- We're gonna give you your year-end checklist
today on "The Journey."
- With another year coming to a close,
it is time for that year-end checklist,
and we have broken it down in three steps,
starting with...
- Step one, audit your web site.
- So let's hop over, and go do one now.
All right Sam, so, as promised, step one,
for all you listening in, audit your web site.
And I strongly encourage you to look at your web site
as if you've never seen it before.
Kinda like what Sam's gonna do right now
as we go through Ayesha Curry's web site.
You've never seen this before, right?
- I have not.
- All right, well let's go through
and give it a good audit!
So first off, one thing I noticed right away,
let me know if you agree,
is the content is very bright and vibrant,
and it's intuitive, it's easy to navigate.
- [Sam] It definitely is.
- Also you'll notice,
there is a way to sign up for e-mail,
which is really important on your web site,
definitely have a way for people to
give you their e-mail address
so you can stay in contact with them.
And another thing I noticed
that I love about this site,
is check out
the social handles - [Sam] Social!
- Yeah, you got Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and YouTube.
And you'll notice, when I go over to other tabs,
so let's check out,
ooh, you can shop on here,
you can get the look, Sam.
- [Sam] Yeah!
- And when you scroll down to the bottom of this other page,
notice the social handles are in the same place,
making it really easy for those new potential customers
when they land on your web site
to find you out, connect with you on social.
Super-important. - Consistency.
- Consistency is key.
Also what I love, besides just being clear, and intuitive,
it's also easy to contact them.
So you'll notice there, with one click,
also notice this, Sam, they have a contact button here,
I love this, it's also short and sweet, also love it,
so they're asking for the name, e-mail,
and also hey, where'd you hear about us?
That can really help influence your marketing efforts
for the future.
And then some comments, questions,
a little box to share some feedback.
In addition, as you know, it's very important,
gotta be mobile-friendly.
Is your web site mobile-friendly?
So here, you can, I actually pulled up a tab,
you can see that this is how it looks
if we were looking on your cell phone,
it's very mobile-friendly,
you're still getting the vibrant intuitive images,
you don't have to pinch and poke
and scan, - [Sam] That's the worst.
- to read, it's super, like, not eligible at all,
so, way to go, Curry family.
All right, so once you've got that all in order,
there's a few more things I suggest you do
to check off your web site audit list,
and that would be starting with the Google Analytics,
you know, how is this performing.
Also besides Google Analytics,
I would make sure that
your web site talks to search engines, pretty key.
Ooh, and another good one, Sam,
conduct a web site performance test.
Don't forget that.
- And a good site for that is gtmetrix.com.
- All right, two more things.
Do a security check,
and consider starting a blog,
just like Steph and Ayesha Curry did.
- Well Emma, that was a great audit,
thank you for taking us through that.
But now it's time to get to step two,
make sure you get your financial house in order.
- Yeah, absolutely.
And don't delay on this,
reach out now to your tax accountants, your lawyers,
your consultants, do it now!
- You don't wanna be rushing at the end of the year,
because that's how you can miss things.
You wanna make sure you have all of that nice and organized
so you can really enjoy yourself at the end of the year.
- Get ready for tax time,
here's some big-ticket items.
Don't forget about the business taxes,
the 1099 form, and the self-employment taxes.
But be sure to do whatever is applicable to you
and your business.
- And that's why you have your tax and legal professionals
that can consult you on these matters.
And with that, you wanna be prepared
just in case you get audited.
You know, the IRS is really not your friend,
so you wanna report any annual earnings to shareholders
if it's applicable to you.
- Yeah, and just meet with your accountant,
and go over any feedback they have,
just to help improve for the next year.
- And this is a good time to review your business model,
and make sure the other aspects of your business
are moving along as you planned,
or maybe even make some new goals
that you have for your business.
- Yeah, update any policies,
or any feedback that you receive from unhappy customers.
What can you do?
What changes can you make?
This is the time to do it.
- And also, please note,
this is not to be considered legal or tax advice.
You have your legal and tax professionals
that can consult you on these matters for you.
- All right, that takes us to step three.
Look back at the year's marketing effort.
Starting with...
