Want to improve your marketing strategy? Before launching into it, you’re going to need a marketing audit. A marketing audit has many advantages. It gives you the information you need to devise an effective plan. It also prevents you from going in “blind,” improving your chances of success. Let’s look at what a marketing audit is and how you can conduct one.
What is a marketing audit?
A marketing audit is a review of the current state of your marketing. It should review your marketing activities with an eye to your business goals. A marketing audit will reveal where you could make improvements to more effectively reach your audience and communicate your brand messages. It can also help you convert more efficiently, lowering your marketing budget and boosting your return on investment.
What’s involved?
A marketing audit can be comprehensive, covering all marketing activities of your business. Or, it can focus on a single sub-section of your marketing, such as digital. Ideally, you should conduct marketing audits periodically, so that your marketing is as efficient as it can be. You can conduct a marketing audit yourself. Or, you could recruit an independent consultant to give you expert feedback.
How to conduct an audit
- Define your goals
Take a look at your business goals. These will guide you when conducting your audit. Your business goals will also help you strategize after the audit is complete. Turn your business goals into marketing goals. Do you want to grow your customer base or sell more products? Or do you want to improve your relationships and build brand awareness? By translating your business goals into marketing goals, you set the standard against which you go on to assess your current marketing. Read more in how to set marketing goals you can actually achieve.
- Gather data
Collect analytics on all of your marketing channels. Starting with your website, you want to look at how many visitors you are getting and where they are coming from (referrals). You’ll also collect analytics on your social media platforms. You’ll look at metrics such as engagement (how much your audience interacts with your brand) and conversions (how many users make a purchase).
You might also collect analytics on your email marketing campaigns by looking at open rates and click-throughs. Use a tool such as Salesforce or HubSpot to integrate analytics across all of your marketing channels. These will give you a comprehensive and holistic overview of your digital channels.
- Analyse results
It’s time to examine your analytics. Are your current marketing activities achieving your business goals? If not, what improvements do you need to make? You might find that a previously effective digital channel is no longer getting results. For example, maybe your audience has moved off Facebook and onto Instagram or SnapChat. When analysing your results, look for hidden opportunities to reach your audience.
- Revise your strategy
Once you’ve identified areas for improvement, it’s time to develop a new marketing strategy. You need to craft your brand messaging, hone your key messages, and keep these messages consistent across all of your channels. You should also have identified new opportunities for engaging your audience, generating leads, and making conversions. Now you can create even better content, tailored to your audience.
Ready to create your new strategy? Read more in How to Master the Digital Content Strategy