There’s freeware, such as HubSpot, that will grade your website, but up until now there hasn’t been a free service to “measure both traditional and Internet marketing,” says Neil Brown, chief marketing officer for Construction Marketing Advisors, a partner agency of the Construction Marketing Association, an organization that provides training and resources for companies involved with construction.
real-time diagnostic
The grader, found here, asks for your website URL and the domains of social media profiles you use such as Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn; marketing samples, such as brochures; and the URLs for three competitors’ websites.
CMA’s consultants run a real-time diagnostic on Internet presence and SEO (search engine optimization) features and make comparisons with competitors’ marketing samples. They also ask about the measures you use to evaluate your own marketing. Then they grade your company in five categories: brand execution, marketing programs, Internet marketing, social media integration, and marketing results measurement, and provide three ideas for improving your score.
Suggestions Offered
Todd Miller, owner of QMA Design & Build, in Ventnor, N.J., used the service and says he found it helpful — “especially for people who rely on their website to generate calls.”
The grader praised aspects of QMA’s marketing, including editorial placements and association affiliations, as well as the QMA site’s aesthetic, but pointed out that the site needs better coding and tags, and that Miller needs a blog presence and to engage more in social media to “build search engine authority.”
“It’s pretty much as expected,” Miller says, “especially when analyzing a site created over five years ago.” In fact, Miller had already discussed several of the ideas with his marketing consultant and plans to implement many of CMA’s suggestions the next time he does a major website update.
—Stacey Freed, senior editor, REMODELING.
