Your Digital Marketing Summer Checklist – Tips to Optimise Your Marketing Efforts

Welcome to summer! If the ridiculous heat hasn’t already let you know that it’s here.

I don’t know about you, but too much hot, clammy heat can leave me feeling sluggish when it comes to inspiration. That’s why I thought I’d create and share a summer digital marketing checklist we can all follow together.

I’ve designed this list so that you can easily pick and choose a handful of tasks each day, and hopefully after a few weeks of chipping away, you’ll start to reap the rewards of your marketing efforts.

So if you’re a small business owner, or a marketing executive in an SME, feel free to use and share this list for a little marketing boost!

Psst. Don’t forget, you, or someone on your team, can upskill when they study a digital marketing apprenticeship. Our Level 4 Marketing Executive course is the equivalent of a foundation degree, so guaranteed to teach you a new thing or two!

Let’s get to it!

Your Digital Marketing To-Do List

Website Optimisation

• Trawl your website for dead links and old pages that are no longer needed. Delete or redirect them to more relevant pages.
• Check your homepage for usability or mobile issues using Google Webmaster Tools.
• Test out some new plugins or give your site a tidy up in order to improve page speed. Check your current score here.
• Add a shiny new lead magnet to your website and ensure there is a banner or pop-up to direct guests to it.
• Identify your top performing pages and ensure they funnel visitors to conversion pages or capture an email for your list.
• Add an email capture form to your blog posts.
• Check to see if any outdated blog posts need to be revived with an update.
• Check if any of your network on social media wants to collaborate online, perhaps with a guest post or special offer.
• Install a heat map or visitor recording software and try to identify any common usability issues.
• Do you have time to write more content? SEO experts are recommending around 10,000 words a month in order to have an impact on search, so schedule in some writing time OR hire some writers!

Social Media Audit

• Check the bios on all your accounts – are they up to date with the right contact info? Do they talk about your most important campaign?
• Check your bio link and optimise it. Ensure it includes you best performing posts, key sales links and contact links.
• Scroll back through your posts and delete any that didn’t perform well or that ruin the curb appeal of your feed.
• Tidy up your following list so you can focus on interacting with the most important accounts in your strategy.
• Do your research and follow some new influencers in your niche.
• Check if your profile pictures and photo albums need an update.
• Check there are no old pinned posts that need deleting.
• Review your integrations and any accounts that have access to your social media – delete those past employees!
• Give your passwords an update to something strong.
• Research the latest top-rated tools and apps for 2021 to see if they can enhance your social presence.
• Review if there are any new social platforms or features you should be paying attention to. (Instagram Reels and TikTok guys!)

E-Mail Marketing

• Is it time to try out a new email campaign management tool? Do your research and see!
• Could you do with a new email template? Plenty of freelancers offer this service on Fiverr.
• Clean out your mailing lists – There’s no point wasting time on leads who never open their emails.
• Brainstorm some new content – People might be tired of the same old emails.
• Ensure you have automations set up – if you do – do they need a refresh?

Everything Else!

• As things start to get back to normal post “freedom day” consider if there are any offers and products that will benefit our more social economy.
• Get innovative with the hot weather – people may not want to sit in full-sun in your pub, but maybe they’d like to takeaway a picnic hamper, for example.
• Remember a large number of people have enjoyed the changes to business – maybe your customers still prefer to be remote. Ensure you retain those options and expand on them.
• Start creating a ‘resilience’ marketing plan, so should a disaster akin to this ever strike again, you have invested in the appropriate digital provisions such as a strong website.
• Refresh your skills with some free marketing courses on Google Digital Garage.
• Review your successes and weakness over the course of the pandemic – do you need to train staff in distinct areas where you fell behind? Consider taking on a Digital Marketing Apprentice. (You can get up to £4,000 in grants if you do this now!)

If you complete this full audit, you should start to see significant improvements in your digital marketing efforts this summer, so we wish you the best of luck with it!

Don’t forget, you can ask us for any advice on Instagram, we’re always up for a chat!