Digital Evaluation and Strategy Session

Consider the following questions: 

• Where are you?

• Where do you want to be?

• What are you working with?

• What's working for you?

• What's an exit that needs to be removed for everything else to work?

• What's working against you?

• What assets are you coming to the table with?

• What resources in capital and humans do you have to commit to the process?

• And what is going to take to get you where you want to be, based on where you are (i.e. creating the strategic plan)?

No one should be providing you advice on what to do without knowing the answers to these questions!

Mindset—The 4 Agreements

• Don't take things personal

• Always be nice and do your best

• Don't make assumptions

• Be impeccable with your words

Be Mindful

• Clarity - Without Clarity, you cannot Focus

• Focus - Without Focus, you cannot Execute

• Execution - Without Execution, you cannot Win

• Win

You have two different audiences to please, and one of them is a Gatekeeper to the other:

1. Google (it's a robot with very specific requirements that, if not met, will not present you as an option to real humans)

2. Real Humans (potential customers that start suspicious of you and have to be wooed into a prospect before being converted into an opportunity)

Be Strategic

How Do Consumers Shop? - Get Clear

• They search Google (a high percentage searches via mobile or AI, which has a huge impact on web, strategy, and content)

• Only a few rare searchers look in the Maps 

• Everyone finds what they’re looking for in the top 10 organic results; they never go to page 2

• They’ll find a website that looks professional and clearly displays the following:

• Who you are

• What you do

• Where you do it

• How to reach you

Have Complete Clarity on How Consumers Shop and your Role in their Experience

• Remember, you must meet Google's requirements and exceed your competition to be an option for potential consumers when and where they are searching.

• After finding a potential service provider, a consumer will check out their reviews by Googling the company name and location. They’ll also review the company’s social media sites.

• Ask yourself, “What will they see when they get to your reviews/social media, and how will they react?”

• The goal: Eliminate the exits and be an option

If your website doesn't meet the criteria, and your Google Business Listing, Directory Listings, or Social Media Sites appear outdated, unappealing, or nonexistent, potential consumers—whether they discovered you on the internet or through a Google search—will simply continue their search elsewhere.

Be Strategic

Consider the following:

• What do you want to sell?

• Where do you want to sell it?

• What do your consumers refer to it as?

• Do you have a page of content for it (inside Google's file drawer)?

• And is the page popular enough to be an option on page 1 of Google where consumers will convert?

The Strategic Plan 

Research, Plan, Implement, Evaluate, Refine, and Repeat

Be an Investor in your business: Know the difference between marketing, advertising, and branding.

Marketing: 

Your investment is permanent and produces a compounding interest impact on your business. Examples of marketing include:

1. Website

2. Landing pages

3. Content creation, marketing, and remarketing

4. Local listings

5. Google business listing

6. Google posting

7. Reviews acquisition and remarketing

8. Some forms of social media marketing

9. SEO

10. List building for email and text marketing

11. Video

12. Podcast

13. Mobile app

14. Referral rewards and affiliate programs

Advertising: 

Your investment is temporary—you’re burning and churning through cash—and when you run out of money or stop spending, you have nothing permanent. It should be used when necessary for short durations of time to fill a gap that inbound marketing cannot. Examples of advertising include the following:

1. Radio

2. TV

3. Billboards

4. Newspaper

5. Mailers/door hangers

6. Some forms of social media marketing

7. PPC

8. Google service ads

9. Retargeting

10. Advertising

11. Email (to strangers)

12. Texts (to strangers)

13. Networking events

Branding: 

Branding is used in both marketing and advertising. It becomes more relevant as your company grows and has the excess cash/profits to spend on branding. Here’s where you’ll want to spend on branding: 

• Truck wraps

• Signage/yard signs

• Referral rewards gifts

• Networking

• Home shows/trade shows

Actionable Steps

Technology: leverage the right technology

Strategy: refine and implement a strategic plan

Network: be visible (for all the things you want to sell, cities you want to sell them, and where consumers use them the most). Also, be endorsed by 3rd party resources.

Mindset: show up, suite up, and participate—be positive!

Leverage the 12 Step Roadmap to customize a plan that works with your budget, identify strategies for future implementation, and set a goal to implement it! Many small steps forward are much more powerful than one big wrong step. The goal is to achieve consistent progress over time—don't search for the quick win, or you will forever be starting over.

You can't do everything on the list all at once, so make a lot of small decisions to keep doing more vs. getting caught up in the initial big decision. Get started now and keep adding to your strategy.

Identify "what are the things only you can do, and strive to get everything else into expert hands—for you have either time or money, and neither can be squandered".

Implementation

• Execute quickly

• Don't look for perfection, it doesn't exist.

• It's not a project, it's a lifestyle—remember this.  We can rip apart any company's website and digital marketing plan.  Why?

• You are never done

• Technology, consumer behaviors, and search engine requirements are changing extremely fast

• By the time you think it's perfect, you will have missed a huge opportunity and finally realize there's no such thing as perfect—if you are constantly starting over, you will never be moving forward. It's called "the rocking chair syndrome—always moving, never going anywhere" 

• Review the project plan and participation expectations and be ready to participate when needed. The more you tell us during the onboarding phase, the less time you will have to invest with us during the process.

Evaluate

Sign up for ongoing strategy sessions

• What's working—do more of it

• What's not working—reallocate it to something that is

• What's next—what are you not doing yet that you should be

The path to success: research, analyze, plan, implement, refine, repeat

Don't quit. Remember the 4 Agreements.

• Don't make assumptions

• Be nice and always do your best

• Don't take things personal

• Be impeccable with your words

CI Web Group is proud to be the preferred marketing agency for the world's largest HVAC manufacturers and distributors