Marketing Check-Up

Small business owners wear a lot of hats. Marketing is either the hat on the top shelf (too hard to reach), or the hat buried under all the other hats. Successfully integrating marketing into this juggling act transforms it from an elusive top hat or a buried bottom hat into a spotlight, casting a glow on the entire performance. So, this Marketing Check-Up is an exercise for you to get a handle on your marketing efforts and move toward the next step to increase your local brand recall and lead generation.

First, you’ll want to determine how your marketing is currently working for you. Ask your team the following questions:

Do we have a resource for our sales team to help explain our ____ services? (Fill in the blank with all your services: packing, storage, interstate moves, older adult moves, local moves, junk hauling, packing materials, etc.)
When were those resources last updated?
What resource does our sales team use to help customers visualize _____? (Fill in the blank with the trickier aspects to explain to customers: the timeline of their move, the load and delivery spread, visuals of storage vaults, sharing space in the truck with other families, etc.)
When were those resources last updated?
How do we send the mandatory FMCSA documents: physically or digitally?
Who sends the documents? Is everyone doing the same thing?
Is everyone using the 2023 versions?
When was the last time someone logged into our website? Who was it? Who has login access?
When was the last time we updated our website?
Do we own our Google My Business listing? Who has login access?
What social media platforms do we have accounts on? Who has login access?
Do we have a library of photos and videos of our team in action?
What do we do with email addresses we collect from customers?
Do we have a process to ask for reviews? What is it? Is everyone doing the same thing?
Do we receive thank you emails or physical notes from customers? Who gathers those, and where are they kept?

Once you have a company-wide understanding of these tasks, you’ll be prepared to move on to Level 1 in the Marketing Check-Up.

Get Started

Level 1

The first thing to do to conquer Level 1 of the Marketing Check-Up list is to write out all your current marketing initiatives. By creating a list of initiatives, you’ll be able to keep eyes on what’s happening and how often it’s being accomplished. Mark each initiative with the person responsible for the task. Include the frequency, and estimate resources used for each initiative, whether that means time or money.
Next, clarify what channels you’re currently using. You might separate your channels into categories to keep things organized:

Once you’ve identified every initiative and clarified your channels, it’s time to evaluate all your previous efforts. Basically, you want to see whether your time and money have been put to good use. If it cost you 100 hours to prepare monthly e-newsletters, and the initiative only brought in five leads, that is information you need to know.
- Remember to check year-over-year reports, since month-to-month in the moving industry is expected to change drastically.
- Some of the key performance indicators (KPIs) you’re looking for are:
  - Website traffic
  - Leads
  - Brand recall

To complete Level 1 in your Marketing Check-Up, create a Start – Stop – Continue exercise with all the initiatives on your chart.

NOTES:

Refer to previous workbook edition for details on the Start – Stop Continue exercise.
In the start column, mark that you’ll attribute specific resources to your marketing so you can track them year-over-year in the future and compare the resources to the output.
Join the van lines Marketing Director, Jaymie Shook’s, quarterly small group for marketing.
Plan a certain number of hours to devote to marketing.
Determine your annual marketing budget.

Also in the Start column, identify basic level activities to accomplish, such as:
- Claim your Google My Business page.
- Create or update your website.
- Check your van line agent page and fill out the form to update.
- Update your company-wide email signature.
- Create a process to ask for reviews.
- Check your collateral to make sure you’re using updated versions.

Mark down that you’ll continue updating the marketing initiatives chart and evaluating your efforts.
Stop initiatives that have been languishing due to lack of resources. If they can’t fit into the new budgeted hours, they’ll need to wait for a future marketing level. Once you have a routine for the other tasks – or even figure out ways to automate some of these tasks – you may find you have the time to bring those initiatives back to active.

Once you’ve completed all these steps, you’re ready to move on to Level 2!

Level 3

Once you’ve completed the first two levels for your marketing efforts, you’re in a great position to prepare for the future. You’ve created routines for your team to stay on top of your marketing, so you’ll never again look blank when someone asks you what your marketing efforts are. Some items to consider preparing for the future:
Consider expanding your marketing budget. You can do more if you have more resources. Pledge to increase your marketing budget by X percent per year for the next Y years and track what a difference it makes in your lead generation and brand recall in your area.
Consider expanding time to devote to marketing tasks. If you have a salesperson taking on marketing tasks, allow them an additional X hours every month to devote to marketing tasks. Have them keep track of the change in their referrals and closed opportunities.

Keep an eye out for upcoming trends. The world of marketing is one of constant change, especially with Google constantly updating its algorithm and artificial intelligence changing the game.
- Watch the recording of the panel of marketing experts for advice on trends such as AI and GA4.
- Subscribe to newsletters from marketing sites such as Daily Carnage, TheFutureParty, Stacked Marketer, Digital Marketing Must-Knows, Search Engine Journal, SiteProNews, and The Performers.
- Join the American Marketing Association or another marketing association active in your area for networking sessions and presentations from local marketing experts.
- Use the Training Toolbox to complete certifications like the van line’s Silver Certifications to open new avenues for your marketing initiatives.

Level 2

The next step to deepen your marketing builds upon Level 1, so make sure you complete those steps before starting Level 2.
Set goals with key performance indicators (KPIs), such as:
- Increase your website traffic by X percent.
  - Use GA4 (Google Analytics) to track sessions toward this goal.
- Increase the lead generation via your website by X percent.
  - Use form fills to evaluate this goal.
- Increase your brand recall by X percent.
  - While a little more of an abstract principle, you can still decide on KPIs for tracking brand recall. You might choose to track impressions or direct traffic.
Gather content that is available for you to use in your marketing efforts. Be mindful that you may want both locally branded and van line-branded items for wider use.

Look critically at that content to determine what can be reused or recreated.
Create an editorial calendar (i.e., a to do list).
- This will look similar to the chart you created in Level 1 but it will be forward-looking.
Mark each task with the person responsible for completing it. Schedule ahead when possible.
- Blog posts can be scheduled ahead of time.
- Meta Business accounts can schedule new posts for Facebook and Instagram.
- Hootsuite and similar software allow scheduling for Twitter/X and LinkedIn.
- Add reminders to your work calendar for anything you need to log into and do in real time (such as logging into Facebook or Instagram to share van line posts every Monday and Friday, which should only take a total of five minutes).
Plan to evaluate your efforts.
- Determine the cadence for evaluating each marketing initiative (weekly, monthly, quarterly).
- Set up tracking so you can see differences in your KPIs.
- Create a template for reports.
  - The template should include numbers for each KPI.
  - Don’t include numbers for items you don’t care to track; that’s just a recipe for getting overwhelmed!

Stay on Top of Your Marketing

Now that you’ve completed all three levels, don’t let your footing slip! Schedule ongoing meetings with your marketing vendors and/or your in-house marketing experts.
- The agenda should include YOY reporting on all your KPIs.
- Your vendor should keep you updated on Google Algorithm updates and other trends that might affect your initiatives.
Contact Jaymie Shook, Madi Williams or your RSD for guidance at any point during the Marketing Check-Up exercise.
Attend monthly Headlights webinars, which always include significant updates that might affect your marketing.
Attend in-person van line events. They’re the best opportunity to talk in depth with not only the van line sales and marketing personnel but also third-party marketing vendors and, most importantly, other agents facing the same challenges as you.
- Sales Training Summit – annually in January / February
- Van Line Summit & Awards Gala – annually in February / March
- RSD seminars in your area

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