Facing facts: insights
to improve digital traffic
Through our engagements we’ve developed a great working relationship with the Marketing Director of a leading mid-tier professional services firm. We’d often meet with Jo for an informal chat about her firm’s client service agenda at a local wine bar, conveniently located between our offices.
She enjoyed the challenge of working for a firm that, like many of its competitors, operates as a global network. Each member firm is responsible for managing their own localised marketing strategies. So while the Firm’s aspiration was to be a leader in their field; how that was demonstrated through their digital presence could be fragmented.
At one meeting she brought along a report into their search and digital presence. Like many of these reviews the research contained plenty of figures but was short of real insights. The report was lacking the evidence to drive her content and service strategy in a particular direction. We agreed to undertake a Digital Audit to identify the underlying metrics, trends and barriers of their current digital presence.
“Building brand awareness online is challenging enough, without a clear marketing framework and content strategy the effectiveness of your presence can suffer.”
The Digital Audit process addresses key measures of website performance, social media channels and reputation. Most importantly the audit would also identify potential opportunities and propose strategies for their existing digital presence. For the review we scanned their online presence, both web and social, looking for key pieces of information we could then validate for SEO performance. One of the ways we assessed this was by examining the headings across PDFs and their search equity.
We then analysed site content for ‘tone of voice’ to understand how content was being communicated and if it was being consistently delivered. Not unusually we found that their Careers pages had the most user friendly tone of voice. The analysis determined there were at least five distinctive voices found, creating inconsistencies in their ‘brand voice’.
Her firm used Twitter and LinkedIn extensively to engage with their existing and targeted audiences. To review Twitter presence we developed a comparative benchmark by market, location and active participation. We were then able to produce reports identifying the most effective accounts. For LinkedIn we started with the Firms’ active profiles. From there they were reviewed for tone of voice and brand consistency (or inconsistency) across departments.
The final Digital Audit provided our client with an insight of the barriers and challenges impacting her digital strategy. The findings drove various strategic changes across the business. The depth of the report prompted a review of the resources needed to maintain and sustain their digital presence. They then embarked on the creation of digital and brand guidelines and user training and support.
As a result of these activities, and the delivery of a more consistent presence, the firm has witnessed a steady growth in online traffic and engagement.
Tidbits and takeaways
A good set of standards for content management is critical to maintaining ‘brand voice’ when multiple authors are responsible for managing development and execution.
Aim to review your digital presence on a semi-regular basis to ensure it’s consistent and aligned to your brand and strategy.
When developing processes engage early and often with internal user groups to ensure effective adoption.