How to Keep Your Marketing Content Fresh

Consistency is Key in Marketing

Regular Website Updates

Last week I took about 20 minutes to go through my website Effective Virtual Assistance, LLC, to make some changes. Why? First, search engines like fresh content. Even something you consider “Evergreen” content which you may not think you need to change should get “tweaked” now and then. How? Simple changes.

I recently did a little refresh on my own site—updated my services, swapped out a few images, and it already feels lighter. To be honest, I don’t rely on my website as my main marketing tool right now, but it’s an excellent resource when I’m talking with potential clients who want to see what I offer in one place.

One quick tip? Don’t forget about your blog posts. Go back and read through old content with fresh eyes. Sometimes all it takes is changing some wording or updating something that’s no longer accurate. Small tweaks can make a big difference.

Your website is definitely something you should look at with fresh eyes a few times a year. Here’s a pet peeve…visiting a website only to find drastically outdated info and a copyright date from three years ago. Details matter. If you use one of the many drag and drop design sites and are ready for a more impactful change, many of them make it pretty straight forward to update your site theme.

Update Social Media Profiles

I can’t stress enough how important it is to review your marketing content a couple of times a year. Even simple adjustments to your profile details on your social media accounts, business description and a new profile pic are quick ways to freshen it up.

You may not realize it, but clients and prospects DO notice if your site and your profiles are professional and updated – in content and in design. So, whether you are methodical about scheduling time to review your marketing strategy and content every few months, or just make a point to do it at the end of each year, it’s truly a value-add activity. A few quick tips:

• Start a document where you can make quick notes of items you want to review/change. You’ll refer to this when you sit down to actually make updates.

• Bookmark websites/social media accounts that spark your creativity and give you new ideas (but don’t copy!).

• Ask friends and trusted colleagues to give you some feedback – it is always good to get some input from someone on the “outside”.

Branding for your Business

I’m not going to go into detail here, but it is a great idea to keep your brand consistent across your marketing platforms. This is also something that you can update but you likely don’t want to go through a full re-branding every year if you can avoid it. Your branding includes things like fonts, colors and logos. A great tip is to create a branding board. I created mine in Canva. On the board you would include your brand color RGB codes, fonts you like and will use consistently, graphics, logos and images that inspire the look & feel you are going for. Pinterest is a great place to find inspiration.

When I made some recent updates to my site, it felt great to freshen up the look and to catch a few items that were outdated. So, set aside a little time to give your site a refresh—update a blog post (or write a new one) and take a quick look at your social media profiles to see what could use a tweak. Maybe you even want to jump in and try your creativity at designing a new logo. I have a couple of Etsy shops so updating my logos and banners is something I do often, and Canva is a super easy graphics design tool for logos, social media posts, eBooks and more! The bottom line is, consider it time well spent!

More great small business tips:

• Virtual Assistant Training

Katie Bauer started Effective Virtual Assistance, LLC, in 2008. Based out of Northern Virginia, Effective Virtual Assistance, LLC partners with small businesses locally and nationally to give business owners the time they need to focus on core business and revenue generating activities.

With a firm belief that when a client is successful, that reflects on her success, Katie’s goal is to go above and beyond with each and every client task and project.

Over the years Katie has been contacted by aspiring VAs through clients or directly via her website, asking for insight and advice. She realized writing a short eBook to share her experience along with offering some of the documents and tools she uses to run her business could benefit other Virtual Assistants. Click HERE! You definitely want to see all the professional resources & customizable forms available.