How Can a Marketing Audit Help Me See What’s Working?

A marketing audit helps you step back and evaluate your marketing based on what each activity was supposed to accomplish.

So, instead of assuming a channel is working because it gets attention, or failing because it hasn’t produced immediate sales, this lets you look at the bigger picture.

Among other things, it helps you review where your time and money are going, whether your message is clear, whether all your marketing channels support the same business direction, and whether you’ve been consistent enough to judge the results fairly.

What’s more, a good audit looks at things holistically, which can reveal patterns you may miss when you look at each tactic separately.

Key Takeaways:

• Review meaningful results such as inquiries, email signups, website actions, and engagement from your target audience.
• Check whether unclear or inconsistent messaging may be limiting a channel that otherwise makes sense for you to use.
• Look for patterns across your marketing instead of judging each tactic in isolation.
• Start by identifying what each marketing activity was meant to accomplish.
• Use what you learn to decide what to keep, adjust, stop, or strengthen.

As summer winds down, many business owners start thinking about fall marketing.

You may be thinking about restarting your newsletter, updating your website, trying a new campaign, or creating more content.

This all makes sense, as September often feels like a natural reset.

But the problem is adding more activity before reviewing what you’re already doing can send you straight back into the same patterns that were plaguing you in the first place.

So, before you build your fall marketing plan, it’s worth doing a marketing audit.

A marketing audit gives you a chance to look at what you’ve been doing, what seems to be gaining traction, where things are falling short, and what may need more attention before you invest more time or money.

This isn’t about picking apart everything you’ve done just to decide that you’ve failed at marketing.

It’s about gathering the information you need to make better decisions about what comes next.

Start With What You Expected Your Marketing to Do

One of the hardest things about evaluating marketing is that oftentimes, business owners use a very broad standard.

But it’s important to judge each piece of marketing based on what it was intended to do.

For instance, a LinkedIn post that’s meant to build authority shouldn’t be judged by the same standard as a Google ad that’s designed to generate inquiries.

And when your marketing efforts aren’t performing the way you expected, you might end up saying something like, “It doesn’t seem to be working.”

But what did you actually expect it to do?

This is an extremely important question, and it’s one that too many businesses tend to overlook.

So, instead of judging each marketing asset by the same broad standard, you should ask yourself, “What am I trying to do with this piece of marketing?”

Review the Marketing Channels You’re Actually Using

Next, look at where your marketing effort has been going over the past six to twelve months.

That might include your website, SEO, blog, email marketing, LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, or something else entirely.

Whatever the case, you shouldn’t just ask whether you’ve been using a channel.

More importantly, you should ask what you’ve actually been putting into it and what you’re getting back in return.

So, for each channel, you should ask yourself questions like:

• Are people engaging, clicking, subscribing, inquiring, booking, or taking another meaningful step?
• Does this have a clear purpose in my larger marketing plan?
• Is this channel reaching the people I most want to reach?
• Am I measuring anything that helps me make decisions?
• Have I been consistent enough to judge it fairly?

This is where it becomes easy to overreact to numbers.

Because low engagement doesn’t necessarily mean a channel is useless, and high engagement doesn’t automatically mean a channel is valuable.

The truth is lots of followers don’t automatically mean you’re attracting prospective clients.

These numbers have some value, but only when you understand what they’re telling you.

Look Beyond the Channels and Audit Your Message

Here’s where a marketing audit gets much more useful.

Sometimes the problem isn’t the channel at all.

You may be reaching the people you want to reach, but the message itself isn’t giving them a strong enough reason to pay attention.

So, take a look across your website, social media posts, emails, and other marketing materials, and ask yourself:

• Does my marketing explain why my work matters, or does it mostly describe what I do?
• Am I talking about problems and priorities that matter to the clients I most want?
• Does my message reflect the business I have today, or an earlier version of it?
• Am I communicating anything that separates my business from competitors?
• Is it clear whom I help?

These are all important things to consider, as it’s always easy to blame the platform, but that might not be getting to the root cause of the issue.

For example, you may decide LinkedIn isn’t working because your posts are getting little to no engagement.

But if your posts are broad, generic, or disconnected from what you want to be known for, moving to another platform may simply move the same problem somewhere else.

So, before you abandon a channel, make sure your message has been given a fair chance to work.

Check Whether Your Marketing Is Telling the Same Story

Consistency is another area worth auditing, and I don’t mean simply posting on a regular basis.

What I mean is you need to think about all the places a prospective client may encounter your business. This includes your:

• Blogs
• Videos
• Emails
• Website
• Social Media
• Lead Magnets
• Sales Conversations

Once you’ve taken stock of all these assets, you should ask yourself if they all reinforce the same understanding of your business.

