Why Ignoring a Marketing Audit Will Cost You Time and Money?
A marketing audit is a marketing evaluation and control procedure, since corrective actions can be taken with the results obtained.
Audits can also help uncover opportunities or problem areas within a business that can be exploited or addressed if appropriate action is taken.
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To ensure an efficient and competent business that meets the needs of the market, you should always analyze the management process. This is where the audit comes in, which is nothing more than an examination of the companies to determine their weaknesses and opportunities in the environment that surrounds them.
In marketing, an audit is a tool that allows you to evaluate the actions you take inside and outside your company, and analyze and adjust or improve them as you see fit.
There is a lot going on in this world, and a marketing audit will be the most effective way to make sure you don’t miss a single detail.
You will gain a better understanding of your processes and knowledge on how to respond to your company’s weaknesses and market needs. Regular marketing audits are necessary to understand the operation and efficiency of the company; but at least annual audits are recommended so that information that can help improve or reinforce what has been done is always available.
Aspects That Need to Be Evaluated
The main aspects that must be taken into account when preparing a marketing audit can be summarized as follows:
- Market share
In the commercial part, a very important factor is the market share of the company. It can be measured by the level of sales as a percentage of total market sales. It can also be measured by the company’s participation in the target market, since it gives an idea of its position in the market; for example, if you are a committed leader or a subservient competitor.
- Customer satisfaction
This is where the level of customer satisfaction is measured, but more importantly, the reason why the customer is dissatisfied so that appropriate corrective action can be taken.
- Customer Retention Rate
This variable can give a company an idea of whether it is losing customers and therefore sales. There are also unprofitable customers that you need to let go. But the best customers are the ones you must keep because the life of the company depends on them.
- Product or service quality: Data will be collected on how the quality of your offer is perceived compared to the competition, in order to focus on what you offer to your customers based on what they expect to receive.
Regarding the financial aspects, you must evaluate if you are making a profit, the result of the profit or loss will tell the company what to do. Because if profits increase, you can increase your share price and attract new investors; if you’re at a loss, capital is scarcer and you have to manage it better, forcing you to revise your budget for advertising, research and development, etc.
When Should You Think About an Audit?
A good marketing report should be comprehensive, organized, frequent, and independent. Also, you need to know when it is most important to perform a marketing audit.
- In times of crisis.
- When the company has not achieved its objectives.
- When consumer preferences change.
- If you want to streamline and optimize your investment in marketing.
- When the objective of the company is to increase its presence on social networks and on the Internet.
- When you are below your sector.
Main Elements of an Online Marketing Audit
Objectivity is one of the fundamental aspects of any analysis. Keep this in mind when auditing your marketing campaigns. In fact, it doesn’t hurt to delegate this task to an external team of experts, rather than to members of the organization or project.
In the main section, include the following.
- Objectives
Setting goals is very important because there is nothing in digital marketing that cannot be measured. Therefore, for a marketing audit to be truly effective, you must define what you hope to achieve with it, and for this, you must define a set of metrics that will show if you have achieved the proposed goal.
- Brand situation analysis
This brand positioning analysis must be done within the framework of the digital presence as well as the commercial objectives, development, and future prospects or implementation in the different markets.
- Digital channel analysis
This section must include all the online channels in which the brand exists and analyze the performance and results obtained in them, in addition to interconnecting them.
- Industry and competitive analysis
Focusing on the analysis of the competition and the sector in which your company operates, identify who are the main competitors of the brand and analyze their presence in the different online channels.
This will help you identify your strengths and weaknesses and thus obtain a reference of the market situation. In addition, it is convenient to include an analysis of the main trends in the industry.
Main Channels of a Digital Marketing Audit
The most important channels to evaluate are:
- Website
A website is one of the most important elements of a digital marketing audit because it is the online «hub» of your brand. Here you will analyze important aspects such as design, user experience, or page performance.
- SEO orientation
Analyzing your SEO positioning requires that you evaluate and measure the performance of your brand in the main search engines. This way, you’ll see what search queries your site is showing up for and where it ranks compared to your competitors.
- Social media
For many companies, social networks are a key element of their digital presence. In accordance with the previous sections, the online marketing audit must include a list of all the social networks in which the brand is present, as well as the activities carried out (broadcast frequency, content, activity, etc.) and the analysis of the results obtained (metrics such as traffic generated by social networks or interaction with the news).
- Email marketing
Email marketing is an essential element of a digital strategy due to its versatility and high ROI (return on investment). Here, check the quality of your database and the performance of the emails you send based on metrics like opens and clicks.
- Digital advertising
If online advertising activities are carried out, these activities include all payment activities carried out by the Company. All paid advertising campaigns are part of these activities, both on social networks and in search engines. In the analysis, separate the advertising objectives of each activity (awareness, lead generation, conversions) and include the most relevant metrics such as web traffic, ad quality score or RTA (return on advertising investment).
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