Just the other day I was chatting with a small business owner over coffee (something I do a lot.)

One of the questions I like to pose when I have these chats is – “What’s your biggest marketing concern right now?”

I get lots of answers to that question, but most could be lumped into the answer I got from this particular business owner – “My biggest concern is I’m not sure if my marketing is working or not.”

She went on to say – I mean, I’m getting leads and customers, but my head is exploding with so many new ways to market online. I feel like I’m just patching this and that together and don’t feel confident that any of its done well. (I don’t think her head ever exploded, but she did look stressed.)

Oh, and that very morning she had received a call from Google, only it wasn’t really Google, trying to sell her some sort of SEO related service. (But that’s another story.)

Yep, these are exciting and goofy times we live in.

But, this stuff is hyper important if you are a local small business and here’s a few reasons why.

• 78% of local-mobile searches result in offline purchases. (Search Engine Land, 2014)
• The first position on Google search results on desktop has a 34.36% clickthrough rate. (Advanced Web Ranking, 2015)
• The average Google first page result contains 1,890 words. (Backlinko, 2016)

Now, I’m a marketing consultant so . . .

When I start to work with a new client, I pretty much have to turn into an anthropologist to unearth all of the various online elements a client has set-up (or not.) So I know what she’s talking about, I’ve seen it all.

It’s what you do so you can figure what’s working, what’s not working, what seems to in good order and what seems to be missing.

There are few very standard things I look at in every case so I can get started focusing on the most critical priorities and opportunities.

We usually conduct our initial research and report our findings and recommendations to our client before we get started building a marketing plan.

Now, here’s the funny thing – we find many of the same issues over and over again – issues with Google My Business set-up, issues with SEO, issues with website design and structure, content issues, and of course the odd – I don’t remember the password to that thing issue.

It’s almost gotten to point where we can expect certain fundamental elements of a businesses’ online presence to have some of the same critical issues.

Recently, we decided that our online presence audit process was by itself such a valuable tool that we should start offering it as a stand-alone service.

When you think about it – even if you feel like your marketing is humming along just fine – it makes perfect sense to get a thorough check-up every so often and, of course, if you sense things aren’t quite right then a check-up is the only way to diagnose the fix the problem(s.)

So let me tell you about our Total Online Presence Audit.

You simply share a few things about your business through a simple form, and we dig under the hood and test everything out.

We’ll look at your:

• Website structure and design
• Content and keyword strategy
• On-page and off-page SEO
• Reputation and reviews
• Google My Business profile
• Social profiles and,
• Competitive landscape

This is a very deep and complete review so the process takes a few days.

Once we are done, we’ll compile a report of our findings and schedule a time to meet with you one on one to discuss the results and suggest your highest priority areas and best recommendations for your marketing moving forward.

Here’s what one recent audit clients had to say:

“John was fantastic. We needed outside eyes to not only review our site and share feedback for improvement but also tell us what we didn’t know. John was able to do this and more with the Duct Tape Marketing Audit. The feedback he shared was clear, concise and most importantly actionable. We’d do it again in a heartbeat, and can’t wait to see the results long-term in our analytics.” Anne Burns, Westown School

Imagine how great it would feel to know for certain that the time, money, and effort you’ve invested in your online presence is heading you in the right direction.

We would love to dive in and be that resource for you!

If this sounds like just what you’ve been looking for then click on our Total Online Presence Audit and find out how we might help you know what’s working.

Take a moment and invest in a little piece of mind so that the next time someone like me asks – “What’s your biggest marketing concern right now?” You can answer something like – “Knowing how to serve all my new clients.”

Okay, did you see what I did there – I got you thinking about the new clients you’re going to have once you get your audit done – actually, no, the audit won’t make it rain business, but it will point you in the right direction and perhaps help you identify where and how to spend your time and resources more confidently.