A great brand positioning will often be accompanied by a positioning statement that can be used across marketing communications, conveying and reinforcing your core message and proposition.

Unique selling points should be included on your website, ads and communications as an extension to your positioning. Think Domino’s well known USP - ‘Fresh Pizza Delivered In 30 Minutes - Or Your Money Back!’

It takes just a split second for your audience to form an impression of your brand, usually from the visual elements initially.

Consistency is key. It helps create a professional image and builds trust with your audience.

Almost 60% of internet users say they won’t recommend a business with a poorly designed website on mobile.

Not sure? Use Google’s Page Speed Insights Tool here. Slow-loading websites cost retailers over £2 billion in lost sales each year.

HTTPS protects all communication and customer information but it also makes website visitors feel safer. In addition, Google prefers to rank secure sites higher than those that aren't secure.

A sitemap will help Google to crawl your website easier and index your pages. Not sure if you have one? Also, make sure you submit your sitemap to Google Search Console.

94% of first impressions relate directly to your site’s web design. Think of your website as your storefront – you’ll want to make a great first impression.

Make it easy for your website visitors to find what they're looking for and to get in touch.

A popular format for a title tag that can improve search visibility is … Keyword 1 | Keyword 2 or Benefit/Hook - Business Name. It should also be less than 65 characters ideally so that all of it shows in Google’s results pages.

While meta descriptions no longer have a direct impact on search engine rankings, they can be optimised to improve organic click-through rates. They should also be less than 160 characters.

Each of your images should have an alt tag that describes what the image is. Google can’t see images but it can crawl these tags.

Internal links aid in user navigation and in indexing your website. Include a mixture of links on your website, including keyword anchor links to relevant content/blog articles.

Schema markup helps the search engines to return more informative results for searches, helping your website stand out further in the search results.

There are several free tools to check your website backlink profile. You must attract and gain links naturally rather than building them. Building unnatural links could result in a Google penalty.

While duplicate content won’t get your site penalised (a common misconception) it can harm your search visibility.

Updating your website content - regularly - is important to stay relevant to your audience and to send the right signals to Google. A blog is the best way to do this and you should aim for at least one or two new pieces of valuable content per month. If you are struggling for content ideas, try AnswerThePublic - a tool we sometimes use if we’re having a writer’s block! Remember that content doesn’t automatically mean text; you should also be using charts, infographics, videos and podcasts etc - mix it up!

Downloadable content offers in the forms of whitepapers, eBooks and checklists are great ways to provide value to your audience, establish new relationships and develop existing ones.

Where possible your content should contain imagery, video, infographics and other forms of multimedia to boost engagement and time on your site, both of which will have a positive impact on SEO.

If you don’t post frequently your audience will forget about you. Post regularly, daily or twice daily on your most popular platforms, and 3 or 4 times a week as a minimum.

Join in the conversation on relevant hashtags and groups across your Social channels. Always look to provide insight and value, try not to hard sell!

Images, videos and GIFs are all proven to increase engagement on Social Media.

Mix up your self-promotional content with posts that inform, educate and entertain your audience.

For e-commerce, Instagram is often critical. For B2B, LinkedIn is a must. We’d recommend Facebook for both B2C and B2B automotive businesses. Twitter is great for B2B also. For brands with a younger target audience, TikTok and Snapchat are also viable options. Finally, don’t discount Pinterest if you’ve not tried it!

Google AdWords is often the initial go-to for automotive businesses looking to get started with paid advertising. For B2B brands, search and display ads are great. For e-commerce brands, Shopping ads are a must.

Google AdWords campaigns can easily be imported into Microsoft Advertising and doing so is a great way of extending your reach and driving more traffic and conversions.

Social Media ads, particularly Facebook and Instagram can drive brand awareness, leads and sales for a relatively low cost. Even with a spend of just £50 per month you could generate new business.

Native content promotion using tools like Outbrain will amplify the content you create in a way that is natural and not interruptive. Native ads look like they’re meant to be there.

In general, around 2% of web visitors will convert. Retargeting aims to bring back a proportion of the other 98%. Remember that previous visitors who are retargeted are more likely to convert by 43%.

Keep in touch with existing customers by sending educational content, news, new product information, incentives and promotions.

Email marketing automation is used to nurture leads from the top of the marketing funnel to a stage where they’re ready to enquire or buy. Some platforms offer an entry into automation for free.

People love personalised experiences and your customers are no different. Segmenting and personalising your email campaigns can drastically improve email open rates, click-throughs and conversions.

Each of your emails should contain a clear call to action that makes it easy for your contacts to know what you want them to do next.

Having a form on your homepage makes it super easy for your website visitors to contact you. It’s something we recommend to most of our clients but isn’t always relevant for e-commerce brands.

Each of your web pages, whether service pages or product pages should have clear calls to action - for example: get in touch, find out more, download a resource or buy etc.

Ensure your website forms contain the minimal amount of detail you need and make certain fields optional. When it comes to e-commerce, test your checkout process and simplify it as much as you can. Checkout systems like PayPal Express can be implemented to help with this and provide a fast and secure method for your customers to make a purchase.

Exit pop up forms, in particular, can help generate additional leads you likely wouldn’t have received otherwise. Popular exit pop-ups include newsletter subscriptions, content downloads and discounts.

Chatbots offer a quick, consistent response to users, maintaining a high level of customer satisfaction. They will increase leads while saving on customer service time or costs.

Google Analytics is a must for all businesses. It provides invaluable data and insights into customer behaviour and engagement on your website.

Set up and create goals in Google Analytics to track conversions from various marketing channels and sources. Form submissions and purchases are often the most essential to track.

Google’s custom tracking URL builder can be used to create bespoke URLs that can then be implemented across your marketing campaigns. They will help you track specific campaigns, from paid social to email easily. If you then convert these to short URLs, they can be used to track offline advertising to an extent.

Always make sure to implement channel-specific tracking as it might prove more accurate than Analytics and will provide data within the app/platform itself, enabling you to make changes based on performance quicker.

There’s a great choice of call tracking software now available for all sizes of businesses. Call tracking will allow you to track those offline conversions you didn’t know came from online. It could make the difference between deciding to stop a campaign or pour more investment into it!

CRM’s such as HubSpot and Salesforce align sales and marketing by providing one central point of control for contacts, prospects and customers. Proving marketing return for B2C is fairly easy but for B2B the sales process can often be months long. Having a CRM in place will track the very first prospect touchpoint to the point they become a customer.

Push notifications are designed to drive visitors back to your website through targeted campaigns. Subscribers can be implemented for free with a maximum contacts limit.

HotJar and similar tools aid in optimising your website conversion rate through heatmaps, click maps, split tests, surveys and more.

Chat blasting and chatbot drip campaigns through Facebook Messenger can deliver great results. Tools like ManyChat or MobileMonkey can help facilitate this.

Creating a business podcast will establish thought leadership and credibility for your automotive brand. It will set you aside from your competitors especially if they don't have one. Anchor FM is a great podcasting platform to get started for free.

Text message marketing is similar to email marketing but with much higher open rates. It's an extremely underutilised marketing tactic and proves especially useful for e-commerce brands.