What is A Marketing Audit Checklist?

Creating a marketing audit checklist helps ensure you are effectively analyzing a business and its needs and wants. A marketing audit simply refers to a complete systematic analysis of the marketing strategy and the environment of an organization. A marketing audit looks at both internal and external factors to determine what the organization should be doing differently and how to further develop its goals.

Where to Start

When thinking about a marketing audit checklist, you might be thinking, where do I start? The most important thing is to look at the organization like a consumer. Essentially you want to fulfill the wants and needs of the organization just like you would with a consumer. What are its values, goals, preferences, etc. Asking yourself all of these questions will give you a great head start on tackling the marketing audit.

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Companies Are Different

Just like every consumer, every organization is different, so you will want to refrain from making assumptions that appear true for other businesses. You can start by researching the company (if you are not internal) and getting a better idea of who they are. Once this is done, you can start your marketing audit checklist. For a more comprehensive understanding of a marketing audit checklist, this article is going to explain what a marketing audit template is, a digital marketing audit checklist, and a marketing audit example.

Marketing Audit Template

A marketing audit template is an extremely valuable tool that will help guide your audit process. Marketing audit’s reveal both opportunities and challenges that the company must address. They help give insight into the heart of the company and the organization’s reason for being. Conducting a poor-quality audit is not going to be useful and can hurt your credibility if not performed correctly. There are some amazing tips out there on how to create a marketing audit template that is sure to wow anyone. Some templates can be too redundant or ask outdated questions, which is urged to avoid at all costs.

Creating A Template

You want a template that will cover all aspects of the business and ask relevant questions that will provide helpful insights. It is your job to uncover what the business can be improving upon, and that can only be achieved through a thorough, well-designed template. You are going to want to focus on three areas of the business: business vision/strategy/goals, marketing and sales, and business administration/operations.

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Business Vision, Strategy, & Goals

The first section of the template is going to cover more broad ideas about the organization and their reason for existence. Their goals and vision will be included as well. In this section you will want to ask some pretty big questions and answer based upon research conducted. Questions include:

  • What is the ultimate goal?
  • What are the smaller goals to be achieved in the next year?
  • How many hours are spent in each area of the business each week (marketing, operations, etc)?
  • Where did the business start and where is it today?

Of course, each question can break down into smaller sub questions to get an in-depth knowledge of the business. These questions might be hard to identify, so start with your own research, using your own resources, then go straight to the source: company employees who can provide some great feedback. Create a chart with two columns: one for questions and one for corresponding answers. This will keep your marketing audit organized and easy to reference when needed.

Marketing & Sales

Given the name, “marketing audit” the marketing and sales section is going to be your main focus. It is going to reveal how well the company creates and distributes useful products to consumers in the identified demographic. Marketing focuses on a company’s ability to create brand awareness and reach consumers. Sales is all about making the consumer recognize there is a need and getting them to take action. The two go hand in hand. There is a whole list of questions to ask, but again you want to make sure these questions are useful and will provide you with quality information on the company. Some questions are simple, like:

  • What are the primary marketing problems facing the company?
  • What types of products/services does the company sell?
  • Who are the company’s three biggest competitors?
  • What marketing strategies are used to generate new business enquiries?
  • What are the main problems the company solves for their customers?
  • Is the method of selling effective?
  • What marketing metrics does the company track the most?
  • How does the company manage customers & prospects?

These questions are going to be extremely valuable in helping you determine the performance of the business. You should use the same structure (side by side columns) with questions and corresponding answers.

Business Administration/Operations

This last section of the template is going to help you understand how the business operates and what their day-to-day looks like. Managing a company takes many different kinds of people and certainly does not happen overnight. It takes years and years to create a successful strategy and business structure that works well. Every company has a different business structure so each requires a unique plan that aligns with it.

  • What are the different positions/job titles within the business?
  • What does the day-to-day administration look like?
  • How does the business manage tasks?

These are just a few examples of good questions to help you understand the behavior of the company.

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Digital Marketing Audit Checklist

Creating a digital marketing audit checklist starts with answering essential questions that are pertinent to the business. Marketing audit checklists should be pretty simple and help guide your marketing audit. No marketing campaign is perfect, which is why it is integral for you to execute a proper marketing audit checklist to reveal what the company can be doing differently. Marketing has come a long way and has split off into two different types: traditional marketing and digital marketing. It is best to use a combination of both. Some audiences prefer traditional marketing and some prefer digital. Digital marketing audit checklists and marketing audit checklists are very similar (if not the same for the most part). The most important part when designing a marketing audit checklist, is to ask yourself essential questions about your business.

Does the Marketing Plan Match up With the Overall Goals of the Business?

If the answer is no, think about what can be done differently? Most of the time, different departments within the company can identify some common issues and spark some great ideas. The marketing plan should offer ideas and suggestions that will be beneficial to the company. Sometimes, people lose sight of the end goal and come up with ideas that do not support the reason for existing. Conflicting thoughts can be detrimental and create a lot of issues for the company.

What is Being Measured and Why?

This can help keep your strategy on track. A huge part of a marketing audit checklist is understanding how successful the company is with regard to its marketing strategy, and that starts with what measurement. If the company’s ultimate goal with their marketing plan is to generate as much revenue as possible along with incurring the least amount of costs as possible, you are going to want to look at ROI, or return on investment. Return on investment simply a ratio of net income and investment. The greater the return on investment, the better. If the company is looking to create brand awareness and increase brand loyalty, then you would look at other KPI’s to determine if they were achieving this.

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Do We Have A Good Team?

Having the right people in the right position is going to dictate the success of the company. Not everyone is going to be effective in every role. Some people are better leaders and have better communication skills, while others work better behind the scenes. Your team should consist of individuals who work well together and are good at their job, otherwise you will have a recipe for disaster. Each department should have employees who like the work they do and feel valued by the company. Company culture is key!

Marketing Audit Example

A great marketing audit example is one that is comprehensive and follows with the company. A marketing audit provides management with a detailed glimpse into the operations of a business which allows them to breakdown budget and resources available to the company. A marketing audit should be performed by a third party to avoid biases and fear to share the issues the company is facing.

marketing audit

How To Be Effective

An effective marketing audit example looks at three different components. First and foremost, the audit needs to be complete and comprehensive. You want to make sure you cover all areas of marketing and that you are conducting a thorough investigation. You do not want to miss anything. Next, the audit should be well ordered. An audit that is systematic covers its bases and is easy to interpret by anyone. Organization should be emphasized. Finally, the audit needs to be consistent. Audits should be done on a regular basis to prevent issues from progressing. Audits should be done on a periodic basis, at the discretion of the company. For help with your marketing strategy and conducting a proper marketing audit, contact SEO Design Chicago!

FAQs

  • What is a marketing audit?
  • What is ROI?
  • Why should audits be consistent?
  • What are the different sections of a marketing audit template?
  • Who should perform a marketing audit?

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