Because someone shouldn’t leave your Instagram profile with one impression, visit your website and get another, and then join your email list, only to wonder whether they’re even hearing from the same business.

This happens more often than you might think, especially when a business has evolved.

Maybe you’ve changed your services, narrowed your focus, raised your prices, developed more expertise, or started working with a different type of client.

Meanwhile, you’ve got content that still reflects where your business used to be, rather than where it’s currently going.

And that inconsistency can make your marketing feel disjointed, even when each individual piece looks perfectly professional.

Separate Lack of Traction From Lack of Consistency

Before deciding something doesn’t work, you should ask if you’ve actually done it consistently enough to know.

Looking at the results of a newsletter you sent three times in eight months won’t give you enough information to go on.

Two blog articles won’t be enough to tell you whether regular content marketing is worth it for your business.

And a social media platform that gets your attention for three weeks and is then abandoned for two months hasn’t been given much of a chance either.

Sometimes a tactic genuinely isn’t a good fit.

But other times, the issue is that it was never carried out consistently enough to produce any useful information in the first place.

This is an important thing to determine because the answer isn’t always to stop.

Sometimes you need to adjust the approach, become more consistent, or improve your message.

And sometimes you just need to let something go.

The goal is to make that decision based on evidence rather than frustration.

Look for Patterns Before You Make Changes

Individual metrics can be misleading when you look at them on their own.

And that’s why one of the most useful parts of a marketing audit is stepping back far enough to see patterns.

Here are some common examples of this sort of thing:

• Your website traffic is increasing, but inquiries are not.
• Your email engagement is strong, but your list is barely growing.
• Referral prospects are visiting your website but not contacting you.
• Your content is getting attention, but not from the types of clients you want.
• You’re active across several channels but still have trouble explaining what makes your business different.
• Your social engagement is decent, but very few people move from social media to your website or email list.

Those patterns give you much more to consider than a single number.

Because if traffic is growing but inquiries aren’t, then you may need to tweak your messaging.

If people engage with your content but never move closer to working with you, then there may be a disconnect between what you’re talking about and what you actually want to be known for.

And if every channel feels difficult to maintain, then you may be spreading yourself too thin.

This is why marketing decisions shouldn’t be made one tactic at a time without looking at the bigger picture.

Decide What to Keep, Adjust, Stop, or Strengthen

Once you’ve looked at your goals, channels, message, consistency, and patterns, your fall marketing plan will become much easier to build.

Something else you can do to make this even easier is take each major marketing activity and put it into one of the following four categories.

Keep

It serves a clear purpose and is producing enough value to continue.

Adjust

The channel makes sense, but something about the message, audience, frequency, call to action, or execution needs work.

Stop

It’s consuming time and/or money without serving a clear purpose, reaching the people you want, or supporting the direction of your business.

Strengthen

It’s already showing promise and deserves more consistent attention, better content, or additional resources.

 
All things considered, this is a much stronger way to plan than starting with a blank calendar and asking, “What should we do this fall?”

You already have information, so use it.

But don’t keep doing something simply because you’ve always done it.

Don’t start doing something just because competitors appear to be successful with it.

And don’t add another platform to your plate simply because someone says every business needs to be there.

At the end of the day, your marketing choices should make sense for your business, the people you want to reach, and what you need your marketing to accomplish.

Your Fall Marketing Plan Should Start With What You’ve Learned

A strategic reset doesn’t necessarily imply that you’ll be doing more.

Your marketing audit may tell you that one thing is already working and deserves more attention.

It may reveal that a good channel is being held back by an unclear message.

Or it may show that you’ve been judging something too quickly because you were never consistent enough to evaluate it properly to begin with.

What’s more, you may also discover that some activities are no longer supporting where your business is going.

But regardless of what your audit tells you, this is all incredibly useful information.

So, as you head into fall, try to resist the urge to automatically fill your calendar with more campaigns, more content, and more tasks.

Instead, start with what you’ve learned, and then make deliberate choices about what deserves your time, attention, energy, and budget.

Not sure what your marketing audit is telling you, or what you should focus on next?

Book a free consultation and let’s look at what’s working, what may be holding your marketing back, and where your time and budget will be best spent moving forward.

To your business success,
Susan Friesen

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About the Author, Susan Friesen

Located in the lower mainland of B.C., Susan Friesen is a visionary brand strategist, entrepreneur, and founder of British Columbia’s premiere boutique web development and digital marketing agency, eVision Media.

With over 20 years of experience in the industry, she is an expert in helping businesses establish their online presence and create a strong brand identity.

Her passion for empowering entrepreneurs and small business owners to succeed in the digital world has earned her a reputation as a leading authority in the branding and marketing industry.

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