In these times of crisis, it is particularly important to review your processes. To make sure that everything is working properly and cost-effectively. And to get a full audit, it is highly recommended that you contact a marketing professional or even an online marketing agency as their audit can help you identify areas of your business that need improvement.
What is a marketing audit?
In short, an audit is an examination of your marketing process.
It is a document or presentation in which a designated professional analyses in detail the existing tools, identifies errors and shortcomings, makes suggestions to solve them and provides new ideas. It is important to note that this service is a consultancy service. Therefore it does not include the implementation of the audit, the implementation of the proposals to solve the identified errors – even if the audit is carried out by an online marketing agency.
Why an audit is important:
- As a business manager, you have a narrow perspective, because you deal with it every day.
- You’re not an expert, and your enthusiasm may not translate into progress beyond a certain point.
When to ask:
- When you want to change direction with new ideas and need guidance to do so.
- You’re not happy with the current agency you’ve entrusted to shape your marketing activity.
Application of the audit
The most common is the website audit, which is used to scrutinise your website from several angles. Not only for the professional, but also for the consumer, the usability of the images and texts displayed is the first thing that comes to mind when looking at the website.
In addition, there are other components of a well-designed website:
UX (user experience): the user experience that the website provides. This includes the clickable buttons and the available keyboard shortcuts and visual elements. So everything that allows you to interact with the company through the platform.
UI (user interface): the user interface itself, where you are currently reading this blog post. It may sound surprising, but it has marketing implications. So an online marketing agency will look at this too, and can make good suggestions.
SEO (search engine optimisation): it looks at ranking by Google. Page ranking is essentially analysing how many people visit your website based on the keywords you specify. The aim is, of course, to get your website as high as possible in Google’s search results for potential customers.
PPC (pay-per-clink): your advertising account is also scrutinised to see if it is working properly.
An audit can be useful not only for your website
A social media audit is an audit of your Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, Pinterest, YouTube and TikTok platforms. On these platforms, you can draw a lot from the knowledge of a professional online marketing agency, and there are even specialised social media agencies.
How you communicate your business in the online space is extremely important. Today, you need to think about a specific strategy for social media platforms, it is not useful to post a few times a week without a purpose. And consistency or usability is also important. A consistent presence, and the connection it creates with your followers, will support your business. It helps reach a wide audience and helps your (potential) customers solve their problems.
In addition to the above mentioned audits, a newsletter and podcast audit, an image and brand awareness audit and a full online marketing strategy and execution audit are not to be neglected.
With regard to the latter, I would like to stress that it is worth choosing this service if you already have a consciously built, complex online presence. In this case, it is also worth checking that you are going in the right direction: using the right tools or trying to sell to the right people. If you’re just starting out with some paid ads, focus only on looking at the sub-areas.
How much does this cost?
You’ve probably come across ads offering audit services at suspiciously low prices – just a few tens of thousands of forints. But beware: auditing is a complex task that requires research and in-depth investigations. And the time and competence of several senior professionals determine the market price. Which can be orders of magnitude higher than what dubious firms offer. These agencies, which play with less honest means and too low a price, may also have the additional objective of winning clients. And if a professional wants to lure a client away from the competition? They will most often start by undermining the work of the other.
An audit should be seen as an investment, just like marketing. A complex audit can take 10-20 man-hours, or up to 30 man-hours with a competitor analysis. Therefore it is a more expensive service. However, if the audit reveals a few important gaps or gives some brilliant ideas, it will be well worth the price.
The key to a good audit
Be sure to hire an outside professional or an experienced online marketing agency for this task; an in-house colleague may not be interested in finding flaws or may not even see them.
It’s important to have an audit done by someone with years of experience. They can confidently guide you through the process and offer advice that will move your business forward, not destroy it.
I think it’s definitely worthwhile to entrust the audit to a specific company with several specialists working on the task. At Chiro, complex audits are carried out by a dedicated team, including a PPC colleague, a strategist, a social media manager, a copywriter, a graphic designer, a web developer and an SEO specialist if necessary; they all represent different areas of expertise that require specific knowledge.
The audit is done, what next?
Even knowing that you have chosen the right professionals for the job, treat the results critically. If the result is that nothing you’ve done so far is effective and not working well – all without your experience having given you a sense of crisis – think again. Has the company spent enough time and effort on the audit? Did they really get a full view of your processes? Is the audit an end in itself or is it really in your best interest?
If you feel that you have received an informative audit that has revealed your shortcomings, you should first consult the person responsible for marketing your company. Ask your marketing agency to see what they think. So it’s a joint effort. The audit will identify what are the urgent issues that need to be fixed and what solutions are recommended for them. These should then be gone through with either your existing or your new marketing professional. Thus the problems can be corrected by applying the recommended solutions.
The audit alone will not increase your sales, your webshop conversions or your following. However, if you consciously review the relevant points and change your strategy along these lines? An audit can improve your results by up to 40-50%.
In Episode 34 of the Marketing MSc Podcast, we’ll explore the topic of audit to give you a complete picture of why it’s worth investing in a detailed audit. Listen on Spotify, YouTube, Apple Podcasts or Google Podcasts!
And if you feel like you’d like to find out if you’re managing your marketing processes well? Ask us for a quote for an audit! Contact us at info@chiro.hu or request a quote via www.chiro.hu!
