Get the basics right.

How effective is your home page? Is your messaging up to date? Does it speak to where your business is now and where it is going? What about your print materials? Social accounts?

These are all important questions to be sure, but they are ones that we seldom ask ourselves.

As a business owner, there are so many minute tasks that demand your attention that it can be hard to see the forest through the trees at times. The basics tend to get forgotten or overlooked.

It is important to schedule time and take a 30k foot view of your collateral.

This review process might feel like you are halting your forward momentum, but this short timeout is vital for long-term success. After all, when you nail the basics, everything else gets easy.

Here is a handful of questions to see if you are doing the basics well.

1. Is each piece of your marketing easy to understand?

What are you offering? Is it a product or a service? What does your offering require the customer to do? Is there a specific call to action…or merely educating your audience about something?

2. Consider your message…Can one person easily tell your message to another person?

How many sentences would they need to recount what you are saying? Would they have a hard time deciding which part of the message to talk about first?

“The British are coming. Or, I see some ships. Or, look…men in tights on the beach.”

3. At a glance, will your marketing grab the target’s attention? Is it engaging, funny or odd?

It used to be that TV commercials would start with a doorbell or show a woman in red shoes to immediately get your attention. Similar to people who use perfume or cologne, it’s a mechanism to engage.

4. Is your communication or user experience memorable? Could someone recall it the day after they saw it?

How many striking elements are there? Things like big rimmed sunglasses, white shoes or Money-Back Guarantees.

5. Does your brand communicate enough information to be able to suggest a category?

Could a customer easily name of one of your competitors? If they can’t, maybe they can’t tell what you do.

Try these exercises: 
Take a piece of your marketing and tell a friend what it says in your own words. Then ask your friend to tell you what you just said in their own words.

Turn your piece upside down and walk feet away. Would you notice it from there?

See if it is possible to pick out three items from any marketing piece that are memorable. (For example: Mary Poppins had an umbrella, a British accent and sang.)

Before you decide to make a big change… make sure you’re good with all the basics.