Hey there! The TopVA team is back with yet another insightful blog post for all you business owners out there. For this week, we’ll be brushing up on a topic that is essential to your success—marketing!
A successful marketing campaign means more hype around your products and/or services. It enables you to compel people to buy from you, and keep them coming back for more.
But this is much easier said than done. You’ll have to rework your campaign several times until it runs like a well-oiled machine. So now the question is, how will you know which aspects are working and which ones need to be revised?
Simple—conduct a marketing audit!
Based on the name, a marketing audit is an examination of how a business is being marketed.
But it’s much more than that!
A marketing audit involves a comprehensive assessment of your current marketing strategy from top to bottom so you can identify any areas for improvement. Afterwards, you can more easily create solutions to fill in those gaps and ensure the steady growth of your business.
Today, we’ll discuss each step of a proper marketing audit so you can find out exactly how to improve your game plan. Let’s get started!
Step 1: Set Your Marketing Goals and Objectives
First, establish goals and objectives that are within the realm of possibility given your current resources. Here are some examples that you can start with:
Boosting company visibility
Increasing audience size
Separating yourself from your close competitors
Also keep in mind that you should have both long-term and short-term goals. Your long-term goals should be attainable within 3-5 years, and your short-term goals within 6 months to a year. That way, you’ll always have something to strive for.
Step 2: Create Buyer Personas
You can’t have an effective marketing strategy without buyer personas. These will help you get to know your consumers beyond the surface level.
By closely analyzing the trends, behaviors and patterns of your consumers, you can construct a strategy tailored around their personal goals, day-to-day challenges, and unique pain points.
For maximum effectiveness, a buyer persona should include aspects such as…
Job titles or functions
Industry
Geographic location
Step 3: Know Who Your Competitors Are
You don’t have to know every business that’s remotely similar to yours. Just try to identify around 3-5 of your closest competitors. Take note of everything they’re selling, and make sure to indicate which products and/or services are reminiscent of your own.
Step 4: Expound On What You’re Selling
Now, it’s time to describe your products and/or services. If you’re having trouble with the details, you can refer to this checklist so you don’t miss out on anything:
✅ Price
✅ Quantity
✅ Features
✅ Advantages
✅ Distribution methods
You may also want to include information regarding your products’ performance when matched up against your competitors, as well as any strengths and weaknesses you have observed over time.
Step 5: Create a Detailed Inventory
For this step, list down every marketing asset that you can get your hands on. Mind you, this could get a little technical. You’ll need to have a site map of your company’s website, as well as a spreadsheet containing pertinent information on every item.
The spreadsheet should include things like the name of the asset, the category or topic, its URL, click through rate, engagement, and so on.
This step may seem rather tedious, but it’s important to know exactly what you have. Trust us—this may spell the difference between a successful marketing campaign and one that falls short.
Step 6: Analyze Your Findings
We’re almost at the end!!!
After you’ve listed down your company’s data and assets, you’ll have everything you need to stay on top of your operations. Your marketing audit should contain feedback concerning both the positive and negative aspects of your company’s performance.
Step 7: Plan and Execute
Now that you know what needs to be changed, it’s time to figure out how to change it.
Using your findings, create a detailed action plan to address the problems you discovered during your marketing audit. You can resolve any analytics tracking issues, improve your current social media content, and capitalize on upcoming opportunities in your specific industry.
The Final Word
And that’s it for this week’s blog post! Now you know exactly how to audit your marketing plan so you can improve it. But if you’ve already tried that and you’re still unsure about your next steps, let us help!
TopVA conceptualizes and executes high-quality digital marketing strategies. This is how we help our clients scale their businesses, and we’re confident that we can assist you as well! Just get in touch with us right here on our website.
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