In addition to an accurate representation of your services on your own website, it is now becoming increasingly important for you to be represented on all other digital channels.
With a bewildering range of possible activities to promote this presence we employ a structured approach to maximise effectiveness:
1. Define the goals
Before allocating time and resource to any of these digital channels or tools it is worth starting with a clear understanding of what you wish to achieve. This will allow us to assess the effectiveness of any tool with these aims in mind.
2. Know where you stand
Having defined your goals it is important to know where you stand in relation to them now. This will allow us to assess the incremental improvements of each activity against this starting point.
3. Choose your tools
Having established where you are and what you want to achieve you can more easily prioritise your activities to start with the ones which offer the highest impact and gradually build up other activities as required. When choosing tools it is not as simple as equating set up cost with impact: there are many online activities which will require a higher level of ongoing effort to maintain and we need to ensure that this effort does not take resource away from another activity of greater value.
4. Is it working?
One of the most valuable aspects of any digital activity is that it can be tracked. Almost all online activity can be tracked to some degree – the extent often being determined by what is technically practical rather than by budget. The key to using this data to any positive advantage is to ensure any reports are focused to report on the defined goals. Without this discipline we are left with a mass of data that is difficult to understand, yet alone interpret. Ideally any reports should combine online statistics measuring success with offline statistics balancing the cost and effort exerted. This will ensure that success is reported in context.
