27 May Your Marketing Strategy –Start with the audit (that’s the fun bit!)

Every successful business, large and small, should know their past and current business trends and have a clear view of where they’re heading. Why not use this time to take stock of where you are, what is working and what isn’t?

So what is a Marketing Audit?

Nothing too scary! Simply – a thorough review of your marketing plan, goals, strategies and day-to-day activities in your business. This will make sure your marketing is aligned with your everyday work and that your company is aware of potential pitfalls and positive progress.

Questions you can ask to get started:

→ What’s currently working well?
→ What could be improved?
→ How can we do this effectively?
→ How are our competitors doing?
→ What are our short and long-term goals?

A successful marketing audit helps you identify your strengths and weaknesses so you can make informed decisions about where you can invest your resources in the future and make effective improvements.

Small businesses can find it easy to lose sight of their marketing plan and overall strategy and this is where a regular audit is essential. All success wardrobes needs a makeover, all beautiful lawns need a regular trim!

Marketing Audit Basics

A marketing audit takes you back to the root of your business and marketing plans and helps you monitor objectively if your everyday work is consistent with your business objectives.

A regular audit is an essential part of your overall marketing strategy. Your audit research might give you new insights into your competitors and offer fresh ideas of how you can help reach new customers more effectively.

Taking time to take stock is essential for the successful business outcomes and here’s where a Marketing Audit really helps. Involve as many people as you can in the company, and you’ll find that staff take a new interest in how their own role fits in the bigger corporate picture. We all need to take time out, away from the desk, and an audit is a great opportunity to do this.

Benefits of a Marketing Audit?

→ Provides a snapshot of what’s working and what’s not
→ Aligns everyday working practice with marketing strategy
→ A chance to revisit your business and marketing plans
→ Opportunity for communication across the company
→ Allows you to maximise marketing investment
→ Saves you time and money in the long run
→ Gives you a better idea of how to work more smartly

After listing current and future marketing channels that are in use, and identifying what funds are available, we can start to discuss planning and consider which channels are likely to be the best fit for your business goals, such as advertising, social media marketing, PR, events, analytics, digital communications, and so on.

Thanks to our guest blogger Sofia Dahlqvist – Managing Director of 55 Connect Ltd