What is a Marketing Audit?

Marketing audit is one of the most important function of marketing besides running marketing activities and campaigns. It is a systematic and objective analysis or even a full exploration of the business. It assesses everything from strategies and targets by identifying goals, gathering data, comparison, gap analysis, action plans and a lot more. If you want your investment to perform, you must keep a close eye on its progress, right?

There are four main characteristics of a marketing audit.

1. Regularity – some audits have to be performed daily, other have to be performed weekly – monthly – quarterly and the bigger ones, yearly.
2. Applied to All – all the functions of marketing are part of the audit – no exceptions!
3. Consistency – the should be a step by step process to ensure effective examination.
4. Expert view – leverage the marketing leadership or an independent consultant.

MARKETING FACT: Marketing audit are needed to is to catch mistakes early, pinpoint tactics that are working, and build insights for the next plan. They are not meant for individual performance review!

Here are some of the elements that should be covered in a marketing audit:

1. SWOT analysis
2. Market research (primary keyword, secondary keyword, buyer persona, market persona)
3. Competitor analysis (divided channel wise)
4. Budget – Actual Plan (last year – proposed – actual in percentage)
5. Leads’ Audit (definition – qualification – disqualification – attribution)
6. BANT (Budget – Authority – Need – Timing) rules
7. CRM dashboards
8. Channels’ Audit (running, proposed and in plan)
9. Dashboard Update (especially credentials)
10. Campaign Audit (running, proposed and in plan)
11. Vendor Audit (current and old)
12. Yearly Campaigns Plans (linear and non-linear campaigns)
13. Content Audit (Gap Analysis)
14. Trainings Plans

Marketing audits report serves as a catalyst for the business to build long and short term goals. It covers factors like marketing performance, level of competition, opportunities and potential next steps. This comprehensive study also helps the team to uncover areas that needs oiling and upgrade. Diversify your techniques and expand your target audience with these key learnings and growth your business faster!

Drop a note in the comments section to brainstorm on any technique that you found useful or even otherwise and we can exchange notes.