how do I look

How do I look?

November 28, 2019/Rachel Hargrave
As the festive season approaches we start to think about the plans we have to spend time with family and friends – and probably also the opportunity to take a few days off to recover from the manic year we’ve had.

Chances are though, you may also be thinking about how you are going to spend the quieter working days between Boxing Day and New Year, those days which are great for decluttering and planning whilst the phones and the office are just that little bit quieter.

At RDZ we take the opportunity to think about all the things we did in the year which were great – and vow to do more of the same in the New Year ahead.  We also use the time to take a step back from the day to day stuff and consider how we look to others who may not know us well or know about the services we offer.  It’s time well spent, in our opinion; a real opportunity to review and refresh – and it’s something which we would heartily recommend to all you very busy business owners and managers out there.

Here’s our Top 3 Tips on what you could include in you ‘mini MOT’ during those quieter days;

  1. Test drive your website

Put yourself in the place of a visitor to your website who knows nothing about your company.  Do you get a real feel for what you are all about within the first minute or so of being on the home page?  If not, you may be losing potential customers or attracting the wrong kind of customer altogether.  If you’re happy that it is a true representation which can be processed quickly then go a step further and test whether your navigation allows you to access further detail efficiently, without the distraction of irrelevant information.  Visitors to your website will be as busy as you are, so they want quick answers to their queries.  Check your contact page and make sure you’re not losing anyone at that critical point either, reminding yourself just how valuable a submitted website enquiry can be.

  1. Make sure you are looking fresh

Consider the imagery you are using throughout your business, be it on literature, on your website or your social media.  If you use stock images on a regular basis make sure you’re not just looking like every other business out there – could you be sourcing more unusual or quirky images elsewhere?  Also think about your own photos and whether they actually still look like you.  We might all want to look 10 years younger but simply using a headshot that’s 10 years old is kind of cheating!! Why not think about combining a refresh of headshots with the gathering of new imagery by arranging for a photographer to come and do some fun (or serious, your call) photos of you and your team in action and get some real life images to personalise every element of your marketing media.

  1. Pick on a customer

Choose a client who has been with you for a significant time, one who is representative of the majority of customers you have. Consider the communication and contact you make with that client – the ‘customer journey’ if you will.  Are you letting them know of developments within your business (expansion, new technology, award wins perhaps?) or do you have a very distant relationship where you effectively just wait for their regular orders to arrive?  Early in the New Year is a great time to touch base with people and discuss plans for the next 12 months – could you schedule in some time to meet with your best clients in January?  It may be time well spent.

So these are just a few ideas we thought we’d throw out there, based on how we here at RDZ like to use the kind of time which is easy to use less productively. Reviewing your business is a very important, and often a very fruitful, thing to do and what better time to do it than just before the shiny New Year, with shiny new possibilities, begins…

If you decide that your PR is something which could do with a refresh in 2020 then get in touch via rachel.hargrave@rdz-pr.co.uk and we could be one of your productive January meet ups which changes the future of your business forever!

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Rachel Hargrave

Rachel has over 30 years of local, regional, national and international communications experience and expertise across a wide variety of clients including FTSE 100 companies, SMEs, micro businesses and start-ups. She also has extensive charity, Not-For-Profit and Community Interest Company experience and happily offers clients working in these areas a 50% discount on all RDZ PR rates.

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