There’s no time like the present – (and how true is that at the moment!) – to take a good long look at your business and make a start on all the things you’ve been putting off because you had no time.

Now it’s likely you do have that time. In case you can’t find your last ‘to do list’, we’ve put together some handy tips on what you could do to improve your marketing communications. Number one on that list? How do you connect effectively with your audience? How do you keep your head up (and your profile raised) at this time of universal uncertainty?

Here are some suggestions.

• Could you do with a rebrand?
• Do you need to/could you diversify?
• Could you look for partners or suppliers to offer new or more services? or Improve on your existing offering?
• How are you communicating with your target audience?
• Do you know who your target audience is?
• Tone of voice – is this right for the business, is it used correctly across all your communication channels?
• Brand guidelines – do you have any? Are they being used correctly?
• What planning can be done to prepare for when life returns to normal? Have you learnt anything from this enforced down time?
• What changes have been made that will be of benefit when things get back to normal?
• Communications plan – what has worked in the past and what can be improved going forward?

• Are your materials up-to-date?
• Are your materials on brand?
• What materials are you lacking? Now could be the time to re-visit those you put on the back burner: Corporate brochure, folder or leaflet; Annual report; Exhibition stand; Promotional/give away items; Word/PowerPoint templates; Business cards.

• Are your profiles up to date? If not update them to communicate who you are and what you do
• Are your profiles consistent across your channels?
• Could now be a good time to experiment with other channels you don’t have a presence on? YouTube? Instagram? TikTok?
• Do you need to tidy up your posts – could a template to standardise your brand be useful?
• Tone of voice – are you following your corporate tone of voice?
• Are you getting the right mix of messages out there – between giving information and sales messages
• Could you add some reviews or testimonials? Start collecting these to post across the coming weeks
• Google – check your business and contact details are up-to-date

• Review the content – is it up to date?
• Do you have the right messages and imagery on the homepage?
• Do you have new content you can add?
• Review your analytics accounts, what are your most viewed pages – what can these tell you about other pages?
• SEO – have you filled in all your Meta data for each page of your site?
• Structure – does this need amending or reordering?
• Images – how about changing some images to give most visited pages a fresh look?
• Do you need any new functionality – mobile responsive, ecommerce, blog, image galleries?

Hopefully, we will never again see this unprecedented ‘extra time’ to reflect. So put it to good use and make it work for you. Generate content to be used across website, corporate materials and social media. Keep your spirits – and your profile – raised!