With the end of the calendar year right around the corner, it’s time now to start planning your annual marketing and communications strategy for your business. How will you reach new customers? How will you get existing customers to return?
We recommend starting your annual planning with research. What are you doing now to communicate with your customers? Is it working well? How can you improve?
One way to do that is to do this is to conduct a communications audit for your company.
What is a Communication’s Audit?
A communications audit is a comprehensive look at both your company’s communications and the feedback you are getting from your stakeholders. The information pulled from an audit can help you identify what needs to be improved and guide you on where you want to go with your communications in the future.
Your window tinting company is likely using a lot of methods to communicate to the public about your products and services. This may include a website, Google Ads, online reviews, social media content, printed advertisements, brochures, flyers, signage (both inside your shop and in your community), and more.
Your tint company also is likely getting customer feedback from a variety of sources – including email, social media and online reviews like Google My Business and Yelp.
How Do You Conduct a Communications Audit?
Carve out a few minutes each day or once a week from now until the end of the year to review your communications.
For your website, we recommend going page-by-page and reading every paragraph. Are your products and services accurately displayed? Do you have a nice mix of video and visuals along with blocks of text that adequately describe the power of 3M window films and how they can solve people’s issues with heat, glare and fading? Are there forms for people to fill out? Have you made it easy for people to contact you through your site? Ask yourself these questions as you review each page.
We recommend that you do the same for all of your communications. Re-read the brochures that you’ve developed for your company. Review the Google Ads that are driving traffic to your website. Re-read any advertisements that you might be running in any local or digital publications.
We also recommend that you walk around your shop and look at your existing signage. Does it adequately reflect your products and services? Is anything missing?
Make a list of improvements that you’d like to see as you go through this process. This will help you create strategies and tactics moving forward in the new year.
What About Customer Feedback?
Part of a communications audit also includes reviewing the type of customer feedback that you are receiving. What are people saying about your company?
While it is not possible to listen to every phone call or verbal customer interaction, you can go back and review digital communications that were received. For example, pick a month or two from this calendar year and look at the following:
- Comments that came in through Facebook, Instagram or other social media account.
- Reviews that were made on review sites like Google My Business and Yelp
- Emails that came through from customers
In some cases, your company might be using a service that captures reviews and asks customers to rate their experiences. What did they say? How did you rate?
All of these can give you insights into how your company is interacting with customers and whether improvements need to be made.
Research is the First Step to Creating a Plan
Research is the first step in any strategic planning process. A communications audit is a great tool to use when researching the current state of your company and looking for improvements that you can make to your own marketing.
Want to know more about business planning for the end of the year? Consider these steps:
- End of Year Business Planning: Setting Goals
- End of Year Business Planning: Setting Measurable Objectives
- End of Year Business Planning: Identifying Strategies and Tactics
If you’d like to speak to a communications expert, Accent Distributing can put you in touch with a professional who can offer a consultation. Contact your local territory representative or Inside Sales at [email protected].
