- December 8, 2007
- Posted by: Rosemarie Harvey
- Category: Uncategorized
How often do you review your marketing collateral to make sure they are still doing what you intended? How often do you browse your Web site? Do you read the postcards you have been using in your mailing campaign for the past two years? Is the information stale? Is the presentation weak? Are the graphics outdated? Is your contact information current?
As a virtual assistant, I spend a lot of time trying to find ways to improve my clients’ image and enhance their products and services. I often forget that I am also an entrepreneur who must do all the things for my business as I do for my clients’ businesses.
Today, I decided to take a few minutes and browse my website. Here are some of the things I found:
- a link that goes to a Web site that we designed but is no longer active
- text that could be re-formatted for better readability
- one sentence four lines long
- the following sentence six lines long! (“Sound bite”, people! That’s what works now)
- links that are invisible because they somehow match the background
What type of effect does this have on my visitors? Will they return? Will they send someone there? Now that I am aware of the matter, I can fix it.
Take the initiative to see things from your customers’ perspective. Include your friends and family in your evaluation process. Mail your postcard to a family member or friend who is not on your business mailing list, ask them to visit and navigate your website. Then ask them for their honest feedback. Since we, as small business owners or solopreneurs, don’t always have the time and tend to have a non-budgeted marketing plan, seeking a free evaluation could be our way back into the current wave of marketing.