Marketing Audit

A marketing audit is a report on the marketing strategy and on the execution of the strategy for a specific brand or product-service. Marketing audits often focus on the promotional element of the marketing mix. The specifics of an audit are dependent the product-service being analyzed. An audit of an undifferentiated commodity product will look very different from an audit of a branded luxury good. Much of this page is a summary of various web pages including ,,,.

There are multiple foci of marketing audits and any given audit may include any combination of concentrations.

1. The first focus concentrates on Internet marketing, specifically on web pages and and web sites.
2. The second, more traditional audit focuses on the overall strategy of the firm, target markets, and the marketing mix.
3. Other foci involve publicity, press coverage, digital messaging such as social media marketing and content analysis, the operating environment and shifts therein.

Audits should be recurring. To lessen myopia, the firm will often use outside agencies to conduct the audit. The audit may or may not be comprehensive: the goals of the audit should determine the scope of the audit. The goals of an audit may involve:

1. Elevate product/brand awareness
2. Product-service differentiation
3. Sales revenue and/or market share
4. Attract new customers and/or increase usage among existing customers

The major steps and elements of a web page audit involves:

1. Define the scope in terms of the product-service or brand being analyzed. Ensure a focus on product-service value added and on differentiation
2. Create a list (URLs) of current Internet pages managed by the company for easy access and upgrades in the future
3. Collect web page KPIs: revision dates, speeds, dead ends, readability, intuitive use, broken links, content analysis, etc.
4. Benchmark against direct competitors. Three to five competitors is generally sufficient.
5. Create an action plan
6. Execute on solutions.

Major steps and elements of the traditional audit involve:

1. Define the scope in terms of the product-service or brand being analyzed. Ensure a focus on product-service value added and on differentiation
2. Clearly document the 4Ps, segmentation variables, and target market.
3. Create a customer persona (or as many as the case requires)
4. Benchmark against direct competitors. Three to five competitors is generally sufficient.
5. Create an action plan
6. Execute on solutions.