A marketing audit is a company’s periodic evaluation of its marketing approach. It gives you a clear understanding of the performance of your company’s previous and current marketing activities, by analysing the relevant information of the three environments.
The final purpose of such auditing practices is to collect information that are invaluable to future marketing decisions.
How do you conduct a marketing audit?
First of all, remember to be impartial and frequent. The marketing audit can be conducted by an inside or outside party, but no matter which way you choose to go, you should focus on being objective and scheduling your marketing audits on a regular basis.
The Process
- Data Collection
Environmental Audit: external and performance environments
Marketing Strategy Audit: mission, goals, strategy
Marketing Organisation Audit: structure, personnel
Marketing Systems Audit: information, planning, control systems
Marketing Function Audits: products, services, prices, distribution, promotion
- Information Analysis
At this stage, you should evaluate the information collected, asking as many questions as possible to understand where exactly your company stands from a marketing perspective. Focus on how your marketing activities are performing towards your business goals.
- Report
Be as objective as possible. The report should highlight both strengths and weaknesses of your marketing strategy.
With dynamic business environments, the results of regular marketing audits become a powerful reference tool that reflects the constant changes in the external and internal environments, making it easier for your company to update and improve your marketing strategy.
Kate Tyler is the founder of Shake Social and our long time social media expert. A regular speaker at events, Kate offers consultancy and training on a range of digital marketing topics, in particular safeguarding and using social media in an educational setting.