Marketing audit: main types
If the old promotion strategy does not work, specialists are looking for ways out of the situation. A marketing audit will help to reveal the weaknesses and strengths of previous actions. It allows you to carefully analyze the market, the advertising environment of a particular niche, to study the effectiveness of electronic mailings, posts on social networks, banner advertising, and other activities. Thanks to the audit, it is possible to determine the effectiveness of the campaigns and to adjust them in order to obtain the best results and to optimize the budget.
An audit should be conducted before a new marketing strategy is adopted. If conducted correctly, it covers various forms of interaction with customers and takes into account all the nuances – the old billboard, the wrong wording in the ad, and other important points.
The audit provides an opportunity to save money on promotion, but not all specialists are willing to conduct such a large-scale study. The reason, in this case, lies not in the lack of professionalism, but rather in the unwillingness to take responsibility for their decisions. In addition, to conduct an audit, you need to know the advertising environment, and for this purpose, it is better to use the services of third-party companies, rather than staff marketers. The fact is that the latter may have a “blurred view” – they pay attention only to the most significant moments, missing a lot of small but important nuances.
In most cases, the duration of this study ranges from a few days to a month, in some cases the audit may take longer.
Marketing audit comes in several varieties, which depend on the tools for analysis and the task at hand. However, there are basic varieties that are used most often.
Micro-level. This type of audit is primarily aimed at the study of KPIs, customer behavior, their call activity, and other parameters. In addition, its implementation can analyze marketing channels, the ratio of the budget, and the resulting conversion. Also at the micro-level, the personalities who represent the brand, their reputation, and its impact on the perception of the company are studied.
The macro-level is responsible for the SWOT analysis, evaluates internal and external factors, examines competitors, their prices, and advertising channels. Besides, this type of audit analyzes the PESTLE, which is an acronym for political, economic, social, technological, legal, and ecological factors which influence the brand and its development.
Marketing strategy is analyzed separately, which includes business plans, objectives, and goals of the further functioning of the company. Separately, the site, download speed, indexing, UX, and other factors are analyzed. Do not forget about the analysis of SMM.
After conducting a complete marketing audit, you can begin to develop a new promotion strategy, clearly understanding the effectiveness of one or another direction. In this case, the budget will be spent optimally, and the efforts will bring the desired result.