As a marketing consultant, I'm often asked to conduct marketing audits for business-to-business and business-to-consumer companies. The goal is to determine what's working and what isn't, so you can adjust your marketing strategy going forward. Here's how I advise clients to conduct an audit:
1. Form a small internal team. Even if an independent marketing consultant is guiding your audit, marketing staff from your company should be involved. Keep the group a manageable size, ideally five to seven people. Consider inviting a few individuals from other departments, such as product management, sales or customer service. Ask a representative from your marketing agency to participate.
2. Establish an evaluation timeframe. Most marketers look at one to two years' worth of marketing initiatives to evaluate their programs. Older initiatives usually are not relevant to an evaluation of what's working today.
3. Do your homework. You need accurate metrics to gauge the effectiveness of your marketing, such as leads generated, leads converted, direct mail and e-mail response rates, Web traffic, search engine rankings, social media engagement, media coverage, advertising impressions, trade show traffic and brand awareness. Compile and share these numbers in advance to give your team a context within which to view your marketing. Look for industry benchmarks to use as a comparison.
