Chances are, your marketing & sales activity are 'ok'. People aren't busting down your doors to do business with you, but things are going 'ok'. You probably have some basic necessities like a website, social media and other outreach methods like email marketing. But, is 'ok' really 'ok'?

Let's look at 5 ways to make your marketing more effective now:

Audit Your Social Media

Social media is certainly a "must-have", not a "nice to have" today. The problem is most companies think having social media is the same as being effective on social media. Take the time to audit your accounts or even discover what accounts you have. I have countless stories of employees leaving a company where they left with total control of a facebook or twitter account which they set up on the company's behalf. Here's what you need to do today:

• Step one: ensure that you and your executive team are the only ones who have Admin access to your accounts
• Step two: look at your audience. Is it growing steadily? Is it truly your target market?
• Step three: analyze the content that resonates with your audience on different networks. 
• Step four: understand your best network and commit to investing some time and energy there

Refocus Your Website

We've written pretty extensively on the why and how to create a responsive website that actually helps you generate leads. There are three main problems we see with most websites 1) they are stagnant brochures which are not mobile compliant 2) they are totally focused internally, not externally 3) they are doing nothing to attract new visitors and convert them into leads. Here are 5 questions to ask yourself to see if you need a website redesign. (You can find a more in-depth post on this topic here)

• What is wrong with your current site? What don't you like, what don't your employees like and what don't your visitors (clients and prospects) like?
• What are the goals of your site if you are to redo it?
• What features do other sites have that you love?
• Has your product or business changed in any way since your last refresh?
• How do you want the site to function?

Try Something New

Most companies adhere to the "laundry marketing" strategy (did I just start 'a thing'?) throw a bunch of worn out ideas in, swish them around, add the same 'stuff' and hope that brand new clothes come out. In other words, try the same stuff again and again, and hope that your results from those activities somehow produce great results 'this time'. 

If you are stuck buying lists and sending mailers hoping that your sales team actually follows up, then it's time to shake it up a bit. Instead of going all-in on digital marketing, why not try a simple idea like:

• Run a PPC campaign for one month
• Allocate under $100 to a Facebook ad to promote your business
• Search out an opportunity to write a guest article or Blog targeted at one of your niche focuses
• And if you are feeling really confident, try running your first full-blown inbound marketing campaign! <- we've got you covered with a free checklist

Focus On, Or Delete Stagnant Accounts

This goes for both your personal and corporate social media accounts. If you or your company have an account which hasn't been posted to in over a month then it's time to really evaluate whether or not you should be there. As I've said many times, 

"A stagnant account is more damaging to your brand than no presence at all."

Get Personal

If your company is doing a pretty good job when it comes to all of the above, then this is the idea that will help you the most. There are several stats that prove content shared by employees gets numerous more times reach and interaction than company shared content. That makes sense. Just look at your company... Take one social network, we will use Facebook here. Look at your company total reach, then look at either your executive team or entire team's personal connections. My guess is that your individuals' reach far exceeds your company reach. Make an effort to share company-sponsored content via your personal (this can be LinkedIn exclusively) social media even once per week. 

After months of trying, we were finally able to get one of our clients onboard with this idea.  In just one month of testing, their traffic went up over 100% and their leads went up over 300% month-over-month. Pretty compelling, right? We will be continuing this moving forward :). 

The "Next Level"

As mentioned above, the way to really win in today's marketing landscape is inbound marketing. Even if you are "doing inbound", are you doing it the right way or are you just guessing?

If you answered 'just guessing' you are in the majority and when you are trying to attract new customers and delight your current ones, who wants to be in the majority?  Planning and executing your inbound campaign correctly helps you stand out from your competition.