you engaging your audience and taking an approach that brings your audience to you and keeps them loyal? Or, are you simply broadcasting like the lonely guy preaching in a market square?

Do you have control of your online presence?

Are you aware of your presence on every platform? Do you know what people are saying about you online? If you did a few checks and found a rogue social media account in the name of your business do you know what to do?

What does good email marketing look like?

You might be emailing your database regularly, but are you offering value through these communications or simply blasting clumsy sales messages? How are you sending those emails – please don’t say via Outlook! For some, GDPR might be a dim and distant memory, but that doesn’t mean you can be one of those people!

Lesson 3: Simply sending an email in bulk does not equate to having an email marketing strategy.

So, was there a way in which we could help?

By the end of our two-hour meeting, the business owner had a list of things they wanted our help with. Their eyes were wide open and they realised that despite their investment, they had dropped the ball with their online presence. Within two hours they realised just how much there was to do in order to ensure what they were putting out there in the world was actually happening!