How to Audit Your Digital Marketing Strategy

What is a Marketing Audit?

Whether your business is a large, established company or a small organization with limited experience, marketing audits are crucial for sustainable success and continued business growth. I’ve met many business owners and marketing directors actively marketing in Phoenix AZ (where Jack & Bean is located) who have never performed a marketing audit. Like them, you probably perform other kinds of audits – financial audits, security audits – so why not do the same kind of analysis for your marketing strategy?

Is My Marketing Effective?

A marketing audit is an in-depth review of your current marketing strategy to determine what’s working, what isn’t, what can be improved or tried, and help reduce future costs across the board. Below are just a few reasons why these kinds of routine check-ins are vital for your marketing goals in the long run.

1) Ensure your marketing strategy is aligned with your goals

When you perform a marketing audit, you’re looking at all the areas you’ve invested marketing efforts into, giving you a full picture of what your whole marketing strategy looks like. Compare that in-depth understanding with your overall business goals and see how they align. If your goal was to increase the number of leads converted into sales, or increase the number of referrals you get in a month, do the marketing tactics implemented adequately support this goal or should they be reworked for improved success?

2) Determine what isn’t working 

While it might be discouraging to see what areas of your marketing strategy are underperforming, it’s critical for continued growth and success. If a Facebook campaign had little to no return on your investment, why would you want to keep throwing money at it? Gather the data, analyze what went wrong, and try to pinpoint the reason why. You’ll end up with a solid foundation for future ideas of what will work better and specific areas that can be improved upon.

3) Invest money in what is working

By weeding out the areas that aren’t performing adequately for your company, you’ll free up money and time to invest in what is working. That money you pulled from the lack-luster Facebook campaign in Mesa can then be allocated towards your successful email drip that has been exceeding your desired ROI. Determining what has been successful for your business and investing in those will save you significantly in time and money down the road.

4) Develop new ideas (and improve on your competition’s) 

Performing a marketing audit requires a great deal of research, not just on your company’s metrics, but also on your industry as a whole. Doing this much research is a great way to discover new ideas and tests to implement. For example, if you notice a rental car company running a noteworthy campaign for the keyword “Phoenix AZ car rental,” in a way that you never thought of – geo-fencing Canadian snowbirds during the winter season – you can customize it for your company and goals and see how it performs. For your product/service, how could you similarly implement geographical targeting for a keyword containing a different location? Trying new ideas on a regular basis is the best way to discover an untapped opportunity!

5) Understand your market, audience, and local competition better

Any successful marketer can tell you that understanding your market, audience, and competition is a key factor in an effective marketing strategy. By performing a marketing audit, you can determine what your local competitors are doing, whether or not it’s effective at reaching your desired audience, and how your audience reacts to it. Having this knowledge will show you strengths and weaknesses of your competition, and even within your company’s marketing strategy, that you can improve upon to help your business grow.

If your company is interested in performing a marketing audit or is interested in learning more about what a marketing agency can do, let’s talk.