Marketing audit – what it is, objectives and stages
Modern companies, even not necessarily the largest ones, are extremely complex systems. The sheer number of internal processes, as well as external conditions that affect their functioning, sometimes makes it difficult to see the whole picture of a company – even from the perspective of a director’s chair.
Without a broad perspective, in turn, it is hard to talk about effective action planning, development and effective marketing.
In this article you will learn?
- What is a marketing audit?
- What are the objectives of a marketing audit?
- What is the scope of a marketing audit?
- What research methods are used in an audit?
- Why is it worth commissioning an external marketing audit?
- What is the result of a marketing audit?
Conducting or commissioning a marketing audit may be the solution to this problem. What is it, what methods does it use and what should you expect from it?
Marketing audit – definition
We have one task: uncover the dark secrets of your marketing strategy. Are your campaigns so captivating that your customers will stick their eyes into them as if they were Magda Gessler performing a kitchen revolution? Are your ads so groundbreaking that people will remember them at family dinner? Are your SEO efforts bringing traffic to your site that puts your site’s conversion rate semicolon to shame? These are the questions our specialists are looking for answers to.
A marketing audit is a detailed and reliable assessment of the current state of activities (not just marketing activities!) of a given company. Its objective is to identify strengths and weaknesses in the company’s processes and to identify areas where its efficiency and profit generation can be improved.
The marketing audit includes an analysis of both the company’s internal resources and the market environment in which it operates. This provides a complete picture of the situation and thus allows appropriate action to be taken to improve business performance.
A marketing audit, as defined, is the process of systematically examining and analysing the marketing activities carried out by a company. It aims to assess the effectiveness and efficiency of the marketing strategies used and to identify areas for improvement.
Marketing audit definition
The audit also examines the brand message and communication that reaches the target audience – its effectiveness in building brand strength and achieving the marketing objectives.
In some cases, an audit is almost essential to the emergence of a company’s marketing strategy and the planning of an effective marketing mix.
It is worth conducting it on a regular basis and not just in response to a crisis – it will then produce much better, long-term results.
Marketing audit objectives
Marketing audits are like a visit to the doctor – maybe a little unpleasant, but ultimately designed to improve your marketing health
A marketing audit can help your business in many areas and fields, such as:
Identifying goals and creating a marketing strategy
A marketing audit is a way of identifying your company’s objectives, formulating them in the right way and planning marketing strategies that will achieve them and at the same time meet the needs and expectations of your customers. It also allows you to decide on the most measurable KPIs.
This aspect will be most important for those who primarily want to develop their brand and stand out from the competition.
Optimising the marketing budget
A marketing audit allows for a better understanding of what and how a company uses its marketing budgets. As a result, a company can start to spend more effectively, or simply save money on marketing.
An audit can also reveal that the money being spent on advertising is simply not enough for it to have a chance to work.
Evaluating the effectiveness of marketing activities
Assessing the effectiveness of individual marketing activities is one of the most important objectives of an audit. It enables a company to select the most effective of its existing activities and intensify them, and to eliminate those that are not delivering the expected results. The audit can also recommend completely new channels and methods for reaching potential customers.
This element will be particularly important for companies that have noticed a decline in the effectiveness of their marketing activities and want to identify and then eliminate the causes.
Adapting to a changing market environment
An audit allows for a better understanding of the changing market environment, including the competition. It is an opportunity to adapt your marketing activities to new industry trends and current customer expectations.
The audit will also ensure that the changes you are planning will not have a negative impact on sales.
Scope of the marketing audit
Our research extends to distant galaxies – market and competitive analysis. We study what planets are orbiting your business and what intrigues your competitors are plotting. All this to keep you up to date and know how to navigate the cosmic universe of business
The scope of a marketing audit depends on the specific needs and objectives of your business, but usually covers the following areas:
Analysis of the company’s internal resources
A marketing audit includes an assessment of a company’s internal resources, such as staff, advertising budget, tools and technology that are used in its operations and marketing activities.
