Marketing Audit: The Ultimate Guide (2022)

Most companies dread digital marketing audits as much as they dread the dentist’s chair.

The idea of a frank assessment of your brand’s marketing efforts is unsettling for both B2B and B2C brands. It’s not great to see your company’s flaws. So you’re tempted to push forward without stopping to assess the situation.

But this will ruin your firm. You will lose all your valuable resources and enrage investors and stakeholders.

That’s scary. That’s why you should conduct a digital marketing audit ASAP.

It helps you to pause and assess your progress. You identify your brand’s strengths and flaws. Your business stays on pace after that and this reduces your chances of failure and boosts your chances of success.

This post will walk you through a marketing audit. Let’s begin.

In What Ways May A Marketing Audit Be Considered Successful?

When it comes to a successful marketing audit, there are many factors to consider.

It’s a given:

1) Structured:

You should do a thorough audit rather than a hasty one. If you don’t follow a proven procedure or template, you’ll lose out on important details.

2) Exhaustive:

Make sure your investigation covers all aspects of your marketing strategy and tactics. Analyse your competitors as well as your content strategy and email, social media, and SEO marketing.

3) Autonomous:

Even while an audit can be performed internally, it is recommended that a third party be enlisted to do so for the best outcomes. It’s difficult to spot faults when you’re too close to the activity to conduct an audit. 

Having a third-party outside of the decision-making process provides a more objective perspective. Authentic results can only be achieved if management is completely engaged and provides all the necessary information.

4) Regular:

You shouldn’t only do a marketing audit once. As a result, your marketing audit will go awry if you treat it as a once-and-forgotten task. 

It’s better to incorporate an audit into your long-term marketing strategy, rather than use it as a one-time tool to deal with an emergency.

5) Contextual:

Nothing happens in a vacuum, not even at your company. A thorough marketing audit evaluates your company’s operating environment. In addition, it takes into account internal elements such as knowledge, competence, and technology. 

There are also external elements like geography, political-legal changes, socio-cultural conditions, or powerful competition.

Do You Need A Marketing Audit for a Small Business?

It is a complete examination of your small business’s present marketing strategy as well as its goals, objectives, and methods. In order to find opportunities for improvement, you need to know how things are going. 

By conducting an effective marketing audit, you may identify your company’s strengths and weaknesses in this area and decide where to focus your future marketing efforts.

If you don’t regularly do marketing audits, you could be wasting money on marketing. Here are five reasons why every small business should do a marketing audit.

1) Ensure that your marketing activities are aligned with your business objectives.

Because of their focus on the daily tasks of running a small business, many entrepreneurs fail to see their company’s long-term vision. 

You may not be able to remember why a specific marketing plan was implemented or whether it is being successfully executed if this happens. 

One of the most effective ways to make sure that the everyday actions you are carrying out match your business goals is to do a marketing audit.

2) Keep an eye out for Issues

An audit of a company’s marketing efforts helps the business owner determine the effectiveness of the strategies currently in place. With the facts and data you’ve collected, it’s time to take an objective look at your firm. 

This is a chance for you to assess whatever aspects of your company’s marketing aren’t working well. Informed decisions about how to improve activities or utilise new techniques for increased effectiveness in your marketing efforts are then possible.

3) Increase Your Knowledge of New Concepts and Approaches

A marketing audit necessitates a great deal of investigation into your company’s operations as well as the surrounding environment. 

Research can be a wonderful approach to uncovering new ideas to test in your firm, even if it isn’t the primary purpose for performing an audit in the first place. 

Your competitors may be doing something you hadn’t even considered during your investigation. With a few tweaks to the approach, you can create new marketing activities that have a lot of room for improvement.

4) Analyse Your Competition in-Depth

Marketing success necessitates a thorough knowledge of the market, your intended audience, and the competition. With a marketing audit, you may have a better understanding of your competition. 

You may improve your approach to your target audience by studying the strengths and shortcomings of your competition. Your firm will ascend to the top if you know what they’re doing well and how to improve on it.

5) Long-term savings in terms of both time and money

Marketing efforts that yield little or no return might waste time and resources without regular check-ins of this nature. Regular marketing audits help you focus on the activities that are most effective for your company, allowing you to get the most out of your marketing budget.

6) Organise Your Marketing Audit Procedures

It is common for a marketing audit to begin with a study of all current business documents to determine the company’s goals and plans, compile a list of current tactics being implemented, and solicit opinions from the company’s key staff (competition, market, economy, industry, etc.). 

A SWOT analysis of your company is a good place to start because it will show you where you have room for improvement. You may never know the full potential of your marketing budget if you don’t conduct frequent audits.

Marketing Audit: How to Do It?

Step 1: Identify All Marketing Objectives and Goals.

It is critical that your marketing objectives are well-defined and well-researched. SMARTPurposes should be aligned with the larger aims of the company.

Among the most important marketing goals are the following:

• Expanding a company’s public profile
• Enlarging the number of viewers
• Increase or maintain market share while setting yourself out from the competition
• Obtaining suitable leads for sales
• Increasing the number of customers who use the service.

Consider both long-term and short-term goals when planning your future. Long-term objectives should be attainable in the next two years and arranged according to importance. 

Priority should be given to short-term goals that can be completed within the next year, taking into account the company’s resources, such as budget and employees.

Step 2: Create Personas for Your Clients.

You might as well take this chance to flesh out your ideal customer personas if you haven’t already.

Things to include in your ideal buyer persona include the following:

• Titles or roles in a company
• Industry
• An individual’s place of residence
• in the scope of operations
• Other demographic, ethnic, and behavioural descriptors are also available.

Step 3: Find out who your rivals are.

Make a list of the top three to five competitors in your field. The company’s name, website, and headquarters location should all be noted. You should compile a list of all of their offerings, noting any that are similar to your own.

Step 4: Describe Your Goods and/or Solutions

Check to be that you have included all of the features and benefits, as well as the pricing, sizes, and distribution methods, for each product or service you offer.

 Analyze how your products and services stack up against those of your main rivals (s). Each item’s strengths and limitations should be listed, as well as any previous data you may have relating to your market share, consumer perception, and overall success.

Step 5: Create an Inventory List

Make a comprehensive list of all of your existing marketing materials. Your marketing materials should be organised and catalogued.

Step 6: Data Analysis and Draw Inferences from It

With all of your data in order, you should have a good idea of where your organisation stands. As you go through the various sections of your marketing audit, you’ll be able to see where your strengths and weaknesses lie. Keep a running list of things you’d like to get better at or continue doing well.

Step 7: Make a Game Plan and Execute It

To make better decisions, you need to analyse the outcomes of your audit. Fixing any problems found during the audit is a good place to begin your action plan.

• Take action to fix any and all issues with your site, including broken links and 404 errors.
• Troubleshoot any analytic tracking issues that may have shown up.
• Look for holes in the content that is already out there.

Conclusions

An audit of your digital marketing strategy may sound daunting, and that’s because it is. However, the effort is well worth it in the end.

When it comes down to it, there are just three considerations:

• Keep an eye out for any holes in your plan, and fix them.
• Throw out the old and make room for the new.
• Think beyond the box and use your abilities to come up with new ideas.
• Consider the long-term. A timely marketing audit can boost your return on investment.

Now it’s your turn

Or maybe I forgot to add your point.

Please, let me know in the comment.