Newsletter

The beginning of the year is a great time to examine where you currently stand and see where improvements can be made. Let’s sit down and take a fresh look at your business and your directory site to find some new opportunities. If you’re an eDirectory user, we’ve got some suggestions that will help make 2015 a great year for your business.

1. Clean Up Your Directory

Filling up your directory can be a daunting task for some. It’s usually a process that has taken place over a long period of time with a lot of hard work and creativity. It’s easy during this time to overlook some of the small details and let certain things fall through the cracks. That’s why it’s important to revisit the bulk of your site’s settings, configurations and (most importantly) the content to make sure everything is in order.

Do a review of your site’s settings and configurations in the backend to check in on the following and make sure they are working properly and have the most recent information:

Website description

Keywords

Copyright text - has the year been updated to 2015?

Email sending configurations

Social media integrations

Google integrations

SEO data – your meta titles, descriptions and keywords

It’s also important to review your site from the frontend perspective and to take a look at how your new site visitors will view things. Take note of the layout and see which content is showing prominently and which isn’t. Make sure there aren’t any irregularities such as typos or blurry images that detract from your branding. You can also reach out to any listing owners with lower resolution images on their listings to see if they have higher quality files that could be used in their place.

Another good practice is to evaluate if there are areas of your directory that aren’t being used as much or appear to be empty or under developed. Does your Classifieds section not have enough items? Has no one been commenting on your blog? These under-utilized pages will have a negative affect on your site and give visitors a bad mental image of your directory. In your Site Manager you can head to Configuration -> General Settings to simply uncheck any of the Modules that you want to hide and they will no longer appear on your site.

2. Improve Your Site’s Design

Once you’ve completed a review of your settings, content and eliminated the things you’re not using, it’s time to look over your site’s layout and design. Think about the color scheme you have chosen along with the font style. Make sure they are in alignment with your overall branding for your business and your industry (ex: numerous bright colors if you ran a flower shop directory). Review the text on your site to see if it is easy to read and looks clean against the background colors. Consider the images in your slider and think about how they reflect on your brand and site. Make sure they are a good match and convey the proper messaging for you directory.

Some customers choose to add and modify different elements and layouts of their site through custom development (see our Customer Spotlight for a few examples). With some changes to the source code of your directory you can have a brand new, beautifully designed site that looks exactly how you’d like it.

If you are interested in getting some more details on our Custom Development services and options please contact our sales team by phone at 1-800-630-4694 or email at sales@edirectory.com.

3. Set a Promotional Schedule

Take your upcoming year into account and plan a promotional schedule for your directory. Look for areas to offer holiday or seasonal savings to attract new customers at timely moments (ex: Special President’s Day Deals with Up to 30% Off New Listings!). Figure out some new deals and discounts to offer during your slower months to help drive revenue (ex: Warm Up with Winter Savings and Lock in Special Pricing for 2015).

Set your schedule to align your content and social media posts with these new promotions to maximize your message. Come up with original content that highlights opportunities in specific seasons or prominent holidays (ex. writing a blog post titled “Why Off-Season Marketing Pays Off Year Round” or “How to Reach Your Customers During the Winter Holidays”).

4. Get Social

Use your social media accounts to encourage increased communication and engagement amongst your customers and followers. You don’t always have to be selling something or touting how great your business is. Try to really relate to your followers and build relationships with them. Offer advice and guidance whenever you can and always respond to compliments or criticisms in a thoughtful, respectable manner.

Engage your followers with social forums, fun hashtags or social contests with prizes. Make things fun and welcoming to encourage participation. The more comfortable your followers are with you the more willing they will be to communicate and provide valuable feedback and insight that your business can learn from.

5. Go Mobile

If you currently don’t have access to the eDirectory app builder and are looking to upgrade, please contact our sales team by phone at 1-800-630-4694 or email at sales@edirectory.com.

Have any questions about eDirectory and how it can help you build the site you are looking for?

Contact us:
Call us @ 800-630-4694 or send us a message here.