Analysis of the market environment
The marketing audit covers not only factors closely related to the company in question, but tries to provide a broad perspective. To this end, an analysis is performed of the entire market environment in which the company operates, including competitor activities, customer trends and expectations, and market segmentation.
Analysis of non-market factors affecting the business
Any business can also be affected by events not directly related to the market, demand, supply and competition.
Not everything can be predicted, but a professional marketing audit should take into account, for example, issues related to politics and planned legislation or to changes in society over time.
Analysis of the company’s activities and performance
An important part of any marketing audit should be a thorough analysis of the effects of all activities that the company undertakes to increase its market share and sales. This then enables conclusions to be drawn about what is working and what needs to be improved. This may include the following areas in particular:
Analysis of sales performance
Analysing sales data (volume, value, average basket value or percentage of abandoned baskets in E-commerce, etc.) over a longer period prior to the audit allows sales trends (e.g. seasonal) to be determined.
Such knowledge can be used to better plan future activities and make the company at least partially ‘immune’ to predictable market fluctuations.
Analysis of marketing activities
A marketing audit, in keeping with its name, largely involves the analysis and evaluation of the company’s marketing activities, both current and past. This includes: overall marketing strategy, marketing budget, marketing tools and customer outreach channels used, advertising and promotional campaigns (e.g. performance marketing), as well as customer communication, Public Relations and branding.
Examples of the types and areas of marketing that an auditor may take under the microscope are:
Analysis of traditional advertising activities
If a company runs or has run traditional marketing activities in the past, such as advertising in the press, radio, television or outdoor, these should be carefully analysed in the audit, together with the effects they have achieved (e.g. sales generated) and the costs the company has incurred in connection with them.
A thorough analysis of a traditional campaign may allow, for example, the best elements of it to be used in other marketing channels or to be repeated in the future, but e.g. with better targeting or in other media.
Analysis of public relations and brand communication activities
The marketing audit examines all brand communication and its impact on the company’s image – how it is perceived (by both customers and business). It is analysed how this is influenced by the ideas it espouses and supports and the non-business activities it undertakes, e.g. CSR or environmental activities.
Ongoing and one-off PR activities and their effects – sentiment, brand presence in the trade press and at events, industry awards granted, number of mentions on the web, etc. – will also be carefully examined.
Analysis of social media activities
A marketing audit can include an assessment of a company’s social media activities, or social media marketing, including looking at what sites are being used, what content is being published, user reactions and feedback, how many users there are, and: how this translates into the brand’s business objectives.
This includes both organic and paid reach on the most popular social networks such as Facebook, TikTok and LinkedIn, for example.
Analysis of content published as part of content marketing
The audit can also include in its scope the content marketing activities that the company carries out.
The auditor checks what content is created, on what topics, in what language, by whom, the forms of publication, distribution and promotion, as well as the results of these activities – not necessarily purely sales-related.
Graphic identity analysis
A marketing audit may also concern the visual layer of the brand, e.g. the colours, fonts and logo used, but also the design of advertising creations, the website or product packaging.
If the individual elements of the identity are not sufficiently internally consistent and engaging, the brand loses its sales potential. This is exactly the kind of information we should expect from a marketing audit.
SEO and UX analysis of the website
If the website is an important pillar of the company’s operation, then the marketing audit should focus heavily on it – its usability for the user and its positioning possibilities. In practice, this may mean commissioning or performing a separate SEO audit and UX audit of the website.
Even in the case of a very cursory analysis, the audit should provide clear guidelines in areas such as:
- information architecture
- technical optimisation
- adaptation to mobile devices
- loading times,
- available content and use of keywords,
- backlink profile.
This will be particularly important for online shops using e-commerce marketing, but in principle no company should ignore the online channel these days.
