Over the last few months, many businesses have been either working a little or not working at all. And, with many now looking to return to the office as soon as it is safe, you may find yourself with a little free time as businesses start to pick back up and clients come back on board.
If this sounds familiar, and you’re a small business, this is the ideal time to get ahead of the game before we get used to a new normal. Below, we’ve highlighted how you can do this.
Business Plan
One thing that’s worrying a lot of businesses, especially small ones, is what business will look like over the coming months. Therefore, it would make sense to sit down and look at your business plan and re-assess.
It was recently reported that one in four small businesses don’t have a business plan. A business plan is important as it keeps your business on the right path and helps to improve growth. If you’re one of those businesses, now is the time to sit down and focus yourself and get a plan in place. This way you’ll be able to work out what money you have, the money you’ve missed out on and how you’re going to recoup those losses while continuing to grow moving forward.
Marketing Plan
Having a business plan is one thing, but getting your business noticed is key to success, and a marketing plan is how you do this. While you may have halted your marketing activities due to the pandemic, it will have left you with several things you can’t do. However, can any of these ideas be reused? Have you got a start on the calendar for the coming months? If not, maybe now’s the time to get started.
From planning out what blogs you’re going to write to formulating a killer content calendar and pre-scheduling business as usual social posts – now’s the time to get ahead of your marketing efforts.
SEO Audit
SEO is the key to success for any company now. However, how often do you conduct an SEO audit?
Most suggest that an audit should be done between two and four times a year. This can be difficult at times, so, if you’ve been trying to fit one in, why not get it done now?
An SEO audit can include several elements, such as:
- Technical analysis –to ensure your website is working the way it should
- On-page review –to make sure the website is well-structured, and content makes sense across the board
- Off-page analysis – while this isn’t completely in your control, you can take the time to analyse incoming links and online reviews to help better your SEO
Content Audit
The phrase ‘Content is King’ was coined for good reason, especially in the digital sphere. However, is your content good, and does it work?
While you may think your content is killer, it may be a little more filler at times, which is why now would be a great time to start a content audit. This could help to influence your content calendar in the future.
When done right, your content audit should help you to:
- Identify your best performing content
- Find what content connects best with your audience
- What posts aren’t working
Keep in mind whether you’re doing this for SEO or pure content marketing value. This is because SEO will need to be optimised for search using keywords, word counts and optimised images, while content marketing optimisation will require you to look at metrics such as shares.
All of this should put you into a good place moving forward when it comes to knowing your audience and reaching them, as you won’t waste time creating content that just sits there gathering digital dust.
Address past issues
Who’s guilty of doing things last minute? Chances are, everyone’s a little guilty of knowing the business will need something and then leaving it to the last minute
With time on your hands so to speak, why not think ahead to any photo or video shoots or events you may need to conduct later on. You can then start thinking of everything from concepts and venues to guest lists, putting you in the best position possible when it comes to the execution.
Connections
If you find it difficult to network due to your workload, why not try reaching out now? From LinkedIn to old leads, now could be the ideal time to meet that future client.
While no one knows what the future could mean for many businesses, it would seem that now is the best time to try and get ahead of yourself to avoid any issues further down the line.
If you need any help with this process or simply want assistance with your marketing plan, contact us.
