When you think of an audit, marketing might not be the first thing that comes to mind, but it’s time to change that way of thinking. Today’s highly-competitive landscape requires businesses to be constantly improving if they’re to win over or keep customers and be successful. You may be under a lot of pressure from management or stakeholders to consistently produce better results. Completing a marketing audit on your current channels and data allows you to examine all aspects of your strategy and identify the opportunities for improvement, as well as what pieces you may want to double down on.
What is a Marketing Audit anyway?
A marketing audit is a process by which you analyze and evaluate the various elements of your overall marketing strategy (as well as potential channels or opportunities that may not be used currently). The goal is to take a comprehensive look at things such as your website, social media, digital advertising, events, print media, etc. and determine what/if any changes will make it perform better or provide customers with a better experience. It’s a time to refer back to your top-level goals and ensure that all pieces of your marketing are being used effectively to help you accomplish those goals.
The best timing to complete a marketing audit would be in advance of your marketing strategy and planning process, as the information gathered in an audit can help you make the best decisions going forward. While that’s best, we can do one at anytime.
A marketing audit can certainly be completed in-house, provided that you’re able to take a completely unbiased approach when evaluating (and provided that you have a thorough and up-to-date knowledge of the channel you’re evaluating). For that reason, clients often prefer to have someone with an outside perspective such as Vivid Image complete an audit process on their behalf. An outside party will likely be more successful in providing an objective view of your various marketing activities and offering suggestions for improvement or changes that you may not have thought of before.
What Goes into an Audit?
The marketing audit process itself varies depending on the strategy or channel that’s being evaluated. Here are some examples of common audit areas and some of the potential aspects that may be addressed as a part of the auditing process.
Social Media Auditing
- Which platforms are most likely to produce the best results based on demographics and your target audience?
- Profile setup and optimization: Are your graphics current? Do they display well on all devices? Do your “About”, description areas, and other settings accurately define who you are and what you do? (And do they speak to your target audience?)
- Could you be offering more or better ways to connect with your target audience?
- Is your current posting strategy working? What type of posts work best? (And when?)
- Are you using any paid options? Should you be? If so, are they working?
- What’s the average value of customers coming from these channels?
Website Auditing
- How well is your current site performing? Is it helping you meet your goals?
- Do you have sufficient traffic to the site? Is it well diversified? Do you need to find new traffic sources?
- What calls-to-action does the site have/use? Are they being used?
- What is the overall conversion rate of the site? Do certain types of traffic or pages on your website convert better than others?
- Is your branding properly represented?
- What changes to content are needed?
- Is it ready for ADA compliance or accessibility changes that will likely be coming?
- Is it secure? Is it fast?
- Is it being used as best as possible to support your other marketing channels?
- Are you creating good content for search engines and users?
Search Engine Optimization (SEO) Auditing
- Are the pages on your site currently set up to provide the right search engine signals? (Are technical SEO elements there?)
- Has your content been optimized to ensure a good experience for search engines and users?
- Do you have (or need to establish) backlinks to your site?
- What keywords are you trying to rank well for?
- What is your average domain and page authority?
- What keywords are you currently ranking for?
- What does your Google Search Console data say about your current organic performance?
Paid Search/Pay Per Click Marketing
- Are you using the best targeting methods based on your target audience and performance data?
- Are you following best practices for account and campaign setup?
- Are you using relevant keywords and tightly matched ad copy for best results?
- Does your current account spend money on search queries that aren’t likely to convert?
- Are the landing pages on your site getting the results that you need?
- Does your site need new, more, or better content to support certain keywords?
Evaluating various areas of your marketing through an audit process will allow you to quickly identify which elements may be worth focusing on in order to produce better results. Contact Vivid Image today to get help with your marketing audit.
Not really sure where to start or what may need auditing? A great place to start is by asking us to do a FREE Marketing Playbook for you, compile the research and give you your next BEST step. You can decide from there.