- If you spent any money on ads,
you definitely wanna keep track of that.
- Yeah, it's important for taxes, right?
Tally it up.
Some expenses might include trade show fees,
I know we do a lot of that,
at GoDaddy Social, traveling the country.
Also online advertising,
any bonuses you gave your employees,
also any social media management
maybe that you put money into as well.
Also maybe you put money into your blog,
I know we did this year.
Or domain registration,
maybe printed out some brochures, or flyers,
all of that, see what expenses you put money into
for tax time,
but also to evaluate for the next year.
- And this does sound like a lengthy list,
which, it is,
which is good to actually have some good software
where you can put all that.
If you're interested in learning more about that,
we actually did a video on that.
- Also a good thing to do
when it comes to your marketing efforts
is review that e-mail list that you've gathered,
and if you don't have an e-mail list,
well, get started right away.
Also be sure to review who is on that e-mail list,
check open rates, et cetera,
it might help you to avoid being blacklisted in the future.
So the next tip is,
social media it up.
- Woo!
- Now, Emma, I know you deal with this
on a daily basis.
So what are your tips on this?
- So, definitely review your social media efforts
that you've already put in place.
And a great way to do that is
go take a look at your analytics.
Each platform offers a way to measure your success,
so you can help to refine, re-evaluate,
and come into the new year
with a strong social media strategy.
Also, give your social media a makeover.
New year, new you.
So go ahead and update maybe those profile photos,
or if you've had a change in your logo,
definitely make sure your pages reflect that.
Update the cover photo on Facebook.
I love when I see a new updated one
for my favorite local businesses.
But at the very least,
be sure to be on Facebook, Instagram,
and Twitter, all three are great for your business,
and they'll help you tackle the new year
with a fresh new look.
- And the next tip is,
you wanna make sure you review your local listings.
Now if you're on, say, Google and Yelp,
if your phone number ever changes,
or if you change locations,
people use those sites to get to you.
And also know, a good thing to realize is on Google,
say you make a change, you change your business name.
Well some changes to your pertinent business information,
it can take up to three days for Google to approve that.
So keep that in mind as well.
So stay on top of that.
At the end of the day, we're on social media
so people can find your business.
If they don't have the accurate information,
that's a poor customer experience,
and less likely that they're actually gonna come to you.
- Totally messes with the customer journey.
Also make sure you don't have any
duplicate pages swimming around.
That's something I see a lot when I'm talking to businesses,
is you'll see two Yelp pages.
- Or two Google pages.
- Or two Google pages!
They're super confusing for that next new customer,
which, as Sam mentioned,
it really puts a bad aftertaste on that customer journey,
or that customer experience.
- And last, evaluate your
professional conferences and groups.
- Yeah, we spend a lot of time, I know,
at GoDaddy Social doing this,
because we travel to over 40 trade shows a year.
We also join a lot of chambers of commerce,
we have memberships out there
as a way to market ourselves, right?
Get in front of a large audience.
And every year, we do exactly this,
and I recommend you to do it too,
how did those trade shows perform,
and what did those memberships bring to the table?
And every year, there's shows we gotta cut,
just wasn't quite the outcome we expected,
and same with memberships.
It doesn't make sense to renew,
it wasn't really giving us what we thought,
so evaluating those professional networks.
And think about those speaking events.
If you don't do those yet,
oh my gosh, highly recommend it.
I love doing them on behalf of GoDaddy,
because it really positions our company
as thought leaders, right?
But yeah, be really mindful
about which shows you're going to,
which memberships you're joining.
- And also, you can review some of those
professional networking sites, like LinkedIn,
to see which groups you may be a part of on LinkedIn
that have been really active,
and you had some great connections,
or other people that you've connected to
that you wanna continue to build on that relationship,
or those you still need to follow up with.
- Also, pro tip, don't forget about your business cards!
I know right now, it's almost the end of the year,
and I'm sitting on about, only five business cards.
So not only do I need to order more,
but I recently had a title change,
so I need to update that as well.
So be sure you do that too.
Business cards, super-helpful
for your networking in the new year.
All right, that's a wrap.
This is your year-end checklist for your business.
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This is "The Journey," see you next time.