A marketing audit is essentially 'fitness check' performed on the marketing function within your organisation to establish how well equipped it is to meet future business objectives.
Carrying out the marketing audit provides the opportunity to review and appraise your marketing activity, enabling you to assess past and present performance as well as providing the basis for evaluating possible future courses of action.
Because the business environment is constantly changing, the marketing audit should be used as a reference tool, with ongoing updates reflecting changes in the external environment and your own internal business experiences.
What's involved?
Our audit process is conducted in three stages.
Stage 1 – Insight Workshop
(half-day or full-day depending on size / complexity of your organisation)
This initial step in the audit process brings together members of your management team to collectively work through key areas. The aim of this meeting is to gain a clear picture of your business, industry sector, marketing objectives and needs. In this meeting we would typically expect to discuss the following and produce a SWOT analysis:
External Factors:
- Economic, political, social, cultural, technological, legal, environmental, demographic and ethical trends
- The scope of your market, industry, sector, segmentation and current trends
- Competitors, products and prices
- Suppliers and distribution channels
Internal Factors:
- Your organisational structure and culture
- Corporate, sales and marketing objectives
- Budgets, sales plans and targets
- Target markets
- Your product / service offer
- Pricing
- Current promotion and marketing communication mix
- Your sales process, CRM programme and/or customer touch points
- Brand positioning
- Current marketing messages
- Potential barriers to communication (internal and external)
- Policies on CSR, sustainability, diversity, equality…etc.
- Future plans (diversification, merger, acquisition etc.)
- Current marketing collateral, assets and activities
- Core competencies within the marketing team
- Industry accreditations, quality standards and memberships
Stage 2 – Desk research and interviews
This is the detailed information gathering stage and will be directed by the findings during the insight workshop. It usually involves a combination of the following:
- Reviewing your documents, collateral, digital media and relevant records
- Database and IT systems relating to the marketing function
- Completing questionnaires
- Scheduled face to face short interviews with sales and marketing staff at various line management levels
- Scheduled telephone interviews with randomly selected customers, clients, stakeholders
Stage 3 – Production of a marketing report and optional presentation.
The final step in the marketing audit process is to write a preliminary report which identifies areas of strength and weakness or concern. It will conclude with a market position summary.
After review and agreement we would be happy to present the findings to your management team via a PowerPoint presentation. Or you may wish to communicate findings through other means.
FAQs
What are the benefits of a marketing audit?
After reading the audit report, you will have a clear idea of where your strengths and weaknesses lie. It will give indicate where you should focus your marketing investment in the future.
And simply going through the 'process' is very revealing in itself. It gives a fresh perspective on the business. The audit asks questions which will help directors and managers think about the business in a different way. It will allow you to:
- See your business / organisation through the eyes of an outsider
- Discover blind spots, or unhelpful processes and practices which might stop you from achieving your targets.
- Identify gaps in resources or expertise and maximize your marketing ability and talent
- Become better at planning and resourcing your campaigns
- Gain clarity and direction on the future growth of your organisation
- Achieve better results with your marketing
What type of Organisations should conduct a marketing Audit?
A marketing Audit can be conducted by private, public, and third sector organisations. DEC Marketing has experience in all three sectors. (See client list)
A full audit is most useful for medium-sized and larger organisations – but smaller businesses can also benefit. Whilst we always run through our detailed framework model to ensure that nothing is overlooked, no two audits are ever the same. So, for a smaller company we may find that many elements are not relevant which shortens the process, focuses attention on core areas and ensures that smaller organisations get value for money.
How long does a marketing audit take? And how much does it cost?
It varies depending on the size and complexity of your organisation, the agreed requirements of the audit, and sometimes what's discovered during the process. A smaller business won't take as long to audit as a larger one. We'll provide an estimate in advance when we know more about your circumstances.
Marketing audit time frames can typically range between 5 – 10 man days and will be concluded within a month to six weeks after formal engagement.
Will the audit process be uncomfortable?
It is often a big step for organisations to move out of a comfort zone and answer questions that may highlight areas for improvement. (Or it could be a welcome wake-up call!) The audit drills down and asks some hard questions – some that might make you uncomfortable when you realise what you could have been doing and what some of your competitors are already doing.
The feedback in our report can sometimes be candid. But we're not here to trip you up. The audit is for your benefit, so it's important to let us in and trust us to record what we really see. The more honest and transparent you are, the more chance you have of creating and implementing a successful marketing programme that will deliver the results you are looking for.
What about Confidentiality?
Our marketing audit process is 100% confidential. We endeavour to build long standing relationships with our clients built on trust, privacy and confidentiality.
All work conducted by DEC Marketing is carried out under a strict confidentiality agreement and terms. We are registered and licensed with the UK Data Commissioner's office to hold data and records about our clients and take this responsibility under the Data Protection Act (1998) very seriously.
We will never disclose your marketing audit findings, materials, information gathered, emails, correspondence or any other business information to any third party. We will take all reasonable steps to securely protect the information held on our systems.
Next Steps?
For more information or to arrange a no obligation face-to-face meeting please contact us on
01763 263420 or This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.