As Einstein famously quoted:
“Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.”
Or the unknown quoted:
“If you continue to do what you’ve always done, you’ll continue to get what you’ve always gotten.”
I know so many business owners that aren’t happy with their marketing and business development functions. Yet, they continue to carry on doing the same or very similar things they’ve always done (or virtually no marketing at all) – mainly because they don’t have the time or potentially the experience of the current marketing environment to know what to do going forward.
Is this you?
Do you fit one of these categories:
You think your marketing could perform better.
You’re just ‘dabbling’ in ad hoc marketing, but with no clear plan or direction.
You’ve done very little and don’t know where to truly start because you don’t understand the current marketing environment.
If one of the above is you, then a good place to start is by undertaking a full marketing audit.
What is a marketing audit/review?
It’s a comprehensive and systematic analysis of your business marketing environment. It’ll cover a wide variety of areas (see more detail below) and will give you a clear plan of action to best suit your individual business.
Benefits of a marketing audit
Gives you an unbiased overview on you, your market, and your competitors.
Give you a clear picture of what is and isn’t currently working and why.
Identify competitor marketing strengths & weaknesses.
Identify top performing marketing opportunities.
Rate your current marketing / content.
Give you clear recommendations & action plan.
Help to inform your future marketing strategy.
Enable you to budget both money and resource for future marketing effectively.
Who should conduct the marketing audit/review?
Typically, it’s best for an external third party to conduct a marketing audit/review. This eliminates inherent biases and will result in a constructive analyse and recommendations. It should ensure a fresh pair of eyes and someone with experience in working with similar businesses to your and in a similar marketplace.
What’s the marketing audit process?
This may vary from different suppliers, but fundamentally it should be a two-way process. To be a truly bespoke and valuable tool to you, a marketing audit needs to dig deep into your business. A good professional marketing consultant will want to get to know you and your business. They should ask you questions on a wide range of areas. They should also conduct desk research themselves into the wider market.
A process that I follow is here:
Stakeholders Questionnaire on a wide range of topics to gather information and gauge opinion from partners /stakeholders.
One to One discussion with stakeholders in relation to the questionnaire and further questions and clarification.
Desk research into things like current marketing environment, competitors, current marketing channels.
Evaluation of the data taking everything from above and doing a detailed analysis.
Report preparation to provide comprehensive feedback as well as making clear recommendations and an action plan for future marketing.
Presentation and discussion on the report/plan.
Put the recommendations into action.
What areas does a marketing audit cover?
This may very from one provider to another, but I would recommend the following areas:
Vision, goals & planning
Brand
Target audience / ideal client
Marketing overview
Competition / Differentiation
Website
Social Media
Content
PR/Events
Technology & Data
Business Development
What’s the end result?
The result should be a report that provides a thorough, honest, objective third-party assessment of your current position. But, much more than that, it should give you clear recommendations and an action plan of next steps to launch new marketing or take it to the next level.
So, if you are suffering from marketing inertia and truly want to get your marketing moving and achieve better results, then get in touch.
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