A marketing audit thoroughly reviews your marketing plans, goals, strategies, and current activities running in your small business. The goal is to identify what is working and what is not, to identify areas for improvement. A successful marketing audit can help pinpoint your marketing strengths and weaknesses, so you can make a solid decision about where to put your resources in the future.
If you don’t conduct marketing audits regularly, you can incur marketing costs. Here are 5 reasons why marketing auditing is a great idea for any small business.
Re-align Marketing Activities with Targets
Many entrepreneurs take too much interest in taking the day-to-day responsibilities of running a small business, forgetting the big picture and the long-term goals of their business. When this happens, it can be difficult to remember why a particular marketing strategy has been implemented or to determine if your business is running successfully. A marketing audit is a way to take a step back and go back to your business plan and marketing plan to ensure that the daily activities you are running support your business goals.
See What Doesn’t Work
Marketing audits help business owners navigate through all of the marketing activities they are currently implementing and evaluate whether those activities are successful. Now is the time to look at your business from an objective perspective, armed with facts and data gathered from research. It’s an opportunity to make judgments on areas of marketing that are underperforming your business. You can then make informed decisions about how to improve your activities or use new tactics to achieve greater success in your marketing activities.
Exposure to New Ideas and Various Strategies
Marketing audits require significant research into the business as well as external factors. While not the primary reason to conduct an audit, the research process can be a great way to discover new ideas to try in your business. For example, while investigating, you may discover that your competitors are doing something you never thought of. With a few modifications to create your own strategy, you can develop new marketing activities with tremendous potential.
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Gain in-Depth Insight Into the Competition
Successful marketing requires an in-depth understanding of a number of factors including the market, target audience, and competitors. Marketing audits are a great way to find out who your competitors are. Looking at competitors’ strengths and weaknesses can improve the way you approach your audience. Knowing what they are doing will help you plan a better way.
Save time and money in the long run
Without this kind of regular check-in, you may be subconsciously wasting your time and money on marketing activities with little results. Performing a marketing audit regularly can help you maximize your marketing investments by focusing on the activities that best suit your business.
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Marketing audit plan
Marketing audits typically include reviewing all existing business documents to clearly review goals and plans, compile a list of currently executing strategies, collect opinions of key employees in the business, and external factors (competition, market, economy, industry, etc). It often starts with a SWOT analysis of your business and helps you clearly identify opportunities for improvement. You won’t know what your marketing costs will be without regular audits.
