Dear reader, our goal is to inform you about subjects we think will be helpful to you as a business owner and to your business itself; as we mentioned in our latest article, running a digital marketing audit is a must for all types of companies.
So now you know how crucial the digital marketing audit is for a healthier business, it is time therefore to dig deeper into the action.
We will be talking here about the steps you should follow to elaborate your digital marketing audit. An audit recommends an action plan to uplift the company’s performance.
Here are 5 steps to perform your digital marketing audit
1. Determination of goals and key metrics
This phase of your digital marketing audit depends on your vision, it’s subjective since the marketing goal of one company may be increasing brand awareness while another company may be centered around brand engagement.
After setting your marketing goal, ask yourself what KPIs (Key Performance Indicators) you want to focus on; what you want to measure? Google analytics alone can track more than 200 metrics added to countless other tools that you can use.
But don’t overwhelm yourself and try to measure everything. Ask yourself what are the top 3 things you want to measure for each channel?
Of course, your key metrics should be closely tied to your main goals.
2. Gathering performance data
Now you need to get statistics from your channels aligned with the metrics you set in the step before. The goal of this phase is to compare your current state with your MOS (measures of success).
NOTE: a measure of success is the standard that you define by which you assess whether you are achieving your goals or not.
And we have 3 types of performances data needed to be gathered:
- Website performance: you can measure your click-through rate, bounce rate, average session duration, conversion rate, page load time, etc.
- Email performance: here you can gather the open rate, unsubscribe rate, email forwarding rate, conversion rate, clickthrough rate, etc.
- Social media performance: you can track likes, shares, impressions, click-through rate, etc.
NOTE: The meaning of bounce rate differs from web to email performance:
• In the web, bounce rate is the percentage of visitors that leave a page without performing a specific action.
• Email bounce rate refers to the percentage of emails that don’t get delivered to some of the email addresses in your mailing list.
Numbers never lie, so whatever the results you find, accept them and base your actions on them.
3. Evaluation of content marketing strategy
According to the Content Marketing Trends report, companies that document their content marketing strategy are almost 50% more effective than those that don’t.
It doesn’t only give you clarity and a sense of direction, but also, it’s useful for your digital marketing audit. In this step, you should revisit your strategy by checking:
• Your keywords whether they are relevant to what your customers are searching for or not.
• Your distribution whether your channels of distribution are effective or not
• Your content type if it matches your digital marketing goal; increase your brand awareness or generate leads or build links.
It’s fine to have more than one objective. The matrix below can help you to classify your content according to your marketing goals:
4. Evaluation of the competitive landscape
Keeping an eye on your competitors is a foundational tactic to have insights into who they are, the threats that they pose to your company, and their strategy. It will give you a competitive edge.
First, identify your competitors; it is a good practice to conduct a search from period to period to avoid surprises. Then, dig into their content to know the tactics and tools they are using. It helps you to inspire by them.
Remember that inspiration doesn’t mean copy-paste. You can also find your competitors’ gaps to take advantage of.
5. Examination of messaging and positioning
We mean by messaging the way you communicate your values to your prospects. While positioning means the creation of a positive impression in the minds of your customers.
This phase of your digital marketing audit has the same importance as the steps above. By digging into action most businesses forget to revisit their positioning and messaging.
They tend to show the benefits and features of their products forgetting to build a position. Ignoring this step may lead to product failure.
• Your value proposition: you can try the STEVE BLANK formula to elaborate your value proposition: “we help (X) do (Y) by doing (Z)”. This statement will remind you of the reason for your existence. It emphasizes why a customer will buy your product.
• Your unique selling proposition: it is the one thing that makes you stand out from your competitors.
• In terms of messaging, you must check out these two factors:
1. Your consistency: in a digital marketing audit it is crucial to verify whether you are conserving the same way of messaging across your channels or not. If you don’t, it is better to fix this. Because inconsistency confuses customers.
2. Customer focus: of course, any product should fulfill a need. Therefore, you should communicate the value of your product using a language that fits your target.
We can’t deny that it is a headache task, but at the end of the day, you can conclude that the digital marketing audit is a decisive tactic that should be scheduled on your company’s to-do list.
Don’t hesitate, we can help you figure this out. Not only to conduct your digital marketing audit but also to start your full digital marketing strategy.
