What is a marketing audit?
A marketing audit is basically a complete review/analysis of your current marketing efforts. It can cover things like a review of your marketing channel performance, website, social media platforms, branding and return on investment. It paints a picture of where you are right now with your marketing strategy/activity and allows you to plan where you want to be.
Why is a marketing audit important?
You can spend a lot of time and money on your marketing efforts, so it is vital that you review where you are and what you are doing to ensure your investment is well spent. Auditing your marketing can highlight where you might need to adapt your strategy, where investment is not paying off and where improvements need to be made.
Basic steps of a marketing audit
1. Identify all your marketing channels and activities.
To begin auditing your marketing, it is crucial to have a detailed understanding of where you are right now. You may think you know this already, but every activity or channel that you utilise for marketing performs differently and it is important to regularly stop and take stock of where you are.
Look at all the marketing channels and platforms that you are using right now. Put yourself in the shoes of your potential customers; how do your platforms look? Is your website where you want it to be, and does it contain the information your potential customers need to see?
It is a good idea to do a SWOT analysis (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats) as this allows you to dive into the detail of each of your channels/platforms.
2. Gather the data.
Setting up platforms or running campaigns is great, but unless you know how they are performing and contributing to the goals of your business, you haven’t really understood their value.
Which of your channels is performing best? What return are they generating against your investment? What sales/enquiries have they generated in the last 6 months? How much have you invested and what does the return look like? Understanding these metrics allows you to take a measured view of all your activities and make the necessary decisions to ensure your marketing efforts are generating return.
3. Identify any issues.
Gathering the data allows you to identify where any problems might lie. What channels/activities are not performing? Where do you feel more attention is needed to improve performance? What do you need to ‘fix’?
Identifying where issues lie within your marketing activities allows you to factor positive actions into your action plan.
4. Identify your goals and objectives.
You know what the goals and objectives of your business are, but how do you want your marketing activities to help you achieve them? Do you want to generate sales leads through Facebook? Or drive online chat through your website? Aligning your marketing goals to your business strategy means that you are focusing all of your activity on the needs of your business.
5. Analyse the competition
It is a good idea to look at what your competitors are doing. Are they using the same channels as you, and if so, are they using them in the same way? Do you think yours are better or are there ideas you can take from competitors to improve what you are doing?
You might find gaps in what your competitors are offering that you already do very well. This creates an opportunity for you to shout a bit loader about what you offer that they don’t.
6. Produce an action plan.
You now have all the information you need to produce a plan of action that ensures your marketing activity is helping you to achieve your business goals.
When you know both where you are right now, and where you want to be, you can use this knowledge to create a plan of action. You might break this plan down by channel or by business objective and how you want your marketing activity to contribute.
Where can I find help if I need it?
If the above all sounds a bit daunting, I can do this all for you including producing a plan of action at the end! Alternatively, if you have completed a marketing audit and know what you want to achieve, I can help you bring that to life through hands-on marketing activities.
To talk more about your marketing needs, speak to Sarah at Squish!
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