Five signs you need a marketing audit
Clients come to us for a variety of reasons – from wanting press coverage for a new product to helping generate awareness for their organization as a whole. Sometimes they know which tactics would move the needle, but more often, it’s not so clear. That’s where a Research & Insights audit comes in.
A Research & Insights project is a comprehensive review of an organization’s materials, messaging, audiences and competitors using internal, external and third-party research. The result: a deep understanding of key messages, audience personas and recommendations for a strategic path toward achieving clear marketing and communications goals.
Clients come to us with a variety of motives for conducting an audit, but here are some of the most common reasons we see when we get tapped for an assignment.
New Leadership, Expansion or Merger and Aquisition
Before you expand into a new market area, launch a new product or service or target a new customer demographic, start with an audit. You may know why you moved to a new area or created a new product, but until you develop buyer personas, you won’t know what messages or channels will be most successful in marketing to your ideal customer.
Murky Goals, Objectives and Results are Causing Organizational Tension
Our clients are often tasked with everything from generating awareness and website traffic to securing leads to help the sales team generate revenue. But without concrete goals and objectives in place, it’s impossible to move the needle. An audit will help clarify your customer buying journey and establish clear, measurable objectives to help achieve marketing and business goals.
It will also help you determine what’s working and what’s not. Maybe you’ve invested in everything from paid ads to social media and blogging. You have a fancy CRM, sponsor community events and attend industry trade shows. Sales are up, so something must be working, you’re just not sure what it is (but your CFO is breathing down your neck to start attributing budgets to results). An audit will assess performance across a variety of channels and investments to determine what’s effective. That way, instead of spreading your budget too thinly, your team can focus more on what’s working and change what’s not.
You’re Not Reaching Your Goals
On the other end, maybe you have really clear goals and objectives, but you’re simply not meeting them. Even the best laid plans can fall short. An audit will help assess why you’re not reaching your goals – which could be anything from unclear messaging to the wrong marketing tactics. We’ve even uncovered some clients who were targeting the wrong audience altogether based on their specific products and services.
You Need to Make a Case
It’s budget season, and the CEO is asking what you spent the budget on and what the return is. Or maybe you need third-party validation that the plan you have in place is working as it should. Our work will help not only determine which tactics are working, but also help put systems in place to measure and report tangible returns.
This blog post was originally published in July 2017. It has been updated and republished to keep you up to date.
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