In today's fast-paced digital landscape, staying on top of your marketing efforts is essential for success. Yet 50% of businesses fail to review their digital marketing regularly. As we reach the mid-point of the year, it's an opportune time to conduct a thorough evaluation of your digital marketing and content strategies, the tactics you’ve employed to generate more traffic and leads, and how you’re doing toward meeting your business goals.
DaBrian’s mid-year digital marketing check-up will guide you through the key areas to assess, identify areas of improvement, and outline concrete actions you can take to optimize your marketing performance for the rest of 2023. It’s the same check under the hood that we perform on each of our client accounts during the summer months and it can work for you, too.
1. Start with a Strategic Review of Content
Your first step should be evaluating your current content marketing strategy to assess its effectiveness and any gaps you might need to fill in the coming months. That’s because without solid content, your overall digital marketing efforts will fall flat. Equally concerning, your sales team will feel as if their efforts exist in a silo and are unsupported by the marketing efforts of the company. To those ends, assess the performance of your blog posts, articles, videos, and all other content assets. Review metrics such as engagement, social shares, and conversions to gauge the impact of your content.
From there, you need to identify your top-performing content pieces and determine the factors that have contributed to their success. Analyze the topics, formats, and distribution channels that resonate most with your target audience. Leverage user intent tools and take heed of the search volume of the keywords for which you’re attempting to rank; otherwise, you’ll be posting wasted content. Use these insights to refine your content strategy for the remaining months of the year. Additionally, assess your content calendar and ensure that it aligns with your marketing objectives and audience preferences. Look for gaps in your content offerings and explore opportunities to diversify content formats or target new keywords to expand your reach.
2. Analyze Website Performance and User Experience
The next step in your mid-year check-up is to review your website's performance and user experience. Your website forms the backbone of your content approach. So, review your website analytics to assess important metrics such as traffic, bounce rate, time spent on site, and conversion rates. Identify trends and patterns to gain insights into user behavior and preferences. Evaluate the user experience by examining the site's navigation, page load speed, mobile responsiveness, and overall design. If your website is built for ecommerce, now is the time to confirm that it follows the best practices and covers all 7 components of an effective ecommerce website.
You’ll want to confirm that your website is user-friendly, visually appealing, and optimized for different devices. Over half of users in many industries navigate the internet using mobile phones. Is your website designed with a mobile-first design approach? It needs to be. Also, identify any technical issues that may hinder performance and take steps to resolve them promptly. Consider conducting user surveys or usability tests to gather feedback and gain a deeper understanding of user satisfaction. Use the insights gathered to make necessary improvements and enhancements to enhance the overall user experience.
3. Take A Look At SEO & Search Engine Performance
When was the last time you analyzed your search engine optimization (SEO) efforts to improve organic search visibility? Review your keyword rankings, organic traffic, and backlink profile. Identify keywords with potential and optimize your website and content accordingly. Google (and other search engines) are constantly changing their search algorithms. If you’re not staying on top of things, you’ll quickly lose traction in the search results and find yourself falling behind. This is particularly true of local listings.
Next, take a look at your on-page optimization, including title tags, meta descriptions, and heading tags, to ensure they align with best practices. Assess the quality and relevance of your backlinks, and consider building new high-quality links to improve your search rankings. Stay up-to-date with the latest SEO trends and algorithm updates to adjust your strategy accordingly. Explore opportunities for local SEO, voice search optimization, and featured snippet targeting to enhance your visibility in search results.
4. Evaluate All Social Media Channels
It can be a challenge to look holistically at your social media marketing efforts, but you need to devise a way to aggregate your social media results so that you can determine your total effectiveness and identify the channels that best connect with your target audience(s). That means reviewing the performance of your social media channels, including engagement metrics, follower growth, and click-through rates. Identify the platforms that deliver the best results for your business. Assess your social media content strategy and examine the type of content that generates the most engagement and conversions.
Consider incorporating user-generated content and influencer partnerships to increase reach and authenticity. Review your social media advertising campaigns and assess their performance. Analyze metrics such as cost per click, conversion rate, and return on ad spend. Identify areas for improvement and adjust your targeting, ad creatives, or bidding strategies accordingly. Finally, figure out what channel and what types of posts resonate most with your target audience and replicate those efforts over the last six months of the year.
5. Weigh Paid Ads Effectiveness
Auditing the effectiveness of your paid ads is crucial to ensure that your advertising budget is being utilized optimally. Begin by revisiting your ad objectives and strategy. Ensure that your ads have clear and measurable objectives, such as driving sales, increasing website traffic, or improving brand awareness. Assess the performance of your ads by analyzing relevant KPIs. Review metrics such as CTR, conversion rate, CPA, ROAS, and revenue generated. Compare these metrics to your initial goals and industry benchmarks to gauge the effectiveness of your paid ads. Our free PPC audit and guide is a great place to get started.
You’ll also want to assess the performance of your ad placements across different platforms and networks. Determine which platforms or websites are generating the most engagement and conversions. Consider adjusting your budget allocation to prioritize the most effective ad placements. Ensure that you conduct a competitive analysis to gain insights into how your ads compare to competitors in terms of targeting, messaging, and creative execution. Identify areas where you can differentiate and improve your ad strategy.
Leverage tracking and analytics tools provided by advertising platforms to gather data and insights on ad performance. Use these tools to monitor and measure the effectiveness of your ads regularly. Based on the audit findings, develop optimization strategies. Make data-driven adjustments to targeting, messaging, creative, and ad placement. Continuously monitor performance and iterate on your ads to improve their effectiveness over time.
6. Review Performance Measurements and Conduct ROI Analyses
Finally, assess the effectiveness of your overall digital marketing efforts by measuring key performance indicators (KPIs) and calculating return on investment (ROI). Evaluate metrics such as customer acquisition cost, customer lifetime value, conversion rates, and revenue generated across all of your digital marketing channels. Not set up on the newest version of Google Analytics? We can take care of that for you.
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You will also want to identify the marketing channels that deliver the highest ROI and allocate resources accordingly. Without this information, you could be spending too much of your valuable marketing budget on the wrong types of clicks. Also, consider investing in marketing automation tools and analytics platforms to streamline data collection and analysis. Most automation tools allow you to allocate your marketing resources where they are most effective.
Final Thoughts
Conducting a mid-year digital marketing check-up allows you to evaluate your performance, identify areas for improvement, and optimize your marketing strategy for the rest of the year. By assessing website performance, content strategy, social media efforts, SEO, and overall performance measurement, you can make informed decisions to drive better results. Use the insights gained from this check-up to refine your digital marketing initiatives, attract and engage your target audience, and ultimately achieve your business objectives.
If you need help assessing the effectiveness of YOUR digital marketing efforts don’t hesitate to reach out, let us know in the comments below, or contact us for a free 30-minute consultation today!