Research methods, uses marketing audit
The phrase research methods brings to mind playing in the lab of marketing geniuses, but it is through these methods that a marketing audit uncovers secrets, analyzes data, conducts interviews and experiments to create the best recipe for your brand’s success.
For an audit to be of real value to the company commissioning it, it should give as accurate a picture as possible of its current situation. It should therefore be carried out using reliable, transparent and authoritative research methods. These may include, for example:
Data analysis
A marketing audit should be based on the analysis of as much data as possible (not necessarily numerical!), such as:
- demographic data,
- financial data,
- market and competition data,
- data on distribution and communication channels,
- product and service data,
- promotional and advertising data,
- sales and lead generation data.
Analysing multiple sets of different data allows broader conclusions to be drawn, comparisons to be made and it is possible to determine which company activities are effective enough and which can be improved or abandoned.
Surveys and interviews
A marketing audit may rely to some extent on surveys and interviews with customers, employees, distributors, business partners, etc.
Surveys and interviews provide valuable knowledge of the opinions, expectations, needs and preferences of those associated with the company. They allow for a better understanding of their needs and expectations.
SWOT and PESTLE analyses
A marketing audit should include a SWOT analysis of the company’s strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats.
It can also use the PESTLE analysis method, i.e. the political, social, economic, technological and legal conditions that affect the company’s operations and performance.
It is important to focus on both micro (affecting only the company) and macro (affecting everyone in the market) factors.
Advantages of an external marketing audit
The main advantage of a marketing audit is that it allows us to open our eyes to our own mistakes. It’s like discovering that we’ve been walking around with a piece of lettuce in our teeth all along, and no one told us that. A marketing audit uncovers these minor stumbles, shortcomings and helps us start presenting ourselves more professionally than an inferior magician at a performance at a village festival.
Although larger companies can afford to permanently maintain departments dedicated to internal audits, in a large proportion of cases a marketing audit means working with an external entity, such as a specialised agency or freelancer. This may include not only the creation of the audit but also further marketing consultancy.
Such an arrangement has many advantages.
Objectivity
An external marketing audit is usually carried out by individuals or companies that are not permanently associated with the company and marketing activities. Therefore, they are much more objective in assessing the activities and their effects and drawing the right conclusions.
Experience
Companies that carry out marketing audits have a lot of experience in this field and have specialised knowledge, tools and skills. This enables them to carry out audits quickly, reliably and accurately.
A fresh perspective
An audit carried out by an external body is a greater chance to get a completely new perspective on the company, its successes and problems. Perhaps the auditor will be able to suggest an ingenious solution that simply no one has noticed before, because, for example, it is not used in the industry in question.
Orderliness, logic, transparency
A professional marketing audit should not only collect and analyse many different data points, but also do so in a way that is clear, logical and clear to the recipient.
This applies both to the individual parts of the audit and to the final conclusions, which are, after all, intended to be instructions for further action.
The effect of the marketing audit and next steps
After the marketing audit, you get specific recommendations that are like a gift from Santa himself, only instead of a toy, you get a marketing strategy that will transform your business
The final effect of each marketing audit is a summary document – a report, which should contain a detailed description of all analyses performed and the audit results, together with specific suggestions for modifying the company’s strategy and activities.
After receiving the audit report, the next step is to read it carefully and implement the recommended changes. This may mean, for example, introducing new marketing tools, modifying current promotional activities, changing the way or channel of communication with customers.
Once the recommended changes have been implemented, it is also important to ensure that they continue to be continuously monitored and their effectiveness assessed. This may mean conducting follow-up audits on a regular basis – either holistic, or partial, addressing only a selected area.
A marketing audit can be useful for many different companies and situations. It is best to carry it out on a regular basis so that you constantly have a complete picture of your marketing activities and their effectiveness, consumer trends and behaviour, market and industry hesitations, and anything else that may affect it.
This will allow you to make changes on an ongoing basis that will yield the desired results over time.
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