A marketing audit is the first step in conducting a thorough review of your marketing over a period of time. You can do one at any time during the year, although the end of the year is a great time to step back and reflect on how your marketing has performed over the past 12 months. In this post, we’re sharing a marketing audit checklist so you can see how effective your marketing is.
Marketing audit checklist:
- Identify all the channels you use for marketing
- Make a note of key stats such as followers on social media, email subscribers, website visitors, event attendees
- Review all basic information, including contact details and logos
- Check all links are working
- Check the about section and company description on each channel
- Review your copy and key messages
- Review your visuals (photos, graphics)
- Review your branding
- Review frequency of sharing information
- Review who is responsible for each marketing channel
Now, let’s explore each of these areas in a bit more detail.
Identify all the channels you use for marketing
The first step in the marketing audit checklist is to understand exactly where you’re currently marketing your business. Note down all the places you share content, both online and offline. Then you’ll be able to go through the following items for each individual channel for a comprehensive marketing audit.
Make a note of key stats
A marketing audit is a snapshot of your marketing at the time you conduct the audit. So it’s important to understand the key stats around your main marketing channels. Some are more obvious, such as followers on social media or website visitors. If you have offline channels, you may need to think about other stats such as inbound enquiries from exhibitions or number of event attendees.
Stats to think about include: followers, likes, engagement rate, website visitors, page views, returning visitors, form submissions or inbound enquiries.
Review all basic information, including contact details and logos
You may be tempted to assume all this information is correct, but as we all know, things move fast in small businesses! Always check to see if there’s any out of date information on your website or other channels as part of your marketing audit.
Check all links are working
This is linked to the previous item – check all your links are working on your website and other channels. It’s easy to forget about redundant links that you may have shared a year ago (or longer!) and it’s very disruptive to your customer journey when your audience is trying to access a broken link or a resource that doesn’t exist anymore.
Check the about section and company description on each channel
The next step in the marketing audit checklist is to make a note of how you describe your business on each channel. Are all the descriptions aligned to your core brand messaging? Or have you pieced descriptions together ad hoc throughout the year as you’ve added new channels or had feedback from your audience? This is also a good chance to check you’re outlining the correct services and don’t have anything listed that you don’t offer any more or that’s at the wrong price.
Review your copy and key messages
Take a look at the copy in your posts online, any flyers or event materials you’ve used in the past year and see how it stacks up against your key messages. Even though you’re likely to use slightly different copy on each channel to ensure it stays relevant for that particular audience, you’re checking that your voice is consistent throughout.
Review your visuals (photos, graphics)
Similarly to checking your copy, the marketing audit is a great chance for you to check in with the imagery you use in your marketing. This could be photos, graphics, banners and the fonts and colour palette you’ve been using: is it in line with your brand guidelines?
Review your branding
Take a step back from the specifics of your copy and visuals for a minute, and take a big picture look at your overall branding. Does it seem to be in line with your target audience expectations and what they are looking for from a brand like yours? Or is it time for a refresh? Note down a few thoughts you have around this and include any feedback you may have had from your audience about your branding too.
Review frequency of sharing information
Note down how often you’re using each channel. This could be everything from how often you attend networking events and follow up with people through to how often you post on social media. This will help you understand what amount of marketing you’re able to do with your current resources and identify if you need to change this at all when you come to do your marketing plan.
Review who is responsible for each marketing channel
Finally, don’t forget to review who is responsible for each marketing channel. Whether it’s you or a team member, you need to know how well they have stuck to your marketing plan and what marketing they’re capable of doing with current capacity and skills. This is an essential part of your marketing audit to help you with future planning.
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We’re Freshbat – a strategic communications agency providing integrated marketing services to business leaders who embrace change and value marketing in a proactive and trustworthy environment.
Our goal is to give you more headspace, help you to make stuff happen and build better relationships by taking a fresh approach to marketing. We know you’re the kind of person who wants to be considered an inspiring and empowering leader for your business.
In order to be that way, you need to be in control of your marketing. The problem is you feel your marketing isn’t good enough, which in turn makes you feel confused and frustrated that you don’t have the resources, creativity or expertise to solve the issue.
We believe it’s just plain wrong that business leaders are tasked with keeping up with the rapidly changing marketing landscape on their own. That’s why we provide integrated marketing solutions through our worry-free marketing process.
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