‘Tis the season to tidy up and make things bright and shiny again. We’re not just talking about your office though, we’re talking about your brand and your content. After you’ve put your message out there, if you aren’t constantly doing something with it, it’s going to collect dust. And nobody likes dust. 

To kick off this month we are challenging you to clean up your brand and content. We’ve got 5 activities that will help you make sure your messaging is on point and that people know exactly what it is you do. 

Do A Little Market Recon 

Market recon, not quite market research, is asking nine people around you if they know what you do. If those nine people can’t come back to you with a clear response on what you do, you know you have some major work ahead of you. Break those nine people into three groups: three friends/family, three people whom you would consider to be in your target audience, and three people who are in your space (ie competitors, colleagues, professional acquaintances).  You interact with each of these segments differently, meaning you might present yourself differently to them. Regardless of that fact, however, you should still be communicating what you do to each group in the same way. 

Ask the following questions: 

• What is my business? 
• Who is my client/customer? 
• How do I help/serve my clients? 

Gather and Analyze Responses 

Once you have collected responses from each person, record all the responses in a single document so you can look at everything as a whole picture. Do these people mostly know what you do? Or are the answers vague and unclear? If all nine people came back with a clear response, well done!! You can stop here. 

But if even one of them came back unclear of what you do, proceed to step three. 

Review Your Website 

Websites are fun. Or at least, we think they are fun. But they can be tricky to figure out. What all are you supposed to put on there? What the heck is an H1 and H2!?! And how detailed do you get about what you do? The content on your website is clearly very customized to what you do, but there are a handful of SECTIONS that need to be present. Take a moment to hop over to your site and look for the following: 

• Is your logo and company name visible at the top of the home page? 
• From the first view of your home page (those top inches), is there a clear statement that says what you do/what your business? 
• Can people easily navigate to get to your product or service? 
• Does your product or service page clearly define what you are selling? 
• Does the language you use on your website line up with the way you talk about your business? 

You can dive deeper on this by using tools to conduct an audit on your site that will examine all sorts of aspects, like SEO, lead generation, response time, etc etc. Check out these tools listed here. 

Social Media Audit 

Take a snapshot of the past month of the social media platforms you are on. Review the images and the content that you have written to look for consistency, clarity, and cohesiveness. 

• Consistency: are you talking about the same set of core topics, or do you jump all over the place? 
• Clarity: does you messaging provide clear statements about what you do? Are you too vague, too lengthy, too detailed, too jumbled? 
• Cohesiveness: Look at each social account AND your website here, and look for alignment between everything. Are you giving off the same impression on each platform? (And then reflect on your in-person interactions and see how that fits in too!) 

Step Back and Make a Plan for Change 

By this point, you should have been able to identify where some trouble spots are for you. The good news is that you can repair them. Spend a little quality time with your business brand. Who are you? What do you do? What does your audience want? Clear those questions up and formulate a clear message so that when you go back to those nine people six months from now, they will know exactly what it is you do. 

Going forward, be more mindful of the content you put out there and make sure they fit with the three C’s above (consistency, clarity, and cohesiveness). Your brand isn’t a one-and-done kind of situation. It needs to be nurtured and managed constantly.